A character walk cycle is a sequence of frames that shows a character moving from one position to another in a loop. It is one of the most common and essential tasks in 3D animation, as it can add realism and personality to your character. In this article, you will learn how to create a character walk cycle in 3D animation using some basic principles and techniques.
Before you start animating, you need to have a clear idea of how your character walks. You can use a reference video or image of a real person or animal, or a stylized cartoon or game character, depending on the style and mood of your animation. A reference will help you to observe the timing, spacing, and poses of the walk cycle, and to capture the distinctive features and emotions of your character.
My method of creating 3D animations is to try to match to the real world cases as close as possible without tracing out directly to help train my eyes. Using references helps when you can't perfectly imagine what you want to achieve. Here is my method; 1. I could get references of the natural walk cycle I'm trying to imitate online or make a video of me walking. 2. I try to understand the animation principle in the walk cycle, check if it's organic, robotic, realistic, unrealistic, conventional, stylized. Is there a stretch? Is there a squish? 3. I trim out the video clip to the simplest cycle that completes the whole loop of movement. 4. I try to replicate that motion on the stable rig then key frame it along the path of walk.
When utilizing a reference, try exporting it out as a jpg or png image sequence. Image sequence is the easiest to import into Maya. Blender you can import a video with no issues. Export the image sequence or video out at 24fps which matches the standard of frame rate across the industry.
The walking cycle for a character is the easiest thing you can do starting you animation journey in 3D, there’s a lot of information online of how you can create frame by frame a walking animation. I like to use images I found on internet about how to move all the body frame by frame, and I literally copy what I’m seeing in the sketch into my 3D model. One teacher told me a long time ago “you can’t create the warm water, it’s already invented” and by that he means that for example this case, the walking animation it’s already created, follow the path you’ll find on the internet and you can’t miss. After that you can start to be creative and do more stuff, but stick on the principles first!
Easiest way. Search for walkcycle on google. Pick the reference you like, recreate the frames primary from the sideview. Start with the open leg pose. Finish the cycle with the pose u started.
A rig is a system of bones, joints, and controls that allows you to manipulate the shape and movement of your character. To create a walk cycle, you need to have a rig that is compatible with your 3D software and that has enough flexibility and functionality to achieve the desired motion. You can use a pre-made rig, or create your own using tools like Blender, Maya, or 3ds Max. Make sure to test your rig and fix any issues before animating.
Rigging can be done with a simple understanding of anatomy. However, just setting up a basic bipedal character shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes. Basic rigs can be understood how to build and rig a character in under an hour. Understanding complex rigging can take months, especially when it involves coding. For example, when building rigs in Autodesk Maya, one often needs proficiency in MEL scripting or Python.
Using a specially intended software like Poser 12, makes getting setup easy, by utilizing the framework templates and parametric system, it takes the guesswork out for beginners..
The key poses are the main positions that define the movement of your character. They usually include the contact, down, passing, and up poses for each leg, as well as the corresponding poses for the arms, head, and torso. To create the key poses, you need to use the rig controls to adjust the rotation, translation, and scale of each body part. You also need to set keyframes for each pose at the appropriate frame number, depending on the speed and length of your walk cycle.
Key poses are important when animating any character. First, look out for real-world reference. Sometimes drawing out as a black-shaded figure can help too. These are called silhouettes. It helps define those shapes in the character. Base your key poses on the silhouettes you've sketched or referenced. Prioritize the action pose, and the down pose, or consider what narrative the pose conveys. For inspiration on key poses, explore diverse sources such as movies, books, magazines, shows, or even YouTube.
Find a walk cycle image online and bring it in a 3d Program. Adjust your rig or character so it matches the walk cycle image.
These key poses help save rigging time by mostly creating half-walk-cycle for symmetrical rigs. The other half can be pasted flipped to the opposite limbs. Key poses help with accurate timing of movements as the primary (key) poses are pre-made at the right and specific time along the timeline when they are meant to occur. Then, secondary poses can be filled in the in-betweens to complete the motion.
The breakdowns and in-betweens are the intermediate positions that smooth out the transition between the key poses. They add more detail and variation to your animation, and help to create the illusion of weight, balance, and momentum. To add the breakdowns and in-betweens, you need to use the rig controls to modify the existing keyframes, or create new ones, at the appropriate frame intervals. You also need to use the graph editor or the dope sheet to adjust the interpolation and easing of the animation curves.
The polish and preview stage is where you fine-tune your animation and check for any errors or inconsistencies. You need to review your animation frame by frame, and look for any issues with the timing, spacing, poses, arcs, overlaps, or continuity. You also need to make sure that your character walks in a straight line, or follows a path, depending on your scene setup. You can use the playblast or the render options to preview your animation in different modes and resolutions.
Inverse kinematics on rigs are a big plus on making limbs animation easier. However, they can come with their unwanted motions especially when the pivot points are not well placed and rotations are not well constrained. During the polish and preview stage, you get to move and stretch armature bones to their maximum and test for the worst case scenarios. Lock some axis rotation when they are not needed to avoid awkward translations. This is what actually sets apart what you have in your mind and what you are actually doing. 3D is mathematics and processing, I love to engineer this ??
The polish and preview stage can also help you define better opportunities within the animation especially if you're working with a director. Work with your director or team to polish the animation. Use playblasts in Maya or quickly rendered previews to swiftly evaluate the raw animations. Simplifying your scene by removing extraneous elements can also help you concentrate exclusively on the animation.