Walk Cycle for Critique

[RS3D]

I have been following the various threads on walk cycles by Robcat and others. I put together the attached walk cycle for a couple of characters. I have looked at them for so long I don't know if they look right or not. I would appreciate it if someone would please take a look and let me know if they look realistic.110416Walk.mov

[nimblepix]

Very good start!

 

Three things to work on . . .

Hip action weight shift.

Head movement.

More shoulder swing.

 

You probably know this,

but it's very important to study walk footage.

[robcat2075]

-You've got a straight leg when the heel contacts. That's good. It's supposed to be straight. However, you might try to pose that so it's just a hair off of straight so that there isn't a huge knee pop when you fix the next thing...

 

- the body is moving back up right when the heel contacts. The mass of the body really squishes down for a few frames after the heel contact before it rebounds up again.

 

- the hips look very stiff. you can turn the hips to the left when the left leg is forward and to the right when the right leg is forward. It's a very slight oscillation.

 

-The shoulders can counter the turn of the hips.

[RS3D]

Before trying to play with more shoulder turn and hip turn, I decided to concentrate on the level of the hips in relation to the straightening of the leg during the cycle.

I tried to keep the hips lower after the initial frame (heel contact) for a couple of frames, but the co-ordination of the level of the hips and the straightening of the leg is very tricky to get right. I used a 29-frame cycle for the walk> See attached .jpg, which shows the first 14 frames. There are key frames at 0, 2 (foot slap), 7 (high point of the hips) and 14, which is the keyframe mirror of frame 0. I am wondering if the 5 frames between 2 and 7 is enough time to straighten the leg. It may be better to go to a 31 frame cycle and increase the

time between 2 and 7 to straighten the leg.

 

I attached a new version of the .MOV, 110416Walk2a.movI hope it is progress.

[robcat2075]

Before trying to play with more shoulder turn and hip turn, I decided to concentrate on the level of the hips in relation to the straightening of the leg during the cycle.

I tried to keep the hips lower after the initial frame (heel contact) for a couple of frames, but the co-ordination of the level of the hips and the straightening of the leg is very tricky to get right.

 

It is tricky and why so many people have trouble with it.

 

The leg does bend again after the heel contact. It doesn't stay straight. It's absorbing the weight of the body falling on the leg and getting set to push up again.

 

Have you watched my videos on posing out a walk? (in the screen cams link in my sig)

 

One of the things I show is the up and down of the hips as the walk cycle progresses and you can also scrub through the sample walk footage to examine that more.

 

Watch those.

[jakerupert]

somehow offtopic, but aren`t the arms of the mother slightly too long?

 

Very good so far, some additional hip side to side movement will add a lot...

[paradymx]

Arms look okay to me. They should rest naturally just above the knees on the average person. They need the move a little more though during the walk cycle though.

[RS3D]

somehow offtopic, but aren`t the arms of the mother slightly too long?

 

Very good so far, some additional hip side to side movement will add a lot...

 

I think the way I chose to 'color in' the shorts made the arms seem a little long. The model started out as the FemaleKLDWeightedB model from the Extras CD Volume 1.

I altered it quite a bit from the original configuration. One thing I didn't change was the splinage placement and bones structure. The model may not be the best

looking female model around, but the way it is set up is very good. It is about as easy as working with the Thom model and deforms in actions very nicely. Whoever did the

bone set up knew what they were doing.

 

My original intent was to use a version of the model that was quite heavy and show her exercising, losing weight and getting a makeover to look good at the end. But

then I got hung up on the walk cycle.

[paradymx]

I think that's a great idea! Can't wait to see it!

[RS3D]

Here is an update to walk cycle. I made more changes to the pelvis by rotating it up a little more on the passing frame, rotating the shoulders a little more in the opposite direction on the passing frame and adding some bounce to the hair bones. Despite the changes, the result in the choreography doesn't seem to show the changes as much as indicated in the

action window. I also attached a .MOV of the walk cycle in the action window. If you put it on =loop= you can see the model moves around quite a bit more than shows in the

choreography. I think the changing of the camera angle in the choreography tends to flatten the secondary movements.

