"Monty" Run Tutorial with Marc Stevenson

"Monty" run tutorial with Marc Stevenson

We've uploaded a new run cycle tutorial to our Vimeo Channel, part of our expanding series of online animation tutorials.

The tutorial, recorded by Escape Studios tutor Marc Stevenson, uses the Monty rig, free for download, and can be found here. 

Run cycles are part of the foundation of the study of animation. Animating a run cycle introduces student animators to the basic principles of human locomotion.

Thumbnails for a basic run cycle

Run Cycle Tutorial with Marc Stevenson
In this video, recorded by Escape Studios' tutor Marc Stevenson, Marc walks students step-by-step through the basics of animating a primitive character running.

"Monty" Rig for Maya
The tutorial uses the free Monty rig, one of the rigs that we recommend for student use in the early stages of learning animation is the Monty Rig.  Monty was created back in 2007 by Raveen Rajadorai, and is free for download at Highend3D.com.

About Monty
Monty is "a simple ball with legs. You can control his eyebrows, eyes and do squash and stretch on him".  He is cute, easy to use; you can change his colour and he looks nice in a hat.  But like most rigs,  Monty has his quirks. 

Monty Rig - Common Problems & Solutions

How to Turn on Monty's Brow Controls
Monty's brow controllers are Nurbs surfaces. If you tick Nurbs Surfaces under the Show tab in your Viewport, the brow controls will pop up as five small spheres running across his forehead.  You can individually select and rotate them to get various brow expressions. To do this you must have "Select Surface Objects" turned off.

Marc Stevenson

Smooth Monty
To get the best quality playback for Monty, it helps to set him to Smooth Mode before you begin animating.  Click on his head controller (the box around his head) to find the smooth slider and set it to 1.

Download Monty
You can find Monty here. You can find Marc's Run Cycle Tutorial here.

Have Monty Take Small Steps
When using Monty to create a walk cycle, try to avoid having Monty take really big steps. Small steps are easier to control. Big steps will cause IK problems with Monty’s knees, because the his legs will stretch out too much and the knees will "pop".

Monty Pole Vectors
The pole vectors are the little crosses in front of Monty's knees. They can be a bit hard to keyframe, so we recommend, as part of setting up the rig, moving them some distance (a few grid units) further away from Monty's knees, when you start. This will help stop "popping" of his knees later in the animation.

Avoid Animating Monty in Profile
Monty looks a bit strange viewed from the side. Rather like Hello Kitty or Snoopy, he doesn't turn well. It's best to stage Monty from a front or three-quarter view.

How does Monty scale?
Monty doesn't scale. You will have to scale the geometry of your set instead.

Free Rig

The tutorial uses the "Monty" rig, part of a series of free "Ultimate" rigs which can be downloaded from CG Meetup. 

Thumbnails for a human biped run cycle

Why Animate a Run Cycle?
Run cycles, like walk cycles, are part of the foundation of the study of animation. Animating a run cycle introduces student animators to many of the most important principles of animation, such as timing, spacing, weight and balance. 

Most animation courses begin with basic locomotion such as walk and run cycles. It's where students first encounter the concepts of looping cycles, and also how to use important tools such as the Graph Editor. Being able to master a run cycle is a vital skill - it's like being able to play scales on a piano.

Run Cycle - from The Animator's Survival Kit

A run cycle can be completed well or badly, and the exercise - although superficially simple - can be done to a high level of skill and complexity.

Tutorial Video
You can find the run cycle tutorial video here.

Vimeo Channel
To see more animation tutorials available at our Vimeo channel, follow this link.

Marc Stevenson Run Cycle
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxIzoEJ0jom22benUOzRiACkFn-Y01yiB

Locomotion Resources at Escape Studios

• Animating the ZigZag Walk by Alex Williams
• Learn to animate a basic walk with "Monty" by Alex Williams
• Animate a character walk with Alex Williams
• Walk Cycle Tutorial with Amanda Costa
• 100 ways to walk with Kevin Parry
• How to stop feet sliding in a walk cycle with Alex Williams
• Character walks with Houman Soroushnia

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, follow this link.  To apply, visit the official page here.