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Mastering the Blender Run Cycle: Tips and Tricks for Animators! — Transcript

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0:01[Music]
0:02foreign
0:09[Music]
0:13welcome to this Run Cycle tutorial my
0:16name is Alex the process of creating a
0:17run cycle is similar to creating a walk
0:19there are two differences the posing and
0:22the timing are different the posing in a
0:24run is pushed so the distance between
0:26the body parts in extreme poses is
0:29greater than in a walk the timing is
0:31also quicker so the tempo is snappier
0:33those are the only two differences
0:35between a run and a walk a run is useful
0:37for getting the character from point A
0:38to point B quicker
0:40cinematically run as grade for getting
0:42the viewer up close and into the action
0:44World a typical Run Cycle is 12 frames
0:47I'll start with those 12 but will most
0:49likely end with a 14 frame Run Cycle
0:51those two extra frames help slow things
0:54down just enough so the action reads
0:56more clearly I find in a run you get
0:58less personality than you do in a walk
1:00mainly because you have half the frames
1:02to work with if you have seen my walk
1:04cycle tutorial you'll know how important
1:06personality is to a wand I'll leave a
1:09link in the description to that tutorial
1:11but despite having half the frames to
1:13work with broadly speaking there's only
1:15one purpose for a run and that is
1:16determination
1:18maybe a character is trying to save
1:19someone catch a bus maybe trying to run
1:22away from someone generally people run
1:24for a reason and that's the kind of run
1:25I'm going to demonstrate a run with
1:27purpose I'm going to jump into blender
1:29now so we can get started for this Run
1:31Cycle tutorial I'll be using this free
1:33Mario rig I got from Agora websites I'll
1:36leave a link in the description to the
1:38rig really the most important part is
1:40the posing once you have a nice pose you
1:42mirror it now you have two poses then
1:45you duplicate it to the end and it just
1:47Cycles between that same pose that you
1:49build so we're going to spend quite a
1:51bit of time five minutes
1:53just on that one pose
1:55then we'll mirror it like I said and
1:57we'll just watch that animation
1:59if it's playing well we know we can
2:01continue if we don't think it's playing
2:03well I'll keep iterating on that pose
2:07until I'm happy with him and then I'll
2:09move from there I'll move forward from
2:11there after that the timing is is going
2:14to be a 12 or 14 frame Run Cycle we'll
2:16decide as we do it so the timing is
2:19locked that's what we'll stick to
2:21but after the posing I mirror it and
2:24like I said I watch the animation
2:26once I'm happy with it I'll start
2:28working on one foot just the contact
2:31and I'll essentially do a first pass a
2:34cleanup first pass on that one foot
2:36making sure it's cycling pretty nicely
2:38then I'll copy those keys mirror to the
2:40other foot all of a sudden it looks
2:42pretty good
2:43at this point that Cog that center of
2:46gravity control hasn't been moving up
2:48and down
2:49we'll add that second and that's when
2:51the Run starts to take shape once I add
2:54the Cog up and down
2:56I'll go back to the foot and refine the
2:57foot the contact the knee popping then
3:00I'll duplicate it to the other foot
3:02and then it then it starts to really
3:05take shape the smoothness at least then
3:07from there I work up the spine the
3:10rotation from the Cog up to the spine
3:13then I'll do the shoulders and the arms
3:15the timing tighten the timing up and
3:17lastly I'll do the head so that's the
3:18process so let's do that together right
3:20now okay so first thing go ahead and go
3:23to the animation workspace in here you
3:25greeted three panels you got your left
3:28window your right window and you'll be
3:31greeted to your dope sheet here I like
3:34to change it by hitting control tab it
3:36takes us to our graph editor
3:39and you got your timeline down here I
3:41just pull it up let's set our frame
3:44range to 12 right now we're not going to
3:45be using the panel uh the properties
3:47panel here I'll pull that to the side
3:49for the windows we have these buttons
3:51here
3:52these just display different uh things
3:55in your scene what I like to do is turn
3:57this one off
3:58so then I'm only seeing the geometry and
4:00then over here if it's off just go ahead
4:02and turn it on I'm going to select the
4:04rig control tab to get into pose mode
4:06I'm going to hit a to select all the
4:07controls and you can see the keys in the
4:10timeline and also in the graph editor
4:12I'm going to go Ctrl R Control G and
4:15we'll redo the post together so you can
4:16see what I think when I do a pose a to
4:18select all X and I'm just going to
4:21delete all those keys the reason Mario
4:23looks like this and not what we expect
4:26him to so up here we have shaded mode
4:28you have a textured mode here so if I
4:30were to play my animation now you can
4:33see in the display my frames per second
4:35is 15 frames if this particular rig
4:37showed the textures and played the
4:39animation on 24 frames I would keep it
4:41on texture mode but it doesn't so I just
4:43turn it to smooth shading here and you
4:45can see that I'm getting 24 25 frames
4:47per second so that's important to know
4:50where you find that is in your options
4:52over here
4:53and you can hit this text info so we're
4:56ready to animate we have our Windows
4:58ready Mario's in the scene and we have
5:01our timing our our frame range set so
5:04let's start posing together in blender
5:06we have this xmir option over here so I
5:09turn that on only at the beginning when
