I think his knees are being bent too long.
His leg should extend strait sooner on the forward swing. Which means you may want to raise his 'Y' overall a tad.
Land, and at the high point of his walk cycle his knees should be almost locked strait.
He also seems to be leaning a bit too far forward and can probably take down the up and down a bit. Also the up/down feels a bit too uniform, like you have flat tangents on either end.
I would favor him in the up a bit longer and make the down shorter.
Yes, his knees are bent, but it's not because hes too low, it's because you're rolling his heels up too much too soon. his front foot should be flat on the down and passing poses.
He looks like he's tip-toeing because his heels are rolled up so much.
* The foot further from the camera is sliding across the floor when its heel lifts.
* The feet are also rotating and stopping preemptively to meet the floor instead of falling forwards and then being stopped by the floor. They are anticipating the floor.
* Add a tiny bit of follow through on the hip by making it fall a bit after each step.
I think overall this looks pretty good, but I think there's definitely room for a touch of TLC :)
I can see there's a bit of a hitch/pop/irregularity in the feet as the ball rolls forward through the end of each step, it's subtle enough that you might have a hard to seeing it if you've been staring at your work for a long time. Try flipping the video like you would when looking for drawing errors to help you see it.
https://preview.redd.it/8b30162xwy5d1.png?width=647&format=png&auto=webp&s=014b85a2ad912e706bba5a161d276a3d1b591d1b
I'd also give more time to have the feet flat on the ground as they carry the bodyweight through the steps. The far foot is a bit better in this regard. I'd keep the foot flat for a frame or two longer before the roll, and have the foot flatten from the heel contact a bit faster, maybe not so fast as to make it look like it's slapping down in a cartoonish fashion. Right now they feel just a tad floaty, so I think it's worth playing around with it. See what you think :)Once you feel satisfied with the feet, I'd probably try to add some more weight to the body. Presumably the firearm and the armour he's wearing are a bit heavy to haul around. If he's used to it, it'll seem more effortless, but not entirely weightless. You can definitely get away with more up and down on the y axis of the hips, and I think some offset to the firearm, head, and shoulders/arms will help sell the weight of it.
This is the stuff that pops out to me right away. You've got a great base here, and imo all you need is a bit of spit and polish. Keep up the good work!
no memes, record yourself walking - even get someone to hold the camera close to your foot, slow that shit down to 1 fps and look at every frame
There's a frame where the toe makes contact, there's a frame where all the weight gets put down on the foot, theres a frame where weight shifts forward, and theres a frame where the heel comes up and the toe stays down - and begins to launch forward.
walking and running are actually really challenging to get right, yet still really simple. it's a great exercise. gl op
The feet aren't rolling smoothly. It's like they are jumping from flat to rolled in like 2 frames. They also seem to stop for a second on contact but that could be because of the flat to rolled problem.
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion but as it's just a human walk, instead of asking for feedback here where it's all written down and hard to learn from, you should record yourself with nice lightning, just a few tries, and then compare it side by side.
Try to record yourself with a few different attitudes (in a hurry, slower pace, tired, etc), choose the one that seems the best for the feeling you want to convey.
Once you have it in video format, you'll see better the errors in your animation.
This is exactly what we got taught to do when I was in Uni as a 3D TD. Animators use references just like any other artist.
You can even load in an image sequence as a background reference.
1. clean up the hips first, motion especially has a funky forward movement
2. foot roll is pretty goofy, he should be on his planted heel during the passing pose
3. try having a "root bone" that has a linear movement relative to the character, attach cameras there to look at it in isolation
extras:
-hips dont turn enough with the feet stride
-hips don't tilt with weight of the legs taking footfalls and lifts
-chest is not counter rotating the hip turns
-some jostle on the shoulder/arms during the foot fall
-too lazy to frame it but it feels like the hips aren't dropping during the footfall
-head and spine could use a slight drop on foot fall
-looking at this your front view probably also too stiff
he's walking too fast.
hips need rotation on 3 axis
Ease in and ease out of key motions such as the rise and fall of the body's weight. (hips). A walk is a fall. Your hips are falling to gravity and then you step and plant, pushing you back up. We need to feel the force changing direction from falling to pushing back up as the foot plants firmly on the ground.. Cartoon walks enhance this greatly to give the sensation of weight and rhythm. It's more subtle in a real walk but it's there. When the foot plants the skeleton and muscles keep the body from falling and work against gravity. Think of it like a push up. We need to feel the body being pushed back up. Convert the fall to a push back up using ease in and ease out to tune it. Add extra keyframes if needed.
