Assignment - Walk Cycle

Assignment - Walk Cycle

For the first part of the assignment, we are required to do a longer walk cycle for around 10 seconds. It is definitely a very tedious and I would say... lots of concentration were needed for this assignment.

I had definitely face lots of problems while doing this assignment. In the beginning, I thought it would be easy to just copy and paste the previous work that I had done for the walk cycle, however, it was not as easy as I thought. Becuase the walk needs to be moved forward (Translate Z), if is just copied and paste, the model would just look like it is shuffling on the spot. Even though I tried to shift the model at the Translate Z, the legs/hands/body/etc, must all be shifted together and the timing must be right so that they would be able to move together. Any small mistake in shifting the whole model wrongly would result in the whole animation looking very weird, therefore, I had definitely learnt not to be lazy and do it the long and tedious way because I realized that when I do it using the shortcut method, I will find myself facing more problem.

The main thing about this animation, firstly, is to follow any simple reference and get the main key poses first. Thus, I have decided to use this as my reference:







It is a very simple reference and it is also quite easy to follow. After doing all the key poses, the next thing to do is the timing. I realized how important the timing is because at any point of time, if the timing is wrong, the walk may suddenly be fast or the walk may suddenly be slow. Moreover, the walk should look natural.

After doing the timing, I went to edit on the walk. For example, some of the leg might be going down lower than the "ground". Some of the legs might be stretched too long/ some of the leg movement are a little too fast. Basically, I came to an editing stage where I edit small little details on the legs, timing, etc.

While I was editing the graph editor, I didnt know how to begin because there were WAY TOO MANY graphs and it took me the LONGEST time because I have to slowly visualize the graph with the model as well as how am I going to edit it. Editing the graph is another tedious job. There are small little details like the graph going over the "point", extra frames that doesnt show on the timeline but it is on the graph.

After I am done with the basic walking, the next thing I did was to do hip movements. I was trying to do the hip rotation and when the animation is looked from the front view, there should be a "figure of 8".After completing the hips, I moved on to the hands movement. The hands movement wasnt that difficult because the hands would be moving in the oppositie direction that the respective legs. So when the left leg moves forward, the left hand moves backwards (vice versa).

This is how the final walk cycle looks!

Perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a99Sbga0qI&feature=youtu.be
Side: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCcHcZoOA5Q&feature=youtu.be
Front: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6GoYmzmC3U&feature=youtu.be
Overall, it is definitely a very fun yet tedious and I have learnt alot from doing this assignment.