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

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0:00why are animated walk Cycles important
0:02and what makes a good walk cycle I'll
0:04start with the obvious we need our
0:06characters to walk from place to place
0:07to help progress the story forward but
0:09the real reason why a walk cycle is so
0:12important is it says something about our
0:14character a character is what they do
0:16not what they say in building the
0:18actions of a walk cycle we are given an
0:20opportunity to express not only the
0:22physical requirements but also the
0:24emotional state of our character we have
0:26an opportunity to say something about
0:27our character through their walk hi
0:30everyone my name is Alex and I just
0:32talked about why a walk cycle is so
0:34important and that is it says something
0:36about our character so what makes a good
0:37walk cycle personality is the most
0:39important aspect of a walk because it
0:41says something about your character the
0:43better you are as an animator the more
0:45you can focus on personality the new
0:47animator has a harder time with
0:48personality because you're trying to get
0:51the character to move and cycle without
0:52popping we've all been there and that's
0:55where technique comes in and that's what
0:57I'm going to focus on in this video
0:58technique is the second most important
1:01thing when creating a walk cycle when
1:03you're new technique takes up all your
1:05focus but as you improve the scale
1:07shifts to prioritizing personality
1:09that's the goal there are two main
1:12principles of Animation that allow us to
1:13get personality out of our characters
1:15and those are posing and timing for
1:18posing we think of contact pose the
1:20clarity the shape the lines the
1:23silhouette and the exaggeration of a
1:25pose for timing we think of the speed of
1:27the Walk cycle itself we also think of
1:30varying the speed of the different parts
1:31of the body within the cycle we also
1:34want to consider how our character
1:35relates to other characters in the scene
1:38we're going to consider posing and
1:39timing in our technique as well as we
1:41build the walk cycle
1:43I'm going to jump into blender now and
1:45demonstrate a walk cycle for you let's
1:47do it I'm going to use Ellie for this
1:49demonstration she's a character from the
1:51blender movie Sprite fright I had no
1:53involvement in the film but like the
1:55design of this character let's first
1:57start by setting our workspace let's
1:59come on over here to animation and what
2:01I like to do is have this window on the
2:03right be my main camera that I view
2:06through
2:07and this will be my work window
2:09down here in the dope sheet I'm going to
2:12hit control Tab and that's just going to
2:14take us to the graph editor let's also
2:16pull up our timeline so we have access
2:18to that and I don't think I'm going to
2:20be working with the side panel the
2:22properties there so I'm going to also
2:24move that to the side so I'm just going
2:26to start hiding some stuff over here
2:28just cleaning up this view window and
2:31then for here I don't need this camera
2:33I'm going to get out of that and I'm
2:35going to show all my controls in this
2:37work window I'm just going to build a
2:39little ground plane
2:41so we have some something for her to
2:43stand on and walk on so we have the
2:45character in our scene the first thing
2:47we want to do is just think about what
2:49kind of walk we want to build and for
2:51this demonstration I'm just going to
2:52build a simple generic walk cycle I
2:55think that's going to be the easiest to
2:56learn from and then from there you can
2:58push it pull it and exaggerate it in any
3:01which way you want once you have an idea
3:03what kind of walk cycle you want to
3:04build whether it's a happy one sad one
3:07confident walk cycle
3:09you got to start posing so we're going
3:10to start that right now
3:12my hands are in ik so I'm going to
3:14switch that to FK in the properties over
3:16here we're going to come to the cloud
3:17rig and it's under settings and it's
3:20fkik switch
3:22I'm just going to turn the two hands
3:24from ik into FK let's just turn on the
3:27layers for this as well and we want to
3:29see our FK perfect I'm going to want to
3:31see my fingers because I'm going to pose
3:33that quickly
3:34let's also shorten our time frame here
3:36let's go 24 frames I'm going to hit a
3:39select all a in here select all all the
3:42keys and I'm just going to delete that
3:44so generic walk cycle a typical speed is
3:4724 frames and that's what we're going to
3:48do now if we make this walk cycle
3:51something like 18 frames 16 frames that
3:54becomes a very quick walk cycle if we go
3:5732 36 frames 48 frames that becomes a
4:00very slow walk cycle so 24 is right in
4:03the middle and it's a good starting
4:05place for anyone to start from okay so
4:08let's work on the pose and in blender we
4:10have this x mirroring so I'm going to
4:11turn that on just at the beginning while
4:12I poser
4:15perfect nice and simple just gonna add a
4:18little bit of shape to these fingers
4:20nice and quick
4:33okay so nice little starting pose for
4:37the fingers and we can always adjust
4:38those as we actually get into it
4:41I'm going to turn this x mirroring off
4:43now and start working on that contact
4:45pose so I'm going to pick a leg and just
4:48pull one forward and the other one back
4:51perfect
4:53now what we want to look at is the more
4:55distance between the two feet that
4:57bigger the step is going to be
4:59also it's going to be harder to animate
5:01that smoothness between the contact pose
5:04and the foot going back and then back
5:06again to continue the cycle the bigger
5:08the Gap is the more finesse you need in
5:10order to make that cycle look smooth the
5:13shorter that gap between the feet are
5:15the easier it's going to be so just keep
5:16that in mind so for the first foot here
5:19in the front Okay that toe is going to
5:20come up perfect and then for the back
5:22one it's the opposite so now the heel
5:25comes up and what we're after is we
5:28don't want any straight knees we want to
5:30avoid that so you can see if I pull it
5:32far enough that knee lock up so just
5:35before it locks up that little bit of
5:37curve is nice let's go over here same
5:39thing pull it back and there is a good
5:42distance something like that so we have
5:44a pretty good distance between the two
