First Attempt At Walk Cycle

We started the day by opening the simple rig from Moodle. Once opened we then clicked auto key to get the animation time line working, and then set key on frame 0 locking the model in an up right pose.

Going Into motion area on the right side of 3Ds Max, and then by going into parameters, I could then create a position key which I set the value to 20. Then moving onto frame 16, I did the same again but the value at -40, this allowed his right foot to move forward.

(Example of legs in set position by value)

His legs didn't look right, he needed his knees bent, so to do this I moved his body down. Now that his knees look correct, his arms however didn't. I needed to move his arms to the correct position as well, this is because when walking the arms swing, so on frame 16 I moved his arms out, one forward, one behind, so his arms would tween from key frame 0.

(Example of knees bent and arms ready to swing)

The first part of the walk was complete from key frame 0 to 16 his right leg moved forward, but only along the floor. We went to frame 8 and lifted his right leg up to bend the knee more, lifting his foot off the ground. Then by bending the toes on his feet, it shows he getting ready for the impact of the floor on frame 16, this made a realistic walk as it shows his foot/leg moving to show a walk. 


We repeated this pattern for the other leg and arms to get two step/walks out of the model. I worked for a little longer on my walk, as I did have some problems when setting keys. I tried my best to make my model move correctly, so by moving his head to the left when his right leg is forward and swinging his body to the right with his leg moving as well, it helped to create a slightly better and realistic walk animation.

(Example of my walk from the side)

 

(Example of walk from the front)

I played around with some other walks such as a march walk, but 3Ds Max crashed and I lost the work, which is why at the end of my walk within the video he then goes into a march walk, but that animation was lost.

Feeling annoyed at my lost work, I tried another walk with a different model, this model is from my computer, I animated again a walk for the model, with all the moving body motions with it, ears, eye brows, spikes, hands legs and feet. Pretty much everything I could move, but his eyes as they were a texture map.

(Example of Shadow The Hedgehog Rig)

Shadow The Hedgehog walk from side (ignore the eyes I had no control over them)

Shadow The Hedgehog walk from front (Ignore the eyes)

Outcome: The walk animation has really made me question and think about how the human body walks and moves, something as simple as walking has a lot of principles behind the movement, from weight, speed, distance, all of which needs to be taken into account to get that realistic walk. I want to practice more in my own time like I did with Shadow The Hedgehog to perfect my walk, and other types of walks to fully understand the animation tasks needed to perform the task.