Walking - Everything you need to know.

[Zed]

If you see any broken links or blank images in this tutorial, please either comment or PM me immediately so that I can get it fixed. Comment for preference, because that bumps this thing up the topic list :)

(Tutorial is over two posts because I am limited to twenty pictures in each)

I’m making this because a lot of people seem to struggle with animating a walk and I don’t like he tutorial that’s currently up here (marked ‘new’ even though it’s 2 years old).

This tutorial is not designed to give a hard and fast, “This is how to do a walk. Any other interpretation is wrong. You must copy this directly,” kind of information. Instead, I’m just going to try to get the basic essentials across and illustrate them with how I’ve applied them to my own, and how other people have applied it to theirs.

Foot Placement

The first thing to think about with a walk is the foot placement. There are two ways to do it. Either you slide the foot backwards at a constant rate, or you keep the foot exactly on the same spot.

Moving backwards constantly is designed to give the illusion that the camera is moving forward with the stick man. This is good for when you want to just animate a walk and you want the animation to run as a loop (ie. it will play over and over again and there will be no obvious gap in between). The legs of a looped walk should look something like this:

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/834/walktutoriallegs.gif

(in fact, there aren’t enough frames in that and it’s too fast, but that’s not the point)

Notice how the foot on the ground is moving back at a constant speed. If we look at it frame by frame you can see how the distance between the leg and the onion skin (the grey outline of the previous frame) is the same each time.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6590/footplacement1.gif http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/121/footplacement2.gif http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2060/footplacement3.gif
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9817/footplacement4.gif http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8783/footplacement5.gif http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3544/footplacement6.gif

And so on and so forth.

Update (26/08/09): Advances in pivoting skill have been made and at least one piece of new knowledge needs to be added in here. The animation above does not exhibit this, and that's why the front leg snaps down slightly on the loop. When looping an animation, you need to make sure you do so over the heaviest piece of spacing you can find. A lot of people, myself included, would instinctively make a stride from where the stride begins. Unfortunately, this makes it incredably dificult to loop well, as the spacing around the beginning of a stride is tiny to accomodate easing. That means that when you finish the stride you have to return perfectly to your starting position, which, bearing in mind you have no onionskin to aim for, is damn near impossible. Looping around the heavy spacing means that really you just have to be going in vaguely the right direction and the easing on either side will trick the eye into accepting it without noticing a glitch.

The other variety of foot placement (the non-moving kind). It is best used when you want the stick man to move across the screen. It should look something like this:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5573/walktutoriallegsnonloop.gif

If this looks slightly robotic to you, it’s because there is no upper-body.

Looking at it frame by frame won’t help you much here – the best it will let you do is copy, and I’m trying to avoid that. Generally, a fixed foot placement walk seems more difficult because you have more things to think about, but actually it is no different to a looped walk. All you have to do to walk your stick man forward is to treat each frame as though you were going to slide the foot back, and then only move the body of the stickman when you have finished pivoting all the rest of the joints. Without touching the leg joints at all, make the feet line back up, like this:

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2629/fixedfeet1.gif

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/2923/fixedfeet2.gif

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8778/fixedfeet3.gif

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2159/fixedfeet4.gif

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9683/fixedfeet5.gif

Remember, this is all one single frame; just in varying stages of production.

Stride Length

Another important thing to consider is how long you want your strides to be. I make my walks with quite long strides, because I think it looks better and I find it easier. My walk tends to use a stride length of 1.2 times the length of the stick man’s shin, like this:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8854/goodwalk.gif

However, more or less any stride length looks reasonable. Below are some examples of other people’s work (If you have a walk that you think would fit here, PM it to me and I will add it in).

CronosXIII ->http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9973/superpwnagewalk.gif

Rival -> http://i48.tinypic.com/11vik43.gif

Notice how they all have different stride lengths, but none of them looks particularly wrong. The length of the strides almost makes no difference to the quality of your walk (within reasonable boundaries). The reason that you need to consider it, is to make sure that you get the same length of stride in each time. This doesn’t matter with a looped walk as the stride lengths must always be the same by default, but if you get it wrong with a non-looped walk, it may end up like this:

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7757/variablestridelength.gif

The Ground Leg

It must be straight from about the time it is directly beneath the torso to the time it is lifted. It can have a small bend while it is still in front of the torso but this must be constantly straightening until it is gone. Look at these three walks for comparison. The first is done with a slight bend at the start which then straightens under the torso. The second has a constantly bent leg. The third has a constantly straight leg.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8854/goodwalk.gif

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2247/walkwithbentlegs.gif

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8572/walkwithstraightlegs.gif

The difference is small, but noticeable.

[Zed]

The Leg in the Air

There is slightly more to the leg on the air than the one on the ground. For a start, you must make sure that the foot isn’t changing direction too quickly. When I do it, I try to make the foot’s trajectory curved and not too sharp. Observe this effect close up and in slow motion:

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7893/backlegdemon.gif

The foot is continuing to move backwards for some time after it has left the floor.

