For me animating a walk is about figuring out four poses for each step, eight drawings to get a cycle of both legs stepping and looping back to the start. Each of these poses serves a specific purpose, when I’m doodling quick walks I’ll usually just do these eight poses and I can quickly see if it works or not.

The first pose is the contact position. This is what many people will consider the drawing that best illustrates someone walking, It’s the stride pose where the front foot is thrust forward and just touching the ground and the back foot is about to lift off. Think of the Johnny Walker whisky logo (a classic purposeful stride).

The second is the down position. This is the pose where the front foot takes the weight and generally the body will drop into the pose. The main thought that drives me when I’m thinking about this pose is how heavy is my character and how fit are they. If they’re weak they’ll sag into it, but if they’re fit they’ll cushion into it like a coiled spring. It’s also a good single pose for an illustration of someone feeling sad, tired or angry (STOMP STOMP STOMP).

The third pose is the passing position, this pose is about the legs crossing over and swapping, one straight and the other passing through. It’s purpose is to clearly show the audience that the legs are crossing and when someone gets this wrong it will look more like the character is hopping or shimmying forward without swapping legs. It’s not an illustrative single drawing that I’d ever show alone, when you see it in photography it looks awkward and odd.

The fourth post is the up position, the push off to throw the body and leg up and forward into the next step. Like the down pose it’s based on weight and energy, with energy being the biggest driver of thinking for me. It’s a great single pose for illustrating someone who’s happy and bouncing along (Singing a happy song in their head).

Have a look below to see some of my silly approaches to walks. When I’m figuring these out I’ll either work through the poses straight ahead (in order) or begin with one pose and get it right for both feet first then go from there. Most people recommend working on the contacts first, then the passing positions, then the downs and ups but I just figure it out as I go based on which piece of the puzzle unlocks in my imagination first. Very expressive walks or runs will often begin with the downs and ups. The first drawing is what unlocks it for me as looking at it sparks my imagination in being able to picture how it’ll flow. It could be either the contact (stride: busy, confident, anxious), down (stomp or slump: heavy, angry, depressed etc), or the up postion (bouncy: happy, light, drifting, etc).

It’s all about personality.

If you want more grab a copy of “The Animators Survival Kit” by Richard Williams, or “Animated Performance” by Nancy Beiman. Richard’s book is wonderful for technical knowledge and is very set on how things should be done. Nancy’s book is more about learning the basics and then finding your own way with a focus on acting and expressing yourself rather than copying the work of others. I love and regularly revisit both and found Richard’s really valuable in the beginning to get professional looking results early (general rules and copying the work of professionals) and Nancy’s to help with feeling free to play and find my own voice! I have played around with developing a short course in the past, maybe I’ll make a skillshare or online course for it some time.