Simple Walk Cycle Animation Tutorial

This tutorial is about how to animate a humanoid characters walking cycle. 3D Studio MAX was used, but the basic movement rules are the same with any application. This demonstration is using simple geometry and "Position/Rotation/Scale"-based Animation (DX7 3ds compatible). Other applications such as CharacterFX or Pacemaker do use bones, but basicly it's the same.

1 Body Hierarchy

Let us assume we have made a character of several individual parts, head, upper and lower legs, upper and lower arms, neck, chest, stomach, feet. Right now the pivots are still in the very center of the parts, which is not useful.

In 3D Studio MAX we need to move the pivots of the parts to the right positions, just where the links of the skeleton would be. For this you have to activate the "affect pivot only" mode temporarily.

After some Pivot positioning this looks much better.

Now the "affect pivot only" mode can be deactivated again. The next step is to link the parts hierarchicly. In other Apps where Skeletons are used, this might work completely diffrent. In 3DS MAX you need to link the body parts: foot with lower leg, lower leg with upper leg, upper leg with stomach. hand with lower arm, lower arm with upper arm, upper arm with chest, chest with stomach. head with neck, neck with chest.

This is the Link Mode Button in 3DS MAX.

Now you can rotate and position some parts until it looks kind of like this. You will notice the hierarchical links. When you move the upper arm, the lower arm and the hand will follow.

6: Animation

Ok, we are ready for Animation now. Hit the big Animation Button, so it becomes red. Also click the One-wheel bycicle button at the top right side to open the keyframer tool. Fist set the slider to frame 0 and set a rotation key for each part. Do also set a position key for the stomache.

Now select the right upper leg and turn it, as well as the left upper leg, just like in the picture above. Then move the frameslider to frame 30 and set a rotation key for both upper legs.

Then move the frameslider to flame 15 and turn the upper legs in a way that is the oppsite of the previous state. Set a key for both upper legs here as well. You can run this animation. It is still very poor, just moving the legs forward and backward.

To make this a little more natural we have to animate the position of the stomache. Go to frame 0 and set a position key, as well as on frame 15 and 30.

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Then go to frame 7 and 22 (this may differ, you have to watch the legs to find the right frames, eg. here I had to use frame 6 and 24, where both legs are most vertical). Move the stomach a few centimeter up, maybe 5 centimeters (compared to a 1.8 Meter tall human) and set positoin keys for the stomach here. Run the animation and you'll see, it's looking already much better.

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Now select the upper arms and turn them on frame 0. Note: the arms are turned the opposite way of the legs! This means, leg back, arm forward. Set this rotation key on frame 0 and 30.

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Then goto frame 15 and turn the upper arms to look the opposite from before, like in the picture above. Set rotation keys for both upperarms on frame 15 as well.

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It's looking good now, but the legs still look as if the guy is walking on ice. Therefor we set some tweening keys on frame 3 and 18 (this may differ as well, just make sure it's only a moment after frame 0 and frame 15). Turn the lower leg a bit up and set a rotation keyframe (see picture above).

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Now a little detail: The head. Set rotation keys on frame 0, 15 and 30.

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Then go to frame 7 and 22 and slightly turn down the heads face a very few centimeter. Don't turn it too much.

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This animaton could already be used, but I think it's still looking a bit stiff and mechanical. So let's select the chest (front view) and set rotation keys on frame 0, 15 and 30.

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Then go to frame 7 and slightly(!) turn the chest. You have to turn it in the direction against the vertically standing leg! Set a rotation key here.

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Then go to frame 22 (this may differ as well a bit) and do it the opposite way, turn the chest against the vertically standing leg and set a rotation key here as well.

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Switch to top view and goto frame 0. Slightly turn the chest in the opposite way of the legs, just like you did it with the upper arms before. Set a rotation key. Goto Frame 30 and do the same. Try to turn it exactly the same amount. By jumping from frame 0 to 30 and back you can compare and adjust this.

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Then go to frame 15 and turn the chest the opposite way and set the rotation key as well.

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Finally correct the heads rotation from above to make him look straight forward all the time. For this you only need to turn the head a bit on frame 0,15 and 30.

Conclusion: We have only used 5 out of 30 Frames to set keys! Mainly the frames 0, 15 and 30. There have been tweening keys for the lower legs on key 3 and key 18. All other frames where not affected. Conclusion 2: All parts where only rotated, but the stomach part. The stomach part is the only Part we used to set position keys for.