Scenes Walking as subscene

[atani]

atani submitted a new resource:

Walking as subscene - Animation patterns for walking as a subscene

A simple subscene using animation patterns to mimic a basic walking movement.
It is a bit robotic in movement, but the idea is to make it simple to use and adaptable.

## Instructions

Load the subscene and position the sets close to the intended reference atom.
On the Animation pattern trigger (2 gears), set the reference atom and the sets (1 gear) will inherit the atom chosen.
The animation speed can be adjusted to make the person walk faster/slower, but extreme choices become unrealistic...

Read more about this resource...

 

[atani]

atani updated Walking as subscene with a new update entry:

Adds walking route to show walking

This update adds two examples on how to make the person walk around. One method is using Animation Patterns (AP) and another using the Timeline plugin.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[ZRSX]

Nice idea & well done! Realistic walking is really hard to achieve.

I was making my first scene using Timeline, but being new and learning how to use it I was making tons of mistakes and was redoing things too much. This got me thinking if I could find a way to have a Timeline independent movement that I could adapt more freely and to new scenes in the future, so I started to explore if a Animation Pattern as a subscene could work for me.
Did I over complicate things and there were better solutions? Possibly, I'm learning as I go.

For the scene I created this for (to be released soon) I use this subscene together with Timeline. This will not work if any of the person parts are being used on a playing Timeline animation, so keep that in mind. However, you can have Timeline trigger the subscene, and as long it's not playing the APs will move.

I've got the feeling that you've now improved with Timeline
If you've got the time and will, you should explore this way:

1. Add all the nodes currently animated by the AnimationPatterns in a Timeline layer. Put the Control target in a separated layer.
2. Rename the animation for Body movement to whatever (it just has to be different from anything existing). Keep the "Route" animation for the Control layer.

That way you could have finer body movements, you could adjust the walking speed using Timeline "Global speed" and, more importantly, it'll get rid of the issue of this "not work[ing] if any of the person parts are being used on a playing Timeline animation".
That is: either the creator has to use a new layer for adding animations and will not be able to add the same targets as in your "Body movement" layer, or has to add targets to your layer and cannot play another animation in this layer concurrently. And the body nodes can be reused in other animations.

It will also allow you to make several variants of your walking animation, group them and play them on random: maybe that could help to look a bit less robotic?


Edit: Well, I've tried it. It was really easy, considering all your AP were on a nice 4 second loop.
So here you go, it'll save you some time to check this out! It's raw, the variations are reaaaally minor and the movements could be further adjusted... but you've got the proof of concept

 

[atani]

Thanks for sharing that scene @ZRSX

You bet, having it on the Timeline is definitely a way to have a much better control of the body and tuning smooth movements, especially when you are already using it for other actions in the scene. When I made the AP subscene I knew less about Timeline on how to layer, loop, and so on, and it was a pain to redo things when I messed up. The robotic behaviour was ok to have in the end as the simplicity of the APs saved me a lot of time and was easy to adjust.

Timeline is amazing but it takes a lot of time to learn to work efficiently. The reason for sharing this AP subscene is the quick application and adjustment with few instructions. If someone is starting with scene making and just wants something to work quickly it's only a few minutes reading the instructions, applying, and they got themselves a little robot person . The running subscene I made later I just repurposed the walking one and tweaked the AP shapes.

By the way, the button you have that uses a AP to change things, very interesting, I never thought of that.

Back to the scene you shared, would you like to create a resource to share it? There's always people looking for a way to make atoms walk, and would be great to have a Timeline version available.

 

[StarryNight]

I am just starting to work on walking using Timeline. Is there a trick or way of not having to move every body joint each time? Like a setting most of the body to a light comply setting so you only have to move the feet, and hips? I want to move as few joints as possible and have the rest of the body follow. I know it won't look natural, but I want to start out with a proof of concept that I can build on.

It will make me sad if I have to move every joint for every step.

I was looking for a guide to walking but couldn't find anything.

You seem like an expert, so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

 

[StarryNight]

So I used person control and just angled one foot forward by turning the whole person. Then when timeline returned the foot to the starting position I realized it could still look like walking if there were no reference points. Then I added knee and side to side movements. And lifted the foot. Now it looks like two steps going forward in two seconds. I need to go back into timeline and learn more, but I do think this is a proof of concept.

I need to have the character follow a path but use the same motion as the two-step pattern. Is this how yours started out?

Thanks!

 

[atani]

Hi,
When I did this it was quite a while ago and just myself trying to do something that would be reasonably looking to walking. As Free Content, it was shared for anyone who would find it useful; by no means a optimal result, just one that was decent (I hoped) and available. Since then a lot of Timeline versions came up which allow much more interesting levels of movement and details that before were harder to reuse. This is not counting procedural plugins that use black magic to make people walk by themselves.
This is a product of what I could come up with at the time, with a focus more on Timeline simplicity than natural body movement. Any choice you pick for the task will have pros and cons, and possibly recognising them is the best thing you'll get from that exercise.

 

[StarryNight]

Thanks! It still looks pretty good to me. And watching it led to my own simple proof of concept. Trial and error is a good teacher, but if someone put together some pointers—like a list of approaches—something simple, it would be great! If I ever figure it out, maybe I’ll spend two pages on it. Heh.