5:11I'm posing the finger so I don't have to
5:13do the other hand for this I'm just
5:15going to select Mario's fingers those
5:17top four and just deselect everything
5:19else if you do alt said you can see
5:21through your through your mesh just
5:23making sure I didn't select anything
5:24else and one important thing you'll see
5:26that I cycle between my move tool my
5:29rotation tool in a different way than I
5:31found most people to do that and I just
5:34hit spacebar you see G and R and so
5:36that's all I do I hit spacebar G
5:38spacebar R and that's how I jump between
5:40gizmos so with those fingers selected
5:42I'm just gonna curl them together and
5:44we're going to create a fist
5:48so there's my fingers
5:50and it's the same on the other side also
5:52I'd like to just start with those hands
5:54down a little bit
5:56okay so I'm going to turn this x
5:58mirroring off hit a to select all and on
6:01frame one I'm just going to set a key I
6:03and what I did there is I hit I and it
6:06set a key on location rotation but
6:09typically when you hit I it brings up
6:11that menu and asks you what you want a
6:13key and that that bothers me here's how
6:16you how you get rid of that you have to
6:17be in object mode so you're coming over
6:19here go to object animation and change
6:22King set and then I set it to location
6:24rotation so now when I key anything and
6:27I hit I it always Keys those things
6:29without asking I have this initial kind
6:32of default pose I just manipulated the
6:34fingers and brought down brought the
6:36hands down now I'm going to start to do
6:38the extreme pose the contact pose when
6:41he when that back foot pushes off the
6:43ground and in a run what's different
6:45from a run as compared to a walk and we
6:48talked about it in the intro really it's
6:49just posing and timing but there is one
6:52other difference and that is in a run
6:53there is a portion of the run where both
6:56feet are off round in a walk at least
6:58one foot is always on the ground let's
7:00go ahead and go create that contact pose
7:03just as he's leaving the ground
7:05so I'm going to pick this this right leg
7:07here
7:08and push that back and all I'm going to
7:10do is try to make it an aggressive pose
7:12something that you saw just earlier as I
7:15as I had the scene open you saw Mario
7:17really pushing off the ground and and I
7:19liked how that looked I'm going to grab
7:20that Cog and just rotate him for it as
7:23well cool and let's bring him up and
7:25what we're doing is just sculpting that
7:27first pose very rough just getting the
7:29idea there if we look at his feet his
7:32left leg is forward and in a run or a
7:34walk whatever happens on the feet in
7:37terms of what leg is forward it's the
7:40opposite for the hands and the chest so
7:43his left leg is forward that means his
7:45right hand is going to come forward so
7:47I'm just going to grab that chest here
7:49and rotate it so now it's opposite to
7:52what's happening on the bottom and just
7:54being aggressive about the post for now
7:56not worrying too much about cleanliness
7:58and the back arm and shoulder would go
8:01back we're more worried about the idea
8:03at the beginning is it working is it
8:05reading well and if it's a no then you
8:08keep shaping it and if the idea is
8:10starting to work then you know you're on
8:13the right track so here's a first pass
8:15of this pose I'm going to select all
8:18insert a key and now what I'm going to
8:20do is go one frame over
8:23and refine the pose so here's an idea
8:25and what I like to do now is push this
8:28pose compare it to what I've done
8:29already
8:35here's the update to the pose I spent
8:37maybe another minute or two just
8:39updating things so here's that original
8:41one we just did together and
8:43you can see that just scrubbing through
8:45it the poses pushed a little more and
8:48that's what I'm after you can see
8:49there's a really nice line I'm not
8:52worried still about the bending and knee
8:53I'll add that after but it's much
8:55stronger here and I like that it feels
8:57like he's pushing off I'm starting to
8:59get a little bit of silhouette depending
9:00the angle of course between the arms so
9:03yeah I'm on the right track there this
9:06is the process I do once there's a pose
9:08that I know is important I'll iterate on
9:11that pose
9:13twice five times depending how important
9:15the pose is but here's what I'm going to
9:17do now so I know this pose that I just
9:20updated is stronger because it looks
9:22better so I'm going to go back to this
9:24pose and delete it no longer is useful
9:25to me
9:26and now I'll just move forward a few
9:28frames
9:29we're just still working on the one pose
9:32and frame three and frame seven are the
9:34same pose
9:35frame one is that an initial default
9:38pose we just modified it a little bit
9:40and now I can select these two keys hit
9:44V and just go automatic what happens in
9:47the graph editor is by doing automatic
9:50it overshoots it's the same pose but it
9:52overshoots because of that initial pose
9:54so that overshoot is important to me
9:57because I'm now using the computer to
10:00push my pose to elongate my pose and
10:04just see if there's a better appeal that
10:07the computer now is giving me all I do
10:09is I scrub between it and you can see
10:11how much more I pushed the pose here's
10:13that original it's a little better
10:15already I like even if it's a little bit
10:17I like that pose better if I keep going
10:21you can see how extreme it starts to get
10:23and maybe it's too much and you judge
10:25that I like this Frame because the the
10:29shape in the arms are a little more
10:30exaggerated and the feet is a little too
