Digital Tutors Walk Cycle: Week 4

The ball and legs rig was really useful in understanding the positioning of the legs and lower torso in a walk cycle but the next stage was to animate the arms and upper torso. The Digital Tutor's  rig allowed me to understand the movement of the upper body and how it's linked the the movement of the legs especially with the overlap in hand and finger movement.

DT walk cycle with only the legs and lower torso animated.

The image bellow shows the 5 key positions using the DT rig. It is very similar the the ball and legs rig with the only difference being the flexibility of the foot. This part of the walk cycle was simple to achieve as all the focus was placed on the leg positions and hip rotation. The hip rotation made the rest of the upper body move but that would be changed in the next stage of the animation process.

Finished Walk Cycle:

Upper Torso and Arm Movement:

The image above from Richard Williams ' The Animator's Survival kit' show the arms in opposite positions than the legs. This helps counter balance the weight when walking. What the tutorial also showed was not only the side view of the arms movement but also from the front. The arms tend to move in front of the body as they come forward and then move behind if as it moves back. Like the image above I also understood how the hand has overlap when moving; it points back as it moves forward and  lags behind pointing up as the arm moves back.


The movement of the upper torso and arms was interesting to do. To create an overlap with the bobbing of the head, chest, back and lower torso all were selected and keyed in to certain positions. Then using the graph editor the key frames where moved along the time line so the keys were out of sync by a frame (see bellow).  This showed another fantastic tool the graph editor is and how it can be used to create overlap with a number of components.

Moving the rig from A to B:

As well as the walk cycle the tutorial showed how to make the rig walk forward whilst keeping the timing of the contact positions correct. To create this illusion properly the feet have to stick while the other is moving otherwise it looks as if they are sliding forward instead of pushing it's self forward.

DT Walk Cycle:

The Graph Editor:

The most useful part of the tutorial for me was using the graph editor. Using the infinity curve is really useful for cycles when cleaning up the tangents and it helps deciding which key frames should be kept and which ones are unnecessary. The graph editors bellow (left wrist, centre of gravity and the left scapular) are examples of a cleaned up graph editor with tidy curves. the infinity curve allows me to see the tangents repeated therefore allowing me to identify if any curves are 'messy'.

DT Female Walk Cycle:

The four main areas of difference between a male and female walk occur in the arm, knee and feet movement and the hip sway.

• The arms are more turned out so that they don't hit their hips which are generally wider than men's. This main adjustment was done on the passing frames, when the arms go past the hips, on the rotate X axis.
• The Hip Sway was exaggerated by making the hips move further in the X axis in the down and contact positions. This made the hips 'pop' into place but had a stronger movement that the male walk.
• The feet where brought inwards to a more central point and again this was mostly done on the passing position. This made the position of the feet not as wide apart as the male walk. In the male walk at the passing position the foot had moved way from the centre in an almost circling motion. By moving in the feet I felt it helped in exaggerating the movement of the hips.
• The knees like the feet were also made to be more central and closer together and in the down positing are keyed to move inwards even further. This I feel also helps to make the hips pop.

DT Female Walk Cycle: