Animating Walk Cycles


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By mikethe3dguy - 9 Years Ago
I'm probably just missing the obvious here as a newbie, but I don't see how to animate a simple casual walk cycle in iClone 7. I can easily apply a decent walk cycle either by using Motion Puppet or with an existing G6 Mason/Heidi walk animation in the content library, but they result in the avatar walking in place. Micro-adjusting the forward translation of the character to keep the driving foot planted on the ground for realistic animation would be time consuming if not impossible. There are some "iClone 7" motions in the content library that include good walks with forward motion (not "in-place")... unfortunately they aren't normal casual walks but stalking around with guns, which isn't what my character is doing.

I think what I need to know is: How do I get a foot to lock in place as it strikes the floor?

Thanks.
By Kelleytoons - 9 Years Ago
I suspect you'll get some good advice from Rampa about walking along a path, etc, but in the end I gave up on the sliding foot issue and caved in and bought the EZ Walks in the marketplace.  These are a whole group of walks that someone (Bigboss?) programmed to handle all the basic straight ahead and turning motions (without carrying guns, although you could always alter them for that purpose :>).  It doesn't address the basic issue of creating your *own* walk cycle, and as someone I used to respond to might say, there IS no EZ button for that, but it's a fast way of doing something without spending a lot of time.

I will be interested to see if this is solvable with scripting, though -- once upon a time I wrote scripts for Max that did just that, handled footsteps along paths and they were so popular they actually still get asked about nowadays.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to do something similar with iClone IF the right access is provided (it's all about what's exposed and what isn't, and to do a footstep properly you need to know bone lengths and stride lengths).
By colour - 9 Years Ago
1) Import a Walk Motion into  Character's Persona & then Select Character/Motion/Walk & clck on a point in the View Port. Character will automatically walk to that point 
OR
2) Select Character/ Apply Walk Motion at 1st frame. Drag Timescale Scrubber to walk length. Move Character to that position. Play from Frame 1
OR
3) Create a Path. Select Character/Motion/Walk. Pick Path. Character automatically  walks to Path & along it..
OR
4) Select Character/Pick Path & apply Walk Motion.. 

 
By but0fc0ursee - 9 Years Ago
mikethe3dguy (9/4/2017)
...Still puzzling through butofc0urse's reply...

Sorry.... Please disregard.
By mikethe3dguy - 9 Years Ago
Thanks for the responses and great advice! Ultimately I looked into the "persona" feature and was able to use a walk cycle attached to an existing one, which worked great. Still puzzling through butofc0urse's reply, but I'm sure there's useful info in there too - just a little involved for a newbie like me to take in at first glance!
By but0fc0ursee - 9 Years Ago
mikethe3dguy (9/4/2017)
Thanks for the responses and great advice! Ultimately I looked into the "persona" feature and was able to use a walk cycle attached to an existing one, which worked great. Still puzzling through butofc0urse's reply, but I'm sure there's useful info in there too - just a little involved for a newbie like me to take in at first glance!

I'm glad you found a solution.
Please... disregard what I've said. I have no intention of puzzling or confusing anyone.