Inconsistent Walk Cycle Speeds

[danf]

I'm making a character walk, and it's not even a very zany walk, but there are certainly times when he's moving forward, and moments when he's recovering from hitting the ground.

 

Problem is, the walk-cycler seems to take all frames as equal parts of the forward stride. This results in some moments that my character slides forward, and others when he seems to moon-walk.

 

Is there a way to vary the forward-movement within a single walk cycle?

[HomeSlice]

These might answer your questions.

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29729

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29743

[danf]

So if I'm reading this right: You recommend using the "ease" property to control the moments that distance is actually covered?

 

Is there no way to make irregular movement patterns part of the walk cycle? I'm imagining trying to move the model off center for moments of the walk cycle, and then catching it up during moments that it moves.

 

This question also relates to any non-symmetrical walk. If one leg walks farther or faster than the other, how to make that look right?

[robcat2075]

Problem is, the walk-cycler seems to take all frames as equal parts of the forward stride. This results in some moments that my character slides forward, and others when he seems to moon-walk.

 

It sounds like your walk-cycle action doesn't have "has stride length" ON. That makes A:M try to match the progress thru the cycle to match the progress along a path.

 

Is there no way to make irregular movement patterns part of the walk cycle?

Almost by definition a cycle is something that is repeated exactly over and over.

 

I'm imagining trying to move the model off center for moments of the walk cycle, and then catching it up during moments that it moves.

a "second chor action" would allow you to add keyframes independently of the cycle action to vary the position of bones from where the cycle puts them. I dread meantioning it because it's hard to explain in text here on a forum. Hopefully someone will pop in to do that.

 

 

As an aside, i'd just mention that if you really need a walk to vary, animating the steps individually is the way it would normally be done, with no cycle at all.

[John Bigboote]

In the chor, just telling A:M 'my character starts walking HERE and ends walking HERE' is not going to be enough. You will get 'slip-N-slide' action. Because your walk cycle is non-conforming to minimal keyframes, use more keyframes! You will need to 'eyeball' your characters progress along the ground plane, and use the graph editor for the keyframes as well.

[KenH]

If you have stride length on your cycle, it should work by just keying the ease option. It's the "easiest" way to do it. For sliding, I like to make sure the ease keys are peaked. Also, any foot contact on the ground in the cycle should be peaked too.

[robcat2075]

Here's an example of using "ease" to vary the speed of a walk.

 

WalkVary.mov

 

look at the ease channel for the path constraint. Notice how it can make the character slow down, speed up and even walk backwards, all without changing the original walk cycle.

 

The properly animated Walk cycle makes this work without foot slipping.

 

In the second half you can see the effect of an additional chor action that has keyframes on the Hip bone only. Same walk cycle but the new Hip keyframes are "added" to the old motion to alter the character's stance.

 

 

and here's the PRJ:

 

WalkVary03.zip

[danf]

Alright, I think I'm understanding the tools at my disposal better. Let me posit my thoughts for your evaluation:

 

First off, if I want it to look REALLY good, I should just do it by hand.

 

But if I'm lazy:

A walk cycle always has a continuous speed forward.

Fortunately, you can vary that speed with the "ease" channel to fake paused moments.

To make this easing look right, I should just animate the walk cycle action without the pauses, and add them in the choreography using easing.

 

Now getting more specific to me:

The secondary movements I had during the pauses of my old walk-cycle should be added as second actions over the eased walk cycle.

 

For the sake of making that easier:

I could try (although this sounds sketchy) to cut out the keyframes of my secondary movements and paste them into a new action, which I apply during the eased portions of the new walk, which I can create by deleting those old secondary motion keyframes and sliding together the steps themselves.

 

Sounds doable to me! I'll take a shot while I wait for someone to tell me why this is nonsense

[robcat2075]

Alright, I think I'm understanding the tools at my disposal better. Let me posit my thoughts for your evaluation:

 

First off, if I want it to look REALLY good, I should just do it by hand.

 

But if I'm lazy:

A walk cycle always has a continuous speed forward.

 

Sort of. A typical A:M walk-cycle is really animated as if the character were stationary on a treadmill with the feet sliding backwards. The path constraint is what really moves him forward.

 

 

Sounds doable to me! I'll take a shot while I wait for someone to tell me why this is nonsense

 

it sounds like you understand the essentials now.