Creating the Poses for the Walk Cycle
To make Jim walk, you must define the basic poses he will make while walking. There are a lot of ways to walk, so we’re going to use a basic one. There are two contact poses: the moments at which each foot touches the floor. Then there are two other poses when one foot is on the floor and the other is in the air. Those four positions of the body define the basic walking movement.
You must create a motion that can be repeated, which means that the animation needs to end in the exact same position as where it started. In Figure 12.3, you’ll see the main poses and a couple of additional ones that refine the movement. Notice how after those poses, there is another one identical to the first one (pose 7): this is done just so the animation’s end reflects its start.
Figure 12.3 shows several critical elements, so let’s go through them:
Poses 1, 3, 4, and 6 (marked as yellow keys) are the main ones, while 2 and 5 (marked as blue keys) are extra poses to better define the movement, and 7 is the same as 1.
Poses 1, 2, and 3 are the only ones you actually need to create! Poses 4, 5, and 6 are nothing more than mirrored versions of 1, 2, and 3, and 7 is just a copy of 1. This will make creating the cycle a lot easier.
Poses 1, 4, and 7 will be the Contact poses when the foot that goes forward touches the ground. Poses 3 and 6 will be the intermediate positions between two contacts; these poses set the moments at which Jim is standing on a single foot.