flash walk cycle help

Speaking of walk cycles, I also have Tony's book. I also have Preston Blair's #26. In Blair's book, it seems there is about 8 steps for the walk cycle.

Speaking of walk cycles, I also have Tony's book. I also have Preston Blair's #26. In Blair's book, it seems there is about 8 steps for the walk cycle.

Eight steps is a very fast walk cycle. Walk cycles vary in length depending on the effect you're trying to achieve. The frame rate also matters; an 8-frame walk on 2's is the same length as a 16 frame walk on 1's - the 8-framer won't be as smooth, but it's the same length.

gh, the reason drawing #17 in your book is the same as #1 is to show that that's where the cycle hooks up.

Doh, I should have known that.

Thx!

so how can I "fix" what looks like "heavy stomp". from the last and 1st frame.
that can't be "normal"- it just doesn't look right.

Well, in looking at your SWF in Flash, you have your animation on 2's, except for the last drawing at 15, which is on 1's. That could be doing it. The first thing you should try is adding another frame of the 8th position to the end, making the whole cycle 16 frames. Then see what you think.

You may also have to re-draw some of the positions to smooth things out. Frequently, 2D animation is about re-animation; tweaking the poses and positions until it looks right.

Also, you might have an easier time of it right now if you hold each drawing for one frame and cut your playback speed by 1/2. For example, if you're currently running at 24 fps with your animation on 2's, put the animation on 1's and change the frame rate to 12 fps. playback will look the same, and it'll make it easier to isolate and correct the problems you encounter if you're only dealing with half as many images. Once you start varying how long each image is held in a given shot (some 1's, some 2's), then you'll have no choice but to copy frames. But for now, as you're experimenting and doing cycles at a constant playback speed, it'll make it easier for you.

I downloaded your first walk cycle and took out the last frame, and it worked fine! Just take out the 17th frame.
As you mentioned before, you had two of the same frames. Instead of putting the last frame in, let it loop back to the first frame which will both complete and start a new cycle.
Hope this helps.
Nice job!

The "stomp" is coming from the fact that your drawing on frame 15 is about the only one that the hips comes down and forward. While putting that last frame on 2's makes it look better, this can't be fixed by changing frame counts, you're going to have to redraw some frames if you want to smooth this out. It's looking nice so far. I'd recommend just roughing out a whole new walk cycle incorporating what you learned from this one. It's not that this walk is so far gone that it's beyond repair, but you'll learn way more, it'll look better, and you get faster if you do it again from scratch. No sence toiling away to try and make things perfect on a rough exercise. Make it as good as you can, then do it again. I look forward to seeing more of your animation.

Aloha,
the Ape