5:46feet dictated by that bend in the knee
5:49just that little bit of Bend tells me
5:51that's a good spot to stop at now with
5:53the arms everything on the bottom half
5:55is in One Direction then everything on
5:57the top half is in the opposite
5:59direction and that's how the walk takes
6:01place so here we have a right leg
6:02forward so we're going to have her left
6:04hand forward in this one so I'm just
6:06going to start posing that out
6:09nice and simple I really like this
6:11technique of building the pose and then
6:13playing with the timing because it
6:15allows me more finesse to dictate that
6:17personality now I'm going to start to
6:18think about the effect it has on the
6:21chest maybe the Cog maybe the head as
6:24well thinking about the subtleties so
6:26that when I mirror the pose there's a
6:28little bit of movement for the CLG I'm
6:30just going to add a little bit of
6:31rotation not much
6:34there we go the chest is going to have
6:36just a little bit of rotation as well
6:37again not much
6:40and I can always tone that down or up as
6:43I see the the cycle progressing so I've
6:45rotated the Cog and the chest in this
6:48case two degrees to her right and so
6:50that also turns the head a little too
6:52much so I'm going to turn the head back
6:54for this one pose
6:57okay I'm still looking at the pose so
6:59I'm spending a good four or five minutes
7:00just on this pose I'm going to start to
7:02include a little bit of the shoulders
7:04here so this shoulder is going to go
7:06back just a little bit
7:08perfect not much and this one's going to
7:10go forward a little bit
7:13okay so here's our pose we spent a good
7:17three four minutes
7:18um posing her in this in this idea and I
7:21think it looks good I'm gonna hit a to
7:23select all the controls and hit I and
7:26that inserts a key normally what happens
7:27when you hit I you get that menu and
7:29that menu asks what do you want to
7:31insert a key on how you don't get that
7:33anymore when I hit I
7:35it just Keys what I want you got to be
7:37in object mode and you go to object
7:40animation and you gotta change the key
7:43set
7:44and so I like to put it to location
7:46rotation so now when you go back to your
7:48Armature
7:49you select all hit I it's always going
7:52to key those two things so in the graph
7:54editor hit a selects all and then period
7:56numpad just to frame for it so we got
7:58this one pose and we just keyed
8:00everything
8:01we selected all the controls and
8:03inserted a key and now what we're going
8:05to do is we're going to come to frame
8:0725. and also hit I insert a key and
8:12you'll notice that the key on frame one
8:14and the key on frame 25 they're the same
8:16that's important in a walk cycle in the
8:18first frame in the last frame they need
8:20to be the same pose as we build the walk
8:21cycle we're going to be adjusting either
8:23the first frame or the last frame and
8:25when we make an adjustment we always
8:27copy it to the other frame so it's
8:29always the same
8:30the other thing that's very important in
8:33A Walk to Remember is whenever the foot
8:35contacts the ground to the moment it
8:37leaves the ground that portion that it
8:39stays on the ground is a linear move
8:41that translation back should be linear
8:43so those are the two main things on a
8:46technique aspect that needs to happen in
8:49order to build a seamless walk cycle so
8:51at the beginning we have frame one and
8:53here I'm going to insert a key on frame
8:5613. so what we have is from frame one
8:59all the way to frame 12 that's the first
9:01half of our walk
9:02and then from frame 13 all the way to
9:05frame 24 is the next 12 frames of the
9:08second half of the Walk
9:10frame 25 is just a repeat of frame one
9:13so when we set our timeline as well here
9:17I don't need to see frame 25 because
9:19it's a duplicate of frame one we have
9:21everything selected
9:23let's come in over here we have this key
9:25it doesn't matter all three keys are the
9:27same for now and you're going to
9:28highlight one of them hit Ctrl C and
9:32then hover where you want to paste this
9:33next bit and I have it on hockey to
9:36paste flip so you get some options where
9:38you can you can copy the pose and then
9:40you can paste the pose or you can in
9:43this case paste flip the pose and where
9:46you find that is under key
9:48and paste flip so let's click that and
9:51you saw that your hands and your feet
9:53they swapped they mirrored each other
9:55hit a in My Graph editor period numpad
9:58and you can see what's going on here
10:00we have this pose at the beginning frame
10:03one and frame 25
10:06they're the same frame 13 is just the
10:09opposite of those two other frames I'm
10:10going to hit a select all and V and just
10:14go Vector right now I'm just going to
10:15set everything to linear and let's just
10:17go ahead and play it
10:22okay
10:23so getting to this stage is a big deal
10:26it's a big deal because you've made some
10:28decisions on what kind of personality
10:30you want and just getting the pose
10:32pasting it from one to frame 25 and then
10:36flipping it on frame 13. just getting
10:38here is very important
10:40from here you make some big decisions
10:42remember we talked about personality now
10:45we can start to think okay what is the
10:47personality that I want in this case
10:49Ellie to have
10:51and when we talked about personality
10:53before there are two things that we can
10:55consider the pose
10:57and the timing let's focus a little bit
11:00on the timing right now so this is a
11:02generic timing a generic walk cycle if I
11:05was to walk right now it'd most likely
11:06be at this pace
11:08that's about a second we take three
11:10steps in the span of a second
11:13or we contact the ground three times and
11:16let's suppose that I thought this walk
11:18cycle with the same pose I thought it
11:21lacked maybe some energy so a very quick
11:23way to do that instead of affecting the
11:25pose to make it larger to exaggerate the
11:28pose maybe make the stride longer the
11:31hands swing more you could do that but
11:33in my case I might want to just tighten
11:35the timing speed up the cycle let's make
11:37it a 16 frame walk cycle so I'm going to
11:40grab these two last frames
11:42and I'm going to go frame eight
11:45frame 16 and then I'm going to play
11:47frame 17. remember frame one and
11:50whatever your last frame is is the same
11:53but I'm not gonna I'm not going to play
11:54that right there
11:56frame 17.
