Walk Cycles

Walk Cycles

Introduction

This next post is about how we explored walk cycles and how to create a convincing walk. This is going to be challenging because walk cycles are one of the most difficult things to create in animation. This can be applied to people, creatures and other objects; however the difficult part is to make the walk look convincing. This is done by applying the animation principles to the walk and managing all of the aspects and parts of the walk correctly. 

Research: 1

Initially, I researched how other animators and artists created their walk cycles to anticipate the challenges I would face in the future. One of these animators was Richard Williams in his book: The Animator's Survival Kit. I found this book incredibly useful with helping me understand how walks can be broken down into key stages and how I can develop walks once I had gained an understanding of them. 

Here are some clearer images of those same pages. 

There is a lot more information on these walk cycles within the book which I have read and there is still far more to learn and understand. 

Initial

Firstly, I recorded people walking so that I could analyse their walks. this would help me observe their walks and gain a better understanding on how a walk is put together. 

Here is one video of a man walking with a shopping bag:

--Analysis of walk--
As you can see in the video, it is a man walking with a shopping bag. It looks like he has somewhere to be because of the speed of his walk and he knows where he is going but chooses not to be running. Therefore I feel that there is a steady but progressive motivation to his walk. Distinguishing features of this man's walk include his swinging shopping bag this is because of its bright colour and over lapping action during the walk which makes it stand out even more. Moreover this is further exaggerated by the contrast of his other hand which is firmly in his pocket and the contrast of motion further exaggerates the shopping bag's motion. Within the video there is some signs of the man's head slightly moving up and down following the path of his body as he walks but it is very subtle.
In conclusion the most distinguishing feature of this mans walk is the swinging of his shopping bag and how the rest of the body contrasts with the lack of motion i.e. the other hand stays in his pocket. This is combined with a steady and progressive style of walk shown by the speed and tempo of the walk.  

Now I have broken the video down into the key poses which include: Contact, Low, Passing and High positions.

Extended Pos.1

Low Pos.1

Passing Pos.1

High Pos.1

Extended Pos. 2

Low Pos. 2

Passing Pos. 2

High Pos. 2

These positions are the key positions in a walk cycle which make up a persons walk, then in-betweens are added to make the movement smooth. I have now traced over these key positions to create a simple skeleton structure.

This allows me to see the basic structure of the character and see how he walks without over complicating the movement with excess information i.e. the shopping bag and mass. 

I found this difficult where the arm is hidden by the body due to the perspective of the camera and the man walking. therefore I has to guess where the arm would have been during the walk; this is why the blue arm's movement is not as natural as the others.

This walk is accurate to the man's walk, however I wish to add character to this walk to make the character more interesting to look at and gain the attention of the audience. I will do this by analysing the original video further and exaggerating key positions and aspects of the man's walk. 

This will maintain the man's character because I want it to still be the same person, however I would like to make this person more interesting as well as his walk.

Therefore I analysed the walk further and found that there is movement in the shoulders and exaggerated all of the movements within the walk. From this I made extreme positions on Toon Boom which were very exaggerated compared to the video; however these are originated from the original video.
Here is the video of the exaggerated walk:

Conclusion

Overall I am happy with the walk; however i would have spent more time smoothing the movements and the lines of the extreme walk because I feel some of the lines are rough. This would have taken too much time before the deadline; however I can always return to this project and improve. Moreover, I can apply what i have learnt in this project to future projects.