Can someone explain or have a super simple demo on how to setup the bones and animation before using the walkcycle modifier.
Can someone take a look at this? I don’t know what when wrong. I can’t get it to work
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/9ii9Haz219589/man100107.blend.html
I also took a look that the files here and got one question on it… Where is the hand & leg bones? I don’t C it, but its animated. Am I right to say that the stride bone is no longer needed in creating the walk?
ok. I think I got some of the problem solved but my old bones still goes crazy when I apple the modifier. I think its because of the bone axis. Is there anyway to reset the bone axis or I must rebuild the bones again?
A number of things were incorrect in your file :
- Armature was rotated 90 in X in Object mode (use transform properties to check.
- use Ctr-A / Object/Clear apply / Apply Scale / rotation to reset it to 0
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Object Buttons / Anim Settings -Y axis should have been set for forward movement (verify with Armature in Object mode with transform mannipulators (see Y axis pointing backward … confirm with transform properties dialog (this is only when using Path / Deformers. For “free form” walking only the NLA Offs Bone: field is relevant.
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If bezier curves used instead of Path curves, then in Edit Buttons (F9), Curve and Surface, the “CurvePath” button must be enabled (easier to just use a Curve/Path in the first place.
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NLA properties OffsBone field was blank. Should have been Hip bone since that bone was keyframed moving “forward”
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NLA repeat needs to be at least 4.0 (for this particular path) to walk the entire path.
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Hand bones and other bones are hidden using “Armature Layers”
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Stride bone is not used for “Offs bone” or Deform Modifiers. It is still available as a separate function for backward compatibility.
Mike
Thank You ! 
It Works!
But why my hip bone starting point is a litter way back.
[quote=Shellfish;806929]Thank You ! It Works!
I noticed that too, not sure why, but just grab either your “foot” or “hip” path and move one of them slightlly so that the feet and hip are in sync.
Mike
O… is that why you guys always add 2 paths ( one for legs & one for hip )?
Hi, am having same problem with action modifier. the bone i use as the channel often swells up the vertices its controlling making them look bigger.
Do i have to make just one cycle?? or do i have to make the armature walk the whole length of the path??
I made it just one walk cylce with the armature moving 2 blender units in -Y direction. but it doesnt go thru the whole path length.
Do i have to parent the path to the armature?? where can i find step by step instruction on how to do this??
The most common problem is not having the Armature’s (Object mode) transforms zeroe’d out before applying the NLA modifiers.
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Delete your action strip from the NLA editor.
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Select the armature and switch to Object mode (CTR-TAB), bring up the transform properties box “N”, and check that the rotations and Scale is at 0. If not then press CTR-A to reset the scale and rotation.
The minimum length of the cycle is two steps, e.g. starting with left foot forward, ending with left foot forward. It can be longer than that but isn’t necessary.
To make it go the whole path length, you’ll have to increase the repetitions in the NLA properties box, and scale/stretch the NLA strip up to match (to maintain the speed) or adjust it to whatver walking speed you want. E.g. if the cylce is 30 frames, and you repeat it 10 times, then end frame for the NLA strip should be 300. (And of course set the main Blender animation frame to at least 300 to accomadate the animation.
You don’t parent the armature to the path. You just add the Modifiers in the NLA properties. And set the correct anim direction in the Object buttons.
Try all that, if it still isn’t working post your blend file and I’ll take a look at it.
Mike
Hi, Thanks a lot.
I finally got it working. Among what u mentioned above,
i realised the path should have its center close to the bone used as the channel.
And i must also put a modifier for the torso.
I also realised that the character rig is important. i have a poor rig, the foot and toe arent attached to the other armature, hence bringing up strange mesh deformations as the it goes thru the path.
Where can i get a good character rig? especially for the foot/leg.
Thanks a lot once again.
In my signature, my “Best of Blender” thread has links to all the best rigs that have been posted here.
Mike
MEETING SAM :
For my own, I have played with Ludvig, Otto and other rigs provided here and there, and I also have read many tutorials, and I have always been afraid by the complexity of these rigs, espescially seeing the very high number of bones and constraints to rig the feet.
So, I have tried to find the most simple and efficient rig for character animation (SAM : Simplest Armature Man).
I have spent a lot of time on it and finally after reading again some pages of George Maestri’s excellent book, I’ve built a rig using Inverted hierarchy kinematics (not reverse kinematics).
I’ve not yet made a complete animation, and not enough time to make a tutorial right now, but here are some informations about this method :
This kind of rig has the IK solvers in the hip, and the Head of the bones chain is in the foot.
The main advantage is that it is very easy to lock the feet on the ground (no slipping effect at all) and you don’t have to use a complex setup with many constraints.
Obviously, the bones are pointing backward (upward).
Only 3 bones are needed in each foot and very few constraints. Adding angles limits is a plus and avoids weird rotations. This means that including stretch bones, no more than 8 bones are needed in a complete leg, and there is no need to hide tens of extra bones with many strange constraints between them.
Here is a Screen capture showing the rig. I have used Custom bones.
The same rig showing the bones direction (custom bones of the leg are now disabled).
I hope that it is understandable.
Creating various custom bones (showing rotation center and angle limits if needed) with handles is very helpful for the animation.
You can parent the custom bones to the main bone of the armature, and hide them on a layer of your choice.
I plan to make a tutorial, but I have not yet found enough time to write the Motorcycle tutorial supposed to follow my car animation tutorial, so be patient !
Philippe.
Well although I have not actually produced anything … yet :), my interest is in using a rig at the moment. So I don’t really care how complex or how many bones there are, as long as the rig is :
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fast
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easy to use.
If you’d like to post your rig or p.m. me with it, I’ld love to test it out for whatever my novice animator opinion is worth 
Mike
Yes, here is and example done in 2.43 RC2.
I have named this rig SAM. Because in my opinion it is the Simplest Armature Man.
As I had no file ready for a demo, there is no NLA system built, but the armature is perfectly usable as is. You only have to set angle limits if you want.
As the IK solvers are in the hips, just keep an eye on them to avoid exagerated stretching.
The bones names are in french…
http://3d-synthesis.com/blender_miscellaneous/InvertedHierarchy.blend
I hope that it will be understandable.
Just play with the feet. Move and rotate the few bones, and I think that you will soon understand the power of this simple rig.
I have had no time to create Custom bones, so make your own looking the example on my picture above if you want to use Custom Bones. They are really usefull to select easily the right bone when animating. I create handles on them, so they are always well visible.
On the download page of my website (MOVIES section), at the bottom of the list, you will find a short video sequence named “The Patrol”, showing my character “Lieutenant Jones”. It is animated using this armature. As it is one of my first attempts in character animation, it is not animated smoothly, but it is a start ! I have built this armature very recently, so I do my first steps with it, and “Jones” as well !
Well, it’s 02:37 and I have to sleep some hours ! :eek:
Philippe.