Walk Cycle Reading - Learning From "The Animator's Survival Kit"

Learning how to animate a walk cycle is an incredibly tricky - but necessary - aspect of learning how to be an animator. Here, I describe 3 major takeaways from reading a passage from The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams, on tips and guidelines for tackling walk cycle creation.

1. The motion of animation doesn't always follow "realistic" anatomy guidelines.

   
   

   That is to say, to create a smoother, more "realistic" flow in animation cycles, it might benefit the animator more to paradoxically break the rules of how anatomy and joints actually move in real life. As this page demonstrates, what may initially look structurally "broken" on a still frame may look just fine in motion, if not better than if the joints weren't broken in such a way!

   
   

   

   
   

2. The contact positions are what ground the walk cycle - the passing position and in-between frames are what give a walk personality.

Every single walk cycle has two contact positions, and generally speaking, the contact positions of the feet in any any walk cycle will resemble one another. Where personality and attitude is created in a non-neutral walk cycle is usually seen in the passing position and the in-between frames. Regardless of what emotion or behavior (ex. nervousness, sneaking around, an angry walk) an animator is trying to convey, this will result in a dynamic walk that still feels "grounded" and "realistic" to the viewer. The contact frames and where they are placed serve both as an outline to the animator of a walk cycle's tempo, as well as ensuring the character still feels as though they have weight and are moving along.

3. The tempo of the walk is very important! Most walk cycles are generally on 12s, but are animated slightly differently in order to make spacing easier.

While it is generally noted by Art Babbitt (and other famous animators) from the golden era of animation that most people walk in "march time" (on 12s), this can be difficult to divide up for animation. Rather, the cycle is often split into thirds using 13 frames total between contact positions in a cycle, or is animated on 8s or 16s. Like any other motion in animation, the timing and tempo of the cycle is also key to how fast or slow it appears - also a key component of communicating the personality/emotion of the character walking!