Walk Cycles

Recently in my practicals, I have been introduced into the different aspects of Inverse and Forward Kinematics, also referred to as IK and FK. This delves into walk cycles and how the best way to animate a character rig gives you an excellent result.

Inverse Kinematics works on a on a target system where you control certain joints of the body using the X, Y and Z axis. Although this is a very good technique of animation, it is a little sketchy because it doesn't deal with natural curves of the body, and fluid movements.

This is where Forward Kinematics kicks in, Instead of using a targeting system where you place where the limbs will be, it uses a rotational system, so when it comes to getting a nice fluent swinging arm movement  when a character is walking, you can rotate the shoulder and it will create a nice arc instead of a blocky movement.

Task 4 - Walk Cycles

For my fourth task I have been issued a brief where i am supposed to create a accurate walk cycle, this means i have had to take into consideration different types of poses and movements, a lot of reference has been looked upon before i made my animation. 

Here you can see a clip of a 124 frame animation , lasting one second, which is the standard length for a walk cycle when it comes to animating a character. 

Here i have added a little more life to the walk cycle to make it seem more natural, I have started to manipulate the arm movements more.

Here is the walk cycle at a slightly different angle.