3/4th Walk Cycle

[vivekchakraverty]

Is there any significant technical differences between sideways and 3/4th view walk cycles. I completed a decent sideways walk cycle and am now researching information for 3/4th walk cycles from the net. I couldn't find any illustration that was easy enough for me and would appreciate if you guys can give me some information and tips for the same!

[Greenlaw]

For the most part, animating a 3/4 angle walk is the same, at least for animating the rig because the layer stacking order is the same.

In my experience, the main technical difference is in the feet because now we need to see the top-side and bottom-side of each foot. To solve this, I make a Smart Bone to lift the foot, and the art is usually inside a foot switch group nested inside the leg turn switch group, or created as a morphing vector drawing. This doesn't have to be one or the other, it can be a hybrid setup. It depends on your character design, how you wish to animate it, and how much effort you want to put into the setup.

Depending on the design and style of the walk, you might need to create angled variants for the hands, but most of the time I've been able to use my usual hand poses for a 3/4 walk.

Oh, I just thought of something: if you want the far arm to cross over the torso during the walk, that requires a special 'arm-wrap' setup...but if this is a general-purpose rig, it should have this setup built-in because it's useful for a character posed in any angle.

Hope this helps.