Transcript for:
Creating a Walk Cycle in 3D Animation

hi welcome back and so today we're going to be learning how to create a walk cycle using this brick ultimate Bonnie and it's a free rig from the internet you can search from Google and before we start working on this there's a picture that is very important for us to look at so it's called 2d walk cycle reference and if you look at a picture we have three contexts and contact means that two legs are on the ground so both of it has to stay on the ground and first thing that before we get into details the contact is very important next we work on the past pose then we have the Downton apps and once we set to all this foot works we will continue with the arm movements and the spine as well and next I'm gonna have break down into four simple steps so the first one basics a close second creating in-betweens the third one adding hips and chest rotation the fourth ones fine to the curve so let's get started and before we dive straight into an actual walk I'm gonna show you some simple controls about the rig so if you look at here we have a heel ball that allows us to rotate the heel and the ball joint and next we have toe up and down that works more into detail later on and we can mix it up using move and we can rotate as well clicking II for rotate and if I lowered the down you can see that I can move the knees direction using this you can move left and right okay next we have the hips that allows us to make it sexy movements and that's that for the arms we have this control back there and for this walk cycle we will have to switch to I K sorry FK so we won't be using I K and FK it's a forward kinematic and I K it's an inverse kinematic and for this case we just gonna need it for rotation pure rotation so we will be using just a rotate which is the FK and next we're gonna have to make the fingers or the palm looks a little bit more relaxed in a more relaxed pose okay and holding down shift key to slide all together and we can rotate all at once and we're gonna make the same thing and apply it to the other side of the arms holding down shift key and rotate just like that and you're the ones make it a same and the arms side doesn't have to be the same perfect same for both sides and whatever you work on 3d keep this in mind imperfections make you perfectly okay so it doesn't have to be exactly the same and next we're gonna have to move the legs so I'm gonna drop him down a bit and lift the right of X in front and move it back for the left leg and if you move it up the maximum point you have to start tweaking the heel ball okay so that it bends a little bit okay move the further to fit it nice tea after that like we can move it in front okay okay so because this is a cycle so we have to follow the frame 1 to 25 so let us press s to set a key for the first frame and you can see that 25 is the same so we're just gonna set another key at 25 and let's go to 13 and set a key as well and same go with the hips set the first one the last and the middle and if you look at a picture you can see that at frame 13 both legs in the different directions opposite so we'll move it back and just adjust so that it fits nicely and yet the lake and move in front and let's readjust it okay and sometimes students they kind of worried that that that is not the same and they would like to copy and paste around as I say it doesn't have to be perfectly symmetrical and that non symmetrical things makes it perfect okay and makes it natural [Music] and right now we're having a sliding leg and once we completed the three contacts we have to look into past pose and you can see that in past pose one of the legs a kind of straighten and the back leg Kate's moving forward and it's forming as Z okay is Z for zebra the black hair is you can see that alright so let's move to number seven and lift the body up just a bit if you look at a picture you can see that the head crosses the line a bit move it up okay all right something is wrong legs rotating automatically okay number seven and lift it up okay and or you can see that he forms a number four and once the leg is being lift up you should put the heel bulb back to zero and we should only rotate using purely and ankle okay and ankle it's rotate X you and whenever our Lex is on the ground and it's stepping backwards so the heel ball it's gonna have to be 0 at number 7 and it's looking smooth right now and next we're gonna work on number 19 number 19 and number seven is the same but just an opposite side of it okay so we're gonna copy the hips and pace over to 90 so we got about the same value and I forget to remind you guys that for beginners you have to turn on AutoKey so that once you change anything that you will record automatically and right there to number 19 so the back leg has to be lift up and rotate and make it number 4 and put heel ball back to 0 and for the ones that is on the ground here ball has to be 0 as well so we are stepping straight okay so we have a car in a smooth movement that he's walking all right so we're done with the first part next we're gonna be adding down and ups okay so before it goes down and number 10 it goes up and number 10 that buddy goes higher and then you can see the number 10 