foreign
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in this tutorial I'll be showing you how
to animate walk cycle in Cascada in a
quick and easy way by following these
few simple steps you'll get an animation
similar to this one so let's begin
for this animation I'm going to use a
sample scene with the unreal 5 character
it can use the same character or any
other humanoids that is compatible with
the autoposing tool
let's adjust the way the character is
shown in the viewport to make the
process of setting up poses as
convenient as possible
I like to view the character from
several angles at once
press the space bar and you'll get two
viewports
click the center of the view Cube to
switch to the isometric mode
in the isometric mode there are no
perspective distortions meaning the
image is flat like a blueprint now we
need to snap the character to coordinate
axes
click the colored points around the view
Cube
in this viewport I want to see the
character from the front well in this
one I want to see them from the side
also notice that the grid appears when
you switch to the isometric mode
I'll enable the auto posing mode for
both viewports
now we can start setting up the first
pose as the character is supposed to
look forward in this animation it would
be better to activate Direction
controllers for the head and the Torso
rise at the beginning
just select the direction controller
points for the head and press shift Z
the activated point is colored blue
now the characters head will always be
facing forward
same way I will activate the direction
controller for the tool so after this we
can set up the legs first of all move
the feed a bit closer together
oftentimes decreasing the space between
the feet results in a more fluid walk
so the first pose is a contact pose in
this pose one of the legs is moved
forward and the other one is Left Behind
notice how the all's opposing tool has
automatically positioned their arms
when the right leg is at the front the
right arm would be at the back and vice
versa
now let's adjust the feet the front leg
stands on its heel
the other one is raised on its toes a
bit
simply drag the big point of the foot up
a bit
once this is done let's move on to the
pelvis as the right leg is at the front
the pelvis is rotated to the right a bit
the Torso on the other hand is rotated
to the left
now you can make some adjustments to the
toolsa's general position and tilt angle
a convenient way to do this is by
selecting the points at the neck and the
pelvis
all control to decrease the effects of
the manipulator
this way you'll be able to make more
precise adjustments of the body position
and the contact pose is done so let's
sum up the most important things about
this pose both legs touch the ground not
fully but with the heel and the toes the
Torso and the pelvis are rotated in the
opposite directions
on the right leg is at the front the
right arm is at the back and vice versa
we can also move the character's Center
of Mass to the very center to make it
more convenient to work with
select this blue point near the
character's pelvis
you'll immediately see a line projecting
the center of mass onto the ground if
for some reason you don't see the center
of mass point or its projection right
click the added mode button to check the
object visibility settings
now I can move the entire character and
make the center of mass projection line
more or less match the start of the
coordinate axis on the grid we don't
need Pixel Perfect Precision really just
move the character to the approximate
center of the scene and call it today
now we'll immediately add the second
contact pose
set a key at frame 16. you can limit the
working area on the timeline down to
this key by using this button
then go to the point controller mode
select every point in the character open
the mirror tool menu and set the mirror
in plane my character is oriented along
the z-axis so in my case X should be the
right choice for the mirroring plane
if your character was initially oriented
along the axis axis you should use the Z
plane instead
select mirror on the current frame
and as a result we have two contact
poses for one step let's add
interpolation between them Archie is
busier
now we already have something that sort
of resembles a step
now we need to change the interpolation
type for the character's arms
select the track with the arms if your
scene does not have tracks for various
body parts you can quickly add a new
track simply select every point in the
arms and click this button
so click the title of the track that
contains the ons to select every frame
on it then open this list that contains
the types of kinematics and select FK
the arms no longer banned in their
