For the past two weeks, on my animation scene. Been having problems with Walk cycles for Mechs. I am able to get the cycles of the leg movements, with Feet (Up, forward, down, back, up..and repeat..left and right simutainously). But I only can get the mech walking on one spot and not moving with ground. When I do try to move with ground, seems like the feet is sliding on ground, forward and back. I am really having difficulty with this. If I can get one of 200 frames, then can use for all. Anyone conquer this?

It's important to note that Poser's Walk Designer has a few figure requirements, such as IK and properly-named body parts.

Fine-tuning a walk cycle to eliminate slide can be a tedious process. Keep working at it.

Nice little Dragon. I had loads of slide problems with the powerloader as well. I was never happy with my walk animation, which is why I never released it. But that looks really impressive.

I also used the walk path, but my mechs never moved on the walk path. Also used the IK, on and off for each leg, and when ever I did that. The leg that had IK on, I would move mech forward a bit, and the legs would go warpy. I always have to give the computer a rest, and I would sit down, and think for new alternatives.

I had to change the internal names of the MadCat's body parts before it'd work in the Walk Designer.

Good tip, Little Dragon. btw, is it possible to export custom walk cycles?

hmm onething missing with that walk tho.. the toes on the mech are static to the 'Mech's movement.. they should droop as the foot is raised then flatten out to that position (flat) as the foot is put back onto the ground.. (based on the animations for Mechwarrior 3, Mechcommander and Mechwarrior 4) btw I've not grabbed the 'Mech's yet, so I'm not sure on the setup, but does that one in paricular have the 3 toes setup? (front / left / right)

Message edited on: 11/24/2004 21:36

No...didn't think you will need it though, although it would be more of a bonus, but hassle. If we can get a walk cycle, then maybe the toes can come in later.

I know the toes for the Mechs mad by John at Vanishing Point have ERC dials to move them, so they might be easier to animate. I haven't look at the toes of the free mechs yet.

Torso, Arms, Upper legs, lower legs, and feet move (Rotate, up, down). Not the toes.

You can export walk cycles for use in Walk Designer, as long as you've got the body part names right. To create it in the first place, make a 30-frame walk animation and save it into the Pose library in the Walk Designer folder. That saved file can then be used by anybody, as long as it goes into the same folder in their copy of Poser and as long as they point Walk Designer at the right model (preferably one saved with IK off and -a tip Little_Dragon gave- the morphs and textures stripped out). I get the feeling ERC settings wouldn't work if you made a walk cycle that way, Poser doesn't cope well with ERC settings in poses saved directly with Poser itself. I'll have to try playing with it, there's probably a workaround. Was that what you meant by 'export'?

btw, is it possible to export custom walk cycles?

You can save your Walk Designer settings to a PWD file from the main control panel.

You can also save animated poses directly to the Library, or export them as BVH files.

[the toes] should droop as the foot is raised ....

Agreed. And if I later add toe bones to the rigging so they'll be posable, I'll remember to include that.

My wife does drawn anim, and says "Are the following comments of any use?" Perhaps an extra 6 to 8 frame 'hold' on each foot after it has gone down followed by toe movement to suggest the effort of moving so heavy a vehicle, ie digging in. This may require a slightly deeper knee bend and ankle flex as the foot is still implying the maintenence of ballance. A slide can usually be corrected by placing a longer pause on the time that the foot is down. She is also inclinded to think that a little more body lurch would add to the realism of the motion. If you check your dope sheet the total time the foot is in contact with the ground should be more than one third of the whole cycle and with a heavy vehicle perhaps more. This is of course assuming that fairly fine toe movements are possible otherwise you end up with a Godzilla like thud! Hope this is of some help.