The Animator's Survival Kit: Walking Cycle Tips

In Richard William's The Animator's Survival Kit Manual, particularly what I focused on was his tips on how to create a good walking cycle for your character. One of the tips I'd like to start with that I jotted down and found helpful were these steps; (Step, catch. Step, catch. Step, catch.) Williams explains when we walk, we have the habit of leaning. We lean forward with our upper bodies and throw out a leg just in time to catch ourselves. We are also just barely lifting our foot off the ground each time we take the next step. Another tip I found helpful was in the comparison of how women and men walk. Women often take short steps in a straight line - legs close together = little up and down on the body

Men often take big steps not in a straight line - lots up and down/ head and body action on each stride.

I learned a new word; rotoscoping. Rotoscoping is when you're tracing off a live action)/It doesn't work well; when you trace it accurately, it floats. So, increase the ups and downs -- accentuate or exaggerate the ups and downs which gives you the feeling of weight. This pattern here is extremely important: Constant, Down, Passing Through, Up. *If you go down on the passing position, and the contact is the high = cartoony walk

• The key is where to put the middle position, and more so what you can do with the feet, hands, arms, basically the rest of the body

• You can play with squash and stretch. You can make the body not the same shape

• You can use the contact method or down position method and push them together

  • *If you go down on the passing position, and the contact is the high = cartoony walk

  • The key is where to put the middle position, and more so what you can do with the feet, hands, arms, basically the rest of the body.

Focusing on the arms aspect of it, the arms will normally move opposite to the legs (the shoulders opposing the legs will give it more life).

A note from Ken Harris to remember: For walks don't make cycles of body and head action in circles or in figures of eight. Instead keep them straight up and down.