In this tutorial I will show you how to animate a 3D character walk cycle for games in Blender.
Character Setup
This character is from Blender Cloud – the link is in the description
It is important to remember that game engines will control the root motion
This means that the walk cycle I’ll be showing you will be “in place” because the character doesn’t actually move in games – rather, the collision capsule around the character moves
Animation
It is important to use a position that when looped can easily be blended with another animation – such as a walk to run
It is also important to begin any other animations with the same starting position on the same foot
I have downloaded a reference for the walk cycle – you can easily find one using a simple search
I will be using 30 FPS and the total walk cycle will be one second
I make sure I’m on frame 1
I will begin by placing the character in the passing position
I will first place his right foot into position
I then move his arm and curls his fingers to look a bit more natural
I move the left foot back just a bit
I move his left arm into position and curls his fingers
I also tilt his left shoulder down and rotate his hips to the left – this is because his weight is on his left leg
Once everything is in position, I select everything and use the I-key to add keyframes for location, rotation, and scale
I can now copy and paste these keyframes onto frame 30
On frame 15 I can use SHIFT + CTRL + V to paste the keyframes onto the left side of the body
I now have a very simple looping walk cycle
On frame 4 I will change to the high-point position
I move the right leg forward and rotate the foot
I move the right arm back and straighten it – rotating the hand
I make sure the left foot (toes) is touching the ground
I move the left arm forward and rotate the hand
I also rotate the hips to the left and rotate the shoulder to the left
I select the torso control (near the hips) and straighten him so he stand a bit taller
Once everything is in position, I select everything and use the I-key to add keyframes for location, rotation, and scale
I can now use SHIFT +CTRL + V to copy and paste these keyframes onto frame 19
On frame 8 I will change to the contact position
I move the right heel onto the floor
I move the right arm toward the back of the body and bend it slightly
I use the hip and shoulder controls on the right-side to shift his weight to his right side
I move the left foot back and make sure the toes are contacting the floor
I move the left arm forward and bend it at the elbow
I also rotate the rig so he is rotated slightly forward
Once everything is in position, I select everything and use the I-key to add keyframes for location, rotation, and scale
I can now use SHIFT +CTRL + V to copy and paste these keyframes onto frame 23
On frame 12 I will now change to the recoil position
I move his right leg so the foot is planted on the floor and his knee is bent
I move his right hand further back and rotate his hand
I use the hip and shoulder controls on the right-side to shift his weight to his right side
I move his left foot back slightly and rotate his foot
I move his left hand forward and rotate his hand
Once everything is in position, I select everything and use the I-key to add keyframes for location, rotation, and scale
I can now use SHIFT +CTRL + V to copy and paste these keyframes onto frame 27
To help smooth out the animation, I select the keyframes for the hands and arms and offset them by 1 frame so they move just slightly before the rest of the body
I also select the keyframes for the head and face and offset them by 2 frames