Animate a Cowboy Walk with Monty

Cowboy walk with Monty

One thing every animator needs to learn is how to animate a character walk. In our latest tutorial, we show how to take a basic walk using the "Monty" rig (free for download from Creative Crash) and make Monty walk in a masculine way - with just a few clicks.

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

About "Monty"

Animate a Basic Walk with Monty

The videos use the marvellous "Monty" rig, free for download, and which you can read about here. 

Start by Animating a Basic Walk with "Monty"

The tutorial takes a basic walk cycle with Monty - read this blog post on how to achieve this. Once you have the basic walk working, you can make changes to it to give it character and personality. 

"Manly Walk" with Monty

Animate a Basic Walk

To make Monty feel manly, we need to ask ourselves - what makes a walk feel masculine or feminine? To get started, take a look at the Bio Motion Lab Walker here. It has sliders which allow you to change a basic walk in real time.

To make Monty feel manly, we need to adjust his walk so he takes bigger, wider steps, with more up and down motion. We can also have him roll a bit from side to side (shoulder roll), and give him a cowboy hat (find a free one at Turbosquid). We might also add a saloon bar from a Western set (again, free at Turbosquid) for the full effect. 

Monty Manly Walk - Work Method

1. Start with the Monty basic walk. Read this blog post to achieve this
2. Give Monty a determined expression
3. Import a hat into your shot (perhaps a cowboy hat, or a construction helmet) and attach it to Monty
4. Import a set, such as this free Western set from Turbosquid.

Tutorial

You can find the "Manly Walk" Tutorial at YouTube below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nda0AwDLjQ

Locomotion Resources

We have many locomotion resources available to our students:

• Animation Tutorials at our Vimeo Channel - Locomotion & Mechanics
• Animate a slow, sad walk with Monty
• Animate a sneaky walk with Monty
• 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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