Pixel Joint Forum: My first walk cycle

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   I'm making my first walk cycle, with a kind of bird-legged mech. This is the Raven battlemech from the game Mechwarrior Online. So I'm trying to imitate the model from the game, but I wouldn't be opposed to making a few changes to learn a bit about animation.

Right off the bat, I will flatten the toes when it's stepping on the ground, it won't keep walking on its toes. Not sure what I was thinking there.

Is it possible to do a walking cycle of this size with 10-12 frames? Or will it end up super choppy regardless?

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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Topic: My first walk cycle Posted: 12 December 2013 at 1:24am
	I'm making my first walk cycle, with a kind of bird-legged mech. This is the Raven battlemech from the game Mechwarrior Online. So I'm trying to imitate the model from the game, but I wouldn't be opposed to making a few changes to learn a bit about animation. Right off the bat, I will flatten the toes when it's stepping on the ground, it won't keep walking on its toes. Not sure what I was thinking there. Is it possible to do a walking cycle of this size with 10-12 frames? Or will it end up super choppy regardless?
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Mr.Fahrenheit Commander Joined: 01 April 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 238	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 3:09am
	You could probably make it work if you balanced the delays enough, but seeing as a mech's legs move slowly over a lot of ground it would probably be easier to do a few more frames.
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 4:54am
	You're probably right. I'll see what it looks like at 20 frames then. Can anyone recommend some useful software for working on pixel art gifs? Right now I'm saving these images as .png, then I have to go to GIMP to convert each frame to .gif manually, before putting them together in Microsoft Gif animator. Makes the whole process take twice the amount of time that I spend on the actual pixelling.
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H\|F Commander Joined: 14 March 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 363	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 11:36am
	Why don't you just use gimp for everything?
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 12:04pm
	*Originally posted by H\|F* Why don't you just use gimp for everything? I haven't heard of any pixel artists using gimp for pixelling. Does it have good tools for that?
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skittle Commander Joined: 20 July 2021 Online Status: Offline Posts: 350	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 12:18pm
	*Originally posted by CELS* *Originally posted by H\|F* Why don't you just use gimp for everything? I haven't heard of any pixel artists using gimp for pixelling. Does it have good tools for that? Gimp is great! It's essentially free photoshop. It works very well for pixelling, though I haven't delved to much into the other tools so I couldn't say anything on that. But it works to say the least :D. Oh, and if you're looking for a good animating tool by chance check out something called ASEsprite. Edited by ADrawingMan - 12 December 2013 at 12:18pm
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Mr.Fahrenheit Commander Joined: 01 April 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 238	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 2:23pm
	I use graphics gale for animations and its really great but you would still have to do what you do unless you spend the 20 bucks to get the pro version which exports gifs. I personally hate gimp atleast the newest update for pixelling. I think Cyangmou uses gimp though.
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Muxaun Commander Joined: 25 November 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 105	Posted: 12 December 2013 at 11:54pm
	*Originally posted by CELS* I haven't heard of any pixel artists using gimp for pixelling. Does it have good tools for that? I use GIMP 2.8 for pixeling and animating. It is almost perfect in my taste. Only thing I don't like is that it doesn't remember tool settings and I have to adjust pencil width after every restart. Edited by Muxaun - 12 December 2013 at 11:56pm
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 13 December 2013 at 3:54am
	Thank, guys. I guess I will have to experiment. Muxaun, now I know who to call if I have trouble. Right? :D
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Muxaun Commander Joined: 25 November 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 105	Posted: 13 December 2013 at 4:46am
	*Originally posted by CELS* Muxaun, now I know who to call if I have trouble. Right? :D Maybe. It depends on the source of that trouble. Regarding your piece. I can see two problems here: 1) The body of the mech is moving not smooth enough. At a certain moment it moves jums down too much. 2) The legs of the mech are rigid. The length of leg segments shall not change. Imo it is certainly possible to make this animation smooth. The best way to achieve that is to draw 4-frame animation first and then add inbetweens to smooth the movement.
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Mr.Fahrenheit Commander Joined: 01 April 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 238	Posted: 13 December 2013 at 5:30pm
	Yeah I agree with muxaun. You should get the contact frames first, then move onto the passing frames, then get the inbetweens. It will eventually looks smooth enough. Check out Animators survival guide, its a really good book.
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 16 December 2013 at 7:13pm
	How does this look to you guys? EDIT: Hmm, I see there's a frame or two where the length of one leg suddenly increases, so I need to adjust that. Edited by CELS - 16 December 2013 at 7:16pm
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Noburo Commander Joined: 10 June 2014 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 279	Posted: 17 December 2013 at 6:23am
	Right now the leg movement feels very rigid, specifically at the joints. I don't really see any bending of the knees, it's just a solid leg rotating back and forth at the hip. Right now it works, but I think that if you watch some videos on a mech walk cycle, and really study the movement, you could make some big improvements.
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atprises Midshipman Joined: 27 May 2016 Online Status: Offline Posts: 41	Posted: 18 December 2013 at 8:45am
	Hello! I've seen this earlier and forgot to reply... oh, and I really like your battlemechs btw :) I did really sh*tty edit but I think it'll illustrate everything I wanted to cover: 1. Timing! The time that the mech spends on lifting leg is waaay longer than it spends on moving it down. I've reduced 2 frames I think.. and also I've speeded up the whole animation and it looks more fun now hehe 2. Weight! When you walk you have UP and DOWN positions. You don't have clear DOWN in your image (ikr that my image looks very bouncy but I did it in such way to illustrate UP and DOWN parts). Right now your mech's middle part does no impact on it's legs and in result it looks like it has no weight though it's very massive and heavy compared to legs. I'd suggest lowering the "body" part down once the leg has a full contact with the ground. Yeah... keep up the good work! I think it'll be as cool as those battlemechs you did earlier :)
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 18 December 2013 at 9:35am
	@Noburo: It's a good point, but actually the model I'm basing this off only bends its knees minimally. I took a number of screenshots from the game at different points in the walking cycle, to get the reference right. And if I change this aspect of the movement, then I will have to change the design of the legs. But thanks for pointing it out anyway! @atpalicis: Thank you so much for the edit, that was very helpful indeed. I will try to follow your advice and see what I can come up with.
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seantheartist Seaman Joined: 16 January 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 8	Posted: 18 December 2013 at 9:06pm
	I think the feet look pretty good, how they sort of drag back before hitting the ground. For pixeling I use Graphics Gale its totally worth the 20 bucks and has a lot of options to preview your animations while you're working on them. Looking forward to seeing the legs filled in!
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CELS Commander Joined: 23 September 2022 Online Status: Offline Posts: 758	Posted: 19 December 2013 at 4:29am
	*Originally posted by seantheartist* I think the feet look pretty good, how they sort of drag back before hitting the ground. For pixeling I use Graphics Gale its totally worth the 20 bucks and has a lot of options to preview your animations while you're working on them. Looking forward to seeing the legs filled in! 20 bucks isn't that bad. I'll try it out, thanks. In regards to the speed of the animation, I'm trying to do a scene where the mech is slowly walking through a hangar. So I don't want it charging forward at 100 kph, smashing equipment and killing technicians. :)
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