ATAT walk cycle

ATAT walk cycle

Due to the fact the walk cycle is likely to be one of the hardest parts of any of the model's movement, I decided to experiment with different solutions.

I first experimented with the reaction manager in 3DS Max to get the desired effect. This tool allowed me to rotate other linked parts of the leg to a certain angle when the 'master' rotated to a maximum angle. Because how the animation works, the inbetween motion is smoothly automated. However it soon became apparent when doing the keyframe animation that this did not give me enough freedom in rotating back or any other angles other than those specified in the manager. I decided manually changing the rotation while taking advantage of the linking set up in the previous method was the most suitable solution.

The animation simply rotates the top hinge and bends the leg before doing the opposite to return the leg to the up right starting position. Another issue that became apparent is the need to move the ATAT forward during this cycle. Of course the issue with that is the movement of the main body in a realistic and synced manner. Moving the two separately and tweaking the speed so that he circle legs connections meet at the same place became the solution. However this does result in the issue of the hinge sliding along the hinge as shown below. This is however under the hood and none of my shots use an angle that will show this.

The below gif skips a part of the cycle to best show most of the legs move. As can be seen below the top movement appears to be just be sliding along. While this is the case, the inherent slow movement of the ATAT does help to disguise this.

Good parts:

• Simple walk animation that could still be done with manual rotation without taking too long
• Simulates slow movement of the real thing

Improvements:

•  Unrealistic movement detaching from hinges though this will not be seen from the right angle
• Legs other than the one moving should bend and the moving one should go further forward. This level of realism would have simply taken too long