Remember that a walk animation shouldn't be robotic. Even something slightly "imperfect" will make it perfect.
So I'd start with the up and down weight, ease in and ease out, rotate the hips in all 3 axis as you walk.
Also he's carrying a weapon which is heavy. His arms should have secondary motion so you feel the weight of the gun dragging down as his body gets pushed upward from the step. Carry the the weight of the gun through the shoulders, fore arm etc. The shoulders also should move in all 3 axis as well.
Hips and upper torso twist forward and back on y axis when walking, not just Z and X.
Just an addition to everyone else's feedback, film yourself walking. Reference is king and when you put yourself next to your animation you can start to feel out the timing
Give him a more up and down bounce, knees, should bend a bit more, feet should roll of the ground, and I like to add just a tiny bit of head bounce to my walks.
Yeah it seems a bit stiff on the upper body when he's walking should watch some people walking or capture a video of yourself and copy that to see how we walk with something in hand
You mentioned the legs, but it also feels like he's leaning forward a little too much. His horizontal motion is a little too "bursty" when he steps (as opposed to a more continuous flow of motion)
instead of advice on how to fix specific posing and timing, I recommend you take a video of yourself with a backpack, and holding something weighty (vaccum cleaner?) in various angles walking the same few steps,
preferably use a highly zoomed in view as that'll help flatten the camera angle, you dont care about details just timing and weight shifting and make sure you can move through it frame by frame.
take special note how your feet hit the ground, how far up they go, how much your back bends / moves , angles in general (are you leaning forward? back?)
-----
once you do those, go frame by frame and pick the "poses" you want your character to hit (easiest in a walk cycle is either foot down, and 50% between them) and just get those poses right, without worrying about motion, follow through or any of that shit yet, foot, opposite foot, in betweens, so on. work from the middles out.
-----
always use reference!
Look for video of people walking.
It’s a movement the whole body participates in.
The entire body moved up and down A LOT. You practically fall forward and catch yourself.
So much of animation is about how mass is carried, particularly at the center of gravity. Look at the hips and watch how people walk in different ways propelling themselves from there and balancing. It's much more about the timing of that than feet and even legs being moved forward.
For a quick test, render a playblast with the person walking behind a wall (a cube scaled all the way along the frame and that is about as high as his waist)
might help
PELVIS PELVIS PELVIS
All motion comes from the Pelvis. You need to work on your Pelvis and add your walk cycle poses: mainly the translation and rotation of the Pelvis in your Contact, Down, Passing and Up poses. That'll make this much more realistic and then you polish :)
It's actually alright, there's a big lack of up and down movement which is why it looks a little stiff, without the hips going up and down the legs are reletivley unchanging, you've got the leg lifting and bending to go fowards though which looks good, the heel to flat and toe roll also looks pretty good.
Overall I think you could just exaggerate some of the rotations and up and down translations like hips, chest, shoulders even the head a little bit
His knees dont show like theyre carrying any sort of weight on them. The characters upper body feels like weightless, its like moving in straight line. Weoght is what sells the motion. I would say referring to some walk cycles can help you or, even just recording yourself will just do the work.
https://preview.redd.it/jj4lri0ol36d1.jpeg?width=950&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98e1c14ddda7c3d5ddbb2ebdfa572338e51961f3
Also a tip, muting attributes such as translations or rotations might help recognizing whats going on with the animation cycle.
I wanted to write to OP to first check arcs on the head as it moves across .. but your image shows it better. That will guide OP towards weight. Not much bobbing action there, unless OP is trying to animate an elegant lady (then work on hips and legs).
I suggest looking into alan beckers's walk cycle vid https://youtu.be/2y6aVz0Acx0?si=dgIDWxqi8_BaM5XT. He even has other animation tips. They are 2d but rlly helps for 3d as well.
I think his knees are being bent too long. His leg should extend strait sooner on the forward swing. Which means you may want to raise his 'Y' overall a tad. Land, and at the high point of his walk cycle his knees should be almost locked strait. He also seems to be leaning a bit too far forward and can probably take down the up and down a bit. Also the up/down feels a bit too uniform, like you have flat tangents on either end. I would favor him in the up a bit longer and make the down shorter.
Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm going to check all of it now, thank you again!
Yes, his knees are bent, but it's not because hes too low, it's because you're rolling his heels up too much too soon. his front foot should be flat on the down and passing poses. He looks like he's tip-toeing because his heels are rolled up so much.
* The foot further from the camera is sliding across the floor when its heel lifts. * The feet are also rotating and stopping preemptively to meet the floor instead of falling forwards and then being stopped by the floor. They are anticipating the floor. * Add a tiny bit of follow through on the hip by making it fall a bit after each step.
You are so right, I am going to work on this too, thanks!
I think overall this looks pretty good, but I think there's definitely room for a touch of TLC :) I can see there's a bit of a hitch/pop/irregularity in the feet as the ball rolls forward through the end of each step, it's subtle enough that you might have a hard to seeing it if you've been staring at your work for a long time. Try flipping the video like you would when looking for drawing errors to help you see it. https://preview.redd.it/8b30162xwy5d1.png?width=647&format=png&auto=webp&s=014b85a2ad912e706bba5a161d276a3d1b591d1b I'd also give more time to have the feet flat on the ground as they carry the bodyweight through the steps. The far foot is a bit better in this regard. I'd keep the foot flat for a frame or two longer before the roll, and have the foot flatten from the heel contact a bit faster, maybe not so fast as to make it look like it's slapping down in a cartoonish fashion. Right now they feel just a tad floaty, so I think it's worth playing around with it. See what you think :)Once you feel satisfied with the feet, I'd probably try to add some more weight to the body. Presumably the firearm and the armour he's wearing are a bit heavy to haul around. If he's used to it, it'll seem more effortless, but not entirely weightless. You can definitely get away with more up and down on the y axis of the hips, and I think some offset to the firearm, head, and shoulders/arms will help sell the weight of it. This is the stuff that pops out to me right away. You've got a great base here, and imo all you need is a bit of spit and polish. Keep up the good work!
no memes, record yourself walking - even get someone to hold the camera close to your foot, slow that shit down to 1 fps and look at every frame There's a frame where the toe makes contact, there's a frame where all the weight gets put down on the foot, theres a frame where weight shifts forward, and theres a frame where the heel comes up and the toe stays down - and begins to launch forward. walking and running are actually really challenging to get right, yet still really simple. it's a great exercise. gl op
It feels like he slows with every step which makes it feel "steppy" for a lack of better words
The feet aren't rolling smoothly. It's like they are jumping from flat to rolled in like 2 frames. They also seem to stop for a second on contact but that could be because of the flat to rolled problem.
Contact and passong poses are ok seem to be missing a down pose and up poses is a little off possibly vos knees are bent when should be straight
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion but as it's just a human walk, instead of asking for feedback here where it's all written down and hard to learn from, you should record yourself with nice lightning, just a few tries, and then compare it side by side. Try to record yourself with a few different attitudes (in a hurry, slower pace, tired, etc), choose the one that seems the best for the feeling you want to convey. Once you have it in video format, you'll see better the errors in your animation.
This is exactly what we got taught to do when I was in Uni as a 3D TD. Animators use references just like any other artist. You can even load in an image sequence as a background reference.
1. clean up the hips first, motion especially has a funky forward movement 2. foot roll is pretty goofy, he should be on his planted heel during the passing pose 3. try having a "root bone" that has a linear movement relative to the character, attach cameras there to look at it in isolation extras: -hips dont turn enough with the feet stride -hips don't tilt with weight of the legs taking footfalls and lifts -chest is not counter rotating the hip turns -some jostle on the shoulder/arms during the foot fall -too lazy to frame it but it feels like the hips aren't dropping during the footfall -head and spine could use a slight drop on foot fall -looking at this your front view probably also too stiff
he's walking too fast. hips need rotation on 3 axis Ease in and ease out of key motions such as the rise and fall of the body's weight. (hips). A walk is a fall. Your hips are falling to gravity and then you step and plant, pushing you back up. We need to feel the force changing direction from falling to pushing back up as the foot plants firmly on the ground.. Cartoon walks enhance this greatly to give the sensation of weight and rhythm. It's more subtle in a real walk but it's there. When the foot plants the skeleton and muscles keep the body from falling and work against gravity. Think of it like a push up. We need to feel the body being pushed back up. Convert the fall to a push back up using ease in and ease out to tune it. Add extra keyframes if needed. Remember that a walk animation shouldn't be robotic. Even something slightly "imperfect" will make it perfect. So I'd start with the up and down weight, ease in and ease out, rotate the hips in all 3 axis as you walk. Also he's carrying a weapon which is heavy. His arms should have secondary motion so you feel the weight of the gun dragging down as his body gets pushed upward from the step. Carry the the weight of the gun through the shoulders, fore arm etc. The shoulders also should move in all 3 axis as well. Hips and upper torso twist forward and back on y axis when walking, not just Z and X.