110423Walk2.mov

110423WalkFront.mov

[robcat2075]

The body is still going back up immediately when the heel hits the ground. That's a fundamental problem that needs to be fixed before any other details can be addressed.

 

Is there a tut out there that is saying to do that?

[RS3D]

The body is still going back up immediately when the heel hits the ground. That's a fundamental problem that needs to be fixed before any other details can be addressed.

 

Is there a tut out there that is saying to do that?

 

First of all, thanks for the feedback. I have attached a jpg of the 0th, 2nd and 7th keyframes. If you look at the difference between 0 and 2 there is very little lift in the hips there

and what is there is necessary to reduce the snap in the leg as it straightens out to get to frame 7. Adjusting it is tricky. If I hold the hips down at frame 2 to exactly the same

level as frame 0 (or slightly lower), there is a definite unsightly snap in the leg. I have the same problem you seemed to have with the Knight model in your tut on

blocking in the key poses. That is, the adjustment you try to do by dragging the bones is too coarse to get the transition exactly where you want it.

 

Does it appear in the animation that the body is lifting more than is indicated in the attached .jpg?

[robcat2075]

Adjusting it is tricky. If I hold the hips down at frame 2 to exactly the same

level as frame 0 (or slightly lower), there is a definite unsightly snap in the leg.

 

Can you show a bit of this? I'm not sure what you mean.

[RS3D]

Adjusting it is tricky. If I hold the hips down at frame 2 to exactly the same

level as frame 0 (or slightly lower), there is a definite unsightly snap in the leg.

 

Can you show a bit of this? I'm not sure what you mean.

 

If you look at the 110416Walk2a.MOV on my April 20 posting, you can see that the leg has a bad little jerk at the knee. This was when I was trying to delay the

start of any movement of the hips moving upward by two frames. I tried to compensate for this jerkiness by finding the best compromise for the point where I could delay the

hip from rising as best I could, while eliminating the jerk at the knee. I am beginning to think that a 29 frame walk cycle may not be enough. It may have

to be extended a few more frames to allow transition between key frames to smooth things out. In general, I am trying to minimize the number of keyframes as much

as I can get away with.

[RS3D]

Here is another update on the walk cycle. This one includes more hip roll(up and down) in the model and incorporates some of the points in RobCat's tutorial on walk cycles part 3.

Specifically, that the toe of the foot never lifts more than about an inch off the ground (just enough to clear the toe) before moving forward to the next heel contact point.

The only problem I see is that the model's walk is progressively starting to resemble RobCats personal walk in his demo video.

110428Walk.mov

[robcat2075]

I looked at my walk vids again. I should redo those, I could make more sense now. Part of the "coarse" control problem is that I'm working on a small screen for screencapture purposes which makes one pixel of adjustment larger than normal. But you can always zoom in closer!

 

If you look at the 110416Walk2a.MOV on my April 20 posting, you can see that the leg has a bad little jerk at the knee.

 

That's a small detail compared to the larger one that the whole body appears without mass because it is not moving down when it should.

 

Here are some observations:

 

RS3DWalkNotes.mov

 

 

On the rig problem I mention... you can constrain the IK foot control to a null placed a the heel of the foot and animate with that heel null instead and that will substantially simplify the situation.

 

The AM2001 rig also lacks a way to raise the heel and leave the toes in place. You will still have to animate around that. For future characters i'd recommend using one of the more recent rigs that are on the forum and avoid the hassle.

 

 

Alos... I forgot... download that clip of me walking from my screen cam page and watch the arms. Real arms are not in sync with the legs. The front arm doesn't start back until a few frames after the front leg has started moving back. The rear arm doesn't start moving forward until a few frames after the rear leg has started moving forward. Exact synchronization makes things look mechanical.

[3DArtZ]

I think you need to add some action to the hips and shoulders... talking about looking at the walk cycle from the front view.

as the foot is raised off the ground, the hip for that foot also raises, while the other side is going down.

the shoulder that is on the side of the foot raising, dips a bit when the spine bends int he middle to keep the head on an even keel.

