Week 5 – Week 6 | 20/05/25 – 27/05/25
Emily Soh Ching-Ling | 0359478
Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media
Advanced Animation | Section 01 | GCD61604
Project 1 — Walk Cycle
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0 LECTURES
1.1 WEEK 5 —
1.2 WEEK 6 —
2.0 INSTRUCTIONS
3.0 PROJECT 1 — WALK CYCLE
Instructions:
3.1 VANILLA WALK
Animating
Figure 3.1-2: Attempt #1, Week 5 (23/05/26)
*Ignore the floating arms. I know it looks weird.😭
My first pass at animating a human in Blender, based on the walk cycle reference from the Animator's Survival Kit. There are some issues that I immediately noticed right off the bat, partly because my reference was more cartoony while my rig was more realistic.
- The timing is too slow (Mr Kamal later advised to do 2 steps/second).
- The Down pose felt really slow in particular.
- The character's knee is too high up in the Up pose, making it look like he's marching. I noticed in more realistic walk cycles, the foot barely leaves the ground
- He looks like he's walking on his tip-toes.
Figure 3.1-3: Attempt #2, Week 5 (23/05/26)
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| Figure 3.1-4: Up Pose — Attempt #1 VS #2, Week 5 (23/05/26) |
In my second attempt, I made the following changes:
- Made the timing faster.
- Shortened the timing between the Contact and Down poses (from 12 frames to 4).
- Lowered the knee in the Up pose to a more realistic height.
The tip-toes issue seemed to go away once I resolved the timing issues, likely because it didn't look as exaggerated once he was walking faster.
Figure 3.1-5: Vanilla Walk, Week 5 (23/05/26)
3.2 ATTITUDE WALK
Research
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| Figure 3.2-1: Attitude Walk Reference, Week 5 (23/05/26) |
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| Figure 3.2-2: Attitude Walk Reference, Week 5 (23/05/26) |
Animating
Figure 3.2-3: Attempt #2, Week 5 (23/05/26)
Initially, I made each pose last for 4 frames (same with Vanilla Walk). It ended up being too fast for a sneaking walk, so I lengthened it to 8 frames/pose. Other than that, no major changes to the animation.
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| Figure 3.2-4: Rendering Issue, Week 5 (24/05/26) |
I encountered a problem during export where the character's eyeballs floated on the side of his head instead of inside his head. This issue persisted across both the Vanilla Walk and Attitude Walk files. I was advised to copy the animation and transfer it to a new file because my rig was broken.
After transferring, there were still some issues with the rig. Part of the spine rotation, the left wrist rotation, and the eyeball rotation did not transfer over. I manually re-did the missing actions as similarly as seen in the original file.
3.3 FINAL SUBMISSION
Figure 3.3-1: Project 1 — Compilation (Final Submission), Week 6 (26/05/26)
4.0 FEEDBACK
4.1 WEEK 5
General Feedback: Do 2 steps/second.
4.2 WEEK 6
Specific Feedback: Your rig file is broken. Try transferring the animation to a new file.
4.3 WEEK 12
Specific Feedback:
- Attitude Walk:
- Hip and supporting foot should be straight(?) so that the character is more balanced + looks like he's being sneaky.
- Upper body is ok, just the lower body needs work.
- The key frames here are a bit different from the normal walk cycle. The Passing & Down pose are combined and should be quicker. Could use an in-between pose.
- Vanilla Walk:
- Down pose can be lower.
5.0 REFLECTION
Honestly, when compared with the vanilla walk cycle I animated in Animation Fundamentals, I think it could have been better. It wasn't as smooth as I'd like it to be. Part of it looked realistic while part of it looked cartoony. Furthermore, there was another factor I had to consider: how Blender bends the elbows and knees. In 2D, I was able to control the position of every joint, whereas with a rig, part of that control has been given up.
After completing the attitude walk cycle, I realised I simply do not like animating in a software as technical as Blender, as I encountered similar frustrations when animating in Adobe Animate.
QUICK LINKS
FINAL PROJECT — ACTION ANIMATION
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