I am wrapping up my first full body to submit soon and was thinking that it may be easier to use the root to translate forward if that is a liable option as well. I assume there may be use cases for both that make translating walk cycles easier. I like the in place walks for now and then if I need to move forward use the root. Maybe more complex animations make it difficult to use the root?
Hi Brandon.
I'm not sure what the actual core of this question is, so I'm going to guess what you are really asking is "when do you use an in-place walk vs a translating walk?"
I think that is what you are really asking here.
In-place is heavily used in games. Although at least one lead animator I know makes his team animate them translating forward but counter animate the root moving backwards. That way it translates if the root is muted, and is in-place if it isn't. (best of both worlds)
The translating walk cycles are more used in film/tv. But it's usually just the starting point that you need to edit.
(this is often quicker than starting from scratch in a specific shot)
I hope that answers your question.
kind of, what do you mean just the starting point? Like the 24 frames walk cycle I am learning now would be a starting point and then loop that until the next shot and touch the hips/feet again then? So most professional animators do not use the root then? I also have heard you talking about the root moving backwards trick to others, that is hard for me to imagine right now unless you have a video showcasing that example?
You can use the root when it actually helps and doesn't hinder.
Eg - I did TV commercial with a Roblox character riding a skateboard.
The skateboard had 2 roots, and the character had 1 root.
The character root was parented to 1 of the roots of the skateboard so it could glide along for free. But then when he did tricks and flips, that root wasn't the one flipping around. (otherwise the character would fly off everywhere)
What I mean by 'starting point' is that when you are doing film/tv stuff, you don't really use a cycle as is.
You will use those keyframes as a starting point and edit them so it matches what you need.
As for the root moving backwards.
One day I will do a video demonstration - but here is a text version.
In your translating walk....
- Grab the Y loc on the Torso (the forward movement)
- Paste that onto the Y Loc for the Root.
- Then flip it so it goes in the opposite direction.
This will cancel out the forward translation and your walkcycle will be 'in-place'.
You did a roblox commercial? or was that hypothetical? As I said myself making roblox stories is the way I want to go so I know knowing the full 20 controls for a high quality full body character won't be as important as say like 10 for roblox but is still really good practice to least practice most. There are multiple packages with more advanced controls for walking. But yea that and maybe one day Minecraft, but minecraft is more saturated with animation. I think most roblox animators animate in roblox studio as well with the moon animator plugin. Was that the only roblox thing you did if that is true? That would be pretty cool to know.