The Message

Walk Cycles and Walking with Meaning

Now that I have tried out a few walk cycles from 'The Animators Survival kit' I have decided to have a go at doing the first walk cycle for my character. The first thing I did was decide what sort of walk my character would have. 

So I drew the character out on a piece of A4 and then draw over it with simple shapes and put small circles at the joints. This made it easier when animating as I then knew the pivot points for the joints. 

I then drew key frames of the walk cycle...this is how I learnt to do it through 'The Animators Survival Kit'. After I had drew the basic frames I then looked through the book again and came across a page in the walk cycle section of a fat man walking - this was all about counteraction and the use of exaggerated counteraction in the fat man's walk. The rule is as the body mass moves down the stomach mass moves up and as the body mass moves up the stomach mas moves down and so on. Then underneath him was a lady with the same rule but with different parts of he body - she was drawn with large breasts and large buttocks and so Richard Williams (author)  counteracted the body mass with both the mass of the breasts and buttocks. Which is where I then had the idea of doing this to my character... to counteract the mass of the body wit the mass of her stomach, buttocks and breasts, and so added these to each key frame..

Body mass up, buttock, stomach and breast mass down.

Body mass down, buttock, stomach and breast mass up.

Body mass up, buttock, stomach and breast mass down.

Body mass down, buttock, stomach and breast mass up

After I had done this I decided to give the character a bit of a lean backwards because of the amount of weight she's carrying on her stomach and to make her look like a laid back but confident person. 

These are the modified and final key frames..

I also added a little counteraction with her hair too.

I kept the leg movement and arm movement quite simple - nothing like the ones I did from 'The Animators Survival Kit' I didn't feel that it needed it. I may try it with one of the other two characters if I get time!

Anyway, here is the final film of the walk cycle...

Overall I am very happy with it. I managed to give her a slow walk that showed that she was laid back but confident. However if I did this again I would try to give her more of a waddle than a walk as such. I feel that this is a good first attempt!