Topic 11: Bipedal Walk

This week's topic was to animate a vanilla walk cycle using two different rigs, a legs only rig and then a full body rig. Walk cycles are a staple in animation and is a fundamental of character animation. Walk cycles are used everywhere, from video games to feature films. While animating my walk cycles I used the images below to help guide my posing and timing. 

Task 1: 

To start, I used the reference images to map out key poses the legs would follow.

After creating a blocking pass I set the tangents to auto to see the movement in-between each key pose.

To polish the animation off I adjusted the keyframes to give the legs a bit more bounce when walking. This adds a bit more life into the movement and makes the animation more realistic.

Task 2:

Once again, I started by blocking out the key poses of the walk cycle.

I then set the tangents to auto

To finalise the animation I made the characters movement a bit more realistic. I gave the character's walk a bit more bounce, adjusted the posture and adjusted the head movement. All these things made the character look less stiff and more human ultimately creating a more realistic walk cycle.

Reflection:

After completing this week's animation tasks I now understand the importance of creating a realistic walk cycle. Walk cycles are a staple of animation and are constantly used, and making sure they look realistic is very important. If a walk cycle doesn't look realistic it can destroy the entire animation. Making sure you pay attention to the movement of not only the legs and the arms but also the hips and the shoulders of a character as they walk is crucial in ensuring a realistic walk cycle.