10:32much but I'll pull those in so I'm going
10:35to insert a key on that frame
10:36copy that Ctrl C and I'll just paste it
10:39back over here I'm going to delete those
10:42keys don't need them anymore and again
10:44now I'll just iterate on that pose you
10:46see how important this one idea is
10:49because in a Run Cycle the run is so
10:51quick really you're just trying to sell
10:53the attitude the personality but the
10:56attitude and it's for me usually a run
10:58is a determination so I loved seeing
11:01that angle on the on the body and so
11:03that's why I spend a good five minutes
11:0510 minutes sometimes if it's important
11:0720 minutes on a pose selling this idea
11:10now that I've liked the idea
11:13I'm going to start
11:15cleaning maybe some of the controls that
11:17I've used so that's what I'm going to do
11:19now mainly in the foot I don't want to
11:21hyperextend too much here on this
11:23particular rig there's this one control
11:24that I can start to pull down this
11:26little hip control
11:28and you can see it already cleans that
11:30up and I like that
11:31and you can see that this one contact
11:34pose it's almost his foot's off the
11:36ground
11:37but I'm not worried about that
11:40because you're almost sculpting every
11:42frame there's only 12 frames to work
11:44with so if you got up to this point nice
11:46job because it's not easy to pose so
11:49hopefully what you saw gives you some
11:52ideas for your own animations okay so we
11:54have this pose a to select all what
11:57we're going to do now is come to frame
11:5813. I'm going to insert a key and then
12:00frame 7 insert a key in the graph editor
12:03I can hit a select all the keys period
12:05numpad just frames frame V and I'm just
12:08going to set everything to vector
12:10you could set it to
12:13um clamped and that's really ease in and
12:16out between those poses and the reason
12:18for that is when I scrub between
12:20keyframes and it's in linear it's in
12:22Vector there's no warping of time or
12:25spacing between those keys it's linear
12:27so I find it a little more accurate to
12:30what I'm gonna get and then I can add um
12:32I can favor one pose or another so from
12:35frame one all the way to frame six is
12:37the first half of your run
12:40frame seven is the start of the second
12:42half of the Run Cycle so from frame 7 to
12:45frame 12 is the next six frames of the
12:48Run Cycle frame 13 is a duplicant of
12:51frame one and that's how it just repeats
12:54and Loops so whenever you're working on
12:56a on a run cycle or a walk cycle
12:58you can test your work to see if it's
13:00going to cycle properly just by going to
13:02frame one and frame 13. you can see
13:04right now the pose is the same because
13:06there's only one pose if there's a
13:08difference a movement of change you know
13:11that something's off with your cycle so
13:14that's a very quick way to test it okay
13:16so I'm just going to select one of the
13:18keys doesn't matter which one control C
13:20come to frame seven
13:22and I have it as a hotkey q paste flect
13:26so I'm going to undo that and show you
13:28where that is so I just did Ctrl C
13:31and over here under key you can come on
13:34over to paste flipped and it just
13:36mirrors your pose getting here is very
13:38important so we worked on the pose we've
13:40talked about the timing now we're going
13:42to play our animation
13:44and here's what that looks like
13:48cool
13:49so it doesn't look that impressive
13:52but again it's important step to to look
13:55at even at this stage it's a little
13:57easier on a wonk because the character
13:59is not angled it's the character is up
14:01and down but even at this stage you can
14:03make modifications before you commit
14:05because once you start laying a whole
14:06bunch of keys it's harder than to go
14:09back while there's more keys involved so
14:11even over here you can start to tweak
14:14your posing and just move around your
14:17your model your your animation your
14:19character
14:20and just see if you like what you're
14:22seeing so what I'm going to do before I
14:25move forward I'm going to add some
14:26rotation on the body right now there's
14:28there's barely there's nothing really
14:31so I'm going to come to frame one
14:33and let's start adding a little bit of
14:36rotation on the Cog and the chest and
14:39just so we're seeing that already built
14:41in and then we can we can always update
14:43that I'm going to grab this and maybe
14:45just say five degrees
14:48cool insert a key go back to the Head
14:51and minus five
14:54that's how simple that update is
14:57Ctrl C go back over here you saw that
14:59change so that's how I know it's not
15:01going to fully cycle nicely Ctrl V
15:04I'm going to come in over here
15:06and go paste flip okay let's watch it
15:09now so now there's a little more
15:11movement in that Cog a little more
15:13movement in everything because of that
15:14small rotation on the Cog already that's
15:17going to help now what we're going to do
15:19is work on the feet
15:20once we start seeing that foot cycle
15:22and then we paste it to the other side
15:24and then we finally add that Cog up and
15:26down that's when the Run Cycle takes
15:28shape so we're just going to worry about
15:30this back foot on our walk cycle it's
15:33easier because this other foot that's in
15:34the air normally would be on the ground
15:36and it's much easier to think about but
15:39in the case of the run it's in the air
15:40so we don't have a place that we know
15:43we're getting to right now so it's a
15:45little more difficult but that's okay
15:47I'm going to select this one and I know
15:49over this time period all it's doing is
