Animating for Games - Game Character Development with Maya - page 982

Note
When you're creating a walk cycle, as a general rule the shoulders should
tilt opposite to the hips. So when the left hip is raised, the left shoulder is
dipped.
Let's implement the Z rotation first.
1. You should still have all three spine controls selected; if not, select them all again
and switch to the front view.
Unlike the Y rotation, the shoulders need to be tilted when the legs are at their
crossover point, which is at frames 0, 16, and 32. On frame 0, set the Rotate Z at-
tributes to -1.5 , tilting the shoulders to her left, as seen in Figure 16.29b . Set a
key to store this at frames 0 and 32.
FIGURE 16.29 Use the Z rotation to tilt the shoulders at frames 0, 16, and 32.
2. You now want the shoulders to tilt to her right ( Figure 16.29d ), so move along to
frame 16 and set a value of 1.5 . Set a key.
3. Finally, smooth the keys out in the Graph Editor by making all the tangents Flat
( Figure 16.30 ) .