We’ll discuss production setup with Shotgun upon returning from fall break.  In the meantime, the “above-the-line” production team should complete a script breakdown that lists all assets that will need to be modeled as well as execute research and reference for look-development of the artistic style.  Art direction images should be created for all assets that can be uploaded to Shotgun after fall break. Today, you’ll work on a walk cycle exercise.  This will be due by Friday.  Upload to your Dropbox submission folder as H6.  [Also, by the way, I've begun grading and several individuals are missing assignments from their folders.  Make sure that you are up to date with H1-H5 before this walk cycle and P1 by Fall Break.  If not, you will not receive credit for these.  P2 is coming right after this, so you'll need to be current on everything].  Also, please do not post .zip files in your Dropbox.  Have folders that contain primarily a 1280×720 h.264 .mov file and a .mb file.  The entire Maya project folder structure may be included (but do not include unneeded extra scene files, etc).

Here’s a very basic example of a walk-cycle, a fundamental animation exercise. If you purchased any of the optional books, read chapter 5 in Character Animation Fundamentals as well as refer to The Animator’s Survival Kit or other texts for good references.  Also, David Nethery maintains a blog with some walk cycle examples posted that you can view for reference. Here are some excerpts with additional examples.  Please do not share outside of the class. (I plan to take the link down soon). Here are some tips:

1. Because this is a walk, there will be the first part of the stride (8 frames in this example, thus “on the 8s”) and a second part (exactly the same length in frames as the first).  If it’s on the 8s, double that for 16 frames, and frame 17 has to be exactly the same as frame 1 for it to loop without error.  In fact keyframes from frame 1 may be copied to your (2n+1) frame for however long your cycle is.  For your first attempt, I’d recommend sticking to this example.
2. Even though this is a cycle, you can still think about it in terms of our recommended animation workflow.  Approach it from the story of your character, the mood of the walk, etc., and think about the movement of the mass and center of gravity.  In this case the hips and legs will be primary to our posing.
3. With the previous in mind, you can actually start by posing the hips up and down.  I recommend keying the hips in the same position to start (slightly lowered down, “sticky” should keep IK feet in place and will have the IK chain bend the knees a bit) on frames 1, 9, and 17.  As the leg crosses over, the weight comes up.  In this example you can key the hips up on 5 and 13.
4. Inverse kinematics are useful for the legs on a walk cycle (want to flip that switch probably on your character rig).  [BTW, for rigs, I'd still recommend using goon or groggy for this].  Forward kinematics, though, will actually give more control on the arms in your walk cycle when you get to them.
5. Moving down the hierarchy in our workflow, legs are next.  Pull the left leg back the right leg forward (if you’d like to match the example).  Keep note of the distance; how much one part of the stride travels down the axis the character walks gets doubled for the full stride.  It’s best to keep track of these because that’s how much distance your character will need to move to match the stride (which we’ll keyframe walking in place like a treadmill to start).  If you don’t match the distance when the character starts to travel, you’ll have feet slippage in one direction or the other… leading to bad moonwalks, etc.
6. With the left leg back and right leg forward, keyframe those foot controls in place on frame 1 and match on frame 17.  (You only need to key whichever axis moves forward and backward, but you may want to keyframe Y as well to keep the feet on the ground here — this will be common for respective parts of the walk where one foot is down).
7. Swap the left leg forward and right leg backward by the same distances to match.  Key this on frame 9 to start the second half of the stride.  If you playback now, you should see some nice sliding going on.
8. Take a look at the first part of the cycle and think about our workflow and a breakdown pose so to speak — this is the leg crossover at 5.  Key the left leg up here on Y.  Make sure Y is keyed down on 1 and 9.
9. Think about the crossover on the second half of the walk cycle.  Key the right leg up by the same amount here.  Make sure it’s keyed down at 9 and 17.  If you playback now, you should have some pretty decent lower-half walking going on.  Work in the graph editor to adjust timing, ease (or lack of), exaggeration, arcs, etc. to get looking really good before proceeding.
10. To proceed, note that the arms usually swing opposite of the legs in a standard walk.  There will also be some torso, shoulder, neck, and head movement appropriate to the walk.  Approach these in a systematic way moving down that hierarchy again, adding in the detail in secondary motions.
11. Your character should know be walking in place quite well.  Adjust keyframes for timing, exaggeration, etc., and to fix any mistakes in the graph editor.
12. Now some motion can happen by key framing Z (or X, whichever way your character is pointing) movement.  This should match the stride length, and be careful of appropriate ease or lack-of.  The repeat cycle infinity option in the graph editor can make your animation curves repeat indefinitely.  The main controllers can repeat as a cycle, and the Z movement (or X, whichever you did) can repeat linearly or cycle depending on the look.
13. Submit a play-blast by the end of Wednesday of your progress, with a final movie submitted to an H6 folder on Dropbox by Friday.
14. For bonus, download the Hotel-T Zombie Rig from Sony Pictures Animation and complete a stylized mood walk (happy, sad, zombie, sneak, whatever — plan reference and follow our discussed workflow).  This can upgrade/replace another homework to this point if done well.

Sony Pictures Animation and Imageworks through IPAX have offered up one of their feature-film rigs (from Hotel Transylvania) for your fun (and possible submission entries).  This is good timing for this class, as you can use it in any of your upcoming homework or projects! Also, here’s a link to a video where animator Chad Stewart steps through the Zombie rig.  The link to the rig is in the comment section. [Note:  If the jacket does not render, you'll need to find it under the geo in the outliner, select it, then under the attribute editor look for "render stats" and make sure that "primary visibility" is checked].  For extra bonus, try upgrading the texture files (possibly painting new ones in PS or Mudbox).