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2. Down


3. Passing


4. Up


5. Contact again (same as 1, but with legs reversed)

1 Contact: Both feet are on the ground. At this point, the stride is at its

longest: this is known as an extreme pose.

2 Down or “Recoil”: After contact, the weight goes down on the front

leg. The body lowers, and both legs bend.

3 Passing or “Breakdown”: The front leg straightens and the back leg

passes it. The body raises to a point that is higher than in the contact

position.

4 Up or “High Point”: The back foot is now the front one, and is about

to make contact. The other foot pushes up and forward, raising the body

to its highest position.

5 Contact: The same as pose 1, but with the opposite leg forward.

You can start animating the cycle at any of these poses. Animators often prefer

to begin with the contact pose, as that pose (in general, any extreme pose) is

a good reference to build from.

You have to decide how many frames the walk cycle will use. 12 frames yields

two steps per second: this is a natural pace, which we will use in this tutorial.

Cartoonists sometimes use an 8-frame cycle to create a fast, humorous walk.

A 24-frame cycle would give (for film) one step per second, suitable for a

slow-moving character.

The Walk Cycle for Quadrupeds

A quadruped walk is essentially two biped walks linked together, but out of

phase with each other. When a biped walks, the shifting weight on the pelvis

causes the up-down motion just described. For a quadruped, the same weight

shifts occur for the pelvis and the shoulders.

996 | Chapter 5 Character-Animation Tutorials