Today I explored the notion of a walk cycle. A walk cycle is not a singular definitive move. It is complex and diverse and can be exploited in many shapes and formats to create a stylized or realistic type feeling.
Therefore, I began blocking out a 24 frame walk cycle to begin with, just ensuring that the feet move the way I want them to. Of course going for a semi-realistic feeling by nature. What this means is that the toes must flop depending on whether they’re landing or raising due to gravity, as well as getting a smooth bobbing effect that occurs when a character walks.
After creating this simple frontal and side view of a character walking for 24 frames, the next goal was to create a cycle (a loop of the same recurring frames). I went into the graph editor to firstly smooth out any flat or off-set curves and round them out to my liking for a cleanup, then began to cycle the frames continuously so that the character now walks by themselves.
I’ve noticed that if the character has a smooth walk cycle, the character can create an illusion of walking, even when it only moves on a singular spot. But of course, the goal is to actually make the character walk, so I need to allow it to move along a horizontal axis from point A – B. However, without objects or imperfections in the scene, it’s hard to see whether or not the character is walking on the spot or along an axis.
Furthermore, I’ve had to shorten the animation walk cycle from 24 frames to 23 frames to provide a continuous loop, as in the 24 frames, the beginning and end frames are identical which would make a pause or jitters in the animation, which we want to avoid. Because the beginning and end frame are identical, we can loop the animation from 0-23 frames, because 0 = 24.
Lastly, adding details (like a mustache) allow for the objects to fill in any missing gaps. The audience can use this information of a bobbing mustache and fill in the gap that the character is bobbing up and down as they walk, which will define the speed and pace of the character. The character is walking straight towards the camera, however from the frontal perspective is quite hard or near impossible to tell.
Moreover, seeing the character sway ever so slightly from left to right with a rotational pivot from the non-existing hip line provides depth. Depth within animation can be seen with how detailed a character moves and walks, if the character didn’t sway, it may give an impression that it is a non-organic being such as a robot. We want an organic feel, which is imperfect in almost every form. This means staying away from symmetry, as the imperfections is what the human eye is attracted to, to identify if an object is organic or not.