[robcat2075]

Hey 3DArtz, glad to see you back. I haven't seen you around here in so long I can't even remember your name!

[3DArtZ]

Hey 3DArtz, glad to see you back. I haven't seen you around here in so long I can't even remember your name!

Hey Robcat.... yeah its been a long time since I've started coming back to check in on things.

I was burnt out from A:M stuff.... I just started refamiliarizing myself with A:M again over the past couple weeks due to

a potential gig that would require some 3d work.

 

Its been so long that the old project files I've worked on.... some of the things I was doing are sort of a mystery to me at the moment as I am looking through them!! lol.

 

Im hoping I've gotten the Animation:master passion back in me finally.

Mike Fitz

[RS3D]

I think you need to add some action to the hips and shoulders... talking about looking at the walk cycle from the front view.

as the foot is raised off the ground, the hip for that foot also raises, while the other side is going down.

the shoulder that is on the side of the foot raising, dips a bit when the spine bends int he middle to keep the head on an even keel.

 

I have already done quite a bit with the shoulders and hips. The problem is in trying to have them work correctly with the various delays in the leg straightening cycle to move toward

a natural kind of flow for the walk cycle. The walk cycle is not symmetric as far as leg straightening goes. This has caused me to change out quite a few of the original keyframes

to try to make the leg straightening proceed as in the RobCat tutorial/video. Some people have pointed out there should be more arm/shoulder motion, but I think it is more

a question of the timing of the motions (hips, shoulders, arms) than it is of the amount of the motion. I am trying to work on the issues raised by RobCat in his recent response

which are all excellent suggestions but a little difficult to implement with the current rigging set up for the character.

[RS3D]

I looked at my walk vids again. I should redo those, I could make more sense now. Part of the "coarse" control problem is that I'm working on a small screen for screencapture purposes which makes one pixel of adjustment larger than normal. But you can always zoom in closer!

 

If you look at the 110416Walk2a.MOV on my April 20 posting, you can see that the leg has a bad little jerk at the knee.

 

That's a small detail compared to the larger one that the whole body appears without mass because it is not moving down when it should.

 

Here are some observations:

 

RS3DWalkNotes.mov

 

 

On the rig problem I mention... you can constrain the IK foot control to a null placed a the heel of the foot and animate with that heel null instead and that will substantially simplify the situation.

 

The AM2001 rig also lacks a way to raise the heel and leave the toes in place. You will still have to animate around that. For future characters i'd recommend using one of the more recent rigs that are on the forum and avoid the hassle.

 

 

Alos... I forgot... download that clip of me walking from my screen cam page and watch the arms. Real arms are not in sync with the legs. The front arm doesn't start back until a few frames after the front leg has started moving back. The rear arm doesn't start moving forward until a few frames after the rear leg has started moving forward. Exact synchronization makes things look mechanical.

 

I appreciate the response very much. I went through the video you sent and it is very clear what needs to happen to clean this project up. I also implemented the suggestions

on the arm movement and I think the delay in the 1st couple of frames of the cycle has already improved the look of the walk cycle. I think that the delay gives an indication

of apparent motion that some of the other people in this thread have pointed out. It is not the amount of motion but the timing of the motion that is the issue.

 

I already implemented most of your recent suggestions, but there is definitely a problem with the rig. I found out you cannot switch between IK and FK in the same action.

(Is this the way it is supposed to be or is it something else?) I will post again as soon as I figure out how to stop the knee popping that continues to be a problem.

[robcat2075]

I already implemented most of your recent suggestions, but there is definitely a problem with the rig. I found out you cannot switch between IK and FK in the same action.

(Is this the way it is supposed to be or is it something else?)

 

AM20001 rig doesn't have seamless IKFk switching (although it is possible to separately pose the IK and FK controls so that the switch is smooth). In 2001 such things were unknown. In 2005 my teacher at Animation Mentor said he had never seen a rig that could do that and he was working at ILM. In 2006 we got the Squetch rig for Tin Woodman whch can do seamels IK-FK and TSM2 can be easily modified to do it also.