11:57oh pardon me there you go and I'm going
12:00to make this 60. so what we have is
12:02eight frames and eight frames and then
12:04that frame 17 is a repeat of frame one
12:07so let's go ahead and play that
12:08and already Ellie's walk is snappier
12:11maybe she's being pursued by someone so
12:13her Pace just quickened so that's how
12:15quickly we can affect her personality
12:17she's more nervous or let's take the
12:20opposite idea let's make it 36 frames
12:23here let's select these last two keys
12:25again and we'll come on over here to
12:27frame 18 and then make and make this
12:29last frame frame 37. so let's play that
12:35now she's more mellow just in her timing
12:37at least so let's put her back to a
12:39generic walk cycle at 24 frames so let's
12:43put this back to 12. this one back to 25
12:45and then this can go back to 24 frames
12:49those are some of the big decisions
12:50you're going to make once you get to
12:51this stage and it's just cycling
12:54you're going to make the decisions do I
12:56affect the pose
12:57most likely
12:58and do I affect the timing the timing
13:01once you're happy with the timing you're
13:02going to stick with him but the pose you
13:04can keep her finding a little bit I'm
13:06going to show you a quick way to
13:08exaggerate the pose a little bit so I'm
13:10going to select all hit a and I'm going
13:13to come in over here to my first frame
13:14I'm just going to select that Ctrl C and
13:18just move over a little bit Ctrl V same
13:21pose being held here's what I like to do
13:23I like to use the computer to help me
13:25exaggerate my pose a little bit once
13:28I've defined what the pose looks like
13:31and I'm pretty happy with him I can
13:33still refine the pose and typically what
13:35I do when I refine the pose is I put a
13:38keyframe and then another keyframe
13:40beside it and I'll pull and push and do
13:42whatever I need to to refine the pose
13:44and then I flip back and forth and I
13:46decide is this pose stronger does it
13:48have better shape line Clarity
13:50silhouette whatever it is
13:51and if the answer is yes I keep the new
13:54pose I delete the old pose and I might
13:56do that a couple times
13:58another method as well is I can use the
14:00computer here and go V and just go
14:02automatic and you saw right there that
14:04the pose just elongated a little bit it
14:07it stretched out so what it is is this
14:09keyframe and this keyframe are the same
14:11between them is a spline and a computer
14:15takes the information from this keyframe
14:17and it goes into this keyframe and it
14:19overshoots here basically is what's
14:21happening you can see the graph right
14:22there so I use that information just to
14:25elongate the pose sometimes it really
14:26gives you a nice feel
14:28so now I'm going to scrub over here and
14:30I kind of already like what the computer
14:32is giving me based off what I initially
14:35had done
14:37and I like I like I like this the space
14:40between your feet a little more and I
14:42like the Gap in our arms a little more
14:44so I'm going to keep that I'm going to
14:46insert a key I
14:48I'm going to delete this Frame now
14:50delete this Frame I'm going to move this
14:52over
14:53I have to refine the pose a little bit
14:56because now the legs are are too
14:58stretched so I'm going to do that
15:01just a little bit there it is right
15:03until that knee starts to bend just a
15:05little bit
15:06and then this back foot can be pulled in
15:08just a tiny bit there
15:10okay
15:11so this is my pose and I'm happy with it
15:13and you saw a little bit of technique to
15:16refine the pose once you've identified
15:18parts of the personality within the pose
15:20and timing so I went back refined the
15:22pose a little more
15:24okay I'm going to hit a just insert a
15:27key One Last Time Ctrl C copy and then
15:30coming over here Ctrl V paste you saw
15:32those little changes that were just made
15:35first frame and last frame they need to
15:37be the same so I copied and then pasted
15:40I'm going to come in over here and I'm
15:42going to go
15:43paste flip and you saw those changes as
15:46well okay
15:48so V vector and remember Pace flip you
15:51can be it can be found under key paste
15:54flip so just what we did right here is a
15:57big deal is a big deal because once you
15:59start moving past this point it's hard
16:01to refine the personality here are the
16:04big decisions that you're going to make
16:05that are going to be very broad you're
16:07not you haven't committed much time and
16:09yet you affected the outcome to a
16:11greater amount right here just by just
16:13by posing and timing
16:15what we're going to focus on now is the
16:17foot contact so we're just going to do
16:19one foot let it cycle and we're going to
16:21refine it once we're happy with that
16:23foot we're going to paste it to the
16:24other foot and we're going to go to the
16:26CLG find that find that Cadence really
16:28that up and down and then work a little
16:31bit on the upper body work on the swing
16:33in the arms we're find the head a little
16:35bit and this walk cycle is done so here
16:37we go let's focus on this front foot
16:39that's what I like to start on because
16:41this first half of the Walk cycle from
16:43frame 1 to 13 is going to be linear