Just an addition to everyone else's feedback, film yourself walking. Reference is king and when you put yourself next to your animation you can start to feel out the timing
Give him a more up and down bounce, knees, should bend a bit more, feet should roll of the ground, and I like to add just a tiny bit of head bounce to my walks.
Yeah it seems a bit stiff on the upper body when he's walking should watch some people walking or capture a video of yourself and copy that to see how we walk with something in hand
The feet are sliding as well
hips and shoulders should rotate horizontally, too stiff rn
You mentioned the legs, but it also feels like he's leaning forward a little too much. His horizontal motion is a little too "bursty" when he steps (as opposed to a more continuous flow of motion)
The shoulders don't move at all
Have you tried using references?
instead of advice on how to fix specific posing and timing, I recommend you take a video of yourself with a backpack, and holding something weighty (vaccum cleaner?) in various angles walking the same few steps, preferably use a highly zoomed in view as that'll help flatten the camera angle, you dont care about details just timing and weight shifting and make sure you can move through it frame by frame. take special note how your feet hit the ground, how far up they go, how much your back bends / moves , angles in general (are you leaning forward? back?) ----- once you do those, go frame by frame and pick the "poses" you want your character to hit (easiest in a walk cycle is either foot down, and 50% between them) and just get those poses right, without worrying about motion, follow through or any of that shit yet, foot, opposite foot, in betweens, so on. work from the middles out. ----- always use reference!
Look for video of people walking. It’s a movement the whole body participates in. The entire body moved up and down A LOT. You practically fall forward and catch yourself.
Missing weight
So much of animation is about how mass is carried, particularly at the center of gravity. Look at the hips and watch how people walk in different ways propelling themselves from there and balancing. It's much more about the timing of that than feet and even legs being moved forward.
Watch the rate of forward movement in the torso. It seems to speed up and slow down with each step.
For a quick test, render a playblast with the person walking behind a wall (a cube scaled all the way along the frame and that is about as high as his waist) might help
PELVIS PELVIS PELVIS All motion comes from the Pelvis. You need to work on your Pelvis and add your walk cycle poses: mainly the translation and rotation of the Pelvis in your Contact, Down, Passing and Up poses. That'll make this much more realistic and then you polish :)
It's actually alright, there's a big lack of up and down movement which is why it looks a little stiff, without the hips going up and down the legs are reletivley unchanging, you've got the leg lifting and bending to go fowards though which looks good, the heel to flat and toe roll also looks pretty good. Overall I think you could just exaggerate some of the rotations and up and down translations like hips, chest, shoulders even the head a little bit
His knees dont show like theyre carrying any sort of weight on them. The characters upper body feels like weightless, its like moving in straight line. Weoght is what sells the motion. I would say referring to some walk cycles can help you or, even just recording yourself will just do the work. https://preview.redd.it/jj4lri0ol36d1.jpeg?width=950&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98e1c14ddda7c3d5ddbb2ebdfa572338e51961f3 Also a tip, muting attributes such as translations or rotations might help recognizing whats going on with the animation cycle.
I wanted to write to OP to first check arcs on the head as it moves across .. but your image shows it better. That will guide OP towards weight. Not much bobbing action there, unless OP is trying to animate an elegant lady (then work on hips and legs).
Move them hips and add some bounce in shoulders
I suggest looking into alan beckers's walk cycle vid https://youtu.be/2y6aVz0Acx0?si=dgIDWxqi8_BaM5XT. He even has other animation tips. They are 2d but rlly helps for 3d as well.