Walk cycle

*See also Run cycle.*

This article is about the mechanics of a walk. In a standard layout you would only draw A1 and A3 – don't give yourself extra work on a layout assignment!

## In Genga

How someone walks says an enormous amount about them. I highly recommend you study how a character you're animating walks, and that you always stay on the lookout for interesting walk cycles in animation and the world around you. For a primer, you should be able to find the *Inoue* walk cycles and notes as well as examples from many shows you can break down frame by frame.

A walk cycle usually has four important poses, **two contact positions**, and **two passing positions**. Contact positions have the legs extended out, the body slightly lowered. The passing positions have the legs passing each other, with one straight and the other bent. They're the point where the character is highest. Note that A2 and A4 from the drawing on the right are inbetweens - they're not drawn in layout.

The drawings translate to something like this when properly overlapped:

You might notice how the head bobs up and down between the four frames. That's super important! If you have a character slide along without changing height, their legs will have to stretch out in the contact poses, and the entire animation will look like a robot walking on tentacles. You really don't want that.

There are two basic ways to complete a walk cycle in layout. One way is to simply space out the drawings like above. In that case, you have to fill out the timesheet with every frame of the walk (even though you're only drawing two), since each one is moving further across the screen. You can copy-paste the drawings from a previous section of the cycle to the next, but their number still goes up. So you would have A1, A2, A3, A4, but then to repeat them you would have to copy-paste A1 as A5, A2 as A6, A3 as A7, and A4 as A8.

Alternatively, you can use a slide and repeat notation. The idea here is you mark out how far each step is on a line at the character's feet and add slide notation in the camera section for the cel the walk is on, then you do just the key drawings A1-A4 one-by-one. They can all be overlapping. write "repeat" after the first frame of the second cycle and leave it to the composition team to create the actual movement across the screen. That looks something like this:

Standard walks are kept to 3s. Fast walks can go to 2s. Depending on the character you're animating, you might go even faster or slower than this, but as a standard animation for someone calmly walking, 3s works fine.

Believe it or not, you don't even have to draw all four of the frames from the above example in most layouts. A layout artist is only expected to include the two "contact" positions in a walk cycle–when the left and right leg extend forward on two different frames. This keeps your work very light and usually communicates what you want just fine. All you need to do is indicate where the inbetweens are spaced and what the timing is for the walk.

Since you're only doing two drawings in this method, it's really important to keep volumes consistent, particularly in the legs. Feel free to use tap wari for the drawings, or just lasso/copy and paste the parts you need between the two. Cleanup and douga will love you for the extra care.

If you're more experienced, you can add the passing position as a key to your layout. This gives you extra control over how the walk is filled in by douga, which can communicate more character than letting them inbetween everything without your input. If you're going to do this you need to keep things even more consistent.

Finally, we've got the arms. They work very similarly to the legs, but in reverse.

Just be sure they're of consistent length and make sure the arm and leg on one side of the body are always working in opposite directions.

## In Douga

**Important note:**
Walk cycles for different animals vary a lot. Don't think that knowing a basic human walk cycle is going to give you the perfect answer for how something like a cat or dog moves. Some animals, like horses and insects, are utterly different in even basic anatomy–study up on an animal before you animate!
(SHOW EXAMPLES)

### Part 1

Well, now you're the douga artist–so how do you take that basic framework you're given and turn it into a proper walk cycle?

The very first thing we need to do is fill in that first step. Let's assume you've been given a walk cycle with only two contact frames. You'll be filling in all the inbetweens.

(images)

We need to find that middle "passing" frame first. The passing frame, you might remember, is the point at which the legs are overlapping each other, one is fully extended and the other is raised, in the process of being swung forward. Now, we could painstakingly inbetween the new frame by finding the middle of everything, but walk cycles are one of those times where you need to be precise. Any variation in side or shape of the head, body, or limbs is going to be distracting and unrealistic. What do we do? Oh! You're ripping your virtual paper off the pegbar! That's right! Tap wari again.

