2-Frame Walk Cycle

A walk cycle is a series of illustrations drawn in sequence that loop to create an animation of a walking character.

Thanks to everyone who mailed in asking for this tutorial. The thing about 2-frame walk cycles is that it would work only if the character was very small (preferable choice — pixel art). The reason is because if the character is big, one can see details in the walk cycle and it would look like he’s “slide-dancing” as he walks.

Referring to one of the earlier covered topics on how to make a simple 4-frame walk cycle, we now know that walk cycles are made of 4-key frames, namely the 2 contact points and the 2 passing poses.

Thus we are are going to use either:

• Forward Contact Point and Passing Pose 1 or
• Back Contact Point and Passing Pose 2

I’d previously created a pixel art character (from the game Fallout 3 – The Vault Boy) which I’ll use to demonstrate the “Forward Contact Point and Passing Pose 1.”  I’ve also taken the liberty of modifying the Passing Pose 1 to make it look more like the character is standing (rules are meant to be broken).

Here’s the final result!