Towards Walk Paths for Props.

In some circumstances there are obvious advantages in using a Walk Path to animate a prop, if you don't believe me try recreating the attached animated gif without one.

I'm trying to learn a bit about Walk Paths and the Poser Walk Designer, I hope people will treat this thread as a place as a place the share information on the Walk Designer in genral, as well as just walk paths for props.

It occured to me that a prop could be made to follow a walk path if it was parented to the BODY of a figure, and the figures actors were hidden. It's a waste of resourses to use a normal figure for this purpose, so the question arrose "What are the minimal requirements for a figure to follow a walk path?".

Nothing is set in stone yet, but this is what my experiments so far sugest are the minimal reqirements.

Actors:
BODY
hip
rThigh:1
rShin:1
rFoot:1
Thigh:1
lShin:1
lFoot:1

It seems that all actors (except BODY) must have actual geometry, you can't use an empty declaratin or problems will occur with the Poser menus when Walk Designer is used. I used a square primitive for the geometery declaration in most parts, and the Mag Base (base.obj) for the hip. Poser insists that the file must also contain IK chains for the legs. My current version of the 'Walker' is about 29 KB (the Mannequin.cr2 is 108 KB).

All the actors in the walker are hidden, except for the hip which is, set to Outline and transparent so as not to show when rendered.

My main problem with the 'Walker' at the moment is that when I create a walk cycle in the Walk Designer the amount of Z translation of the BODY in each frame is not constant, it results in a jerky uneven motion. Any thoughts on correcting this would be much appreciated.

I will attached my WalkerV01.cr2 below in my next post, you may use it in any way you chose. One feature is that poses saved for it will include data for the root actor 'BODYX', so it is not necessary to save the walk path or a pz3 in order to recreate the motion, just save a pose file.

Attached above is my 'WalkerV02.cr2'.

Another example of a prop folloing a walk path, this time there is a vertical component to the motion. A square prop was loaded and the Walker figure parented to it. A parabolic path was layed out flat on the ground as normal, and a walk cycle created for the Walker figure in the Walk Designer. The square prop was then Z rotated through 90. This results in motion of the Walker now being in the verticle plane rather than the horizontal. The rocket prop was then parented to to the Walker.

Hey there thanks a lot for taking the time to post this :)

Very cool! It's nice to see some more poser 4 animators on the forum. I'll definitely have to play with this some then I get a chance. I'm still a little confused on setting the parent figure, but I'll play with it.

Tufif, usually the Walker does not take much setting. If the motion is to be along the ground as in post #1, just translate the body of the Walker to the position you want the motion to start from, rotate so it faces in the direction that the motion is to start in, create a Walk Path for the Walker figure, select the Body of the Walker figure and do CTRL+C (Copy), select the Walk Path and do CTRL+V (Paste), this will line the Walk Path up with the figure. If you want motion in the vertical plain, as in post #3, then start with the walker in the position it loads in. Load a square prop, parent the Walker to it. Create, shape, and scale a Walk Path. Run the Walk Designer on the Walker. zRot the square 90. Line your prop up with the Walker, and parent it to the Walker. The order you perform those steps in is important. You can now set the start position of the motion by translating the square prop (NOT the Walker). You can change the direction of the motion by the xRot dial of the square prop. I find that the smoothest motion for the Walker seems to happen if I set 'WALK' to 200% in the Walk Designer, the other paramiters I leave at zero. I don't change the 'Figure Type' to the Walker cr2, I just leave it as the default figure.

Hi Les, I don't use the Walk Designer, but I have a 3D motion path for props (and figures). It's ERC code and works in Poser 4. The code creates a 3D Bezier motion path. You can parent a prop or figure to the path and then set a single dial to animate the motion. The path has automatic bank control. The pitch and yaw orientation follows the tangent of the curve, the roll orientation is constant as you can see in the picture. I don't find the file right now, but I'm sure I have it somewhere. If you are interested, I try to upload the model.

