Animate a Sneaky Walk with Monty

Sneaky Monty

In the video tutorial below we show how to animate a sneaky walk with "Monty" the green pea.

To complete the tutorial, first start with a Basic Walk with "Monty" - which you can learn how to do here.

Then, as with our other character walks tutorials, adapt the basic walk to give it character and personality - in this case a "sneak". 

The "Sneak" 

48 Frame "sneak" Cycle

To turn a basic walk into a sneaky walk, we have to slow the walk down, add more up and down motion on the body, lift the feet up higher - and generally make the walk feel "sneakier".  With a few small changes we can radically change the character and personality of the animation.

Start with a Basic Walk

To get started, first animate a Basic Walk with "Monty" - which you can learn how to do here. To do this, follow the thumbnails on the right hand side. 

Basic Walk - 32 Frames

The basic walk is a 32 frame cycle (one step every 16 frames) and should be animated "on the spot" on an imaginary treadmill. 

The "Sneak" - 48 Frames

The Sneak is a 48 Frame Cycle. To animate the sneak, first open up the basic Monty walk cycle.  Then follow the steps below:

1. Using the scale tool, extend the keys from 1-33 frames to 1-49 frames. Make sure you have Value Snap turned on in the Graph Editor. 
2. Now tidy your key poses so they match the key poses in the new thumbnail sketches.
3. Next, add lots more up and down motion, especially down motion (Y translation) at frames 9 and 33.
4. Lift up the legs high in the air at frames 21 and 45.
5. Change the shape of the feet on the contact poses (1, 25 & 33) so that the toes touch the ground first, not the heel. 
6. Now add some back and forth motion in the body. Body goes forward at frames 9 and 33, back at frames 21 and 45.
7. Add a hat. What kind of hat might Monty wear? A baseball cap? A beanie?
8. Import a set. Where is Monty sneaking? A city street? A bank vault? Smaug’s cave? A sleeping child’s bedroom?

Lights, Camera, Render

Don't forget to add some simple lights

When you're done, create a shot camera (here is how), add some simple lights (here is how), and then do a Render Sequence of your frames (here is how). Finally, import your rendered frames into some editing software, export a movie file (here is how) - and you're done!  

Sneaky Walk Tutorial

Sneak Walk Tutorial - Part 1

https://vimeo.com/915652355?share=copy

Sneaky Walk Tutorial - Part 2

https://vimeo.com/915652523?share=copy

Walks and Character Walks

One of the first challenges for junior animators learning their craft is to learn the art of locomotion, specifically how to animate a walk cycle, and later a character or personality walk. What makes a walk happy, or sad? Angry, or fearful? Masculine, or feminine?

Animators must learn to observe how humans act and move, and be able to replicate that character and personality in their motion. 

Locomotion Resources

Clowny walk by Ben Swallow

We have many locomotion resources available to our students:

• Animation Tutorials at our Vimeo Channel - Locomotion & Mechanics
• Animate a Walk "on the spot" with Monty
• Why Animators Need Sine Waves for Walk Cycles
• Animate a Walk Cycle with "Heavy" from Team Fortress
• How to Fix Knee Pops in a Walk Cycle
• Animate a Run Cycle with Monty
• Animate a Run Cycle with "Heavy"
• Animate a Jump with Monty
• Gender Walks with the Bio Motion Lab 
• Character Walks with Hooman Soroushnia
• Character Walks with Kevin Parry
• Character Walks Tutorial with Monty
• Walk Cycle Tutorial by Amanda Costa

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