Survival Kit Walk Cycle Q

[Amit_S]

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<P>I've done some walk cycles(have just started animating stuff).<BR>I' trying to follow Richard Williams stuff.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px">My 3d walk cycle turned out to be exactly as he recommends with the body going up and down in a wave style. But it looks too odd, too cartoony.</P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px">&nbsp;I cut out 1 position -the extreme up just between the middle pass position and the second contact pose and it looks better, more beleivable.<BR>So is it a 2d v/s 3d thing, cartoony v/s beleivable thing? Or am I just doing something wrong?</P>

[Amrit Derhgawen]

Hey Amit,<br><br>Its good that you're following ASK, but why in the world are you doing all that cutting and editing?? To make it look more realistic?? eeeek!!!! Why are you doing this? There is no such thing as "realistic" in animation. You just convey the emotions and feelings, and animation is just a medium to express that feeling and that state of emotion! That goes for the walks too! There are lots of walks like double bounce, strut, sneak, angry and you can also invent walks if you want or if you have time. We animators use these walks to show the state of emotion of that character in that perticular frame of time. The stuff which Williams is doing in his book, are some really important breakdowns, WHICH IS BASED on a realistic looking walk. Yes, it may be exaggerated a bit, but so what?? You can always play around and experiment with your breakdowns and try to make it look more appealing but don't waste your time making it look realistic. Realistic animation and toony animation are just interconnected to each other. If you don't exeggerate much it will tend to look more like a "nomal life" motion. Notice, I'm trying to avoid this word "realistic". Sometimes it confuses me too!! So, its possible that you may not succeed much in that attempt. According to my animator colleagues and my teacher Keith, cartoony animation is nothing but an exeggerated version of what you call "realistic". I've seen lots of people falling in this trap of making realistic animation. They think that this is the best way to start off with animation. Remember that realism comes with lots of practice, experimenting and experience. So, this is all baloney!! Just concentrate on your basic animation skills, and making cartoony stuff is not a bad idea! Because you try to make everything in an exaggerated manner and from that you learn a lot about even smaller things which you don't usually notice in your real life. Even in raelistic animation, you exaggerate things a bit to add the appeal. For "toony animation" you exaggerate the breakdown poses and anticipation to add the effects. So concentrate on making your animation believable, appealing, interesting to watch! And the word "believable" doesn't always mean "realistic". Cartoony animations are also believable, or you wouldn't want to watch that Looney Tunes series!<br>Hope this helps, good luck!<img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0"><br><br>cheers,<br>-A<br>&nbsp;<br><br><br>


<edited><editID>Amrit Derhgawen</editID><editDate>38918.1243287037</editDate></edited>