 

 

 

 

I will post again as soon as I figure out how to stop the knee popping that continues to be a problem.

Big time Pixar professionals try to get all the other motion going right and then if there are still knee pops, they scale the legs to hide it. However AM2001 doesn't have leg scaling.

[3DArtZ]

I already implemented most of your recent suggestions, but there is definitely a problem with the rig. I found out you cannot switch between IK and FK in the same action.

(Is this the way it is supposed to be or is it something else?)

 

AM20001 rig doesn't have seamless IKFk switching (although it is possible to separately pose the IK and FK controls so that the switch is smooth). In 2001 such things were unknown. In 2005 my teacher at Animation Mentor said he had never seen a rig that could do that and he was working at ILM. In 2006 we got the Squetch rig for Tin Woodman whch can do seamels IK-FK and TSM2 can be easily modified to do it also.

 

 

 

 

I will post again as soon as I figure out how to stop the knee popping that continues to be a problem.

Big time Pixar professionals try to get all the other motion going right and then if there are still knee pops, they scale the legs to hide it. However AM2001 doesn't have leg scaling.

You could scale the offending leg bone in its length???

never thoguht of that myself but a minute scale in the length of the bone could remove the pop...

Mike Fitz

[robcat2075]

You could scale the offending leg bone in its length???

never thoguht of that myself but a minute scale in the length of the bone could remove the pop...

Mike Fitz

 

Yes, if you have everything else pretty much in place it will be a very slight alteration. And you have to manage it on a frame by frame basis to get in and out of it smoothly. Another reason to have everything else fixed before you get into leg scaling.

 

By default TSM2's leg scaling slider only stretches the leg but it is easy to edit that slider to enable shrinking in the negative number range.

[RS3D]

I completed another update of the walk cycle. This one incorporates the following changes:

-delay by 2 frames before moving arms forward/backward from their extreme positions so as to not be directly in sync with the legs

-eliminated all the frames that had completely straight legs because of knee popping issues

-bent upper back forward a little bit

-on lifting foot, pointed the toe straight down in the middle of the passing frames

-held high point of the hips for 2 frames passed the mid point of the cycle

-held low point of the hips for 3 frames at start of the cycle

-increased the walk cycle from 29 to 32 frames in order to allow move time for coordinating hip/leg interaction

 

I attached a 32 frame video showing the walk from the side and another full version similar to the others that were posted.

 

I still think there is some floatiness in the feet, but overall the walk seems to be looking better. Unfortunately, I have had to increase from

7 key frames out of 29 to 12 key frames out of 32.

110504Walk.mov

110504WalkSide.mov

[mouseman]

It's looking really quite good. Two remaining things that stick out for me:

• For both characters, the arms seem to float away from the body a bit much. Also, the forearm should bend a little more as the arm starts to reach the front of its swing, and continue a little more as the arm swings back; it should start to unbend near the back of the swing, and continue until it's almost straight shortly after the arm starts to swing forward again. This is a difficult effect to achieve with IK, much easier to do with FK.
  
• For the adult, the cycle seems slightly rushed when the left or right feet are about to be set down. I think it would be better if the foot almost lingers for a frame or two before hitting the ground.
  

Good going!

[RS3D]

It's looking really quite good. Two remaining things that stick out for me:

• For both characters, the arms seem to float away from the body a bit much. Also, the forearm should bend a little more as the arm starts to reach the front of its swing, and continue a little more as the arm swings back; it should start to unbend near the back of the swing, and continue until it's almost straight shortly after the arm starts to swing forward again. This is a difficult effect to achieve with IK, much easier to do with FK.
  
• For the adult, the cycle seems slightly rushed when the left or right feet are about to be set down. I think it would be better if the foot almost lingers for a frame or two before hitting the ground.
  

Good going!

 

Thanks for the observations. The child is basically there to show contrast with the adult. At the speed the little guy is traveling, it is almost a trot.

