All language subtitles for 06-05-Polishing the feet

- [Instructor] In this video,

we will start polishing our walk cycle.

As following cycle, we will apply

some kind of layered method,

meaning that we will start
by polishing the feet,

then the root of the torso,

and then the different
features of the body.

As explained in the previous video,

we may have to change the
timing of this animation.

Vanillia cycle is generally
around one second,

maybe a little more,

since I'm animating a 30 frame per second.

A current animation is about 0.8 seconds.

To get a better feeling about this,

I will select all my keys
and I will switch to Bezier

by pressing the T key.

Oh when I played the animation,

it definitely feels a bit too fast.

What I want to do is push
the length of this animation

a little over 30 frame.

Let's try 32 frame.

So I will set the end of
the animation on frame 31.

Now, with all my keys selected,
I will put to play head

on frame 0 and press S scale

til the latest keys are
aligned with frame 32.

This way, all the keys have
been offset by one frame.

I now have a key pose every four frames.

My walk cycle rhythm
looks way more natural.

With my amateur in pose mode,

I will select the foot and
I will press control tab

over the action editor to
switch to the graph editor.

I will then click to
show selected only icon.

We will start by idling all the curve

but the location curves.

Whether you're working on
the run or a walk cycle,

the first thing you want is to fix

whenever the feet is in
contact with the ground.

This the contacting
foot is supposed to move

at a constant speed.

You need a linear interpolation

between the first contacting frame

and the last contacting frame.

In our case, between frame 0 and frame 20.

You can easily get to this result

by converting the key frames
on those contacting pose

to vector using the V key,

and then we can get rid of
all the key frame in between.

The same then apply to the Z and X key,

won't be any up and down
or side to side motion

while the foot is on the ground.

Select the Z and X curve keys

and I will press the dot key to zoom in.

There should be no variation
between frame 0 and frame 20

so I will simply duplicate frame 12,

which is the same as frame 20,

and move it by pressing
G and X on the x-axis

toward frame 20.

Pressing the V key, I can
transform the end-alls

on frame 0 and frame 20 to vector

and get rid of all the keys in between.

And here we have fixed our curve

whenever the foot is in
contact with the ground,

a little detail here.

Since I have created this animation

by duplicating our run cycle,

we can see that we have a loop
modifier or cycling modifier

onto our curve and they
do repeat over time.

I select all the curve,
I can press shift E

and use a clear cyclic
modifier to get rid of it.

But since we are walking on a cycle,

it does make sense to keep the modifier.

So I will press shift E and
select make cyclic again.

Before I start polishing the curve,

I will calculate the motion path.

Use the foot controller
as a reference point

or you can choose the toe controllers.

As explained before, I will press Q

to calculate the motion
path since I've made it

one of my quick favorite,
and I'm calculating it

over frame 0 to 32.

Before I jump into polishing,

I've tracked the motion of
the foot on the reference.

And before whenever the foot
is contacting the ground,

it's moving with a linear fashion.

Then we can see an ease in and ease out

whenever it's starting to raise.

It's accelerating until the passing pose

but also losing altitude.

And then, it raise again,

go a little beyond the
contact pose and fall.

On the run cycle, we will polish one foot

and then we will mirror the
animation onto the other one.

To help myself, I will go in
front of you and press Alt B

and frame off of the character

so that I see only the left foot,

the one I'm going to work on.

From there, let's start polishing
the location of the foot.

I will start with the Y location.

As usual, I will display the
polish curve as a reference.

In studying the reference,

we've seen that the foot
was traveling a bit backward

when leaving the ground.

So I'm pushing a bit the curve on frame 22

as if it was some kind of overshoot.

We get a smooth arc in the
curve and then an acceleration

toward the next contacting pose.

And as shown in the reference,

the foot travels a bit further
than the contacting pose

before contacting on frame 32.

So the value of the curve
on frame 31 is lower,

so further forward than on frame 32.

We'll go back in the front of view,

press Q to access my quick favorite

and update the motion path.

We now need to work on the
up and down of the foot.

As you can see, it's very
linear for the time being.

As seen in the reference, the
highest point for the foot

is going to be just
after leaving the ground

and just before hitting the ground.

I'm raising the control point on frame 24

and then I will lower it
next to the passing pose.

We want the toes to
almost touch the ground.

I will move the previous extreme
up from from 24 to frame 23

to have a smoother motion.

I will also move the
next extreme on frame 30

so that the foot gets high
and then slap onto the ground.

And now we can see that
we have a motion path

that is very close to what
we had on the reference.

Note that the keys on
the contacting frames

all have their end-alls set to vectors

so that we don't have any easing

when the foot is leaving the ground

or when it's contacting the ground.

We can now switch to front view,

editing the left to right motion

is going to be pretty straightforward.

I will frame the curve

and I will give it a
little parabolic shape,

making sure that the foot is
at its extreme on the side

that whenever we are
hitting the passing pose.

We are starting to get decent results

regarding the location
of this foot controller.

Let's work on the foot roll.

I prefer to start walking on the rotation

using the heel controller

because it's the main rotation
controller of the foot,

at least on the walk cycle.

And then, I will get
back on the foot to tweak

and input some subtle
rotation to the foot.

To touch the ground, the
foot should be slapping.

Though, I want a fast motion
between the contacting pose

and the flat foot position.

So I will offset the
key with a value of zero

on the frame 1 and I will
switch the end-all to vector.