it's the highest position among that cycle so number 4 heel ball goes to 0 the body goes down lower it down a bit more and copy that paste it number 16 by holding down shift and metal click to highlight then right click copy number 16 the heel ball has to goes down to 0 all right that has to be 0 as well and certain people will like to add this to make it smoother okay but we'll look into that details probably later once we finish all the stuff and most importantly we get the main structure done and this one has to be sure as well zero it out so in the Ratan we're gonna leave the body higher okay and the heel ball has to push the feather to support the body and if you look at the picture there's one thing you have to be very very careful the joints out looking completely straight first and pop southern post into D that's fine but in 3d it's gonna cost you a bit a problem if you make it completely straight so try to avoid that because it will sometimes give you a jerky animation where about you it kind of like stops it and then it pushes the leg in front so that's gonna make the whole thing not smooth okay so straight but not completely straight will be the best thing okay you shouldn't do that okay keep it a bit of curve and we're gonna copy this and paste it to a number 22 and the heel ball let's add it to 3.8 okay so it's getting better all right we have a bit of bouncing isn't it okay looking sweet okay so we're done with the basic cycle oops and we've got some bit twins as well now let's look at the arms so firstly we're going to rotate down and add a bit of movements I curve okay and sometimes we're going to be looking around to check and see whether they are looking nice in every angle so if you're working with 2d and that's gonna have to be just one side okay 2d but if it's for 3d after you rotate from one sided you have to look around and check and see whether they are looking good or not so rotate around a bit okay so try to get a better pose okay just like that take this a bit rotate further okay next let's select all hold it down shift key four five six go to the first frame press s go to twenty five crest s go to 13 press s as well then we will switch the sides this one should be opposite rotate in front okay we're trying to copy and that's killed the sec view not really a copy but I just refer to the position that with it he wrote it down okay have it done spacebar swipe up into the up directions and goes back to perspective okay rotate and the other arms should go in the opposite directions okay a little bit more put it a bit more okay we are having a robotic arm right now it's looking a lot better and better and next we're gonna have to add some in-betweens for the arms [Music] okay so right now I'm gonna teach you all a quick technique to make the arms look smoother okay by adding an in betweens so a frame number seven I want to make the arm straight and just don't remember that I mentioned that we shouldn't make anything completely straight and that only applies to I K so this case the arms is FK so FK no problem it wouldn't cause any problems for you okay so you can rotate back okay so the parents see listen friend the train goes behind it's both in front of it okay so you can't start to see that it looks a little bit smoother and measuring that you're sitting in the car and your thought is driving in front and you see the back of the car so if he turns to the left where did you go you go to the right so you goes in the opposite directions so that explains why we did this okay the hands are looking soft right now and from here we go to here and the parents girls goes back swings back and the children's swings in front okay here the same softness and from 13 to 19 Peron goes in front cheering swings back and cheering swings back further okay great other side as well Peron swings back children swings in front the other children swings in front as well which is the wrist okay let's play if I go to here show I can click the turn up turn off the nuts curve there right now I can see then he looks Sweden okay so things getting worst allies stop okay so let's save the file okay what cycle okay this bit of problem so I think it's best that we save face in Maya ASCII file MA and call it a walk cycle okay all right good so next we're gonna be adding a hips and chest rotation and the spine as well if you look at here so for the spine it's like we can't wake up and down so whenever it goes down you can bend the spine for it or you can bind a span but the spine backwards depends on the characteristics that you want to give to the character and whenever this character goes up goes up and you can choose which direction you want to go with so let's bring back the curve and before that I like to set the default pose with the key press 1 press s re press s again and press s 413 so whenever it goes down I'm gonna rotate that a bet okay all right so if you are getting some random numbers you can see that we get seven point five four seven so I'm gonna teach you a good tool okay hold down a key and left click swap to get a discrete so each time we rotate it gets a 15 okay it snaps to 15 degrees but 15 is too much so I double click on the rotate and go to step snap and choose 5 