Alright, that's a lot all in one diagram. Let's break it down.

#### Drawing Frame 3

A3 is the middle most inbetween, so we'll tackle it first. Let's start with getting the proportions right. We can grab the torso and extended leg of one of the passing frames and use them as references. Straighten the leg out and put the torso on top of it–this is the proper standing height of your character in the passing phase.

If you want to double-check, you can even import the character settei sheet and overlap to be sure, but if things are a little off from what the settei shows, don't go trying to correct it unless you're cleared to. Sometimes the angle you're looking at a walk from can change character proportion. Give the pose benefit of the doubt unless it looks really off. Even then, remember to ask before you even think of changing something.

You can use the body and head as in many cases, but if there's more subtle movement in the cut–something like the swaying of the arms or bob of the head–you may need to do a very careful trace. Also, since most characters are wearing clothes and have hair, remember that these things don't stay the same in every frame. I'll deal with how to approach them in a little bit, just don't copy-paste them like they're frozen for now!

Next we've got to add the far leg. Sketch in the approximate position first. The far leg changes position a lot, favoring frame 5 much more than frame 1. so it's not really helpful trying to inbetween it. Just sketch it out, then take Frame 1 off tap and use it to check volumes for cleanup.

We're already 90% done with this pose, we just need the arms! They swing in the opposite direction from the legs, but they're in a "passing" phase, too. You won't be able to see much or anything of the far arm, but the near arm will be following a smooth arc from its shoulder, You can use untapping and tracing to get the length and proportion right.

(images)

Now we've got our passing pose! Flip back-and forth between the keys and this inbetween to make sure the volumes are feeling good. Since this is a pose we're basing every other drawing in the walk off of, getting your first inbetween right is really important. Even tiny mistakes you make in proportion and posing can magnify as you add further in-betweens. If you get far enough off of a proper walk cycle, you won't end up with something that loops believably and you'll probably have to start back from this passing frame to fix it. Take the time to do it right!

(gifs)

#### Drawing Frame 2

Frame 2 can now be tackled, since we have Frames 1 and 3 to space it evenly from. Just like before, You do need to do some regular in-betweening here to find the proper height of the head and torso as they drop–you can measure from the nose tip of the head to the other, for example.

Once we know this spacing, we can add the placement for our evenly spaced features like the body, hips, and facial details. Keep in mind this is the same height for Frame 2 and Frame 4. You can reuse the body and head's height exactly in a standard walk, so these two body/head sections can be directly copied into each frame.

The arms and legs, unfortunately, aren't always evenly spaced. Take a look at where the back leg is in the example to the left if we try to use simple in-betweening. It's clipping underground! People lift and swing their legs as they walk by bending their knees. Remember, everything but the passing pose is actually shorter than an extended leg. If we try to swing our legs back and forth without lifting at the knee, we'd constantly trip. What's more, we start slow, in anticipation, and then swing through and out in front of us very quickly.

The proper spacing is actually something like this for frame 2–heavily favoring frame 1, but higher, preparing for a quick swing.

As you can see, the leg lingers behind. The leg extended forward, on the other hand, does have even spacing. It's already touching the ground and bringing the body up and forward at a constant, steady rate.

If you think about what we're actually doing when we walk, this lack of symmetry in the spacing of the legs should make sense. The back leg lingers because we're just starting the motion, putting force into it and getting it ready to swing smoothly. At the same time, we're pushing our upper body out over empty space with our extended leg. Walking is really a series of controlled falls. We throw our passing foot out forward to catch our fall before it really has time to start. It can't lag behind or we'd be well into a fall before it was extended–not comfortable or efficient!

The arms move in the opposite direction from the leg on the same side of the body. Their spacing is much more variable, but on a standard walk it should be fairly close to even, though some artists add a little extra weight to a walk by having the arms favor Frame 1and Frame 4 respectively. Let's just keep it simple for now.

