The reason you want to set a keyframe for all the controls is because once you start getting into more poses, you don't want things to start moving at different times. When you're happy with the pose press "A" to select all the controls and select the set keyframe icon to lock a keyframe down for all the controls. (Remember that you have to be in Pose Mode to manipulate the rig) Now, you can keep a little bend in the knee so there isn't a lot of popping during the cycle. A basic rule of thumb is that you want the leg with the heel planted on the ground to be almost completely extended. Now go to frame one on the timeline and begin posing out the character, study the reference video you recorded or found online, or revert to the above image to get an idea of the basic structure for the contact position. With that set select the little red icon next to the keying box to enable auto keying, this way, any changes you make will automatically get a keyframe applied to it. Also, set the keying channel to LocRotScale, so that every channel will have a keyframe applied to it. With the Blender scene open, change the frame range to end at frame 25, so that it will be a looping walk animation. For a 24-frame walk cycle there is going to be a total of three contact positions. With any walk that you create, the first thing you'll need to establish is the contact position. You can download the Blender file here: DT_Puppet_Rig. The rig we are going to use is the classic DT Puppet, which is an excellent body mechanics rig. Creating the Contact Positions of the Walk Cycle The more planning that you do beforehand will only benefit the quality of your walk cycle. Make a mental note of the motion your body goes through during the walk, and really study the reference to learn how the weight transitions from side to side and the rotation of the hips and upper body. However, it's still beneficial to either find video reference online, or even get up and shoot some of your own. After a quick Google search for "Walk Cycle" you'll be presented with a large list of images displaying the main poses and timing involved. Since we are going to be animating a vanilla walk cycle, our posing will not deviate very far from this basic structure. In the animation world this type of walk cycle is often referred to as the "Vanilla Walk". Of course, the poses can be tweaked and exaggerated where needed, but you can see the motion that the body goes through during a walk. You can see in the image above the main poses involved with a walk cycle, these poses are going to give you the foundation for a great walk. There are four main poses and an average of 12 frames per step, so 24 frames for a complete cycle. Of course, this formula is really for a very basic walk, the type of walk you see when someone is walking down the street, or strolling through the mall. That's right, when it comes to walk cycles there is actually a good formula that will help you create a believable walk cycle every time. Before you begin animating a walk, you need to know the basic formula. If you're brand new to character animation inside of Blender I recommend first checkout out Learning the Basics of Blender Animation Tools article. In this article, I'm going to walk you through the key steps of creating a walk cycle inside of Blender. The walk cycle is often one of the first animation tests done for a new character in a film because it's a great way to get comfortable with the rig as well as establish a personality. Walk cycles are a key component in video game animation, if a character is going to move they are going to need to have a walk cycle. *edit: I offset the pose by copy/pasting keyframes 1-40, and then shifting frame 20 over to frame zero - so there are 20 frames before and 20 frames after the actual animation.There is a lot that goes into creating a believable walk cycle, you need to understand how the human body moves, and the key positions we go through during a walk. (And yes, I created a new keyframe for every active bone at 0 and 40.) BUT, when I DELETE all those extra frames - just the stuff before 0 and after 40, none of the actual visible frames - I get that "lag" at the start and the end of the animation again. When I play it back with all the extra frames on both sides*, it looks great (even though those extra frames don't do anything and frame 0 and 40 are identical). However, it looks like there IS something weird with Blender's start/end of the loop. Was able to get rid of the keyframes at the old start/end and made a smooth transition much more easily. Thanks for the suggestion! That's actually exactly what I ended up doing last night, and it's working wonders.
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