16:46everything on the ground needs to in
16:49terms of this the movement back needs to
16:51be the same I'm going to hit a hit
16:53period numpad and you can see what the
16:55graph looks like here this right here
16:58this green line if I move it you can see
17:01all that is is affecting the movement of
17:04the foot back that's the only thing
17:05that's really being keyed
17:07even though I have other channels but
17:09that's the one curve that's being
17:11affected right now
17:12and it's linear and so that's contact in
17:15the ground
17:16and then here when we scrub forward you
17:19can see that the foot just starts to
17:20move forward here we're going to start
17:22to add an arc so it smoothly comes back
17:25and then it kind of it does a little bit
17:28of an S shape really is what is what
17:30it's going to look like here it's going
17:32to be flat and and straight and then a
17:35bit of an s-curve what I like to do is
17:37over two frames come down so I'm going
17:40to select that heel and toe um control
17:45and I'm going to reset it I'm going to
17:47grab that key
17:48and I'm just going to make a vector
17:51and again I put all my hotkeys instead
17:54of going V and then vector
17:57I just put it over here on On Cue again
18:00sometimes that's really nice because
18:02even in here I did that as well so
18:04speeds me up a little more I'm going to
18:06control C copy that pose
18:09or you can just come in over here and
18:11reset the value and hit I
18:14and really what I'm doing now is the
18:16foot this one control this heel control
18:19there the foot's in the air the toes in
18:22the air over two friends it contacts the
18:24ground now it's flat
18:27flat flat flat and then it starts to the
18:30heel starts to lift and this is what
18:32this value is here
18:35so the only two controls being animated
18:37right now is this one foot control which
18:40goes back and forth
18:42and this heel up and down and the toe up
18:45and down those are the only two controls
18:49okay so we're looking at this front leg
18:52here
18:53this one right there foot is contacting
18:55the ground perfect starts to be lifted
18:58as it's being lifted I'm just going to
19:00make that uh
19:02flat tangent there
19:05cool and I think you can start lifting a
19:07little sooner
19:09awesome
19:12so all I'm looking at is this front leg
19:14and how it's looking while it's on the
19:16ground and I think that's looking good
19:19now so the first half of the the step is
19:21done now we've got to work on the second
19:23half to get it back to its original spot
19:26so it can cycle again
19:29so here's what I'm going to do I'm going
19:30to come back to my foot control
19:33see the curve and what I like to do is
19:36just pose it out and then refine the
19:38pose and I just realized that my middle
19:41pose is on frame 12 which isn't the true
19:44Center so I'm going to select all the
19:46controls
19:47just grab this key and move it over one
19:50frame so now it's 12 frames
19:53contact 12 more frames and it repeats so
19:57frame 13 there so let's focus on the
19:59second half of this walk cycle so we
20:01have the first half which is the contact
20:03on the ground and it's linear
20:05and for the second half I like to just
20:09pose it out and then refine the pose I
20:11go every four frames now so here from
20:13frame 13 I'm gonna go four frames over
20:15to frame 17 and just refine that pose so
20:18here's what I'm going to do I'm going to
20:19pull that leg back
20:23and really what it is is this leg is
20:25starting to roll over so it can come
20:27forward something like this
20:30don't be too precious just go ahead and
20:31pose it and you can always refine it
20:35cool so it's just starting to lift here
20:37it's coming straight back
20:40and now let's take a look at the pose or
20:43pardon me the graph editor
20:45so I'm going to grab this I'm just going
20:46to make this Auto clamped I can select
20:49which curve I want here shift H and take
20:52a look at it
20:54make sure that's Vector so it's straight
20:57and then you can see there's a little
20:59bit of a bump here and all I'm going to
21:00do is just straighten that out so now
21:02the curve is smooth and it's coming back
21:04and then back into place so here's what
21:07that looks like as I scrub over you can
21:09take a look at this back foot
21:11so it's coming on the ground and it's
21:14rolling over
21:17that's where most people are going to
21:19have some issues is where there's a
21:22little Bend in the knee
21:24and all of a sudden the knee is straight
21:27and when the cycle happens you see that
21:29popping so that's what we're going to
21:31avoid but it's it's normal at this stage
21:33to to be seeing that and I'm aware of it
21:36and that's what we're going to refine
21:38okay so let's keep going with the pose
21:40what I like to do now is come over here
21:43to my last frame so this Frame and this
21:46Frame are the same but you can see the
21:47curve is going down this way and the
21:50curve on getting into that pose is
21:52coming up
21:53so
21:54I'm just going to make that flat tangent
21:55and actually even inverse it a little
21:57bit so now as it comes into the cycle
22:00it's going to come a little more
22:02smoothly down
22:03let's go ahead and play that