#### Drawing Frame 4

Frame 4 follows an almost identical process to what we've just done here as far as the mix of tap wari, sketching, and spacing goes, except for the leg swinging forward. It now favors Frame 5.

The leg coming back is pretty simple inbetween. Just remember to check arcs and make sure it's staying in proportion.

With that, the first half of the walk is done! Let's look at all the frames side-by side:

With all these poses done, we have the first half of our walk cycle. Remember to flip through and maybe even export an MP4 to check volumes, spacing, and arcs. Clean up and adjust as needed. Legs shouldn't be growing or shrinking, the torso should be moving smoothly up and down in time with the head, all that good stuff. You can also flip the whole canvas and see if everything has stayed balanced and in proportion.

Great! Now…what about the second half of the cycle?

### Part 2

Time to mirror drawings! Unlike in the head turn, we have to change a bit more than small asymmetries. The basic idea is that the walk cycle now reverses. The leg that came forward goes back, the arm that went back comes forward. That means we reuse drawings just by flipping which leg is in front and reversing the order of the torsos! Look:

We only need three "new" drawings, and they're all directly traceable from what we have already drawn with just tiny modifications.

With that all in place you have everything it takes to create a basic walk cycle!

**Important note:**
This trick only works with side view walks and some front view walks. It won't apply in other angles, but remembering the basic symmetry displayed in these flat views will help you imagine ither angles.
### Secondary Motion in Walks

*Also see Nabiki.*

Let me touch on secondary motion for a moment here.

**Secondary motion is always opposite the primary motion of a character.**

If a character is in the "up" passing pose, their hair and clothes will be slightly squashed down. If they're in the "down" contact poses, their hair and clothing will be pushed up a bit. That's because secondary motion is reactive. Cloth, hair, and other inert objects are dragged after the active body as it moves.

Anything loose and flexible will behave similarly when attached to someone walking, just less severe. You can even extend the idea out to carried objects–they have their own inertia and lag behind the main action of the body.

Of course, many instances will be more complex–what if you have a character walking in a strong wind, with their hair flapping and bouncing? What if they're carrying an unconscious friend and that person is flopping around with secondary motion? Most of this can be handled by taking these problems one at a time. Most of this comes with tackling problems one at a time–take it slow and "in order"--tackle big, important motions and find secondary motion, well... second. There's more on this at the end of the standard animations section if you're not satisfied with this. For now, though, congratulate yourself on completing a full walk cycle. May it be the first of many!

### Some concluding notes on walks

Although You might not be able to copy-paste poses for anything other than flat-on walk cycles, you can use the same basic rules to check your work and get motion and timing correct.

There are versions of walk cycles which use five and seven inbetweens instead of three. I'm not touching on them here because they use the exact same process, just with a few more drawings to go off tap for. Keep your eyes out for them, and be especially careful if they have uneven spacing charts. The rules you've learned here will still apply, you might just have to slightly change the proportional distance between arms, legs, and torsos. Practice makes perfect!

In conclusion, Walks say a lot about a character. Study how people around you move. Think about the kind of character you're inbetweening for. Despite all the technical processes you're having thrown at you in this section, you as the douga artist, are responsible for the final look of any character in motion that you inbetween! By reading the mood of the cut and layout drawings, you can find slight variations in walk cycles that convey everything from the weight and age of a character to how happy or sad they are. There's a great example by the animator Toshiyuki Inoue **(井上俊之)** which can give a bit more insight. He created a set of instructional drawings exploring how to create and manipulate walk cycles to improve characterization. You can find this on the PA Works website, or by searching Inoue's name in Japanese with a term like "walk cycle". Learning how to create different kinds of walks is going to continue for your entire career as an animator. You can add a ton of heart to a scene as long as you're actively thinking about how to imply character and mood with your drawings!