ok then put it back to zero hey once I rotate it shows me 5 okay and it goes to number 10 let's rotate back negative 5 ok so it's looking a little bit tired it looks a little bit extreme it looks exhausted but don't worry we can always reduce the effect later by using animation curve edit this so it goes like really tired ok enter the head as well set set set whenever it goes down it goes down ok what if it goes up it goes up as well ok apply the same thing for the second half 22 tip the negative 10 all right if you think that the effects are looking a little bit too much overkill you can go to windows animation editors graph editors and let's pull it down a bit select all spine 1 2 3 and we rotate X just now so let's look into rotate X hold down control select all 3 and you can see that these are the values that we have done if I want to reduce the amount of effect that we have apply let's move to view a bit we can hold down shift key change the rr4 scale or down shift key hold down the mouse key and drag drag it down here let's play again scroll through so it does produce a bit I think I need to reduce it further further down okay I think that looks just nice and the head I think it's a little bit too much as well okay let's go into curve editor again and reduce the head rotation hold shift here hold with a mouse key are drag all right so let's play again okay looking nice walking with tempo [Music] okay so later on we're gonna add more details about that overlapping actions want to delay a bit on certain parts but before that let's look into the hips okay and we should be using that big circle to rotate it affects the whole body okay so you can see that if you're relaxing it's in front you have to tweak it like that 15:15 it should be a good amount press s press s and 13 as well and for this one we have to give it a negative value okay all right and for chest we have to make it opposite so go to the first frame so we have to move it like this ten might be a little bit too much but let's just set it first set set okay and number fourteen change the sides and you can see that the bodies are rotating a bit whatever he swings his arms that's right left right he looks happy right now yay alright harder than this we look at the hips and whatever we move if you look at a fashion show okay or a human walks daily you can check out like the hips are not just rotating left right but it rotates up down as well okay this is called sexy butts and happens whenever we move up to number ten and it pushes the uses the leg pushes the bone higher so that's why we have that rotations of the hips and whenever we set key normally we press s but because right now we want to set the hips differently so I want to isolate right now this de-rated z for its own channel differently so i have to right click and wreck the connections first and right click at the timeline and go to channel box so if I select channel Z it shows nothing if I sighs you know why it shares some keys so let's get better here okay we can right click over here and set key 13 right click deselect it as well and whenever he goes up to number 10 you should give a bit of rotations okay wait I think we should set one more Keitha number 7 and number 19 okay uh number 10 tweaked a bit about 10 we're making this a completely straight so maybe reduce that negative eight or nine to five okay maybe a bit better 22 five as well okay actually I still prefer 10 and I will tweak the ball join the heel ball to pushes that leg higher you palm get 520 to the other legs make it to five okay so it bends a bit alright okay I think that but swings a little bit too much [Music] because let's look at the whole timeline again and that's happening too quick so that is a weird thing that we see from the animation so let's go to curve editor okay you can see rotate Z so the keys can use W and hold with a mouse key and move it down you can use middle mouse key or left click okay so that it doesn't change out of a sudden and we can't move it slightly higher okay [Music] all right select the point move it lower so get a smoother change okay okay think the holding still a little bit extreme so I'm gonna use the same to it same tricks to lower it down okay we have just a bit settle all right okay so if I were done up to number three so next let's look at fine-tuning the curve there are some details that you have to look into right now to make it better or even smooth let me call it so let's look at one of the curves okay or probably just select all and it's a lot of things right here so let's go to view infinity and goes to curve free infinity cycle curves post infinity cycle alright so I'm clicking what it likes and trying to find something to explain to you guys channels rotate X okay you can see that it repeats all throughout the time line this one looks fine let's look at the hips okay I see something all right here we go translate why you guys see that the point supposed to blend smoothly but it seems to have a bit of problem it purposely to wick it so you can select the handle so at the point set the handle and W I'll click and drag so same thing pull it pull it down okay it's sometimes from the look at the viewport we wouldn't notice we just feel like