Improving my walk cycle

Artwork Animations
1

Last weekend I modelled this character, rigged, animated and textured it, as a testing assignment for a freelance position at a small game development company.

The character had to be toony, and the setting medieval.

I kept the character very lowpoly, maybe even a bit too lowpoly, but thats nothing I can’t change later on.

Let’s get to my problem: This is the very first time that I rigged a character and animated it, I am happy with the results but there is something wrong with the way his head and neck move it just doesn’t look natural and I can’t seem to fix it. If anyone has ideas on how to improve it I would be glad to hear it.

Link to the walk cycle on vimeo

2

Have you checked out the animators survival kit?
http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/

3

no I haven’t, thanks, it looks like it could be pretty useful :slight_smile:

4

Go out and look at people walking. And follow the rhythm. Poeople don’t necessarily bobble their heads like that. Overlapping or offsetting the head movements so that they are not in rhythm with the steps is one idea. That might help. But observation is always the first step I think. Keep looking at people and animating and trying to analyze what is happening.

5

Yes Richard I agree, observing is probably the best thing for me to do. Getting the actual motion I observe into the character is just really difficult, will try to post an improved version soon after I finish other things I need to do.

6

Your character is leaning forward too much, you should move your gravity center back to get a more natural walkcycle.

7

I think I am getting the hang of it now. This isnt a walkcycle but an idle animation. Still need to animate the hair and the feather, and probably make the legs move a little more.

proudly showing the animation as it is now http://vimeo.com/7611563

8

Quick tip:
What both of these animations lack is hip movement.
Remember that (almost) all body movements are led by the hips.

In the walk, the hips should be rotating on all 3 axes.

In the idle, you could express more by moving the hips, especially when he crosses his arms.

However, all up, this is a good start.

9

The main problem I see with the walk cycle is that you don’t feel the down pose, from the contact. A slow rise in the body as the weight is being lifted and then a quick drop as the legs take the weight from the step.

10

16 DVDs
I would be 80 years old after try reading them all.
Perhaps OP is trying to get a most short answer:
Record in video yourself walking the way you want the mesh to move and then rotoscope frame by frame your video placing the bones. That way I did “motion capture myself walking”. Don’t forget capture in video from front and another one from side. First rotoscope from the side and then refine from front.

11

@Bao2: There is also a book available, and it is indeed very useful (if not indispensable) for anyone wishing to attempt character animation.

However, you are definitely correct about shooting reference and making your own observations.