Cycles

Walk cycles are created frame by frame. They are a sequence of images in which link back to the beginning. A walk cycle consists of a moving character and one stride can usually take 8 frames.

Walk cycles are one of the hardest things to master however when achieved u can use the other principles to enhance rhythm, force, mass and other such attributes.

Eadweard Muybridge first began to break down the stages of walk cycles in 1872 when he investigated whether all four of a horse's hooves are off the ground at the same time during a gallop; his most famous work of the horse in motion. He then went on from this to break down movements of other animals and the human figure. Looking into rhythm and movement you are able to break down the body's anatomy and shape a great help in recapturing realism in animation.