Walk Cycles
When I started to work on the JR walk cycle tutorial I really felt like I want more, much much more. Once again I was amazed by how much character can come through the way we walk. I was so intrigued and inspired by it that I went on a sketch crawl to observe different walks and characteristics of people.
Apart from that I looked at another great resource (before I actually set down to work), a 1969 short animation by Ryan Larkin called “Walking”.
Anyhow, this is the result of my second attempt at animating a 2D walk cycle.
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Hi, my name is Avner, and I am addicted to animation!
Welcome to my work in progress animation workbook. Feel free to share ideas, thoughts, feedback or anything else that can help me evolve and further my learning. 
The work of Ryan Larkin is very appropriate to the time when it was created. There is some nice exploration within a theme but the theme is the main thing that ties it together. He seems to explore different aesthetics for character design, how he handle silhouette and such. Definitely one of a kind and important in the history of animation. That period in art is one that had a lot of chaos, the rules had been broken in so many areas that its a wonder anyone from that period, who was exploring artistically managed to pull anything together into a cohesive work.
The simplicity of his work is something I admire. I especially like it when he explores what is happening inside the form. Such as the section that shows women walking who appear to be in burkas, or the end with his own face appearing and disappearing with the silhouette of the head.
The weight of the head and feet in your walk cycle seem to work. Even though you only refer to them without clearly defining where they are, the hips and shoulders also seem to be well placed. Nice contrast in movement between them. The shoulder may be floating a little but overall it works for me.
The chest and abdomen are going off model a lot. You have squash and stretch going on but its not completely connected to the weight and bounce of his walk. I see construction for the head, but not for the body… did you use any construction for the body while creating this? or are you simply estimate where the chest and abdomen should be?
I like how you handle the bending of the elbow in the arm, but the hand is bent backwards and doesn’t seem to be able to drag on the backwards swing. Its like his wrist is locked with little mobility.
In the future you may want to consider putting the feet on parallel rails in your layout. As it you have it here his leg and foot furthest back, into the screen appears to come closer to us on frames 18, 37, 55 and so on. Its just a helpful trick to convince the viewer regarding what is forward and what is back.
Ok, that’s more than 2 cents worth. I’m over my limit; Time for me to stop. Best of luck with your new work. I’m happy for you and what you have accomplished so far. Keep going.
Hey Avner,
Not bad. It’s flowing really well. You definitly have the flow there. Seems to be working good. Here’s my first up impression when I first sore it: It feels quite slow. The arms are bordering on being floaty… he’s leaning quite far back… I guess it’s cose he’s fat… but even for a fat guy…
Is this a normal walk or an exaggerated walk? I find normal walks the hardest to do. I just recently did a walk cyle for work and got a lot of good feedback on how to make it better.
I think your walk is working for the most part… the ups and downs are in there and there’s definitly ease in and out… was mostly the lean back that caught my eye… For a heavy walk, to add more weight you can have a greater contrast over a shorter time period… like over a few frames… I’ll just leave it at that without being too confusing…watch the walks of the droids in StarWars to see what I mean… BTW, ‘The Animator’s Servival Kit’ by Richard Williams is a really good book for walks… but I’m guessing you already have his book.
Good job Avner.
Aaron