can the poser walk cycle be programmed? by programmed, i mean to have the character go up and down stairs, change walk styles enroute, stop and then go again? let's say you have v3, and you want her to walk down a hallway, turn a corner, walk down some stairs, turn again, walk down another flight of stairs, stop for a moment, then continue down the hallway. can you get her to recognize "stairs 1" and then "stairs 2"? can you define the particular surfaces of the stairs where her feet would go, then let her figure out the walk cycle when she gets there? i have a feeling the answer is currently "no" but if it is, can it be done somehow? programmed? something like that?

The Walk Designer uses a two-dimensional spline path at "ground level", along with prerecorded walk-cycle animations. It doesn't make allowances for altitude, surface collision, changes in terrain, etc.

You'll have to manually make keyframe adjustments to V3's yTrans channel to account for the stairs. ockham wrote a Python script that can drop a figure onto a horizontal surface, but you'd still need to tweak the animation to make it look natural. You'd best grow familiar with the animation palette and graph.

There are more powerful animation tools out there that can do exactly what you ask (NaturalMotion's endorphin, for one), but they aren't specifically made for Poser. I suppose it might be possible to import their animations into Poser as BVH files, though.

As Little Dragon says a walk cycle is just a walk cycle. 30 frames looped to move a characters legs and arms. Turning corners, walking upstairs has to be done by you, the animator. This isn't as hard as you think but you will have to familiarise yourself with the animation palette. I am working on a Poser animation tutorial at the moment and these are the sorts of thins I will be covering. Keep your eye on the forums and I will release it soon. Spend the time now getting used to basic animation and key frames. Have fun NeilP

I sure hope she can. I'm about to release a pack with 5 staircases in it. LOL. mac