22:07cool so it still looks very rough
22:09because it is but we're refining just
22:12the one leg okay let's keep working on
22:15it a little bit and then we're going to
22:16paste it to the other leg then I'll work
22:18on the Cog and once the Cog gets
22:20involved I'll go back to the leg and
22:22make the final adjustments and so I went
22:25four frames I'm going to go four more
22:26frames to frame 21. and I'm going to
22:29work on this pose this leg is too high
22:31in the air so I'm going to pull that
22:33down
22:39keep it low to the ground something like
22:41this
22:42insert a key
22:46okay
22:47so this leg is is getting somewhere yes
22:50there's some popping but that's okay and
22:53I want to see everything here so I'm
22:54going to go alt H just show everything
22:56let's start pasting it to the other side
22:58select the foot
23:00select that heel just those two controls
23:02a to select all period numpad to see
23:05everything I'm going to hit Ctrl C to
23:07copy and go to your other foot now
23:09select this select this and I'm going to
23:12delete these other keyframes at the end
23:14and just leave this first one and I'm
23:16going to go
23:17to my paste flip and you can see it's
23:20basically matching
23:22cool
23:23everything is here I'm going to go Ctrl
23:25C and Ctrl V perfect select everything
23:29again and remember frame 13 is the
23:32middle
23:33so I'm going to remember what this
23:34keyframe kind of looks like and move
23:36that frame with everything selected
23:39to frame one
23:41so everything's selected I hit a and I'm
23:43going to hit G and move that back 12
23:45frames
23:47perfect
23:50so here we have
23:52the beginnings of our walk once you add
23:54that bounce in the Cog it starts to come
23:57alive and it's going to help in the
23:59refinement of the knees as well
24:01so let's do that I'm going to select the
24:03Cog select everything and frame for it
24:06I'm going to hit a and make everything
24:09Auto clamped so I'm going to smooth it
24:11out so the foot contacts the ground and
24:14then the foot toes contact the ground on
24:16frame three here I like to go couple
24:18frames after and that's where really all
24:21her weight is being taken
24:23and just drop that down I to insert
24:26perfect and all I care about now is
24:29seeing this translate this up and down
24:31translate so I just set a key and now I
24:33can see it in the graph editor so she's
24:35taking that step and she's taken that
24:37weight a little bit I'm just going to
24:39push that weight down a little bit more
24:42perfect
24:44nice
24:47and I might even lean it
24:50this way a little bit more
24:52so it just stays down a little longer
24:54before we go back up
24:55okay I'm happy with that I'm going to
24:57select this one key here Ctrl C and this
25:00was four frames so I'm gonna go four
25:02frames from here to frame 17 control V
25:05and it's a cycle so let's play that
25:09cool so that's looking really good feels
25:12like she's
25:13she's stepping and what I'm going to do
25:15as well is just to lay that weight
25:17coming down a little bit more so what
25:19I'm going to do select the two keys and
25:21then with control deselect the key and
25:24the handle and just leaving this handle
25:26here G to move it and X to keep it on
25:30that one axis you can see just by
25:32pulling it
25:34to the right I'm keeping her body her
25:37Cog up a little higher and then it's
25:39going to come down just a little bit
25:41more forceful
25:44cool and I like that okay the next thing
25:46we want to do is just look a little bit
25:48at the rotation let's go over to our
25:51chest control
25:52and really the chest and the head
25:56there's still vector still linear so I'm
25:59just going to select all the keys keys
26:00and make them Auto let's go back down
26:03here and we're going to start to affect
26:05the hips as well you're not going to
26:06notice her hips and they're not going to
26:08have as much impact in the appearance
26:10but a larger character a heavier
26:12character you're really going to see
26:14that weight you're going to see what
26:16when that weight's being taken the hip
26:18on that one leg that's contacting the
26:21ground is going to go up it's going to
26:23play a bigger role but here's what I
26:24would do kind of the same timing as when
26:27the CLG goes up and down roughly would
26:29be the same time in there I'm going to
26:30keep this one quite simple because it's
26:33generic and she's a simple character
26:36perfect I'm going to copy that Ctrl C
26:39and go four frames over and in this case
26:42I'm not just going to paste it but I'm
26:43going to paste flipped so it goes the
26:46other way cool it's starting to look
26:48pretty good I'm still seeing a couple
26:49things that are very evident to me the
26:52legs obviously and the chest is feeling
26:54stiff so I'm going to start focusing a
26:56little bit on the chest area
26:58and then going back to the feet before I
27:01move up and finish the chest area and
27:02the hands so let's come on up here as
27:05the hands go back the chest is also
27:07rotating in that same direction but I'm
27:09going to add a little bit of delay here
27:11so the chest is leaning this side just a
27:14little bit I'm just going to delay that
27:15rotation a little more insert a key so
