Macromedia Flash Tutorials

Flash Animating a walk cycle Tutorial : 

Making a walk cycle can be one of the most challenging things you do in animation. Their are so many events going on at the same time and it only takes one small mistake to ruin the entire scene. However this daunting task can be simplified into 3 simple steps, which if done correctly can simplify the entire process.


1. Poses

The first step that you will need to master can be described by four distinct poses: Contact, Recoil,Passing and High Point.







These four poses are the key stones of a walk cycle and the single most important pose out of the four is the contact pose.


This single pose will make or break your walk cycle. If you mess up on this pose it may be very difficult to correct later, if not impossible. Therefore pay close attention to how you draw your contact pose and in the process save your self a lot of heartache.



The second most important pose is the recoil pose. In this pose the character is at his lowest point and it is on this pose that most people mess up on. The main reason for this is that they have the contact foot a few inches in front of the character when in reality it should be almost directly beneath the body. They also fail to realize that the impact from the ground causes the arms to swing away from the body. Too many times have I seen beginners placing the arms to close to the body on this particular pose. So in other words, don’t make the same mistake they did.


The final most important pose, the High Point, is also the highest point in the walk cycle. In this pose the character’s body is stretched out to its maximum height as he lifts his leading leg forward to reach the next contact position. This pose is important due to the fact that it ties all of the other poses together, so you need to make sure that you get this pose right.


2. Opposing

The next step that you must master is called the “opposing actions”. Good animations always have one side of the body opposing the other. When the left foot is forward, the left arm is back, and vice versa. This is also known as counter-pose and it is pretty much natures way of keeping everything in balance when you move.


If you do not follow the rule of ”opposing actions” your animation will seem weird or unnatural and will ultimately fall flat on its face. So just obey it!


3. Fall

The next thing that you will need to learn is how the body moves its self forward. You can think of this process as a series of falls. The character propels himself forward by leaning into the walk and purposely falling as he moves forward. His trailing foot constantly swings forward to catch himself before he moves on to the next “fall” in the sequence. This in returns propels him forward.

Conclusion

Now if this all sounds a little weird at first it’s okay. Walking is probably one of the hardest things that we as humans are forced to learn, why do you think that babies fall so much when they are trying to learn how to walk. Its because its hard and therefore trying to animate a walk cycle is also hard but if you follow these simple steps that I have shown you and put in a little bit of hard work you to will be able to make your very own walk cycle.

source :http://www.tutorialized.com