Making The Visit - Walk Cycles

Oksana comes to life! Here's a Flash movie of the first walk cycle for Oksana. It's her 'snow walk.' She lifts her boots and clomps them down in the snow. A walk cycle is simply a series of images that show the different body positions for a complete 2-step walk cycle. So if the character starts off with their right foot in the air ready to hit the ground forward of them, the cycle goes through that step and continues on through the other foot lifting and hitting the ground, until the cycle comes back to the original foot in the air just like it was in the very first position. This series of images can be repeated to give the illusion that the character is walking. For this movie clip, I have added all sorts of background and foreground images. These must all move along past the character so that it looks as if the character is traveling forward. When she stops, all the scenery images must stop with her. I do this by putting my different pieces of art work on different layers in Flash. I can then make each layer move at a different speed. So, layers of grass and pine branches that are closer to the viewer move by a little faster than the layers in the background.

Also, the overall atmosphere of the film is starting to solidify into something I am more comfortable with. That is why I wanted to do much more than a simple walk cycle in this clip.