Walk Cycle help, trying to get it to walk along a path

Artwork Works in Progress
1

Made this last night using pose to pose style. first time trying it and it seemed to work well, cus all my other walkcycles seems to really suck.

First run through it

thanks

2

this dont suc its allright its good

3

i meant all my other walkcycles sucked.

4

i tried to make the animation folo a path using the new NLA feature, but i cant get it to work out, so im posting the blend file so somebody can try it themselves

http://www.freewebs.com/rankn67/files.htm

5

Add some rotation at the hips and shoulders.
http://www.idleworm.com/how/pic/a0002/wlk03.gif

6

i did a wee bit, u think it neeeds to be more drastic?

7

Exaggeration is good.

8

have a look at one i did a couple weeks back, using the same method, despite the lack of visible shoulders or hips you can see a slight rotation in how the arms and legs position themselves, it is usually much easier, i find, to animate it walking in place, and then worry about forward motion with curves and such

and like Calvin said, exaggeration is good, all people walk and carry themselves differently, it’s all about understanding your character’s center of balance and how they would maintain it

keep up the good work

9

okey doke, later tonight ill be working on this guy, add more dramatic shoulder motion and hip motion… ill post it wen im done… btw does anyoen here know wat im talking about ween i say the NLA folo path function? i realy have no idea how to do it… fix it if u can with the blend i posted

10

dunno if you’ve seen this tute on NLA cycles, but worth a show for those interested

http://www.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/x8053.html

if i have time later i’ll download the blend and have my way with it, promise to be gentle, heh

11

here it is after beign exagerated. tell me wat u think

http://www.vimeo.com/261448

12

The sway of the hips and shoulders is much better. I’m gonna critique this completely though so you can take certain things into consideration.

  1. The upper body and lower body are defined by the spine, and the spine is defined by many things, especially the movement of the hips and rotations of the shoulders. So, in a walk where the hips and shoulders are rotating, the chest and the abdomen should slightly rotate as well. The chest moving with the shoulders, the abdomen (read: stomach), with the hips.

  2. The spine also compresses slightly with the walk. The chest gets crunched down somewhat into the abdomen in a sort of teeter-totter way. When a leg is in the forward/high-pass position the opposite side of the chest is slightly pushed down into the abdomen. Though, with a skinny character, this often looks odd. Whereas in a heavy set character it’s to help the body maintain a correct center of balance, as well as trying to justify it’s own weight.

  3. The elbows. Arm’s don’t stay at 45 degree angles the entire time. They rotate, being more extended when back and more compressed when forward. It’s the natural sway that helps propel the body in motion.

Give those things some though. Other than that, contacts and passes and everything look good as far as the feet are concerned. As well, he doesn’t slide like he’s ice skating, which is often a common problem. There’s just a lot to consider when you’re dealing with a walk. And like G.I. Joe always said, “Knowing is half the battle!” Keep it up and I’m sure you can get this guy looking believable.

13

thanks dude

14

Always happy to help in some way. I think I might do a tutorial on Walk Cycles soon. There seems to be such little point-by-point information on them. It’s always good to have a process to look at to apply to your own work flow.

15

i realy need to get it to walk along a path, i have yet to get it to work

tried everything, for some reason i still cant find the tut for the new NLA walkcycle technique