Overview.
This is the Blog entry in relation to the Walk Cycle on Assignment 2 for the Animation Strategies in the 2nd year of the Animation course 2021-2022. This entry will detail how I created the Walk Cycle animation and my idea and theory for the direction. This will also contain the feedback (if any) and changes based off feedback, as well as my opinions on the final result, including what I did well and what could have been better.
The main post with research and the overall conclusion (plus Body Mechanics):
The Theory.
As stated in my principles for research, I wanted to create a walk cycle that is both distinctive, showing off aspects of the characters personalities in an exaggerated manner. Additionally I wanted to make the walking uneven, because in real life that is how ordinary humans walk unless they are drilled not to do so. I decided therefore to have my walk to accommodate the features of ‘brutishness and laziness’. The characters legs will move in a large motion to give the sense of them having immense power and strength, whilst his bad posture and arm dragging movements gives him a sense of clumsiness. I also tailored the animation to the looks of the actual rig because whilst it is a human rig its longer thin body and blank face gives it an inhuman or mutated feeling. The walk is also slower, as it gives the character a feeling he is not keen to get to his destination quickly and as his stride is very long he does not require to move as fast. making him look more threatening to an external viewer.
Creating the Rough Guide.
Before I began the walk cycle in Maya I created a quick sketch in my book on lined paper to have a idea of how the body should move. I only completed one display of how the character created a step as I could just replicate it for the other leg. The lined paper also helped me keep track of each of the body’s elements more accurately eg: keeping the head in line 6 & 5.
Creating the Walk Cycle in Maya.
As always the first operation I perform is to set up the program and the scene. As with the other two animations for this assignment I will be using the premade Jack Model and Rig created by Alec. The 3D program being used is Maya. I then opened up new Maya file, saved it in its own folder called ‘Walk’ and imported the Jack Model.
With the project set up I started by posing my model in its initial position so that when I start keyframing with the additional poses my character is already in a hunched position with his arms dragging down. I then began to key frame the larger points of the animation within the timeline, so that before any finer movements were inserted the base movements were performed by the model so I could review it. These referred to the legs and the general swing of the arms and head. While I would animate freehand using the sheet as a reference to create a more organic and uneven movement I always made sure the characters feet when on the ground and were registered as zero on the Y axis to keep him walking on the even ground.
Once the base animation was looping into itself I went to refine the smaller features bringing more life into the creation. The most complex of them was using the additional controls in the property bar to enable the characters hell move in relation to his foot moving up or down. The toes would also be adjusted to ensure they always landed on the ground before the heel and also be the last to take off from the ground. This makes the transition smoother and help to add a predatory element to the character. Next I would adjust the animation of the calves of the leg so that they would bend an flex with the overall movement of the leg, avoiding the meshes clashing with each other. Before leaving the legs, I would move them slightly outwards while becoming airborne, and positioning them inwards a little when they come down to the ground. As this is the way your legs operate in real life, this adjustment gives them a more human realistic look, thus avoiding the unnatural robotic feel. My last elements before sending a video copy for feedback from Alec using Playblast, were the operation of the arms. I adjusted them to make sure they did not clash with the legs and gave them small movements in the wrists and fingers to create a sense of aggression in the character and a feeling of strength in his hands. This was to render them more lifelike to the overall character.
Alec’s Feedback and Changes
Initially, I was also going to have my classmates feedback on my work in addition to Alec, but due to Covid restrictions and the pressure of the first assignment combined with the holiday season I was unable to access anyone from the class to assist. Whilst Alec was generally happy with the walking animation he did offer me two pieces of feedback, both of which were very valuable to the process. They were to have the arms sway a little more, and ensure the waist movement was smoother. He also sent a video walkthrough showing how I could accomplish these operations. In relation to the arms I adjusted their position at certain key frames in order that they were able to swing better. Regarding the waist I used the graph editor which allowed me to adjust the overall timing and make the transitions smoother. Once I accomplished this, I would export the video as a Playblast, used Premier Pro to ensure the animation repeated several times in the one video and uploaded the final results to Blackboard. I also uploaded it to my Blog, YouTube and SyncSketch.
What I Liked and what I could have Improved?
Overall I believe the walk cycle is my strongest animation out of the three. This is because it is quite fluid and posses a lot of personality in addition from being distinctive from other character walk animations. Additionally I was satisfied that the animation was just uneven enough on each side without overdoing it thus giving the character an organic feeling and not making it look too robotic. There are two areas for improvement that I would incorporate if I was to perform this task gain. They are the issue were the arms meld into the chest when they are pulled up as it breaks the mesh and did not look professional. In future I would keep an eye on all elements to ensure this did not happen. However my tutor Alec, told me it was okay for the mesh to be like that, as the animation itself is the important criteria, and in the actual professional world you would be shooting specific models for animation rather that the JackRig. Secondly, if I had more time and talent I would have liked to create my own model and rig to better fit the thematic, but for that the assignment did not require and time would not allow it.
Final Animation:
Sync Sketch Link:
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/feec47b01cc7/