Walk Cycles Help and Reviews

DJSarah26dl

Hello,

My name is Sarah, I'm a young 3D artist student. This is my first post on this forum. I am doing my very first demo reel for my school assignment. So far, I did two walk cycles and I would like to have some reviews from anyone of you, it would be helpful.

Regular Man Walk Cycle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwgH_2nPF8

Heavy Walk Cycle (Monster Like):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYkIButSpGM

P.S: I'm not sure how to well present my link from YouTube on this forum, any suggestions will be great  

Eric Chadwick

I moved your thread from 3D Showcase into Animation Showcase. There tend to be more animators in here, so this is a good place.

I also fixed your Youtubes. For future ref, we have some info about embedding in the Info sticky at the top of General Discussion.

EVernier

Hey, welcome to the forum X). 

You're off to a good start if you ask me. Your regular walk cycle lacks some head movement, you can also really move those forearms to get a nice flow from the shoulder to the tip of the hand. You can also add some movement to the fingers, something subtle. You've got a nice bounce going. You could probably bend the body forward just a little bit.

For the heavy walk cycle, did you take any reference of yourself ? The timing is pretty off  and everything is kinda linear. You should film yourself to get a good idea for it, then push the poses to really feel the weight in the character.

I'm not the most experienced animator, others might be able to give you better feedback, but that's some of the stuff I noticed.

AGoodFella

Nice stuff, I was a lot worse when I was at school.

For your regular walk cycle, you have a pop in the knees as the feet land. Its very apparent on the screen-right leg, but check both. You also have a knee pop as the foot leg straightens out when they go back and lifts up off the ground.

Check the hip rotation, it might be the angle, but i feel like its favoring one side more than the other.

Arms feel off. The fore-arms move more than the upper arm This feel awkward because our upper arm is the thing that drives the fore arm and wrist. The arms also get stuck when they swing back before coming forward again. Especially for the screen left arm.

I feel like the spine could also be more looser but i will need a front view to really see what is happening.

The heavy walk cycle isn't fully selling what you're going for. I get what you're going for but get some reference or shoot some yourself so we can see what type of heavy walk you're going for. With specific stuff like making something feel heavy, reference is your best friend.

Also, post on syncsketch so we can frame through and give more detailed crits.

DJSarah26dl

Eric Chadwick said:

I moved your thread from 3D Showcase into Animation Showcase. There tend to be more animators in here, so this is a good place.

I also fixed your Youtubes. For future ref, we have some info about embedding in the Info sticky at the top of General Discussion.

Thank You!

DJSarah26dl

EVernier said:

Hey, welcome to the forum X). 

You're off to a good start if you ask me. Your regular walk cycle lacks some head movement, you can also really move those forearms to get a nice flow from the shoulder to the tip of the hand. You can also add some movement to the fingers, something subtle. You've got a nice bounce going. You could probably bend the body forward just a little bit.

For the heavy walk cycle, did you take any reference of yourself ? The timing is pretty off  and everything is kinda linear. You should film yourself to get a good idea for it, then push the poses to really feel the weight in the character.

I'm not the most experienced animator, others might be able to give you better feedback, but that's some of the stuff I noticed.

Hi EVernier!

Thank you for reviewing my walk cycles. Without you, I wouldn't know my little mistakes. I see what you mean with the head movement from my regular walk cycles. For the forearms, I add an overlap from the shoulder to the wrist. Like you said, by adding movement to the fingers will help to have a nice flow to the arms. My reference to this regular walk is kind a Assassin's Creed or Fallout look. Tell me if I'm wrong, those characters has stiff fingers. I will try anyway just to see the difference.

For my heavy walk cycle, yes I used a reference (but only one), If you know any reference of a heavy character reference, that might be helpful to arrange the timing. I try to make a different timing between the feet. In other words, one foot goes down faster than the other foot. I wasn't very satisfy and I've been told that it's not recommended.

Thanks again for your honest critiques, this is what animators need!

DJSarah26dl

AGoodFella said:

Nice stuff, I was a lot worse when I was at school.

For your regular walk cycle, you have a pop in the knees as the feet land. Its very apparent on the screen-right leg, but check both. You also have a knee pop as the foot leg straightens out when they go back and lifts up off the ground.

Check the hip rotation, it might be the angle, but i feel like its favoring one side more than the other.

Arms feel off. The fore-arms move more than the upper arm This feel awkward because our upper arm is the thing that drives the fore arm and wrist. The arms also get stuck when they swing back before coming forward again. Especially for the screen left arm.

I feel like the spine could also be more looser but i will need a front view to really see what is happening.

The heavy walk cycle isn't fully selling what you're going for. I get what you're going for but get some reference or shoot some yourself so we can see what type of heavy walk you're going for. With specific stuff like making something feel heavy, reference is your best friend.

Also, post on syncsketch so we can frame through and give more detailed crits.

Hi AGoodFella,

Thank you for reviewing my animations. For the regular walk, I will check the knee pops, the arms and the spine. The hip rotation is fine, it has the same rotation for both sides.

As for the heavy walk, I need more reference. I found only one on YouTube (filmed). If you know any reference for this kind of animation, it will be helpful.

Thanks for your advice!

slipsius

The normal walk hips. Are they mirrored in terms of timing as well? Looks like when the left leg goes forward, the left hip goes forward faster than when the right hip goes forward. Also, it's because the hips are tilted back that it looks odd. Like he's sticking his ass out for no reason. Either way, the rotation can be pushed. left leg forward = left hip forward and down, right hip back and up. you have that a lil, but not enough.

DJSarah26dl

slipsius said:

The normal walk hips. Are they mirrored in terms of timing as well? Looks like when the left leg goes forward, the left hip goes forward faster than when the right hip goes forward. Also, it's because the hips are tilted back that it looks odd. Like he's sticking his ass out for no reason. Either way, the rotation can be pushed. left leg forward = left hip forward and down, right hip back and up. you have that a lil, but not enough.

Hi slipsius,

Yes hips are well mirrored, I agree that it looks that way, three quarter is not the best view to see the hips movement.
I probably put a too large rotation on it to have this kind of look.

Thanks for that remark  

Snollygoster

Those walk cycles look really solid! I feel like the heavy walk cycle feels a little TOO heavy though, also, I would say that since it is a heavy character he wouldn't be able to lift his legs that much, so maybe shortening the step or at least making it so the legs aren't too much time suspended would make it feel more fluid but still have that extra weight you're going for.

DJSarah26dl

Snollygoster said:

Those walk cycles look really solid! I feel like the heavy walk cycle feels a little TOO heavy though, also, I would say that since it is a heavy character he wouldn't be able to lift his legs that much, so maybe shortening the step or at least making it so the legs aren't too much time suspended would make it feel more fluid but still have that extra weight you're going for.

Thanks for your comment Snollygoster!
I know that my heavy walk looks odd, I didn't find enough references for this kind of animation. Thanks for your advice!