15:52getting into the air so I'm going to I'm
15:53going to skip over this part for now and
15:55worry about the foot contact
15:57so here the foot's in the air
16:01and basically over six frames it's got
16:04to get back down here you can see how
16:06aggressive that is and one of the nice
16:08things I like about working on a
16:0912-frame run cycle is I like to work
16:12evenly spaced so you can see I'm on
16:15frame one I can go to frame three that's
16:17two frames apart frame five two frames a
16:20form apart then frame seven two frames
16:22apart
16:23so I'm going to go to frame nine and
16:26keep my spacing even alt R alt G and
16:29it's going to reset the values of that
16:32control and it's just going to set it
16:34back to what the default values are
16:36vector so I know and I'm going to just
16:38be aggressive about it this foot needs
16:40to be back here by frame 13. so it
16:43Cycles nicely let's just select this key
16:45with those two controls all I have is
16:46this foot control and then that roll
16:49those two controls G I'm going to move
16:51it over one and frame 10 is really that
16:53contact foot and then it goes back and
16:56when it goes back you want to make sure
16:57it's a linear its vector and so because
17:00when I block everything is linear to
17:02begin with it just makes it easier and
17:05on frame 13 on a walk cycle I would
17:08never rotate that foot control up only
17:11when it's in the air when I rotate it on
17:13normally it's the the heel control that
17:17lifts the foot that's what I would
17:18rotate on but here to achieve that pose
17:20I did this control
17:23which just plays with that heel lifting
17:26but I also rotated the foot control up
17:30to achieve this pose so I'm going to go
17:32to frame 12 and basically reset the pose
17:35again so I'm going to select those two
17:37keys or pardon me those two controls alt
17:39R alt G just resets your values and I'm
17:42just going to pull it back
17:44and kind of eyeball it
17:47take this control
17:49and this is my foot roll there it is
17:52in a run you're sculpting a lot more
17:54things than you would in a walk cycle
17:57things are just more aggressive and it
17:58depends on the Run Cycle this one is a
18:01very pushed pose and so the distance of
18:04the body parts are just further apart so
18:08be aware of that so all I'm doing in the
18:10second half is worrying about this foot
18:13contact really there's only going to be
18:15three frames of foot contact for this
18:17whole Run Cycle frame 10 frame 11 frame
18:2012. frame 13 is already kind of starting
18:23to left but you could consider it so
18:25three or four frames of foot contact on
18:27the ground
18:29um and really I'm working with these
18:31three frames here let's worry about the
18:33little Arc here and then we'll come back
18:35and and clean this up we'll copy the
18:38keys on this foot and then paste it to
18:41the other foot
18:42okay so I'm going to come to frame nine
18:45and frame nine is this foot almost
18:48contacting the ground just gonna select
18:51these two controls I'm only working with
18:52these two foot controls the main foot
18:54control and that heel
18:56control just reset the values insert a
18:59key
19:00and all I'm doing is
19:04posing the foot contact is almost about
19:07to hit the ground
19:09something like that
19:12so he's about to contact in any contacts
19:16and then here he's in the air there I'm
19:19going to add a pose
19:20let's just do it now you can see how
19:22quickly we can start to key every frame
19:24again we're only working with 12 frames
19:27and the foot
19:29in a walk and in a run is the most
19:31complicated
19:36cool so you can see how we've sculpted
19:38that idea
19:40we started with our key pose mirrored it
19:44and then we know we got to get into that
19:46foot extension again so we just picked a
19:48frame and reset the values so it's on
19:50the ground
19:51slit it forward
19:53then when two frames further down the
19:56timeline reset the values again and now
19:59we're just playing with that foot how
20:01how the distance
20:02that the foot is on the ground and then
20:05we came back and sculpted these two in
20:08between poses so let's worry about the
20:10first half Here and Now
20:12same thing let's go two frames it makes
20:15the timing a little easier
20:17and I find in a Run Cycle especially a
20:20determined Run Cycle like this
20:22that the very right as the foot's
20:26leaving the ground it's nice to continue
20:28that foot extending back and it just
20:30feels like you're really pushing off and
20:32then I'll use these other four frames to
20:34get back into this pose into this bent
20:36pose there so we're on frame three now I
20:40have this foot control selected and I
20:42also like to reset the value of of this
20:45one here so if I come to frame seven you
20:47can see on the graph editor
20:49that this curve right here gets reset I
20:53like to do that over a shorter amount of
20:55time so over these two frames already
20:58reset it
21:00so it's just like that
21:02I'm controlling
21:04when it resets and I want to do it in a
21:06short distance I might even do it over
21:09here but it doesn't really matter and
21:11then I'll pose it just with this foot
21:13that's the preference that I like so
21:15here's what we have this foot's pushing
21:18off
21:19and I want that toe to feel like it's
21:22still pushing so I'm just going to
21:23rotate it back
21:24and I'm going to pull it back I'm not
21:27worried about the hyperextension yet
21:29I'm going to fix that what I'm worried
21:31about are thinking about is making sure
21:34that this foot feels like it's still
21:36pushing back or propelling us forward so
21:39just just just posing that and now I'm
21:43gonna
