Pt. 8: Animating the Legs & Feet
Flash: Intertactive Web Animation
Teachers: Ken Kimura
email: ken_kimura at lsrhs dot net
telephone: (978)443-9961 Ken Kimura: XT2221
Now that you have the animated guides it’s time to animate the legs and feet.
Before you ask... THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO DO THIS WELL. It’s tedious.
Here’s the strategy:
- Work on one leg at a time
- Hide the layers and guides of the leg that you are NOT working on
- There is one aspect where you have a choice in strategy. You can either:
- Look for segments of your timeline where you use the same symbol over a number of frames and see if you can get away with a motion tween. If not, tweak and adjust by adding keyframes.
- For the legs and feet layers, add a keyframe on every frame between 1 and 9. Manually swap and adjust the symbols appropriately for each frame.
[IMPORTANT NOTE: Motion tweening only works when the symbols on each end of the tween are the same symbol. This means that you cannot motion tween between a "straight leg" symbol and a "bent leg" symbol. If the symbols are the same on both ends, you can try to motion tween the movements. It is unlikely that you will be able to motion tween for more than 3 frames.]
[IMPORTANT NOTE 2: Before you make any changes, make sure you've created a keyframe or you are on a frame that has a keyframe.]
- Use the transform tool to rotate, stretch and squash the legs and feet as necessary.
- Only animate frames 1 through 9 - DO NOT ALTER FRAMES 1, 9 or 17
- Frames 9-17 are made by strategic copy-pasting.
- Swap symbols where necessary - see chart below.
Swapping symbols
The pushing leg in frame 1 is a straight leg. On the 2nd frame we're going to swap the straight leg symbol with the bent leg symbol.
- Add a keyframe in frame 2.
- Select the leg symbol on the stage (as opposed to selecting it on the timeline)
- Look at your properties panel and look for the “Swap”
button. click this button and select your bent leg symbol from the list
that appears. It will replace your straight leg symbol. If necessary,
adjusts it's position and size. The leg symbol remains a bent leg symbol
until frame 5. This means that you can try to motion tween between frames
2-5. Then add adjustment keyframes as necessary.
- At frame six the leg symbol should be a straight leg symbol and continues to be a straight leg symbol through frame 8. Use the leg position guide and the chart below for reference.
| The Pushing Leg: | ||
| frame | foot symbol | leg symbol |
| 1 | straight | straight |
| 2 | straight | bent |
| 3 | straight | bent |
| 4 | straight | bent |
| 5 | straight | bent |
| 6 | toes bent up | straight |
| 7 | toes bent up | straight |
| 8 | toes bent up | straight |
| 9 | toes bent up | bent |
| REMEMBER Frames 1 and 9 should not be altered. | ||
| The Swinging Leg: | ||
| frame | foot symbol | leg symbol |
| 1 | toes bent up | bent |
| 2 | straight | bent |
| 3 | (optional - toes bent down) | bent |
| 4 | (optional - toes bent down) | bent |
| 5 | (optional - toes bent down) | bent |
| 6 | (optional - toes bent down) | bent |
| 7 | (optional - toes bent down) | bent |
| 8 | straight | bent |
| 9 | straight | straight |
| REMEMBER Frames 1 and 9 should not be altered. | ||
GOOD LUCK and work hard. It'll be worth the effort.
Testing your Walk Cycle
Also see diagram: Position Guide for Legs
Also see: project example: walk cycles
Edited 1-9-08