27:17it's delaying there and then it's going
27:19to go into that next pose a bit quicker
27:21somewhere in here as well I think I'm
27:24gonna have her chest go down not by much
27:28perfect I'm going to delete this one key
27:30I don't need it
27:32and then delete this key here so I'm
27:34going to come in over here and do the
27:36same thing
27:41nice just keep it there a little longer
27:43automatic I like that I'm going to
27:46select this one key here Ctrl C coming
27:50over here to the other side control V
27:52and it's going to paste it there
27:57so thy chest is loosening up a little
27:59bit
28:00once I add the arms and the shoulders
28:02it's going to really loosen up but I'm
28:04happy with that for now and let's go
28:06back and focus on the legs and get those
28:08cleaned up so here at the leg I'm going
28:10to focus on that
28:12um y translate which is the contact on
28:15the ground remember this one
28:17just slides forward and when it's
28:19sliding on the ground or moving it's
28:21always going to be the same speed this
28:23is what that curve looks like straight
28:25linear and then like I was describing
28:27that s-curve here's what you're going to
28:29want to do from time to time just to
28:31make sure that your first frame and last
28:32frame are the same go to frame one and
28:35then go to frame 25 and just by moving
28:38back and forth if you see any movement
28:40then just copy and paste it in this case
28:43there was no movement so the two keys
28:45are the same let's try to figure out
28:46what some of the issues are that's
28:48causing the popping so here you can see
28:50that frame three straight leg okay so
28:54that's one area let's keep scrubbing and
28:56then we have knees bent knees bent and
28:59then two frames here of pure straight
29:01and then one frame quickly where the
29:04knees Bend so we basically have three
29:06frames that are giving us some problems
29:08right now and we have a couple ways to
29:10deal with it we have the foot speed
29:12itself and location we have that heel
29:14control and now we have the Cog and even
29:16the hip control control so there's four
29:18things that are going to play a role in
29:20getting rid of that knee Palm so you
29:23just have to play with those different
29:24things and get rid of that knee ball so
29:27here on frame three I could keep this
29:29one leg up a little bit more so I can
29:31delay this one one contact a little bit
29:34more that's one option
29:37and that's that that almost did it
29:38except now it looks a little strange and
29:40here's what I'm going to do maybe move
29:42this over insert a key and together have
29:45a contact it's almost there now so do
29:47what you can know that you have those
29:49four things that affect the knee pop now
29:51so that took care of that one we're
29:53coming in and now we're knee straight
29:55just increase the value here okay that
29:58took care of that maybe I'm gonna lower
30:01her Cog just a little bit as well
30:06so I'm going to select all those three
30:08keys there and just barely move it down
30:12perfect
30:14that might just do it
30:16there we go
30:21okay looks like that beginning pop is
30:23gone we're coming over and then there's
30:26one big pop there
30:28I kind of got rid of all the knee
30:30straights
30:31and then there's this one big one that
30:33stands out so let's try to mitigate that
30:35so maybe what I'll do is
30:38just pull that out more
30:40and with this one curve selected key
30:43only selected curve and grab this one
30:46and just pull it back a little bit I'm
30:48now going to add just a little bit of
30:49toe drag not much just as the toes being
30:53lifted
30:54right here
30:56insert a key and as it's swinging
30:59forward
31:00just barely
31:03add a little bit of toe drag even just a
31:06little bit more here
31:09insert remember whatever you do to the
31:12last frame or the first frame you have
31:14to then paste to this side perfect and
31:17now this one can come up
31:20and spank the ground a little harder
31:30okay that leg's looking a lot smoother
31:32so select the three curves now this one
31:35and then that toe one perfect select all
31:38awesome
31:40Ctrl C
31:42and come back over here
31:49I'm just going to insert a key on on
31:51that beginning frame remember this one
31:53we pasted more because we we cycled it
31:56but opposite so I'm going to lead delete
31:59all those keyframes except the frame one
32:01I'm going to keep that one and now
32:04I'm going to paste flipped perfect
32:07select all go to the last frame and Ctrl
32:11C Ctrl V you can see what happens after
32:15you start to add more detail when you
32:17copy your cycle and then paste it on
32:20frame 25 so it repeats frame 1 and 25
32:22when I pasted it it ruined the curve a
32:25little bit on this side let me
32:26demonstrate again
32:28it ruins the curves a little bit one way
32:31I found that does a good job I have my
32:33three foot controls selected and I'm
32:36going to insert a key on frame 24. so
32:38when I paste into 25
32:40it meets frame 24 and it doesn't affect
32:43anything after that I found that to be a
32:45nice way of controlling my curves select
32:48all Ctrl C and Ctrl V perfect select all
32:52again
32:53remember frame 13 now needs to go to
32:55frame 1.