Hi Les, Also nothing to do with the walk designer, but Ockham is also busy working on a Python script I call the Vehiculator. I don't have my testing copy yet as Ockham is on a break, but it can apparently: 1) Assign a path. 2) Keep the object on the terrain surface. 3) Work out the correct wheel rotation for distance travelled for a vehicle. 4) Allow you to set the speed of the motion. 5) Bank and turn. 6) Realistic slow start speeding up and gradual stopping for a vehicle, and realistic slowing down on corners. More when I actually get the script to test...... Helgard

"If you are interested". VK, this sounds great, I am very interested! Looking forward to you posting the file.

Helgard, this also sounds very interesting, especially the acceleration/deceleration aspect.

However as interesting as these developements by VK and Ockham are, my primary focus at the moment is still on mastering the Walk Designer. I have a bit of a one track mind, and tend to get obsessive about something for a few weeks or months, untill the next thing grabs my attention.

Thread added to the FAQ useful links list :)

OK, found "the file". It's a bunch of half-rotten code tests. I tried to sort it out and add some explanations. I will open a new thread, as this stuff is definitely OT.

On the subject of shaping the Walk Path.

If you are a geometricly inclined person (which I'm not) you can shape your walk path by saving it to a props pallet then editing the 'pt' lines, each pt line represents a node, and the 3 values in the the pt line represent the X, Y, Z, coordinates in Poser units. You can add as many pt lines as you need to get your shape (I supose there is some upper limit). Bare in mind that the first and last nodes are what I call "tweaker" nodes they are not part of the path as walked, they are just there to set the curve at the start and end of the path.

Now perhaps the most interesting thing here is that you can set the Y (hight) peramiter of the nodes by editing the file. The animation above is an example of a path that has values set for the Y peramiter of the nodes, below is the relivent code from the path pp2:

      numControlPts           11<br></br>  pt      0.480000 0.000000 0.520000<br></br><br></br>     pt      0.000000 0.000000 0.800000<br></br>  pt      -0.560000 0.100000 0.560000<br></br> pt      -0.800000 0.200000 0.000000<br></br> pt      -0.560000 0.100000 -0.560000<br></br>        pt      0.000000 0.000000 -0.800000<br></br> pt      0.560000 -0.010000 -0.560000<br></br>        pt      0.800000 -0.200000 0.000000<br></br> pt      0.560000 -0.100000 0.560000<br></br> pt      0.000000 0.000000 0.800000<br></br><br></br>     pt      -0.480000 0.000000 0.520000<br></br> calcCurve

Message edited on: 07/26/2005 16:14

Message edited on: 07/26/2005 16:15

Attached above is the text for a (roughly) circular Walk Path for anyone who wants one. Copy the text into a text editor and save it to a props pallet as 'CirclePath.pp2'. The diamiter is 1.6 Poser units, to make a bigger or smaller circle, just scale it. P.S. You may like to take a look at the thread below, which touches on our subject of walk paths for props: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=10139&Form.ShowMessage=2350719

Attached Link: Making a 3D Motion Path in Poser 4 by VK.

A link to VK's thread. Whilst off the topic of Walk Paths and the Walk Designer, this is very interesting and usefull for anyone wanting to animate props or figures in Poser.

When you create a walk path in the Poser interface it loads bent and with 6 nodes, 4 nodes for the path as walked, plus the two "tweaker" nodes at the ends. Some times you might want to start with a straight path with less nodes. So attached above is the text for a straight path with 4 nodes, 2 end nodes for the path as walked plus the two "tweakers".