elbows and move in a more natural way
now we can once again follow the track
list
now we can create a new key between the
two contact poses in our case we'll
place this key on frame 8. by the way
you can quickly check how many frames
there are between the keys by border
selecting them here we have seven frames
on each side
so now we need to make a few corrections
to the pose in the new keyframe first we
need to re-enable the autoposing mode
this lag should be on the ground
while this one should be in the air
keep in mind that in this pose you'll
need to move the character's torso up a
little so the character won't be walking
with their legs half bent
when we walk in real life we constantly
move up and down a bit with each step
so if we check any point of the body or
the head we should see a wave-like
trajectory
we can also make some corrections to the
arms positions in this pose the arm that
moves forward should be completely
straightened out
the arm that moves backward could be
slightly banned at the elbow
you can also give a very subtle tilt to
the character's head and torso in order
to make the body look more expressive
now let's play back our animation this
already looks a lot more like actual
walking
now there's only several finishing
touches laughter
let's create another keyframe between
frame 0 and 8. we'll put it on frame
four on this key we'll need to make some
fixes to the character's feet
the forward lag should already be
completely on the ground
select the points of the foot go to the
point controller mode and right click
the heel point so you could rotate the
foot around the heel
however look at the knee when I rotate
the leg around the heel the knee
straightens and eventually it
straightens a little too much causing
the pelvis to move
to avoid that we'll have to lower the
character's body a bit on this key
press Ctrl Z to undo the changes first
then move the character's body down a
bit so that the knee would bend slightly
then finally I can place the foot on the
ground so that the leg would be
straightened with the pelvis Point
remaining in place
now we're done with this lag at the
moment however the other lag doesn't
move quite right
notice how it starts to move forwards
right away but really on this key it
should be going further backward enable
ghosts and select the neighbor frame
mode you also need to click this key
icon so it will only show ghosts for the
keyframes now I'm able to see what the
lag was in the previous key and where it
will be in the next one this will give
me a better understanding of how I
should move the lag on the current
keyframe
first let's rotate the foot select every
point of the foot and right click the
toe point now you can rotate the foot
around that point
in this Frame the foot barely touches
the ground
now we need to select every foot points
and move them backward as we do this the
leg would straighten at the knee
additionally pay attention to the arms
Auto posing has automatically positioned
them in a way that makes the hands move
further than on the previous key which
is exactly what we want in our case as
it gives the arms a bit of an overlap
and now what's left to do is the final
key on frame 12.
in fact the pose in that key already
looks good enough so I'll just make some
adjustments to the leg
make sure that the back foot is slightly
on its toe you can also move the
character's body up a bit to straighten
the leg at the knee by the way I don't
recommend making the legs completely
straight though they should be slightly
banned still
so we have every key pose we need for a
single step you can play the animation
in the silhouette mode as the second
step is identical to the first one it
would be easy to imagine what the
complete animation would look like now
we'll complete the cycle by creating the
Second Step before doing that however we
should check all the main trajectories
and make sure that nothing's wrong with
the first one
click one of the points and select
several frames on the timeline and you
should see the motion trajectory for the
frames you've selected
the closer the points are to one another
the lower the velocity on this interval
is bigger distances mean faster movement
make sure that the trajectories for the
arms are shaped like arcs with even
acceleration in the middle
the trajectory for the leg making a step
looks like some kind of a raindrop
alright these trajectories look fine to
me now it's time to create keys for the
second leg first we'll need to expand
the working area on the timeline then
use the border to select every key with
already created
hold shift and the mouse will and then
drag the frame so that the first key
would end up on frame 16.