33:00okay
33:03so her legs are looking a lot smoother
33:05now so that's a second pass and maybe I
33:08could do one more refinement pass but
33:10already with that CLG influencing
33:15um the legs I now have more information
33:17to go back to the legs okay let's focus
33:20on her shoulders and her arm swing a
33:23little bit of her head and then this
33:26cycle is done I'm going to focus on this
33:28side first for some reason I like to
33:29focus on whatever leg or foot is in the
33:32front I found find that easier for me
33:34I'm going to start with the shoulder
33:36everything still Vector from the
33:38beginning I'm just gonna make it smooth
33:39and just like we did with the chest when
33:41it's rotating and it's coming back I
33:43deleted I'm going to do the same with
33:45the shoulders so as the shoulder is at
33:47its peak forward and then it's coming
33:50back
33:51I'm gonna pull it forward a little bit
33:53more and I'm just delaying it and doing
33:55that just adds a little more oomph to
33:57your to your animation because you're
34:00dictating the timing so I'm going to go
34:02to frame five and all I'm going to do is
34:03rotate It Forward just a little bit
34:05forward and maybe up
34:08just like that then it's just going to
34:10swing naturally back
34:12and same thing when it's back I'm going
34:14to delay it and in this case I might
34:16even pull it down a little bit
34:18and rotate it down
34:20something like that
34:23cool and that's all I'm looking for then
34:25I'm going to take it one curve at a time
34:28just to see what it's coming in and out
34:30of so this one's doing its thing there
34:32oh that's just the translate that's okay
34:34I think the translates are good as is
34:37yes they are let's look at the rotates
34:42so you can see here's a good example I'm
34:45just going to clean this up a little
34:46it's coming into this rotation then it's
34:48flat tangent flat tangent but then it
34:51goes down what I'm going to do select
34:53the two keys
34:55and rotate them
34:57just enough so then it smoothly goes
35:00into the cycle again it doesn't have to
35:02line up 100 but
35:03it does help when you at least
35:06avoid the flat tangents so it's just
35:09that shoulder that I'm affecting
35:13yeah I think that looks good and you can
35:15see the difference here it's very stiff
35:19and there it has a little more life to
35:21it a little more life because it's
35:24breaking out of that mold it's it's
35:26overlapping a little bit and that helps
35:28let's go to the upper arm and let's even
35:31select the uh elbow and then her wrist
35:34so everything was still Vector from
35:36before and I'm going to make it smooth
35:38uh flat tangents same thing as before
35:40same thing as the upper chest and the
35:42shoulder all I'm doing to the upper arm
35:44and then the elbow
35:45is as it's coming out of a pose I'm just
35:49delaying that pose affecting uh the
35:52timing and and the posing but really
35:54it's the timing here we are at the front
35:56and I want her arm to swing forward a
36:00little bit all my timing for the most
36:02part happens over four frames four
36:05four and then we're into the half in
36:08this case I'm going to start delaying
36:10the the the overlap okay so normally I'd
36:14be on frame five just four frames I'm
36:15gonna go one frame over and just pull
36:17her arm forward a little bit that's all
36:19that's all that needs to happen and on a
36:22bigger character or even on a more
36:24energetic character
36:25I would start to think about the curve
36:27in the hand at this point but this one's
36:30a generic walk-in just keeping it simple
36:32I think is okay okay so all I've done is
36:34pulled that arm forward I'm delaying her
36:36arm swing
36:38perfect insert a key and that's what it
36:41looks like it's just overshooting a
36:42little bit and then her arm swings back
36:45and same thing I'm going to delay her
36:48arm
36:49not much just a little bit and maybe
36:51over here I'm going to open her arm up
36:54just a tiny little pin
36:56cool so there's her arm swing
36:59now let's do the elbow just like all the
37:02other ones I'm just delaying that pose a
37:04little bit more there we go just having
37:07fun with it
37:10and then her arm swings back
37:12and there's going to be a really nice
37:14big delay right there
37:19cool just like we've done with the other
37:21ones I'm just going to make sure the
37:23start and end go into each other a
37:25little better
37:30cool I think the beginning here can be
37:33bigger that bend
37:38cool and then even this one
37:42can probably last longer and what this
37:44curve is here is that straight when her
37:47elbow goes straight
37:50cool I like that cool so that's looking
37:53good let's do her LR let's do her wrist
37:56now and then a little bit of her fingers
37:58so the wrist just like all the other
38:00parts of the arm again we're just
38:01delaying a little bit and each time I'm
38:03moving a frame further away so
38:07that rotation is Amplified and then the
38:10wrist goes this way
38:12and a little bit of rotation there
38:18cool
38:19so for the fingers I'm not going to do
38:21much but I'm just going to add a little
38:23bit of drag to them
38:26like I said not much just a little bit
38:28so you can feel it
38:34cool
38:36and I forgot to also smooth out the
38:38fingers
38:41so I'm liking the way her arm is looking
38:43so let's go ahead and select her
38:45shoulder upper arm elbow and everything
38:48to do with the hand
38:49copy those keys paste flipped to the
38:53other side
39:00select all that and the graph Editor to
39:02hit a control C coming over to the other
39:05side and do the same
39:07selection perfect
39:10I'm going to delete these two keyframes
39:13here just leaving that first one
39:17and being on frame one I'm going to
39:19paste flipped perfect and this part's
39:22always fun just to see
39:24either the foot or the hand working
39:26together that's always kind of fun
39:29cool just like we did with the foot
39:31after we refined it I'm going to go one
39:33frame from the end to frame 24 and
39:36insert a key hit a select all control C
39:38go to frame 25 remember frame 1 and 25
39:42do the same and paste it over there and
39:46so that frame 24 that we just inserted
39:49protects all the curves over here
39:52so that's what that the purpose for that
39:54is Select everything
39:56here's frame 13 and I'm going to make 13
39:58I'm going to move everything over up
40:01into the point this key is at frame one
40:03so G
40:05and frame one perfect
40:13so Ellie's walk is starting to take
40:15shape it's looking pretty good
40:18um I'm going to work a little bit on her
40:19head and then we'll add a little bit of
40:21jewelry