Bringing the foot back down to the ground is tricky too. The thigh should already be moving backwards when the foot hits the ground. The knee should still be extending at this point and will continue extending for some time afterwards. If you extend the leg too early, you end up with a stop-start kind of movement where the stick very definitively takes one step at a time. This way, all the strides are merged. Again – close and slow:

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5071/frontlegofawalkwithexag.gif

Also, I know it may sound silly, but don’t forget that one leg should be in the air. It seems obvious, I know, but the number of people who just don’t bother picking the foot up at all and slide it along. All that it takes to lift the foot up, is to bend the knee slightly, thus making the direct distance between the foot and the pelvis shorter, and ensuring that it doesn’t touch the ground as it moves forwards.

The Head

The head should be bobbing up and down slightly as the leg on the floor comes underneath it. Example:

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/8808/headbobx.gif

You don’t really need to do anything to make this happen if you’re getting the foot placement right. I’m more just letting you know that it should happen, and if it hasn’t you’ve done something wrong. In a walk it should not be necessary to touch the head joint at all, and back movements should only be attempted once you’ve mastered everything in this tutorial.

In theory, the head bob should ease itself. There is a mathematical proof for this, but you don’t want to see it. Instead, here’s an example of what the head bob ought to look like:

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5964/headbobanimated.gif

Yeah. It’s that simple.

Arms

There are many ways of doing the arms. They can be close to the body or far away, for example. It really doesn’t matter how far out they go (within reason) so long as they move at the same rate as the legs. Your arms MUST reach full extension as the legs do and the MUST cross over the body just as the legs are directly below. The must also be eased.

Beyond that, there are only two real variations on the arms that are possible. I’ll call them stiff and loose, although I’ve never seen any one except me using the loose arms so if you here someone referring to them as Zed’s arms you’ll know why.

Stiff arms will look something like this. The elbow joint remains the same all the way through and their swing is eased at either end.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9140/stiffarms.gif

Generally, there will be very little bend in the arms, but there must be some bend or it looks stupid.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5835/stiffarmsstraight.gif

The arms should appear to extend further out in front than behind. This is partly because if the bend in the arms, and partly because that’s how people naturally walk.

Loose arms are more complex, and may take some practise. They are especially difficult to loop, but if you keep trying you’ll get there eventually.

The difference between stiff and loose arms, is that with loose arms the elbow joint moves. As the upper arm slows down, the lower arm keeps on travelling in the same direction briefly before swinging back the other way. Here is an over-exaggerated example:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6827/exageratedloosearms.gif

Looks a lot like a run in the opposite direction. If we tone down the exaggeration to something that you might actually want to put in an animation, it’s something like this:

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/5104/lessexageratedloosearms.gif

Number of Frames

This is one of the most important things, and one that so many people just leave up to chance. The number of frames taken on each stride will determine how fast your stick walks. Too many, and you’re in slow motion; too few, and you have an unrealistically fast walk.

The optimum number of frames for a stride is between 10 and 12.

This uses 12:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/8854/goodwalk.gif

Now see how silly it looks with half of them removed:

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/9740/toofewframes.gif

And with extra frames added in (I’ve only done half so far because it’s been a long day. I might finish off later):

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7517/partslomo.gif

When viewing your animation in pivot or any .gif viewer, it may appear that you can rectify this problem by changing the frame rate. Unfortunately, it will invariably revert back to 16fps (frame delay 6) when uploaded.

Update (31/01/10):
Feet

Feet are a reasonably simple addition. I don't tend to use them myself because I find they get more in the way than they add to the animation, but if you want to use them, here's how:

Basically, feet are a floppy extension to the leg. They need to be slightly left behind whenever the leg moves and should carry on moving slightly after the leg stops, as follows:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx353/Zed31415/feet.gif

You should be careful not to let the foot trail too far or it will bend beyond the natural reaches of the ankle. It only needs to be a slight bend. When used it a walk, the toes should leave the ground one frame after the heel and the heel should come down a frame before the toes.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

____________


Ok, guys. How is it? Did I miss anything?

[Nixon]

A very nice tutorial, however most animators worth their salt will usually add feet - but a great, detailed tutorial filled with lots of content.

Another of your well thought-out posts and threads.

[Zed]

Thanks.

I had considered adding a feet section. I might put one in later if people are struggling with them, but they're generally fairly intuitive. (I also didn't have a walk with feet kicking around that I could throw in lazily)

[Nixon]

I also like it because it's not just a "copy this" tutorial, but it includes theory so if they want to walk they won't have to look this up every time but remember the theory you gave them.

[CronosXIII]

Very nice Zed, looks like it took a long time to write :/
Hopefully more beginners will know how to walk now :D

[Rival]

Ok, guys. How is it? Did I miss anything?


screw you.... :P

[Zed]

Lol. I just wanted to be thorough.

