Scene 2
 

Ok guy's remind me when you see me how much I hate tring to animate a nice loose walk. MAN!!! you use clamped keys on the feet he jugges a bit, use anything else he slipps and slides, ARRRRRRR. Anyway that's my rant after day of animating... feel much better now.

Scene 2 is complete for the most part.... after all the complaining about the walk I think I got him pretty loose... after all hes only walking up to the alter... no one trying to chase or kill him. Its one of my best walks that is not just a cycle of 30 keys.

Well off to scene 3 or some modeling =)

Something to think about when you're doing the walk: his feet aren't visible inside of the film gate. It doesn't matter if they slide. However, if you are going to show the feet, then there are a few ways to keep the feet from sliding around. One thing I'm noticing is that it looks like your character is traveling a greater distance than his actual stride. How is your character rigged and what's your animation workflow? If I knew those things, I might be able to give you some advice on keep the feet planted.

Another thing to think about is the up and down motion of the body. Your character doesn't have any noticeable bounce to his walk. It doesn't have to be super cartoony and exaggerated; there just needs to be something there to give him a sense of weight and mass.

Overall, not bad. Keep up the good work.

Hi danny... I have 2 diffrent files one with clamped feet and the other with spline, the spline keys have been modified a bit.

I also put up a lot more up down motion as you suggested. The picture is how my guy is rigged , there is an expression on the root to keep it between his legs as he steps.

Modified Spline keys

Picture


Work flow... Setting the inital pose, then just setting the keys for the legs and root. then go into the rotations of the chest and shoulders.
I usally dont use ik for the upper body, but wanted to try it this time.

The up and down motion you added definitely helps a lot. He now has more weight and mass.

The forward motion is still a little jerky though (in both clamped and spline versions). It looks like he's either lunging forward on each step or straining to make large strides. I think the problem here is the expression on the root. The torso stops moving everytime the feet are planted, which doesn't feel natural at all. One option is to reduce the contact time for each step. Another option is to remove the expression from the root and hand key the root's transforms to give it smoother motion.

I don't know if this will help or not, but here is a (slightly exaggerated) breakdown of a walk cycle that I did for my students last term:

http://www.dannyngan.com/animation/walk.htm

This is based directly off of the walk sequences in Richard Williams' book The Animator's Survival Kit. Even though this was a Flash animation, it still applied to 3D. The thing you'll notice about the walk is the continuous motion of the torso. You can draw a clean sine wave that traces the torso's motion across the frame. Your character's root translate should be the same. Also, the position of the torso is shifted forward slightly, so that more weight is on the leading foot. In your rigging image, it looks like the root is centered exactly between the feet, which isn't entirely correct.

Anyhow, I hope this helps. I look foward to seeing more progress on this scene.

wow thats cool. bro. guess i should do something.

Thanks danny.... your helping me a lot i'm learning a lot also. I'll lean him forward a bit more. I have to remind my self it's only the second time i've animated a complex project since I got out of school

Raul thanks buddy=)

nice kurt looking great but is it just me or does his hand seem to go into the pole when he walks by it ? looks real nice anyway :D

Well, I leaned him forward abit more, and he seems to look better.
Danny I took off the expression off but it totaly messed it right up.

So I think that its as good as I can get it right now, will come back to it after if I have time.

Off to scene 3=)