If you are an animator just starting out, walk cycles can be quite a challenging thing. Theres a mash of a lot of tiny movements that need to come together to create a convincing and natural walk. If yo are animating in 2D, or even 3D for that matter, pealing it back to the five basic poses is really an essential way to start.

While looking back at some of his older walk cycles, animator Brian Horgan noticed the same mistakes being incorporated over and over again. Brain has also noted these mistakes in other walk cycles, not of his own.

In the hopes sharing, Brain covers some of the common mistakes that are made, when animating walk cycles. Brain covers creating a walk cycle from the five standard poses, starting with both contact poses to achieve the stride first.

Brian uses Autodesk Maya here to facilitate the walk cycle animation, but there are lots of tips for 2D animators as well.

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