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GOTGALLOWS
Inspiring
June 1, 2025
Answered

Static Distortion at Waist in Walk Cycle

  • June 1, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 327 views

I created a puppet in Puppet Maker and added legs to it so I could create a walk cycle. I followed one of  OkaySamurai's tutorials on rigging, and I think I have everything rigged correctly. However, when I run the walk cycle, there's a point in the center of the charact that gets distorted. It's like it's pinned in place and the rest of the character is walking as expected. Here's a video of the issue and me clicking all the body layers in case that helps anyone see what's causing the issue.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKkP4-DVJJ0

 

Also, is there a setting that changes how much the shoulders drop when the character walks. Mine seems to drop a lot and looks very unnatural. I'm using v25.

 

Thanks

Correct answer GOTGALLOWS

Even if you're not using a camera, you can still refresh a scene to get all of the parts that may have wandered back to where they belong. It's the two arrows in a circle in the lower right of the scene frame. Or you can use f5.

 

As for which is better, it really depends on what works best for that particular puppet. You'll get a feel for it after a while.


I finally figured out the issue. The were handles and tags at the puppet level for shoulders, hips, waist and neck, as well as a handle tagged Fixed at the beltline where the distortion was happening. I didn't add these, so I can only assume they came from the Puppet Maker export. Removing them fixed the distortion and a few other quirks.

1 reply

TheOriginalGC
Community Expert
TheOriginalGCCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2025

I'm not seeing anything drastically wrong with the way your puppet is rigged, though it is hard to tell from the video - there do seem to be some parts (at least with the face) that are causing exceptions in the rigging. Are you calibrating the camera before you animate the walk cycle? That might be all that is needed to get the arms and shoulders to align properly.

    G
    GOTGALLOWSAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2025

    Thanks for the reply. I'm using the arrows keys to activate the walk cycle and have my camera turned off. Interestingly, if I make the "Body" group independent (with a crown) the distortion doesn't happen. However, the head dips too low and I suspect other issues would happen.

     

    There seems to be some inconsistency with puppets from Adobe or Puppet Maker as to whether Head and/or Body groups should be independent. I've seen both with crown, neither, or only one. Not sure at this point which is the best option.

    TheOriginalGC
    Community Expert
    TheOriginalGCCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 4, 2025

    Even if you're not using a camera, you can still refresh a scene to get all of the parts that may have wandered back to where they belong. It's the two arrows in a circle in the lower right of the scene frame. Or you can use f5.

     

    As for which is better, it really depends on what works best for that particular puppet. You'll get a feel for it after a while.

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