Walk Cycles [Locomotion and Mechanics for Animation - Unit 02 to 05]

Walk Cycles

05/10/24

Introduction

01 - Ball with Legs
02 - Human Biped Walk
03 - Character Walk
04 - Gender Walk

01 - Ball With Legs Walk

Introduction

Thumbnail Reference

Animation

First Pass

Polish

Final Outcome

Add end Refelction

02 - Human Biped Walk

11/10/24

Introduction

Theory Revisit

- Analyses the scientific motion of locomotion through weight transfer. This discusses how we raise our feet as little as possible and control our feet as they land with the heel leading.

- "Art Babbitt taught us to look at someone walking in the street from the back view. Following them along and ask yourself :

Are they old?
Young?
What's their financial position?
State of health?
Art they strict?
Permissive?
Depressed?
Hopeful?
Sad?
Happy?
Drunk?"

- ARm Swing at its widest on the down position.

- Shows how you can add a lot of personality through the passing pose.

- On our contact positions the shoulders and hips oppose one another in the forward and backward positions as well as tilt. The passing position is where everything is straight and in line. Furthermore, we can use more overlapping action on the head by having it oppose the shoulders.

- This analyses the paths of the foot with the key idea being that the heel leads and the rest of the foot follows behind. It also showcases the key path of action for the foot.

- This further analyses the paths of action and how we can modify the path of action to make it more cartoon-like or more realistic. It looks at how we can control the speed and pacing to create differences in the foot motion and goofy-like actions.

- This analyses how the cushioning of the up down movement can be controlled and similarly varied to stylise.

- This section builds on hip and shoulder rotations to help us further understand how the weight shifts between the two legs. One of the key themes is still that the shoulders and hips oppose one another, however, we need to consider the vertical line through the character that shows the centre of gravity.

- Next looks at analysing the arm motion that tends to replicate a pendulum motion with ease in and ease out at each extreme. It also explores how these can range from subtle swings to extreme ones - again depending on the characterisation of the walk.

- Next it analyses the flexibility in an arm and how overlapping action can be used to make this more natural. The core concept here is how we can drag the hand behind to create that overlapping action. Interestingly we can push this a little further by 'breaking' the elbow to achieve a progressive breaking of joints that whilst cannot happen in reality will make our arm motion more loose in animation.

- This example shows a highly exaggerated arm swing using the theory discussed previously.

- This section of the book ends with some key theories to really create a good walk and act as a 'recipe' that can be modified to stylise the walks. This will be a good checklist and act as a reminder when reviewing the quality of a walk cycle.