now I need to mirror these frames select
the entire second step and open the
mirror tool panel set the mirror in
plane and click mirror on interval
the frames are mirrored but the
interpolation between the frames has
been changed to fixed and we don't need
that for now I'll undo the mirroring and
reset everything to how it was
this button defines whether
interpolation switches to fixed when
certain tools are applied we'll need to
disable it first
now I can mirror the interval
right finally we have two steps
for our next step we can apply physics
corrections to our animation
enable the physics ghost with this
button
let's take a look at our animation
as we can see the physics ghost jumps on
certain intervals
such intervals are marked orange in the
timeline
the reason cascado renders those
intervals as Jobs is because of the
fulcrum points
if you switch to the point controller
mode you will see green patches around
points at the feet these are fulcrum
areas
now I'll give you a short example of how
they work let's take a scene with a
character just standing there every key
is the same
there's a big fulcrum area around the
feet
if I raise the character's foot on this
Frame the fulcrum area will get smaller
and eventually disappear
now the fulcrum area is gone on the
entire interval between the keyframes
where the food leaves the ground
but it is still present on the next
intervals as the foot there is once
again back on the ground
the same will happen if I move the legs
sideways
points of the foot have certain values
to limit maximum distance when a point
is moved or raised above the ground
the second the actual distance exceeds
these values the point is no longer
recognized as fulcrum
and this is exactly what happens in our
walk-in animation
thus you could say that at the moment
autophysics is not able to work with
stay in place types of Animation in
reality though we could still use
autophysics with this animation if we
just increase that maximum distance
value for the feet
however I should mention that there's no
guarantee this methods would work with
every single animation for walk Cycles
though it often shows surprisingly
decent results
now select every point of the feet then
select every frame of the animation
turn on this button when enabled changes
you make are applied to every selected
frame
now open the fulcrum Point Tab and
increase the max distance value I'll set
it to 15. check the forcome areas in the
viewport and the autophysics stripe on
the timeline
on frame 0 to 4 both Flags touch the
ground and the stripe appears green
then one of the feed leaves the ground
and only the other one continues to
support the character the stripe there
is yellow
if on these frames you have the foot
still touching the ground you can fix
that by moving the foot up
or you can enable the not fulcrum button
for that foot to make this value work on
the whole interval it should be turned
on on this key and on the previous one
the same goes for the Second Step once
again both Flags touch to the ground
then only one continues to act as a
fulcrum
and so what has autophysics done with
this animation
at first sight it might be difficult to
notice any significant differences
click this button to place the physics
ghost over the character mesh this way
the changes made will stand out more
now we can see how with every step
autophysics shifts the character a
little in the direction of the
supporting lag
it also adds a slight back and forth
motion to the character's body
and this is exactly what happens when we
walk in real life which sort of means
autophysics has brought a bit of life to
our animation
it might not be too obvious with a
standard issue walking animation but if
you try to make less conventional kinds
of walking such changes would be far
more noticeable
sometimes however things may not go as
smoothly for example you could run into
a problem when for some reason
autophysics rotates the character's
pelvis
this happens because when it tries to
straighten the Torso the fulcrum lag
stretches too far
there are several ways to deal with a
problem like this the best one would be
to move the character's body down a
little then this problem should
disappear
alternatively you can go to the key
where the issues most apparent and click
this button
that frame will be recognized by
autophysics as having maximum priority
which means that other physics goes will
try to completely replicate the
character's pose on that frame this
however might not be achieved by
alterimposers on other frames which is
not always what we want
we can also apply autophysics as is and
then adjust the pelvis manually
another problem that we might encounter
is when the character tilts heavily in
One Direction but does not tilt nearly
as much in the opposite one meaning the
motion won't be completely symmetrical
if this becomes very noticeable and it
pees your animation you can simply snap
autophysics to one step and then copy
and mirror this step
in my case though everything seems fine
so I'll simply click the snap button and
turn Auto physics off
and so our animation is all but complete
there's one more thing left to do
the animation is not cycled yet
what that means is that the last frame
does not smoothly transition into the
first one velocities go through slow
downs in the beginning and at the end of
the animation as if stopping every time
the animation is played
so let's turn our animation into a cycle
to do so select every frame of the
animation except for the very last key
the one which is an exact copy of the
first one
now click the create cycle button
pink border should appear around the
frames
the first frame will become the final
frame of this cycle thus the key are
frame 32 will no longer need you can
delete it or you can simply shrink the
available part of the timeline to live
it outside the working area
now that we have all the keys we need
this cycle is finally closed
all that's left to do is to clean this
animation up and polish it a bit
check the trajectories for various body
parts it's usually better to start with
the feet and make your way up step by
step
I'll select the food point and the
frames where I'd like to see is
trajectory then I can fix the
visualization for the trajectory on
these frames
we need to monitor the foot to make sure
it doesn't get stuck anywhere or
accelerate or decelerate too certain or
too much the speed of a leg movement
should be more or less constant you can
change trajectories by moving object on
different keys
you should also check the arm
trajectories
play the animation to see if there's
still anything that you might want to
improve
[Music]
and finally if you think the animation
is good enough that means it's complete
you can export the final animation to
use it in your projects just don't
forget that you only need to export this
cycle itself without the final keyframe
and that's it
we hope you found this tutorial useful
and if you have any questions feel free
to ask them in the comments below or in
our Discord Channel thanks for watching