The next step was to smooth out the animation of the arms and legs so that it did not appear so linear. I also added arcs so that the overall movement of the torso appeared more fluid. When a person runs, their torso moves upward as they leap for each step; once the forward-foot touches the ground the initial reaction is an overall downward movement, as a result of gravity; this downward motion can be smooth or abrupt depending on the jogger's style, body type, health, speed, etc. A secondary reaction to this downward motion is the oscillation of the hips, spinal compensation and a slight bobbing of the head. Once all the physics for the poses were set I began to add some subtle changes, such as making the movement of each leg slightly differ from its counterpart. I applied this same methodology to the arm and head movements. Next, I modified some of the timing and motion overlaps so that certain reactions were delayed. Finally, I made the animation into a motion clip and looped it 3 times. Since, Maya has nonlinear animation features in the trax editor, I was able to tweak many of the movement(s) without breaking the loop. I proceeded to modify the main character set and sub-character sets in order to smooth out problem areas. The final result is depicted below - a moderately paced running cycle (the Flash video playback speed might be different on your pc). I captured all the motion data in an animation clip which I exported and archived for later projects. This motion data can be used on other characters/ rigs via character retargeting. Once the retargeting is done, an animator can easily modify the running cycle to fit the mood or disposition of the new character.

Thank you,

Emmanuel Flint