21:44just pull it back a little more
21:46and maybe it starts to come up
21:49insert a key and then it's coming into
21:52that pose and even this post could
21:54probably already start pushing forward a
21:57bit more and then down you see this is
21:59Extreme
22:01the foot the just look at the shape of
22:04the foot right there
22:06on frame seven it's it's here very meat
22:09it's there that's pretty good and then
22:10all of a sudden frame nine it's down
22:11there the spacing between the placement
22:14of the foot over one frame is too big
22:16and so that's why I say on this
22:20particular run it's quite pushed
22:23um I'm starting with a 12 frame Run
22:26Cycle
22:27and then I'm going to add two more
22:28frames one frame on each side of the
22:30half of the run just to slow it down and
22:33that's where I'm going to slow it down
22:34right in between there and it's going to
22:37help
22:37not look so fast don't look so poppy so
22:40just be aware of that and when we do it
22:42I'll explain it I'm going to select the
22:43foot control and select our heel control
22:47there that comes up just those two
22:49controls perfect we can test that it's
22:52cycling correctly 13 and one you see
22:54there's no movement
22:55I have those two control selected one
22:58and one
22:59I'm going to come in over here
23:01and hit a that selects all the keyframes
23:04Ctrl C perfect then select the same
23:07controls and in that order as well I
23:09like to delete every keyframe except the
23:12first ones so I'm going to go to frame
23:14one
23:15and we're going to paste flipped
23:17and so sometimes this happens where the
23:21pace flip just doesn't work well
23:23and here's what I like to do I'm going
23:25to undo
23:27I'm going to reset the values it doesn't
23:29happen often that the payslip doesn't
23:31work for me but
23:33it happens sometimes I'm going to retry
23:35it again so I'm going to select the
23:36controls both controls
23:39Ctrl C
23:40coming over here
23:42perfect there needs to be at least one
23:45key
23:47and then let's Place flipped again
23:49and this time it worked so if it doesn't
23:51work try resetting the values of the
23:54control you're pasting to and then in
23:56rare cases if that still doesn't work
23:57try just copying one at a time and
23:59pasting it um
24:01so give that a try if you're having
24:02issues
24:04and this is always fun just to see
24:07the legs or the hands doing the same
24:09thing the left foot that I just pasted
24:11to the two controls are still there I'm
24:14going to select a Ctrl C copy everything
24:17and coming over here to frame 13
24:19remember frame 1 and frame 13 are the
24:22same so I'm going to paste over frame 13
24:24because frame one's the same I had a
24:26comment on my walk cycle tutorial from
24:28ganapathy and he made a very good point
24:31that now when we have to shift the keys
24:33over it might be hard to know exactly
24:36what frame you got to stop on so
24:37basically frame seven is going to end up
24:39on frame one and this is his suggestion
24:42right click
24:43and you can change the color change it
24:45to anything you want
24:47now it's visually different so I'm going
24:49to select a which selects all my keys
24:51and you can see that this key is
24:53different with everything selected a
24:55again I can hit G and move everything
24:58and now I know when I reach that color
25:01it needs to land on frame one
25:03once it's on frame one everything is
25:05offset correctly I can right click and
25:08just set everything so the color is the
25:10same
25:11so very good point thank you
25:13and you can see what the feet look like
25:15now
25:17kind of looks a bit like a duck
25:21but the feet are cycling pretty nicely
25:23even with the hyperextension let's add
25:25the Cog and this run cycle is really
25:28going to start to take shape
25:30how I'm playing my animation and going
25:34from panel to panel is they're just
25:36hotkeys and I go over that in my
25:39beginner's tutorial so if you're
25:40interested uh check that out let's
25:42select the Cog
25:43and we're going to worry about
25:46the up and down now so I always like to
25:49orient myself to the side
25:51um that's pushing off it's easier for me
25:53to understand that this leg is pushing
25:55off and for those first few frames after
25:57that push off basically Mario's pushing
26:01him myself up so that's how I know that
26:04CLG needs to go up and then
26:07just around here just before we go up
26:10again on the next half cycle somewhere
26:12in here the CLG needs to come down and
26:14Mario needs to take the weight so let's
26:17go two frames and all we're going to do
26:19is pull Mario up just like that
26:24insert a key so now he's pushing up
26:27and now I'm going to go two frames over
26:28we're going to pull Mario down
26:30and we're going to pull Mario down just
26:32enough you saw that knee Bend right
26:34there
26:35perfect
26:36that gives me a good idea that that's a
26:38good distance insert a key I'm going to
26:40select these two frames
26:42Ctrl C coming over here two frames over
26:45and I'm going to paste flipped
26:47perfect
26:49let's play our animation
26:52cool so it's a rough idea of of the
26:56Cadence of the distance of the up and
26:57down but already Mario starting to take
27:00shape
27:03so if you got to this point really nice
27:04job
27:05from this point it only gets easier
27:07because we're going to refine the the up
27:10and down of the Cog and then once we
27:12have the Cog looking well moving the way
27:15we want everything else on the top half
27:18falls into place the chest falls into
27:21place because of the timing of the Cog
27:23the hands they're kind of a little
27:25different but already the hands blocked
