Game Animation Tutorial 1: quick walk cycle in Character Studio (Page 4)

Copy that posture for the rotation of bip01 and paste it on frame 24. Go to frame 12 and rotate your hips so the left hip is forward by the same amount you rotated the right. Now you have hip rotation, which makes it possible to do upper body counter rotation, which is next.


Choose all of your spine bones. If you don't have all the spine bones selected when you do this, it will not work properly. In my scene there are 3, which is the biped default setup, but you may have more. Set keys at frames 0,12, and 24 for the spine bones. Return to frame 0. With all the spine bones still selected, rotate them on the Z axis only so the left shoulder is forward. When a person walks, their shoulders do the opposite of what their feet do, and in 3D it's no different. Copy this posture for all spine bones and paste them at frame 24. Move to frame 12 and rotate your spine bones so the right shoulder is forward. Now, when you play back the animation, your character has upper body counter motion. But his arms are motionless… Lets make them move as well.


In any viewport, select your left hand bone. Delete any existing key frames for it. Move to frame 2 and post his arm so it's in front of him. Use the picture below as reference.

Once you have it posed the way you want it, double click on his shoulder bone to select the entire arm. Copy its posture and paste it on frame 22. Now move to frame 10 and pose the arm at it back most swing. Use the picture below as reference.
Select the entire arm again, and copy its posture. Now move to frame 14 and paste. Now, one of your arms is swinging properly! If you like the way it looks, move on. If you think something is wrong with it, adjust the poses until it looks correct to you. But remember, there's always time to tweak once your walk is fully roughed out.
With all the bones in your left arm selected, return to frame 2 and copy it's posture. Move to Frame 10 and paste opposite to pose the opposite arm. Move to frame 14 and paste opposite once again. Now move to frame 10 and copy posture again. Move to frame 2 and 22 to paste opposite once more. Now both arms should swing. If you take a look at your character, he should be walking with a strange pop when the animation loops. Lets fix this.
Select your Time Configuration button found at the bottom right of your screen. Once the time window comes up, set the ending frame of your animation to 72.

Now, at the top of your screen you'll find the Open Track View button. Clicking on that will bring up a window. Maximize this window to full screen. At the top left of this screen, you'll see the Filters button. RIGHT click on that, and choose Animated Tracks Only. This will limit the information you'll be fed to only keyframes and the associated bones.

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