It’s been too long since I updated this blog, so I’m making up for some lost time. Back in 2016 I created two really useful animation courses for Lynda/Linkedin Learning, dealing with walk cycles.
The first course deals with the essentials: contact, down, passing and up poses, foot placement, arcs, timing, and all the nuts and bolts you’ll need to create a walk cycle:
Here are the illustrations dealing with torque – also known as counterpose. You can refer to this as ‘contrapposto’ at the risk of sounding pretentious.
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After the first course on basic principles, I moved on to the really interesting stuff – attitude walks.
#2: Character & Attitude Walk Cycles
Course 2 is where the fun starts: how to create custom walks, like stomps, and various attitudes. This is my favourite, the sneak (similar to the one in the Preston Blair book, but here I’ll show you the process of creating the sneak step by step, not just the finished frames):
I also go into vital detail about plotting arcs: this a crucial step in the creation of smooth walks and runs that is often overlooked in the standard how-to books:
And we cover runs also – jogs, runs, and fast runs:
Sadly, course#2 (attitudes) is less viewed than the first, which is a real shame – because course 2 is the payoff for all the hard work in course 1! Anyway, here is the link to the course, and some previews.
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It appears that animation characters are constrained to move in only one direction – sideways. There are hundreds of sidewalks – I have found that yours is the most helpful by far.
Have you ever made a rear view animation? I have created one, of a sort, but would be so glad if you had one to share! I am making a movie of one of my books in which walking is a most important feature.
Thanks,