This way, the foot is
getting flat on the ground

over one frame with a clean curve.

After the passing pose
when the heel is raising,

I want a slight acceleration.

So I want my curve to look
more like a parabolic one.

Also, I need to offset a bit

the moment the heels start to raise.

It's just after the passing pose,

around frame 10, not frame 8.

I will fix this a little later.

Right now, I'm just pushing the pose

to make sure that the foot
has a smoother motion.

I want to hold a bit the pose

where the foot is pointing down.

So I will duplicate the
key on frame 24 to frame 25

and create a slight plateau.

Then I want to create the
flapping or whipping motion,

meaning that the toes will get higher

just before they hit the ground.

So I need to push the curve down

just before the contacting pose.

From there, I will kind
of fine tune each pose.

It's more about motion feeling,

that's something I can't really explain.

And I will fix the moment the heel raise

by delaying it by two frames.

Next, we are going to
work on the X rotation

of the main toe controller.

We're going to have the same behavior

as the tale of this hero character.

It will have a subtle
overlapping or full of emotion.

In this case, we will be only animating

the axialer rotation of the toes.

It's very simple.

We want the toes to slightly drag.

So basically, you want them

to point toward their previous position.

As the foot flap on the
ground and is getting flat,

I will slightly raise the toes.

Then later, I will make them flat

and then switch their end-alls to vector.

Then working on the moment
the foot leave the ground,

I will switch the end-all
on frame 20 to vector

to make sure that the rotation
of the toes is accelerating

as they are pulled backward.

And I will make sure I have
some dragging of the toes

until frame 30, not bending them too much

or the motion too stylized

and the foot will look very loose.

And as I a hard time
getting the right position

for the toes on frame 30,

it's simply add another key
frame here and animate on ones.

Animating on ones means
that you add a key frame

or drawing on each single frames.

It's perfect when you
have a complex motion

on very few frame to key each frame

and work each poses, one by one.

With our toes now polished,
we can switch back to the foot

and work a bit on its rotation.

We will keep it simple and only work

on the Z quadrillion rotation.

Foot motion when going into
details can be very complex.

We want to push the
level of realism further.

You need to study your
reference frame by frame.

Check out which part of the
foot is contacting first,

whether the weight is more on the edge,

on the middle of the foot,
on the ball of the foot,

et cetera, is there any squashing

or slight shaking motion of the ankle?

All those subtle movement
brings what we call texture

to the animation and we'll make
your animation looks less CG

and more subtle.

So in the end, I'm just
slightly pushing the rotation

we have already input during the blocking.

And I will just input a bit
of rotation toward the inside

when the foot is leaving the
ground and toward the outside

when the foot is getting
to the next contact pose.

This will translate the fact
that there is more pressure

under the big toe when the
foot is leaving the ground.

While we favorize weight over
the outer edge of the foot

when contacting.

It's a subtle weight transfer
from the outside of the foot

to the inside of the foot,

between the contacting
pose and the pushing pose.

So we can translate this by
inputting a bit of rotation

when the foot is leaving the
ground toward the inside.

This is not a golden
rule because it will vary

from people to people
based on your weight,

the size of your hips, your
orientation of your knees,

even a subtle foot rotation

will bring personality to your character.

Before we mirror the animation,

we need to slightly rework the knee.

So basically, we just need to rework

the left to right motion
of the pole targets.

I will just input a bit of delay

based on the rotation of the foot.

Most of the time, your foot
and your knee are aligned.

So when the toe is pointing inward,

I will push the knee in between inward.

And when the toe is pointing
on the outside, guess what?

I will push a bit, the pole
target, on the outside.

The X and Y curve don't
have that much inference,

I prefer to remove any key
frames that are not set to zero.

Once my keys were more or less defined,

I've moved them away one from the other

to get a smoother and slower motion.

With this to avoid any
noisy motion of the knee.

There can be a bit of
noise on the knee motion

during the impact, especially
on the heavy character,

you will use the knee tweaker

and input a bit of up and down motion

whenever the feet are
contacting the ground.

But since our character
is pretty lightweight,

I prefer to keep a
smooth motion of the knee

following the foot.

With the whole leg finally polished,

we can now mirror the
motion onto the other leg.

This is something we have
already done several time

in this course so I guess
you know all to do it,

but I will repeat the process.

I first selected all the
controller of the left leg.

Press Alt H to reveal all the curve

and press A to select them
all, then press control C

to copy those curve.

Then I will select all the
controller of the opposite leg.

I will also press Alt H

to make sure that there
is no curve hiding.

I will select all the keys
but the one on frame 0

and delete them.

Then I will select all the keys

and press control shift to V.

Now, both my legs are moving the same way.

I will press shift to
D to duplicate X and 32

to offset by 32 frame.

That way, I have two
cycle for the right leg

and now I can offset it
back by half the length

of the motion by pressing
G, X, and minus 16.

I have an alternate motion of both legs.

I will go on frame 0
and insert a key frame

on all the channels.

Then select those key frame,

press V and switch them to three.

This way their end-all
curvature won't change

if I remove the previous keys.

Then press Shift to D
to duplicate those frame

and move them on frame 30 to
sway the first and last keys

of the cycle of the same
and we can remove any keys

after frame 32 and before frame 0.

And we now have both our legs polished

and we can jump into the next video

where we will be polishing the torso.