27:27are looking pretty good and then the
27:29head falls into place based off the
27:31timing of the chest so we'll spend a few
27:33minutes on the CLG just making sure
27:36we're happy with that timing once we're
27:38happy with the timing of the CLG as well
27:40we'll go back to the feet and do one
27:43more cleanup pass now that we have more
27:45information we can refine and get rid of
27:48the hyperextensions so sometimes I like
27:50to open this up and you can see I have
27:52values you can select those three and
27:55hit shift H and and then period on pad a
27:58to select all period num pad to zoom in
28:01so here's that up and down that's what
28:04that looks like
28:05this other two
28:08curves are pretty messy and they're not
28:11even important really what that is is
28:13the left and right
28:15and the forward and back
28:18for some reason this rig when right now
28:21I'm in local space so you can see I
28:24rotated Mario down and the the arrow is
28:28is on a diagonal but even if I go to my
28:30world orientation you saw I just changed
28:33I'm in global
28:35his Gizmo didn't change so
28:39um I
28:40if if I could change that yes I would
28:43pull him straight up you wouldn't see
28:44any of this mess here so
28:47that's the case I'm just going to delete
28:48these I don't need them
28:51you can see how easy that is all I'm
28:53worried about is the up and down so I'm
28:55going to go coming over here shift H I'm
28:57only going to look at that curve
28:59and we're just gonna make this curve
29:01look good
29:02you might find that at times
29:06your curve looks like this at the
29:08beginning and the end
29:09and if they do I what I would do select
29:12the two keys and together just rotate
29:15them because what's happening is this
29:18movement's coming up
29:20and it's coming up at the end into that
29:23same direction so that's how I how I
29:26make sure the cycle also continues
29:28smoothly
29:31so we're pushing up now all I'm doing is
29:33looking at
29:35um
29:36the up and down of the movement
29:38and overall I think the extremes the
29:40extremes meaning the the very height of
29:43the the run and the very bottom of the
29:45run the extreme poses I think are good
29:50and now
29:52if it was more what it would do it would
29:55make the head
29:57um more unrecognizable more movement and
30:01one important thing to note is so I'm
30:03building a determined rotten cycle it's
30:05great because Mario is going to look
30:07good in a full body from any angle but
30:10if I needed to then cut into a mid shot
30:13or close-up on Mario while running and
30:16talking
30:17I would just come to these curves and
30:20scale the values down just for that one
30:23close-up and all of a sudden there's
30:25less movement and you can see his
30:27expression so just know that that's how
30:30I deal with that and for me at the
30:32bottom I would still want to keep them
30:34um down a little more before he explodes
30:37out
30:38so I'm going to select these two keys
30:40because they're the same
30:42just going to make them Auto clamp and
30:44then I'm going to hit Ctrl deselect the
30:48key itself and the handle on both of the
30:50keys leaving me just with the handle on
30:52the right side G
30:55and X now I can pull it down and you can
30:58see if you're looking up at Mario he's
31:00just sliding further down so I'm
31:01controlling basically him staying lower
31:05for longer now he's coming up I like
31:07that and down here I want to be
31:11in the air longer same idea
31:13deselect deselect GX and you can see
31:18he's up in the error longer
31:22so all that is doing is the keys the
31:25extremes stayed the same
31:27but the the spacing
31:30the timing is snappier because I'm
31:32elongating the handles
31:34cool and so I'm happy with that
31:36and I got rid of Mario's side to side
31:40movement if Mario and I could go back
31:43and add it if this was a heavier
31:45character I would add it a little bit
31:48but you'll see I'll do a little bit of
31:50rotation and and I I find that looks
31:53good let's add a little bit of rotation
31:55on the on the X just forward a little
31:59bit and then the Cog is done let's
32:01select our rotate x shift H all we're
32:05going to do is look at this one value
32:07this one curve and same thing I start
32:09right back at the beginning because it's
32:10easier for me to understand Mario just
32:12pushed off and and he's going to open
32:15himself up
32:17really as he's coming down he's opening
32:19himself up when he comes down and we're
32:21just going to create that drag and so as
32:23he's pushing up really the Drake starts
32:25to come down it's more noticeable in the
32:27head but we'll do it in the Cog a little
32:28bit as well frame five I'm going to
32:30rotate him up so G and just find which
32:33way is up so it's the other way
32:36cool and you can see what's happening to
32:38the body it's just rotating up I'll make
32:40it more noticeable again so I'm building
32:42that dragons as the CLG goes down
32:44there's drag on the body rotating up and
32:47then when he lands the rotation goes
32:49back down and then the cycle is the same
32:51awesome so here's what we have so far
32:53we've cleaned up the CLG
32:56and we have the foot going
32:58the top half is still stiff because we
33:01haven't done anything really there let's
33:03go back clean up the feet and then we'll
33:05go and work on the chest
33:07so I like to start back with the same
33:10foot I was looking at and now what we're
33:12looking at is cleaning up some of the
33:14arcs overall I think it's looking pretty
33:16good and then the hyperextension
33:18and at this point too we can decide if
33:21we wanted to add those extra frames oh
