HOME | DD
SaphireNishi β walk cycle 05
Published: 2013-02-12 21:12:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 34488; Favourites: 362; Downloads: 1794
Redirect to original
Description
..and an other attempt on a walk cycles..now please, people.. try to think a little bit before leaving a comment.. i know there is still a lot wrong with the animation.. the walk still is very slippery, and it feels very rigid.. i know that.. so please dont tell me the obvious.. i think everybody knows what and how a walk cycles should look like and that includes me too.. the problem here is projecting the movement on the model itself.. please realize there is huge difference between knowing theoretically how it works, and actually making it..
i know physics arent working either.. im just not trying to get that working yet, so there is no hair movement, no boob bouncing and so on.. i need to get a good understanding about body movement first before i can start doing physics on the body too..
now i dont say that you cant leave a critic, i actually appreciate it when you do, but if you do then please be sure you know what you are talking about and dont state the obvious.. this is all about learning and experimenting, and no one ever learned anything from the obvious and/or nonsense.. thank you..
725 frames @ 1280x540 pixels
total render time: 7 hours 03 min 45 sec
program used:
photoshop
poser
zbrush
3ds max
Related content
Comments: 548
I actually adjust the tangents manually in the Poser animation curves by simply setting the same value at the first and last keyframes for each joint - it's really that simple. Jerkiness can also be fixed by smoothing out the animation curves. The least keyframes you have, the easiest it is to control. For a walk cycle, I like to keep an average of only 5 keyframes per joint (if all possible), marking the start, middle and end, and the middle between start-mid, and mid-end. Once the basic movement is in place, add more keyframes but only when really needed.
I've got some pretty decent results this way when animating in Poser. The only tough part is feet sliding, which you can try to fix with IK, but there is always a chance the figure will "explode" when you release the IK... -____-
π: 0 β©: 1
im sorry but i dont understand what you mean.. of course you set the first and last keyframes for each joint at the same value.. otherwise it wont be a perfect loop.. but how does that effect the curving itself ? i think what the problem is when you look at the loop from end to where it jumps to the beginning again that is where it gets the robotic feeling from.. there is an hard angle to the animation line and that creates that hard movement effect.. in 3d max we can pull out the tanglet and make the angle longer or shorter but the center of the curve is the same as at the beginning and at the end.. but in poser we dont really have that.. the problem is the end of the curve on the end of the animation is tipped off.. its not a smooth end.. so when is loops back to the beginning of the animation its not a smooth curve.. there is hard angle on the curve between the end and first frame.. and that is what creates the robotic movement.. so ever single animate curve fro end to where it jumps back to the beginning has that hard angle on the curve..
the jerking is actually coming from the IK.. when moving the limbs out of reach from the feet there is a tension on the feet that is created by the IK solver.. now when moving the limbs around will effect the tension on the feet and that will result into a jerking effect.. its pretty much impossible to fix this when having the Ik solver turned on.. the other problem with the ik solver inside poser is that its makes a lot of unexpected movements when there is no room to move the legs too.. for example.. if you lift the right foot straight up the ik solver is bending the knee in front and side.. and thats not something we actually want.. it biped charter doesnt have this problem so it makes it a lot easier to use the ik solver turn on when animating the biper character.. but within poser it seems pretty much impossible to animated the character with using a ik solver turn on..
im using 40 frames for one cycles now.. and every 5 frames i use a keyset..
π: 0 β©: 1
Ok let me explain. The 5 keys formula represent the 5 stages each foot will cycle through: start, start/mid, mid, mid/end, and end. The other foot will do the same in a different time. I like to start when a foot touches the ground in the back, and that becomes my "start" position. At end-mid, the foot goes up, at mid, it reaches the highest position, goes down at mid-end, and then it touches ground again at end. One shoulder will reach forward as the opposite foot steps forward. Arms are keyframed at the same 5 stages. This is how I block out the base movement, and work the walking style from that.
As far as I know, it is quite tough to avoid foot sliding without IK, but (in Poser) IK is less than ideal. It lacks the direction vector that would tell the knee (or elbow) joint in what plane the joint should travel - and that's why knees and elbows tend to flip and twist around when the feet are posed with the IK solver on. That direction vector is also used to tell the joint what is the correct bending direction. You could also use joint limits, but that alone will not avoid the unwanted twisting. And here again, there is always a chance the figure will "explode" when you turn IK off. That cannot be undone.