One thing I learned is that you cannot rely on the action window to see what the walk will look like in a choreography. The changing camera perspective, etc. have unanticipated

consequences when you see the walk from all different angles.

I need to soften up the foot stomping a little bit. I am learning that the walk cycle is a gold mine for subtle changes and timing differences.

I wanted to get the mechanical things done first and then start things like making the model more feminine, etc. I found a female walk cycle on YouTube which seems

to indicate that in female walks, the hips are almost never level, they swing up and down for more than a couple of frames and this affects the arms and also the

upper body, which tries to compensate by offsetting the extreme hip swaying. I should be done with this in about another year or so.

[mouseman]

One thing I learned is that you cannot rely on the action window to see what the walk will look like in a choreography. The changing camera perspective, etc. have unanticipated consequences when you see the walk from all different angles. [...] I am learning that the walk cycle is a gold mine for subtle changes and timing differences.

These are really good insights!

 

I found a female walk cycle on YouTube which seems

to indicate that in female walks, the hips are almost never level, they swing up and down for more than a couple of frames and this affects the arms and also the

upper body, which tries to compensate by offsetting the extreme hip swaying. I should be done with this in about another year or so.

If you have the URL to that walk cycle handy, feel free to share it. You are probably closer than you think, however. Often, the important goal is "believable", which is not necessarily "hyper realistic".

[robcat2075]

I attached a 32 frame video showing the walk from the side and another full version similar to the others that were posted.

 

Studying the side view a bit i think you've got the body continuing down a bit after the first heel strike (the one at the very beginning of the loop) but not so much after the next heel strike. The first one looks better.

 

At AnimationMentor the first five minutes of the lecture on walks was just animators bitching about how hard walks are to do.

 

I think half the problem is that the IK leg is great for when the foot is planted on the ground, but quite awkward for the motion of the leg when it is swinging forward.

 

On TWO (with the Squetch rig's IK/FK switching) I experimented on one stride of a walk with using IK for when the foot was on the ground and switching to FK for when the foot was off the ground and i kind of liked that. I'll probably try that again some day.

 

A good field trip is to go to the mall and walk behind people and watch how their hips move as they walk. Every possible variation is out there. Some have very level hips throughout, some are lifting the passing side, some (women with wide hips especially) drop that side as soon as the other leg is taking the body weight.

[RS3D]

Attached is another update of the walk cycle project. This one changes the arm positions to be closer to the torso during the cycle as suggested by Mouseman.

I think this was a improvement. I also re-instated the delay in the arms coming forward at the start of the cycle that was originally suggested by Robcat and I

thought I had fixed, but as Mouseman pointed out, it needed to be more prominent. I also got the feet to be a little more stable. Definitely not perfect, but better than before.

 

Mouseman also thought the feet seemed to be rushing toward contact with the ground on the forward foot in the stride. I intentionally made it this way

because the Robcat walk tutorial clearly shows that the back foot stays back in contact with the ground longer than you would think. This causes a

slight off-balance position at a point a little past half way and the front foot has to compensate by coming down faster to maintain balance. I think the

relative speed of the walk has a role in this timing. If the walk is slow, the foot doesn't have to move so fast, but in a faster walk, it does have to move fast.

 

The female walk cycle I referenced in a previous post can be found by searching YouTube for Female Standard Walk. It gives a side and front view of a walk cycle,

including start and stop. It seems a little exaggerated, but it is still helpful.

 

Robcat caught the fact that I had to use a different hip position on the 2nd part of the walk for one of the key frames (what an eye!). For some reason, the model seems

symmetric, but I get knee popping on one side and not the other for the same position on the opposite side. I am not smart enough to figure out why, so I cheated and

just raised the hip by one key click. I did not think anyone would notice (I was wrong).

 

Once again, thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

110508walk.mov

[RS3D]

I forgot to ask if anyone knows a way to lock the head bone position while moving the upper back bones. The head bone is a child of the upper back bone in the model. I want to lower the shoulders in sync with the raising of the hips, but then the head follows and creates head jerking because the head follows the upper back. You can try to re-orient the

head, but it is very difficult to get right.

