I have been using Poser on and off for some time now and lately I have become very interested in exploring and learning the animation side of its capabilities. But I have to say that I have never managed to get my head around Walk Designer let alone its Animation layers.

Now please don't get me wrong I love Poser for all its faults and bugs, but as far as Walk Designer is concerned it's a complete and absolute mystery to me and the tutorials that are out there do not go into it in any depth.

So I was wondering how many Poser users actually use Walk Designer? And if so how many actually get it to work with their animation without encountering problems? Or have you thrown in the towel never to return to it again?
 
To start using Walk Designer you select a character and then select a walk from the walk list then you have to give it a walk path - Did you notice that the walk path by default moves off the computer screen and ends up somewhere outside your premises requiring you to zoom out to find it?

You are then told that you can shorten this path but after numerous attempts I personally have ended up with a walk path that looks like a string of convoluted pretzels and of course your character follows that path perfectly and walks as gracefully as a brick dancing in the air!

So if you have succeeded getting your character to follow a moderate walk path where exactly is this sequence when you want to edit it or move it in your animation? I can't see any action frames in the edit window and there appears to be no explanation whatsoever about this unless I'm missing something?

And what if you want to make your character take a couple of steps or even a single step back or forwards towards another character? And how do you this without messing up the walk and messing up your animation which you have spent hours getting right?

So I wonder is it just me or are there other people who equally find it difficult to use? It would be nice to know because Smith Micro might need to take a relook at Walk Designer.

I only use Poser for animations, I have used the Walk Designer often.

I would no longer use it for a main character though, there are plenty of decent free bvh files out there, they need some cleaning and editing, but you'll get a much more realistic result.

I still use it occaisonally for background figures.

I gave up with the walk path. I managed to get it to do what I want once or twice, but I find it easier to create the walk "in place" and then animate the x and z coordinates to move the figure about.

Oh, and I always create the animation in the "base layer". If I create the walk in a new layer (the default) I end up getting confused (haha) and don't know what to edit if I want to change something.

As for making your character interact with others while walking, well, you'll have to splice a few moves together, which isn't as difficult as it sounds once you've had a bit of practice.

If you're scared of messing up the walk you've been working on, you can always save it as an (animated) pose, which you can reload anytime.

Like CaptainMARC I quit using the Walk Designer too, and animate my figures and then move them along a path as I wish. Nerd 3D had a bunch of 30-frame walk sets, free I believe, which I use extensively and modify for my own work.

i havent used walk designer since poser 5, and wouldnt recommend it for character interaction, if i wanted to create a forward walk path, then say a turn round and walk back animation, I would probably create the forward walk, export the frames, then do the turn, and export the frames, and then the walk back and export theframes again, that way if something messes up in say collisons on the turn, that is the only section you would need to tweak, then just composite the frames in your favourite movie editor.

If you are fortunate enough to have the animate plus feature in daz studio, and the pf exporter plugin function, you can export any of the animate plus collection poses and save them into your poser pose folder, they do tend to have a decent selection of semi intereactive poses

No I never noticed that. Probably because it is not so. What you do or don't see through the camera has nothing to do with the thing you are looking at, and everything to do with the camera you are viewing it through. If you don't like the view, adjust the camera. Also note that the start of a walk path will be directly benith the origin of the BODY actor of the figure that is active when the path is created.

Quote - You are then told that you can shorten this path but after numerous attempts I personally have ended up with a walk path that looks like a string of convoluted pretzels and of course your character follows that path perfectly and walks as gracefully as a brick dancing in the air!

There are two ways you can change the length of the path.

1). You can scale the walk path (WP), using either its overall Scale dial, or the zScale dial, or any other combination of its scale dials.

2). You can change the length of the path by dragging its Control Points with the cursor. If you are going to use this method to change the length, you may find it less confusing if you remove all the intermediate Control Points first. A walk path has four Control Points that can't be deleted, the points at either terminus of the path as walked, and two, what I call, "tweak points" that are not part of the path as walked, but serve to shape the curve at the ends of the path. Any other control points can be deleted. To delete a point, hold down the Alt key, and click the point. The default path has six points, so you can delete the middle two. To add a point, just click on the path where you want to add the point.

A quick way to make a straight path is to set the path's xScale to zero.

Paths are props, so you can save them to the Props palette for future use.

Quote - So if you have succeeded getting your character to follow a moderate walk path where exactly is this sequence when you want to edit it or move it in your animation?

The part of the walk cycle that that represents following the path, is stored as translations and rotations in the BODY actor. Each key frame of the animation has its own set of translation and rotation values. You can edit these values via the dials in the BODY's Parameters palette. You can also edit the Graph for a dial, which is often a better way to go. Click the arrow at the right of a dial to access the Graph (see image above). Note that if the walk cycle has been saved to a new animation layer, you need to select that layer via the Keyframe Editor, before you will be able to edit the values.

Personally I always save a walk cycle to the Base Layer (see image above), so that I can edit the animation without having to select a different layer, but perhaps that is because I don't understand how to use layers properly.

Quote - So I wonder is it just me or are there other people who equally find it difficult to use? It would be nice to know because Smith Micro might need to take a relook at Walk Designer.

The walk designer is difficult to use, and there is certainly a lot of room for improvement in the walk designer. On the other hand, it can do some stuff that would be very tedious without the walk designer.

That was a nice and clear explanation of some of the quirks of the WD...now I'll have to try using it again...

Thank you to ALL

I am very happy with the replies that have been given here about Walk Designer.

The help has been first rate and truly informative. I am certain that there will be a lot of people who will find this thread very useful its been an eye opener for me - fantastic.

A special thank you to lesbently who took the time and trouble to clarify things and give such an in depth reply. It has helped a lot.

Shows what you can expect when you call out for help on this forum - Genuine people always willing and caring enough to point out the way.

PXP

once you get a nice cycle DONT forget to save it!!!!!

Like lesbentley, I always load the walk into the base layer and edit/adjust it using graphs, then use a new layer in additive mode.

I set a keyframe at frame 1 and last frame (straight spline) then move to the points where I want the change to begin, peak and end, set keyframes. All this without changing any poses, then go to the peak point and make the changes. This way all the fundamentals of the walk /run continue to operate, but modified by the new layer.

A good example of this in action would be a character running scared, twisting round from the abdomen looking back.

The begin , peak and end of action keyframes can be changed back to curved f it smooths the animation. It is just best to set an absolutely straight line to start with.

I seldom use Walk paths for the same reason as most other replies above, I think they could do with better editing tools. The other important point is whilst they move the figure round a curve, they do this by rotating the cycling figure, not by shortening the pace of whichever foot is on the inside of the curve. Delete the path and the figure will run in a straight line again.

Someone mentioned Nerd 3D's walk blends, I think he has a pack for sale at Daz, well worthwhile if you are using V4. He also gave a tip for older versions of Poser that there is a glitch at the point where the loop joins. His solution, simple but effective, delete keyframes 29,30,31   59,60,61 etc and allow poser to tween. If you want a perfect loop, make new keys at 2,30,31 do this simulataneously by selecting all 3 frames. Copy the new frame 31 and paste it at frame 1

Quote - once you get a nice cycle DONT forget to save it!!!!!

But only save 30 frame walk cycles in the Walk designer folder in Posers Library otherwise they will load as blends in Walk Designer, delay loading and make a mess if you try to use them. I found out the hard way :)