40:23um animation a little bit of ponytail
40:25animation and we'll call this cycle done
40:28oh pardon me and then we'll have her
40:30moving forward so I can show you how
40:32that works as well for the head control
40:33I'm going to keep it simple and I'm
40:36actually just going to do just a little
40:37bit of rotation forward and back so as
40:40the Cog goes down the chin is going to
40:42be delayed up a little bit
40:44insert a key
40:47it comes down the CLG goes down then the
40:50head goes forward a little bit just like
40:52that
40:54Ctrl C
40:57and go ahead and paste that
41:00don't need this keyframe delete
41:03and delete it's just that that rotate X
41:05here just this red curve
41:08okie dokie let's focus on her earrings a
41:11little bit her ponytail
41:12and we'll call this walk cycle done and
41:16we'll make your walk forward as well
41:17let's turn on her clothing layers
41:20clothes perfect for the clothing it's
41:23just nice and simple don't overdo it I'm
41:25going to select just the one earring for
41:27now frame one insert a key frame 25
41:30insert a key for a 13. so that's my
41:32timing so the body's just about to go
41:34down
41:35and I'm going to delay her earring just
41:37a little bit so it's rotating up
41:40perfect
41:41and then it's going to rotate down just
41:44a little bit there we go Ctrl C copy
41:46that and paste that as well there is a
41:49little bit of rotation on a ring just to
41:52give it a little bit of life
41:53that's how quick that was and if you
41:55don't like it because it's so quick you
41:57can undo it try something else select
41:59all Ctrl C coming over to this side and
42:02first you just have to insert a key
42:03there we go and now we can paste flipped
42:10you got to be careful because it does
42:12start to Tween so you might not want
42:15that and I might just go the other way
42:18a little bit or just tone tone some of
42:20the values down or add a different type
42:23of rotation just so it's not the same
42:24but in this case toning it down seemed
42:27to help so be aware of that okay let's
42:30take a look at the ponytail
42:32let's turn on hair perfect
42:34and same thing for the ponytail I'm just
42:36going to keep it very simple hit I
42:38insert a key 25i 13. so let's go ahead
42:42and just add a little bit of delay a
42:45little bit of drag not much
42:51cool
42:55insert key
43:01and a little bit
43:04of delay again not much
43:06because we don't want to draw attention
43:08to itself all right so here's Ellie's
43:09walk cycle and it's a nice simple walk
43:12cycle took about 30 minutes to get here
43:14and this is what I would consider a
43:16first pass
43:18at this point I would show the director
43:20or the supervisor and get notes on the
43:23walk is it hitting the right personality
43:25do we like how it's working with other
43:27characters and then I would refine again
43:29so you with this method you can iterate
43:33on different versions quite quickly let
43:36me show you how to get Ellie to walk
43:37forward in space that's really important
43:39that these characters look good while
43:41they're cycling but also can walk
43:43forward in space so let's do that
43:46together now really there's only one way
43:48to get this character to walk correctly
43:50and that's at that foot control you can
43:52see this curve here how it's linear on
43:55the ground
43:56that's the speed that we need Ellie to
43:58walk forward on what I'm going to do is
44:00just select this curve and and copy it
44:03Ctrl C what we're going to paste it to
44:06is our y translate so I'm going to
44:09select the Y Translate
44:11just isolate it
44:13there we go
44:15and control V
44:16and it's just going to paste it there
44:19okay let's start scrubbing and all of a
44:21sudden Ellie's walking forward and then
44:23Ellie's walking back so all I did is
44:25copy that exact curve from the foot and
44:28pasted it to her move on and now what we
44:31have to do is just keep this key and
44:33keep this key everything else we're
44:35going to blow away just like this
44:38X
44:39X we have the Curve
44:42which looks great and then you can see
44:44there's no foot slipping on the ground
44:46because the translate value is the same
44:48so we've nailed that part now we just
44:51have to continue that curve so here's
44:53how we do that with this y curve let's
44:55come in over here to modifiers and we're
44:57going to add a Cycles modifier and after
45:00mode we're going to go to repeat with
45:03offset and we can even do it at the
45:04beginning repeat with offset so now it's
45:07a continuous line okay that's very
45:09exciting let's add a few more frames of
45:12alley now so we're going to go a select
45:14all deselect the move all control there
45:17we're going to go to frame one insert a
45:19key I'm just going to make sure I'm sure
45:21everything's keyed but I like to double
45:23check go to frame 25
45:26insert a key I'm going to go to frame 24
45:28also insert a key perfect I'm going to
45:30delete these
45:32and all those extra keys were on the
45:35side was when we copied and pasted the
45:38foot control when we paste flipped the
45:40foot and hand control offset it that's
45:43what those keys are we have everything a
45:46to select all control C go to frame 25
45:48Ctrl V and I'll do it a couple times we
45:52have four seconds I'll just go 96.
45:55awesome and here we have Ellie walking
45:58forward in space
45:59I'm also going to show you how to
46:01present it so I'm going to create a
46:02little runway for Ellie and I'm also
46:04going to create a little box if I was to
46:07present the walk cycle stationary I
46:09might animate the box with that same
46:11curve value moving the opposite
46:14direction in this case Spock doesn't
46:16need any animation because Ali is moving
46:18forward through space
46:20but I'm just going to create a couple
46:21markers shift d we'll just give it a
46:23little value
46:24perfect
46:26awesome
46:27alright that's it for this demonstration
46:29we have Ellie walking and she's walking
46:31through space if I had multiple
46:33characters of different sizes and I
46:36needed them to walk together and still
46:38have a dialogue you could achieve that
46:40by making sure that foot contact speed
46:42is the same between the two characters
46:43remember you can affect the pose and the
46:46timing to achieve that speed so either
46:49Quicken up the timing or increase or
46:52decrease the stride length to achieve
46:54that overall speed so then the
46:56characters are walking together I hope
46:58you enjoyed the video and got some value
47:00from it if you did please like it so
47:02that I know this content is useful okay
47:05everyone bye bye

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