 

In a walk, there is some movement of the head but humans have a way of keeping their head steady despite moving other body parts. I hate to disconnect the head bone from the hierarchy if I can avoid it. I also tried putting a null in the model and constraining the head to it to see if it would override the bone chain, but it has not worked so far.

[mouseman]

Wow, it's looking really good! I think it's getting pretty far along.

 

A couple of reference videos, just in case you don't have enough already.

 

Good observation regarding different subtleties for different walk speeds.

[robcat2075]

I forgot to ask if anyone knows a way to lock the head bone position while moving the upper back bones.

 

You really mean the orientation, right? The head bone is attached to the neck and spine and has to move with them.

 

you can isolate the rotation of the head (or probably better, the neck) by Orient Like constraining it to something higher in the hierarchy than the spine hones. The first spine bone is a likely target.

[Guest carlosgf]

RS3D,

 

I have being following your walk cycle and I have seeing something for you to think.

I believe that everything is more or less on their way, and that there is still something concerning the shoes (and its articulation, I do not know its name). They look too straight, too horizontal as they move, and there should be, I think this is the point, a slight movement with some inclination to the back at the time the shoe is leaving the ground.

[RS3D]

I forgot to ask if anyone knows a way to lock the head bone position while moving the upper back bones.

 

You really mean the orientation, right? The head bone is attached to the neck and spine and has to move with them.

 

you can isolate the rotation of the head (or probably better, the neck) by Orient Like constraining it to something higher in the hierarchy than the spine hones. The first spine bone is a likely target.

 

 

I tried adding a null to the bone list and constraining the head to it as a kinematic type of constraint. This seemed to do the trick for what I wanted

to accomplish with the shoulder movements conflicting with a relatively steady head position. I will try your suggestion also.

[RS3D]

Here is another update to the walk cycle. This one uses more up and down movement of the shoulders that are the opposite of the

orientation of the hips. That is, as the right hip rises, the right shoulder lowers and I used the opposite sequence for the other side. It softens the

walk at bit and seems to make the model more feminine. I also added stride length control.

 

I used kinematic constraint to a null to control the head and it seemed to do the trick for this application, although I plan to use a suggestion from Robcat to see how it might work.

 

I also attached another small sample of a front view of the walk cycle showing the shoulder movements.

110510walk.mov

110510Front.mov

[RS3D]

RS3D,

 

I have being following your walk cycle and I have seeing something for you to think.

I believe that everything is more or less on their way, and that there is still something concerning the shoes (and its articulation, I do not know its name). They look too straight, too horizontal as they move, and there should be, I think this is the point, a slight movement with some inclination to the back at the time the shoe is leaving the ground.

 

Do you mean that the foot should bend more as the heel is lifted off the ground? I have attached a side view of the walk cycle. Please indicate

where in the video you think the problem occurs.

110510Side.mov

[Guest carlosgf]

Hi

 

This last sample side of your walk cycle is much easier to follow cause the dimention.

 

First before I respond to your questions, check the dimentions of the legs. See it in your last side walk-cycle.

It may sound strange but if you draw an horizontal line that touchs the very end of the right foot when it slightly touchs the ground and then you draw it back to the left foot, you will notice that the line will touch inside the foot, as it has entered on the ground.

Please check it yourself in order to see if it is my impression or not.

 

I am not sure if this may help to solve it.

[RS3D]

Hi

 

This last sample side of your walk cycle is much easier to follow cause the dimention.

 

First before I respond to your questions, check the dimentions of the legs. See it in your last side walk-cycle.

It may sound strange but if you draw an horizontal line that touchs the very end of the right foot when it slightly touchs the ground and then you draw it back to the left foot, you will notice that the line will touch inside the foot, as it has entered on the ground.

Please check it yourself in order to see if it is my impression or not.

 

I am not sure if this may help to solve it.

 

If I understand you correctly, are you saying that the rear foot in the first frame of the animation should rest on the toe rather than

more toward the middle of the rear foot?

[Guest carlosgf]

When I get home I will add a file with a figure in order you to see better my point of view. I dont understand many enghish words.

