For this assignment we each had to create a run cycle, walk cycle and a body mechanics animation. For each animation it would be vital to research different styles and personalities that go into a walk cycle. It’s important to watch references of the human body in motion in order to capture a real feel to it.
For my walk cycle I watched a few videos showcasing different walk styles with different personalities. I found it hard at first to pick one to focus on. I wanted something that stands out and somewhat comical to look at, but also one with a lot of potential for body movement. I ultimately chose an exaggerated strut to focus on.
I really liked the confidence shown in the strut and thought it would be good to use as reference for my walk cycle. I started by looking at the main poses first; the contact pose, down pose, passing pose, up pose and back to contact pose again. I first created these poses in Maya without any timing.
While doing these poses I wanted the arms to be higher and more comical to the video I watched. I looked at a couple of clips of a walk style in Saints row 4. In one of the missions the main character has a very comical strut and he raises his arms right up to his chest with each stride. This is something I took strong inspiration from when animating the arms.
After I finished the main poses I then timed out the main poses to every 4 frames. Once I was happy with the timing I then started to animate the in-between poses. I studied the actor in the first reference video to see how his waist, hips, chest and shoulders moved with each step in order to get an accurate representation. When the model in on the down pose with the right foot, I animated the right shoulder to drop down slightly to show all the weight is going onto the foot as it makes contact. I slightly twisted the hips and waist to show the sway of the body as the arms are in motion with each step. I did this with every step. I added a bit of movement with the head so that the model looks up with the up poses and gradually looks straight ahead on the down pose.
I worked on these in between, tweaking little areas with the head and shoulders until I was happy with the look. With the agri rig, I found it was really useful for animating the fingers and hands. Originally I had the hands clench up only when the arm was raised to the chest, and then relaxed the fingers when the hand went down to the hips. After watching more references though I decided it looked better to keep the fists clenched permanently through the walk. Finally I animated the hair and the bottom of the dress so that there was no visible clipping in the walk cycle.
With my body mechanics animation I decided to go for a boxing scenario. I figured this was a good basis for body mechanics as I can really show how I could interpret and animate the human body and hopefully accurately. When looking at references, I focused mainly on knock-out punches as I wanted to show the power of the arm, how the punch affects the other person and how they fall afterwards. I came across the video of Deontay Wilder knocking out Luis Ortiz in a boxing match. I particularly liked how Deontay swung his arm for the punch, the connection it made with Luis, and how Luis fell after the punch.
I re watched it a few times trying to get as many camera angles as possible. I started with the main poses of the models first.
As well as looking at the winning boxer, I had to also draw my attention to how the losing boxer absorbed the punch and how his body reacted to it. I also did main poses for this boxer too.
After animating the key boxing poses I also wanted to animate how the other boxer fell after the knock-out punch. In the video his legs basically buckle and collapse from under him meaning he falls straight downward and not backwards.
It is a strange fall but It shows perfectly how the body responds to an unexpected punch to the face, resulting in the boxer crumbling to the ground. I tried to animate this in Maya. It was a little difficult to animate such dramatic drop, and in Maya it looked a little strange and unnatural even though I tried to replicate a real life fall, so I made some adjustments to how he fell.
Once I had completed the key poses I then added the in-between to the punches. This meant making sure the shoulder leaned in with the punch, dropping the shoulder and twisting the waist and chest a little as the punch was thrown. I kept the foot movements as natural as possible and made sure there was no foot sliding occurring. For the defeated boxer I wanted to animate some bounce to his limbs as he hits the floor. I added key frames to the feet, hands and head to show them each bounce a little as they hit the ground, to show just how fast he falls. I found this body mechanics assignment tricky as there was a lot of foot sliding to correct, and I wanted the body movements to feel natural.
Lastly with my run cycle I looked a quite a few videos of people running in order to get a good basis for my main key poses. I also looked at some basic run cycle key poses for a stronger basis as I was not sure what style to go for with the run.
After making the key poses first I then began to watch more videos to get an idea of a run style. I watched a video of a professional runner on a track. I paid close attention to how his hips and waist moved when he took the strides. I looked at how his arms swung and his hand movements with each stride. I also studied how he moved his head. Surprisingly I noticed his head didn’t move too much throughout the run, and his upper body remains quite straight and frigid during the run too. I would have expected more movement.
I looked at the way the runner’s hands moved as he ran and also watched some videos of footballer’s hands as they ran to get a good idea. A footballer called Cristiano Ronaldo has his hands and palms open as he runs as he claims it’s for improving his speed. I decided to use this as inspiration for my model’s hands.
When looking at the hair I looked at various videos and pictures of women running to see how the hair was affected. I found that there was the least movement of hair when it was tied up, as compared to having the hair fully down. The hair on my model is fully down so I had to take this into consideration. I modeled the hair to blow back quite a bit and to bounce up and down slightly with each stride. I made sure that none of the hair was clipping into the shoulders.
Lastly I animated the dress to make sure the legs weren’t showing through as the model was stretching their legs with the run. Overall I’m happy with the run cycle but I’m disappointed that I spent the least time on it due to spending the majority of my time on the walk cycle and body mechanics which I believe was a mistake.
Reflection
As I reflect on this assignment I can say I’ve learnt a lot about walk cycles and body mechanics. I had the hardest time doing the boxing animation. I watched boxers throw punches to see how their hips and waist move with the punch, how the shoulders moved, where their feet needed to be positioned and how their head moved as the punch was thrown. Animating the fall was also difficult because in the video I was using as reference, the boxer falls dramatically straight down as opposed to backwards and down and I tried my best to make the fall seem natural. Despite some difficulties I’m really happy with the body mechanics and I think it turned out really well. I am happy with the walk cycle as I was able to find a style from a couple of different references and I believe I interpreted that style the best I could and it’s visible in my final animation. With the run cycle, I am disappointed that I left it to the end with the least time. There were time limitations but at the same time if I spread my time better among the three animations I could have done more with the run cycle instead of investing most my time in the walk and boxing animations. One of the main regrets I have with this assignment is the fact that I didn’t submit them for any feedback before the Christmas break. Again this was a mistake I could have avoided if I was thinking properly before the break. I spent a lot of time before the break working on other assignments so I wasn’t thinking about the feedback for this. In hindsight I should have took the time to submit what progress I had for any feedback to use.
In conclusion I am happy with my walk, run and boxing animations. I feel like I have interpreted a good style for the walk cycle and it shows really well in the final animation. I put a lot of work into the boxing animation and I think the body movements and positions look great. Even though I’m not as confidant about my run cycle, I’m still happy with it but I could have divided my time better between them and should have submitted my work in progress for feedback but these are lessons I will learn from.