33:23it's I think it's actually working on
33:25just as is here's what I was talking
33:28about before if I select all the
33:30controls hit a select all here's what we
33:33have so far frame 13 is the last frame
33:37so I'm just going to key that everything
33:38else here
33:40we just don't need that was the foot
33:42control that we pasted
33:44go to frame one I'm just going to insert
33:45a key make sure everything's keyed and
33:47I'm going to delete these keyframes
33:49frame 1 and 13 I can check you can see
33:52they're the same so the mirroring is is
33:54looking good so let's play this updated
33:56timing
33:59and you can see the end is is held a
34:02little longer and that's two extra
34:04frames actually help
34:06uh help see the Run Cycle a bit longer
34:08we just have to clean up that little Gap
34:10that we created so yeah I'll stick with
34:12the 14 frames frame by frame now I'm
34:15just pulling this one control down so
34:17there's a little bit of Bend in that
34:19knee so all I'm doing is now making this
34:23one leg as clean as possible looking at
34:26the spacing the arcs and then frame 12
34:29it can have a bigger change
34:32right in here kind of held up a little
34:34longer
34:36and then still a bit of a knee Bend
34:40like he's building that power and then
34:42he's going to explode down and I hope
34:44you can see by this process too we're
34:46trying to work broadly
34:48and we did the foot pasted it to the
34:51other side mirrored it then we added the
34:53Cog and then cleaned some stuff up there
34:55now we're going back and cleaning the
34:57foot and adding the detail
35:00instead of posing it with the detail and
35:03I think you get lost that way just pose
35:05it roughly but pose it so the idea is
35:07reading okay I think we've cleaned up
35:10the one foot I'm just gonna play it
35:13and I'm just trying to concentrate on
35:15the foot closest to the camera
35:18and I'm just looking at
35:20the cycling
35:21I think it's looking pretty smooth so
35:25um I like it
35:26and so I'm going to select the foot I'm
35:29going to select the heel I'm going to
35:31select that hip
35:33control that allows me to play with the
35:35or get rid of the
35:37um the hyperextension and I'm also going
35:40to then select the toe control those
35:41four controls now are what is animated
35:45to make his foot look smooth
35:48cool so I have those four selected I'm
35:51going to insert a key and insert a key
35:53just make sure everything is keyed
35:54nicely let's test that everything is
35:57looking good and now it is
35:59I'm going to hit a control C every key
36:02is selected
36:03and I'm going to come over to the other
36:05side now select in that same order I
36:09think it makes a difference I haven't
36:10tried it but I'm used to doing it in the
36:12same order
36:13foot
36:14heel
36:16then I did that hip control here
36:19and then I did the toe here
36:22okay
36:23come to frame one I don't need any of
36:25these
36:26X
36:28I'm going to insert a key make sure
36:29everything's keyed and then we're going
36:31to paste flipped
36:32so I have it on the hotkey but again you
36:34can come it over to key and
36:37paste flipped
36:39perfect this time it worked so before it
36:42didn't I wasn't sure why but I showed
36:44you a workaround this time with
36:46everything selected it works again you
36:48can play it and have some fun and just
36:50see him running in a funny way with
36:53everything selected I'm going to hit a
36:55Ctrl C and paste over
36:58perfect
36:59this time we had frame seven because it
37:02was a 12 frame Run Cycle now we've
37:06updated the timing it's now a 14 frame
37:08Run Cycle so the middle is eight frames
37:11I'm going to select this keyframe I'm
37:13going to right click coming over here to
37:16keyframe type and just pick a color last
37:18time we did this extreme I'll just say
37:20green for this Jitter it doesn't matter
37:22a select all what we're after is just
37:25making it visually different we know
37:27that this key needs to end up on frame
37:29one
37:30for the foot then to cycle properly so
37:33everything selected a
37:36and G and we're going to move to the
37:39left until
37:41that green key is back at frame one
37:44right click keyframe type keyframe now
37:48the keys back to the same color so let's
37:50play what we have
37:52so now both feet are cycling nicely
37:55and it's working with the Cog and let's
37:58start to take shape it's a good looking
38:00Run Cycle let's select the chest
38:02and now we'll worry about that what
38:05we're going to add all all this is right
38:07now is a little side to side movement
38:10for the chest we're going to keep the
38:12side to side movement we're going to
38:13rotate up and down and translate up and
38:16down two so I'm going to select all and
38:18I'm just going to make things Auto
38:19clamped he'll come from more of a
38:22compressed pose as he's pushing off and
38:25then once he gets to the very top things
38:27open up and as he starts to come down
38:29things really open up frames five or
38:31frame six is a good place to just add
38:34some drag on the body
38:36I'm going to go to frame six
38:38so all I'm going to do is pull it up
38:40that's it and rotate this way that's the
38:45drag
38:46so here's what we have with the updated
38:47chest just a little more organic
38:50breaking things up a little bit
38:52let's work now on the shoulders and the
38:54arms and that's really going to help
38:56break things up and then we'll work on
38:58the head you can see how the head's
38:59stiff we'll break that up as well let's
39:02select the shoulder the upper arm the
39:05elbow and the wrist
39:08everything selected a and I'm going to
39:10make things Auto clamp Perfect come on