[Guest carlosgf]

RS3D

 

I am sure that you will understand the new things that you have to change in order to get better results, but as one of our colleges said it has no need to be perfect! (but I would tried it to be perfect if it was mine work

 

So I have attached two images. First, is the image showed on the first frames of the animation walk. The image is the one with the right foot at your right side of the screen (I called it "right foot in front"). You will notice with the help of the ruler that that position does not exist at all in a human walk-cycle (only in Animation Master ): the right foot is supposed to be the one firmly touching the floor but it is flouting on the air. And i can notice it when she is walking, like a subtle jump

 

the second image is showing us the second inaccuracy of the walk cycle. Here the left foot is in front (on your right side of the screen). BTW, it does not matter which foot is in front. You have to fix both sides.

Continuing, if you watch your animation in slow motion and reach this part of the animation you will notice that the rear and the front foot are moving at the same time (one down, other up). To let it with a better look just, I assume, you have to delay a little bit the moving of the rear foot (right foot). Allow the front foot (in this case the left foot of the character) to touch the floor firmly before deciding to move up the other foot from the floor.

 

Only with trial and error you will find the exact delay time, unless experience user of A:M have a tip for accomplish that more easily. You may ask them.

 

And this is the best i can explain what I have been seeing.

 

right foot in front

 

left foot in front

[RS3D]

RS3D

 

I am sure that you will understand the new things that you have to change in order to get better results, but as one of our colleges said it has no need to be perfect! (but I would tried it to be perfect if it was mine work

 

So I have attached two images. First, is the image showed on the first frames of the animation walk. The image is the one with the right foot at your right side of the screen (I called it "right foot in front"). You will notice with the help of the ruler that that position does not exist at all in a human walk-cycle (only in Animation Master ): the right foot is supposed to be the one firmly touching the floor but it is flouting on the air. And i can notice it when she is walking, like a subtle jump

 

the second image is showing us the second inaccuracy of the walk cycle. Here the left foot is in front (on your right side of the screen). BTW, it does not matter which foot is in front. You have to fix both sides.

Continuing, if you watch your animation in slow motion and reach this part of the animation you will notice that the rear and the front foot are moving at the same time (one down, other up). To let it with a better look just, I assume, you have to delay a little bit the moving of the rear foot (right foot). Allow the front foot (in this case the left foot of the character) to touch the floor firmly before deciding to move up the other foot from the floor.

 

Only with trial and error you will find the exact delay time, unless experience user of A:M have a tip for accomplish that more easily. You may ask them.

 

And this is the best i can explain what I have been seeing.

 

right foot in front

 

left foot in front

 

These are excellent observations. You are correct about the problems in the walk cycle so far. However, the real problem is that the

legs never reach a fully extended position. If you look at almost all walk cycles, the front leg extends straight (or almost straight)

in the first frame and then again at the point where the hips are at their highest point (usually about half way through the cycle).

As Robcat's tutorial points out, the leg actually is straight a little past the half way point in the cycle. The problem I have with the

current model/bone rigging set up is that, when I keyframe the straight legs, the animation shows rather noticeable knee popping.

 

You can look at previous posts from Robcat explaining the need for either changing the rig to a more sophisticated one or

trying some other tricks to get to where I can use the straight leg position. Rather than changing the whole rig and model set up,

I have tried to come as close as possible to the straight leg position without causing the undesirable popping action. This means

you either raise the hips or raise the foot to try to compensate. Raising the hips looks worse than raising the foot.

 

What you see in the first frame is the cheating the problem by raising the foot off the ground by about a keyboard click. This

allows the hips to continue down for a couple of frames after the first frame. This helps give the feeling of weight to the

walk cycle.

 

The straight leg problem also comes up again in your second point, that the legs appear to be moving at the same time. Because

I have to use a bent leg position, I have to compromise between bent leg/flat foot and bent leg/bent foot positions to try to overcome it.

(I hope that is clear).

 

I am afraid at this point, I am looking for a believable walk (per Mouseman's post) rather than a perfect walk.