[rrraaattt]

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[TannerBanner]

Zed, thank you! THAT HELPED ME SOOOOO MUCH THAT IT WASN,T EVEN FUNNY!!!!! your the best yo!

[Rival]

Arms
The difference between stiff and loose arms, is that with loose arms the elbow joint moves. As the upper arm slows down, the lower arm keeps on travelling in the same direction briefly before swinging back the other way. Here is an over-exaggerated example:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6827/exageratedloosearms.gif

Looks a lot like a run in the opposite direction.


Not really. Looks like a not-too-perfect-notintheoppositedirection run to me.

[SlayerZaxy]

that kinda helped, thankyou for your effort

[Rival]

KINDA!??! wow dude.

[tehpwner221]

Chiity Chitty Bang Bang Bitch

[insanesk8er!!]

That was great and very helpful

[edwin711]

hey zed do you know how much flash is im thinking of getting it

[Zed]

I must say, that was the one animation-relevant comment that I least expected to find attached to my tutorial, especially considering it was halfway down the section. Maybe in the most recent tutorial, yeah, but...

Whatever. It's between £350 and £400, but you're probably better just getting the free trial first.

[Rival]

I lold. very hard.

[Zed]

Updated. I learned something about loops and it was relevant, so in it went. For those who can't be bothered to search:

Update (26/08/09): Advances in pivoting skill have been made and at least one piece of new knowledge needs to be added in here. The animation above does not exhibit this, and that's why the front leg snaps down slightly on the loop. When looping an animation, you need to make sure you do so over the heaviest piece of spacing you can find. A lot of people, myself included, would instinctively make a stride from where the stride begins. Unfortunately, this makes it incredably dificult to loop well, as the spacing around the beginning of a stride is tiny to accomodate easing. That means that when you finish the stride you have to return perfectly to your starting position, which, bearing in mind you have no onionskin to aim for, is damn near impossible. Looping around the heavy spacing means that really you just have to be going in vaguely the right direction and the easing on either side will trick the eye into accepting it without noticing a glitch.

[animationmaster3000]

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5506/walking.gif its bad i no think you can give me some pointers plz and thank you also i need some help on the arms bad

[RazrBlade]

LOL. I hate character limits

[Zed]

[]http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5506/walking.gif[/] its bad i no think you can give me some pointers plz and thank you also i need some help on the arms bad

After the foot hits the floor keep extending the leg and raise and lower the head to keep the foot at the same level each frame. Also, when you save as a .gif you need to set the resize to 2 and the frame rate to 6. Make sure the spacing is consistant in every frame and is always going the same direction or being eased.

[Out of Ideas]

Nice tut, though I knew most of it.

[MaxZ]

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6827/exageratedloosearms.gif

The easing is awesome in this one, good job :]

[Zed]

Thanks :) [/strategically placed bump] Yeah, I'm a little late and sorta bumping it, but I really do appreciate the positive feedback.

[Stephen95]

Good tutorial you should make a documentary, "The Art of Walking."

[Frank1310]

Awesome guide dude!! It helped me so much first i was a noob now i can walk really good ''not awesome yet''. but ty so much :Smile:

[Icesflame00]

That really helped me... Your awesome.:Cool:

[Brainstick]

That was awsome !

[Devour]

This helped a lot of people, but it made me go "OH SHIT WALL OF TEXT"
Very very nice, though.

[Brainstick]

Hey devour are you using flash or pivot ? and can you teach me about flash or pivot ?

[xmigues]

how this is very good is very very good exelent explication thanks!

[cool ever2]

interesting... good tutorial

[littleninja09]

lol I get all of it but I proberly couldnt actually do it. Its not too complicated its just 2 much to keep in your head.

[Vendetta]

I think this should go to the official tutorials. I am having trouble making the arms so smooth though

[nostro]

thank good post

[ColdFlame]

Great Job Zed, but i got a question, how do you make your stickman in pivot have a customized look? (It would be nice if you guys PMed me) and do you just add feet by adding a small line to your stickman's foot?

[saadhamza]

that pretty good. better than anything ive done :P

[mechanical stick]

lol I get all of it but I proberly couldnt actually do it. Its not too complicated its just 2 much to keep in your head.

you can't be an animator if you can't learn to remember, or rembember to learn, you have to remebmer. Very nice tut Zed, i like. Sometimes, stickmen with feet annoy me, because i am not sure what to do with them in the first place. Someone please make a tut on that?

[Zed]

I've now added a brief section on feet at the end. It's not exactly all encompassing yet though.

[mechanical stick]

thanks, I needed that
and yeah, whenever the breif anim ends, it lags and is harder to understand, but someone as amazing as you can fix that! I usually just left the feet and not moved them. That looked silly.

[Almedin]

thats cool thanks for the help