As for smoothing out the curves, setting the same value to beginning and end is just the first step of manually matching the tangents. The next step is to add (and adjust) more keyframes to force the curves to go into the same general directions where the ends meet. If you see that one side of the curve is going down, while the other is going up, just matching the middle value will not do the job. Sometimes it is necessary to break the curve to fix the local curvature to what you want, by using the curve modifiers in Poser. This is because Bezier curves tend to match the curvature throughout the entire curve, so if you pull the curve at one frame, it will affect the rest of it to counter it. Breaking the curve can make it easier to affect only one section of the curve without affecting all the rest of it. It's particularly helpful when matching tangents where the ends meet. ^^
So my suggestion is to start with only 5 keyframes, and work out the basic walk as a whole first. Only add more frames later to define a walking style. If you start with too many frames, it can become tough to block out the broader movements, and may also introduce jerkiness. Over time, I figured out that even more elaborated walking styles could be blocked out with only 5 keyframes, only adding more if really needed.
The joy of animating in Poser is really the challenge of working with half-baked tools, and still getting decent results. ^_____^
π: 0 β©: 1
ah i see.. well thats basically how i do it now too.. i dont think there is an other good way to do it actually.. i think this one is the most basic and yet effective way to approach to a whole walk cycle.. only different is that i use a 2 midway poses to get to the middle pose.. so its actually a 7 stage walk cycle which i start from and then work out from there.. altho all the keyframes sets after the middle pose are basically all mirror copies from the first half.. so then out would be 5 stages with 2 stage that a re plain copies.. just a matter of how you look at it..
the ik solver is really nasty in poser.. its something they really should look at cause it really hard to keep things under control now.. i really dont like to animate with ik solver turn on now, but yeah, that does give the problem with good feet control.. but at least the wobbling effect of the legs is not happening if we dont use the ik solver at all.. turning the ik solver on and of while we are setting up an animation is not a good idea either.. it messes up a lot of the original animation you created and switching back doesnt put thing back in the original position either when you move something..
its kind weird that we dont have a good control over animation inside poser.. i mean they advertise with this "Poser comes with everything you need to create incredible digital art or 3D animation. 3D Characters..." but getting steady feet on you character while animating is pretty much impossible...
π: 0 β©: 1
One way to avoid cascading destruction when using IK in Poser is to break the hierarchy chain using the IK "joint break" tool. For example, if you break it at a shoulder and then pull the arm, it will not pull the torso. Since IK self-implosion cannot be undone in Poser, this can save you some work when switching IK on/off.
Another useful thing to help with IK explosions is to use the Poser pose dots. If the body explodes when IK is switched off, you can recover the pose by memorizing it prior to attempting to turn IK off.
I find it necessary to turn IK on and off when animating because otherwise the figure cannot complete a step forward without leaving the rest of the body behind like a zombie. I also noticed that posing in small increments help reduce IK self-explosions. ^^
π: 0 β©: 1
i gotta check that out to see what i can do with the IK joint breaker.. that gives me a lot of new ideas.. thank you for that
π: 0 β©: 1
We can only break a set of predefined joints, but it's better than nothing. You will see which ones when you use the tool, it puts link icons over the joints you can break. ^^
π: 0 β©: 0
so nice! Please make although a little basic tutorial... i am interested, how you doing this thinks
π: 0 β©: 1
thanks.. im not really into mking tutorials but maybe doing one for a walk cycle could be fun.. i need to figure out how to make it all work first tho
π: 0 β©: 1
π: 0 β©: 0
Keep practicing it and you'll master the animation mechanics in no time, this is already looking cool as is!!
π: 0 β©: 1
thanks a lot babes..
π: 0 β©: 1
Wow..........this is so much more improved,you rock girl 
π: 0 β©: 1
thnaks a lot babes.. its much appreciated
π: 0 β©: 0
Amazing work! You're improving greatly.
π: 0 β©: 1
You're welcome.
I don't know anything about 3D art, as I've never done 3D art of any kind before. However, I really admire your work. Please continue inspiring us!