there is something wrong and the things are not smooth enough it's because of the details we have to fix it okay these tiny little details will affect the outcome event in DM eventually so for those who doesn't have or which channel that doesn't have changes we'll just go ahead and delete that okay can ships alike all emptied all the channels that doesn't make it a changes alright let's look at this XYZ delete for 2x deletes rotate Y okay make it smoother if you feel like the whole thing the view it's done obvious enough we can press F okay so it will frame everything and it makes it clearer then we should change [Music] let's make it slightly smoothly go to here and change all right okay so next then let's look at this point just get rid of it go to here press F to frame lower it down okay cool next let's select the rest if you already got some other with the adjustment you can select both or more and select this four and get rid of it for tip eggs select all F refrain and make sure the blind smoothly okay [Music] alright next we have hit delete frame it [Music] it's Buddha our rights had about the arms one two three but we have a lot of things okay but we can see that that part is not smooth okay twick it from here go to the keys at the back and forget as well okay so let's look it a bit more then select the other three same problem that I saw and tweak it back like this as well okay to a kid also just gonna do some quick cleanups take the car scale ex-con show the Orient con okay that part just fix it okay John get rid of it okay we're clean thanks for the head hit orient get rid of it just double-check rotate see here no problem okay do the same thing get rid of all the unwanted ones okay problem Twitter like that it's the same that happens with the other legs - ops rival gone trance the ex-con why gone let it sink gone [Music] okay let's play alright so compared to before it does feel a little bit smoother okay next we want to talk a bit about the balancing of the head Fortis here and then the it's gonna TWIC of it okay they'd be able to rotate a little bit to the left you select it display q takes from channel box so I can focus fully on that rotate Z okay before that I rotate I can get a snapping to work correctly so if I highlight the text if I want to rotate that it will somehow disable the snapping at the screw rotate so I have to set the number is manually 13 it will be a negative 5 okay all right the change is not that much and next we're going to work on the so called offset or we call it the overlapping actions I can't for the chess the third spine and next head as well so it's a hierarchical structure that the parents goes in certain direction the children goes later or next so for the chest I've delayed by about two frames and the head we will delay about by three frames and because we want to shift the whole keyframe backwards I have to add a bit more frames select the whole thing we're 2x and if you look at a curve we are shifting hold down shift key drag middle click and drag to frames behind you can see that the whole thing has been shifted over and it is not starting a frame number one anymore which means that I might break the cycles okay so it won't be continued to be a cycle we're breaking the loops I know that like if right now if I play the loops will still remain because I turn on infinity pre and post ICO so if I turn off that it will break so we want to go back to frame 25 set a key okay that makes you the same goes back to frame number 1 right click set key as well so you can see that you break certain things so we're just gonna have to select the ones that's extra that's more than 25 and get rid of it and tweak the smoothness of the curve back to how it was so if I play again so you will see that delay it's coming oops because it's playing at 28 that's shifted back to 25 okay so you feel a subtle of that delayed movements okay next for the head have to select the whole thing okay so like all three channels and delayed by three so let's switch switch 1829 let's go back here let's go to 25 reset key key selected keys left it goes back to number one key selected and he selected as well and again go to the extras keys and delete okay there we go alright that's done okay he's looking sweet right now okay again I have to switch it back to 25 all right so we're pretty much done with the cycles okay you can see that the cycle has a bit of problem the heads are not the same so just gonna copy that and be pasted back to frame 1 whoops okay we have to select all copy right click paste okay it's back so let's play so they're good now check 125 is the same okay so once we complete that we should set this to 24 okay because 1 and 25 is the same if we play at 25 that we should have a double frame which has the same post okay so which means in my delayed the animation or kind of make that static a bit so play with 24 and if your animation is not playing at correct speed you can right click and go to here and switch to real time and by default sometimes it plays every frame here no much difference let's set it back to real time keep play again all right so that completes today's lesson so hope you learn something today and I'll see you next time thanks bye [Music]