This week in the Tuesday session with George, we continued developing our walk cycles in spline. The main focus was to move away from copying reference frame by frame and to trust our planning and key poses more. I realised that a good walk cycle does not come from “tracing” the video, but from understanding how the body balances, where the weight is, and how the rhythm works.
During feedback, George pointed out a big problem in my “UP” position. In that pose, the supporting leg in my animation was slightly bent. He reminded me that in a real walk, if the leg is too bent during the UP phase, the character would lose balance and almost fall down. The UP pose should feel like the body is lifted and supported by a strong, almost straight leg. This comment made me think more about physical logic, not just making a nice shape.
After the tutorial, I went back and first adjusted my key poses. I corrected the UP pose by straightening the supporting leg and checking the line of action and the centre of gravity. I also compared the contact, down, passing pose and up poses again to make sure the height change was clear and the steps felt even. Only after I was happy with these main poses, I started polishing the animation.