π: 0 β©: 0
Well seeing how much you improve with each try, I don't think it will take much longer for you to master the perfect walking cycle~ And I'm also already very much enjoying the way her ass moves, oops
π: 0 β©: 1
hehe.. i hope your right.. thanks
π: 0 β©: 0
Arms don't look like are moving relaxed, but you're getting better and better.
π: 0 β©: 1
thank you so much..!!!
π: 0 β©: 1
Eh... It's your fault... You made me want to try on my own to make some walking cycle.
π: 0 β©: 1
and, did you make it to work ? does it look good ? can i see ?
π: 0 β©: 1
I think I'll submit it here and update it from time to time, if some reasonable progress will appear.
First I have to render it. But this should be fast, since I won't turn on any fancy effects or textures.
π: 0 β©: 0
Its good that you could be bothered to learn how to make a proper walk animation, many other would just give up so keep up the good work.
π: 0 β©: 1
hehe.. its all good fun.. i love my hobby..
π: 0 β©: 0
maybe the hip vector should cicle a bit back and forth, depending on where the leg is. shoulders too, exactly opposed to the hips.
love the little up'n down saphy has on this walk
and yes, you have improved!
and a lot!
π: 0 β©: 1
well problem with the hips when the move back and forth too is that it wont look smooth.. if you look at people when the move from the side there is smooth locomotion in the hips.. it doesnt move froward and backwards at all.. so i dont think that would help if i pout that into the animation
thanks a lot for the feedbackm babes..
π: 0 β©: 0
π: 0 β©: 1
thank you for the compliment..!!!
π: 0 β©: 1
Yip starting to look better, good on ya, I know It takes a lot of trial and error to get a good walk down. I donβt know what sort of rig youβre working with so Iβm not sure what sort of movement you can get out of it but it looks good. I would say you have the lower body pretty good, apart from the odd little thing you know. I think just a little bit more follow through on the hands, and if you can on the rig, a little twist of the shoulders or anything to the upper body to make it a bit less stiff would do wonders for it. Keep at it
π: 0 β©: 1
thank you for the kind words and the feedback
π: 0 β©: 0
Girl, you NAILED the hips. Do not change them
Now, there's too much cross and swing to the forearms and her fingers are clenched in an odd formation.
Also, her legs are clipping through one another.
But, seriously, the hips. This was a great attempt. You are getting very much closer to what you want
π: 0 β©: 1
Do you ever work on her movement cycle using one set of limbs at a time? It might be easier to nail her walk if you took her arms out of the equation altogether. They're a totally different game, after all, and it might be easier to focus on them as different puzzles
π: 0 β©: 1
well thats how walk cycles are made.. you can slice the body into a couple of different parts.. its kind depend son the technique you are follwing.. the easiest way i found to do it is to make 4 sections.. which would be the back spline+hips, legs, arms and neck + head..
π: 0 β©: 0
I hope this is what you were looking for:
I think the butt looks really great; esp. as she's walking away from you.
As she's walking toward you, i feel like there are two things that don't seem quite right. First, it appears as though her hips are going side to side. i can see that IRL, but i feel like that's more a result of the hip jutting out during the back and forth movement. Second, in this one, it appears as though the knees are pointing diagonal, rather that straight in the direction of where she's walking.
on the side, aside from your comments on the obvious, i think if you let her arms swing back farther, it may help a bit?
Or maybe i don't know what i'm talking about. either way, i could never do this, so keep up the amazing work.
π: 0 β©: 1
well the hips can go from side to side too.. it kinda depends on what kind of walk you going for.. a normal day to day walk doesnt have that side to side on hips at all.. but catwalks are a bit exaggerated and they can have that side to side effect.. it really depends on the walk style you going for..
the upper body is still a mystery to me.. i think im got the basic movement right but arm and hands need a lot of work before it actually starts looking good..
thanks for the feedback
π: 0 β©: 0
the chosen subject gets an A grade
the chosen outfit gets an A+
the chosen tights (just put tights in and it's enough) gets an A++
Walk could (and I'm sure will) get better, but who cares after all?
Great test! Loved it! Keep working on it!
π: 0 β©: 1
hehe.. i actually dont care about the first 3 points.. i know i cn do those.. i need to get animations under control now
π: 0 β©: 1
Keep working on it and it will happen! There 2nd try was definitely improved! Again, great job!
π: 0 β©: 1
<= Prev | | Next =>