39:13over here to the shoulder and I'm going
39:14to go two frames over
39:16and what we're going to do is just add
39:18some drag on on the shoulder so I'm
39:20going to physically pull it in the
39:22direction it was coming from
39:24and by pulling it and rotating it we're
39:27we're making things separated feel
39:31organic so we're creating drag as that
39:35chest is rotating as it's rotating back
39:38we're pulling that shoulder forward and
39:40creating the drag
39:42so we're just posing it and as they
39:45swing back forward again I'll just go
39:47maybe two three forms we'll decide
39:50and
39:52delay it that's the drag there
39:56don't be afraid to translate things as
39:59well
40:01okay and then here I'm going to add
40:04another breakdown pulling it down
40:07and back
40:10cool
40:13and then it swings back into into the
40:15same pose as frame one and so just with
40:19doing it
40:20um on the shoulder this arm is much more
40:24determined much more aggressive it's
40:27basically what it's doing it's favoring
40:29the extreme poses and it's staying there
40:31longer and everything in between is
40:33snappier
40:35it's more cartoony so be aware of that
40:37I'm going to select the upper arm now
40:39and we're going to do the same thing we
40:42went two frames with the shoulder now we
40:44can go maybe three frames of the upper
40:46arm and we'll add even more drag and
40:48then with the elbow we'll go five frames
40:49or four frames we'll we'll bump it even
40:51an extra frame so everything starts to
40:53bend and just show a little bit of
40:56overlap by doing that but same idea as
40:59the shoulder it's just being delayed a
41:00little bit
41:03the general shape has been set I'm not
41:05going to deviate much from that but
41:08we're favoring the one idea the one pose
41:10longer now as it's swinging through the
41:12body I'm going to now with this control
41:15just tuck it
41:17closer to the body it's coming into that
41:20back pose here and maybe it's too high
41:24so I'm more I'm going to pull it down so
41:26I have somewhere to go I'm going to go
41:28three frames and then still pull it up
41:31you can see now the delay that I'm
41:33building into it delay the elbow so I'm
41:36on the elbow now and I'm going to delay
41:38it
41:41cool I'm going to copy Ctrl C it's got
41:43to be the same beginning and end
41:45and for the upper arm wind three frames
41:48now I'm going to go four frames
41:51and
41:52it's really bending
41:54I'm just trying to build
41:56really just trying to show the organic
41:59um
42:00overlap yeah and I could see it I could
42:03see it starting to bend there so that's
42:04great Big Bend here we're coming out
42:08over here and now maybe frame 12.
42:14I'm almost going to make it straight
42:16a little Bend let's see what that looks
42:18like all right so here's what that elbow
42:21looks like
42:22and it you can feel the bend so it's
42:25starting to look good and if I compare
42:27it to the other side
42:29everything is
42:31just a little more stiff
42:35by coming over here timing timing is
42:38more aggressive but the elbow is
42:40starting to bend so that's that's
42:41looking good and now I'm going to paste
42:44flipped
42:45perfect so that's what that looks like
42:47without offset
42:50let's add the offset so just like we did
42:52with the legs paste it and move it until
42:55that blue key is on frame one right
42:59click
43:00keyframe type go back to keyframe yeah
43:02Run Cycle is nice and aggressive we're
43:06really close to being done the cycle now
43:07cool select the head and a to select all
43:10period numpad And so there's our curve
43:13and let's go ahead and do a little bit
43:16of drag just like we've done with the
43:18chest a little drag as the body comes
43:21down the chin is going to go up and we
43:23might even translate that head up and
43:25really that's all that's needed so we're
43:27coming up
43:28and as we come down the head can be
43:31delayed up and then on frame eight frame
43:331 and 15 I'm going to pull that head
43:35back down a bit
43:37so over here I'm just gonna
43:40pull it up a little bit not much
43:42but you can see the delay that's being
43:44added and chin up a little bit
43:47insert a key
43:49control C come on over because this is
43:52two frames from the end of the half of
43:55the cycle two frames here one two
43:58and paste flipped perfect that head just
44:02goes up and so that's the drag and it
44:03comes back down
44:06awesome so here it's coming back down
44:09and then it's going to go back into this
44:12pose that we pulled up so here I'm going
44:16to push the head down into the body
44:19and a little bit of drag on the nose as
44:21well insert a key
44:24control C
44:26coming over here to the end
44:28and paste flipped
44:30Ctrl C and Ctrl V okay and there's our
44:34Run Cycle so if you got to this point
44:36really nice job it's not an easy thing
44:39to build a seamless Run Cycle that
44:44um
44:45that doesn't pop
44:46that Cycles nicely so it's not an easy
44:49thing to do so give it a couple tries if
44:51you're new to this give it a try know
44:53that it's rough
44:55come back a couple days from now are
44:57from from your first try
44:59and try it again
45:01and just go through the different steps
45:03okay I'm gonna give this um a quick
45:06render and and then this tutorial is
45:09done so I'll be back in just a second
45:11[Music]
45:15Here's the final animated run I hope you
45:18liked the tutorial and got value from it
45:20if you did please like the video so that
45:22I know this content is helpful focus on
45:25your posing and everything else will
45:26start to fall in line good luck thanks
45:29everyone bye-bye

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