Unit 2 - Biped Walk

To initiate locomotion, we start with the fundamental walk cycle to grasp concepts such as timing, spacing, balance, weight, and production workflow. Mastering the walk cycle is one of the essential principles of animation, and executing it effectively is crucial for any animator.

I am familiar with a walk cycle and the essential key poses involved. For this cycle, I'm using the Monty rig, which I have used before. It's a simple rig, enabling me to concentrate on the feet and legs of a walk cycle to craft a whimsical animation.

The key poses are -

• Contact

• Squash

• Pass

• Up ( or down)

• Contact

• Squash

• Pass

• Up (or down)

• Contact

I created thumbnails to help breakdown this cycle and to clearly see what poses I am creating for this animation.

The walk cycle consists of 33 frames, animated on 4's to form a basic walk. Since this was a straightforward cycle that I'm familiar with, it didn't take much time to complete and incorporate additional elements like blinking and overlapping action for smoother motion. It was exciting to exaggerate the squash and stretch, as well as the up and down movement, to produce a cartoony walk that fits this rig better. I also introduced a double bounce by moving the character down instead of up after the pass position, resembling cartoon walk cycles like those of Mickey Mouse.

I encountered no technical issues, however I was introduced to a new tool by creating a "turntable." I made a cylinder to serve as a platform, then chose the windows panel "animate", selected turntable, and set it to 198 frames so it completes a full circle and aligns with the start and end of the walk cycle. This method is very convenient and an easy way to present cycles like this. I created a sphere, applied a texture to it, and added simple lighting to produce the final animation.

This walk cycle serves as a gateway to experimenting and exploring further walk cycles with any rig.