I have made a new version of my Walker "Walker3D" version 04. The file will follow in a subsequent post. I must admit that this mini tutorial is the blind leading the blind. I only made the Walked3D this afternoon and am still learning how to use it my self! We have seen how to make a motion in the horizontal plain (post #1), and a way to make a motion in the vertical plain (post #3). What if we want our prop to follow a walk path in both the horizontal and vertical plains? Walker3D is my attempt to solve the problem of creating a motion in all 3 dimentions and follow the attitude of a path so that the prop (or figure) not only moves left and right, turnes left and right, assends and desends, but also piches up and down with the slope of a path. There are two figures and a prop in the cr2. The Walker-B figure is parented to the 'ROTATER' actor of the Walker-A figure, the "Body" (BODYA) of the Walker-A figure is parented to a prop named 'WalkerParent', this prop allows you to change the position and rotation of the other elements. It is sugested that you only use the WalkerParent after the walk cycles have been created, this is not always strictly necessary but it will avoid some potential problems. The Walker-B figure contributes nothing to the horizontal motion because some of its channels are locked, it is only used for the vertical motion and pitch. Here is an example of using the Walked3D: Load Walked3D. Parent your prop (or figure) to the 'Body' actor of the Walker-B figure. In most cases it's best to align the origin (center of rotation) of the prop (or hip actor if its a figure) on or close to the crosshairs on the Walker figure. Create a Walk Path for the Walker-A figure, shape and scale the path as desired, this path (Path_1) represents the motion in the X-Z plain. Create a second path for the Walker-A figure, this path represents the Y or vertical motion, shape and scale the path (imagin the path Z rotated to 90, in fact you can parent the path to a prop and zRot it to better visualise it in the Y dimention, but only shape the path when is is flat on the ground). Once you have shaped the paths it's time to apply the walk cycles. Start the Walk Designer, set 'RUN' to 200%. Click 'Apply', set the desired 'End Frame' (for a given path length more frames = a slower steadyer motion), select 'Walker-A' as the figure, and 'Path_1' as the path, click 'OK'. Now for Walker-B, click 'Apply', set the desired 'End Frame', select 'Walker-B', select 'Path_2', click 'OK, click 'Done' to return to the document window. Test run your annimation. It may happen, in fact it probably will happen, that one of the figures will finish moving before the other. To fix this, advance the scrubber (slider) in the Animation pallet to determin which figure stops first and at what frame. In the Walk Designer, add some frames for the figure that finishes first. Once you are satisfied with the motion and have both Walker figures finishing at the same time, you can use the translatrion dials on the WalkerParent prop to move the start position of the motion, and use the rotation dials to set the direction that the motion procedes in. In the dolphin animation above only one path was used, the default path unmodified, this was applied to both the Walker-A and Walker-B figures.

Attached above is the text for the 'Walker3D.cr2'. Copy the text into a text editor and save it to a sub-folder of your 'character' folder as 'Walker3d.cr2' version 04.

Re: Walker3D.

This animation shows two walk paths applied to the Walker3D. The twisty path 'Path-1' defines the horizontal components of the motion, the forward and side-side motion, also the twisting around the Y axis, it is applied to the Walker-A figure. The curved path 'Path_2' defines the vertical component of the motion, and also the twisting around the X axis (pitch), it has no effect on the forward or side-side motion.

Re: Walker3D. With the "vertical" path (Path_2) the displacement in the X direction represents the altitude of the prop. When the direction of the path points towards the right then the motion is up. When it points to the left then the motion is down.

Re: Walker3D. Most of the time you will probably want to have the end points (not the "tweakers") for both paths in the same place. Not always though. The steepness of the path will affect the pitch of the prop. To get a more extreem pitch decrease the Z scale of the "vertical" path (Path_2), to get less pitch increase the Z scale.

bookmark

bookmarked

Thanks for the example. Works perfectly :)

Here is a ball throwing animation which used Walker3D and a parabolic walk path. One walk cycle was made, then the path was parented to a prop which was rotated 180 and a second walk cycle was applied. The walk cycles only apply to the ball when in the air, When it is in the hand a diffrent ball parented to the hand is used, and the "flying ball" is translated below ground for those frames, likewise when the "flying ball" is in flight the other ball is below ground. Linear interpolation was used throughout the animation.

Attached Link: Walker3D.zip (v05)

Because of "improvements" to the Renderosity site, some of you may not be able to acess Walker3D from the text attachment in my post #17, so I have ziped it and put it on my site (see link above).

lesbentley posted at 5:51PM Sat, 01 July 2017 - #2759387

Because of "improvements" to the Renderosity site, some of you may not be able to acess Walker3D from the text attachment in my post #17, so I have ziped it and put it on my site (see link above).

Hi! Unfortunately the Walker3d link doesn't work anymore...could you re-upload it? I've encountered some difficulties with the props walk-paths and maybe this file can resolve all, if there aren't new alternatives.