It’s a bug’s world !!

The beauty of dealing with tech is the daily swarm of bugs, bits and bobs you need to manage, like the greatest Sci-Fi entomologist. Maya is no exception.

First in line : Shadows. I spent some time adjusting them to make them right. I didn’t know why they came out visibly pixelated so I had to modify both lights (spotlight and directional).Specifically, I had to add Depth Map Shadows and increase both Resolution, Filter Size and Bias.

After activating the motion blur, I had to be very careful with the camera animations, as Maya doesn’t always process sudden movements accurately. Despite being careful, I believe some blurring is still left in the walk cycle animation. This is an area I will definitely focus on improving in the future.

Not longer after I completed my walk cycle project, both my renderer and playblast decided to go on a strike and stopped working at once. While I managed to recover my renderer, It would have taken me at least three to four centuries and a couple of decades before my video was ready, so I opted for Playblast but that didn’t go to plan either. Every time I tried to use it on the walk cycle, the animation of the shoulder , which had played fine in the timeline just moments earlier, started to snap. I couldn’t manage to find the culprit and move the issue to another engine, wasn’t the best idea at the moment, so I went for plan B : using Microsoft Snipping Tool to record the screen. Yes, surely is not the best option but it could work, if you also do a little post edit. Saved the video and edited it to export it as an Mp4 and with 1080p resolution.

references

1. SkyMtv, 2018, Saturday Night Fever (Opening Credits). Available at:

   Saturday Night Fever (Opening Credits)

   Reference video I used for the walk cycle animation

2. Syncsketch, 2025, Walk Cycle, M. Montesano. Available at:

   Walking Cycle -> Untitled video (36)

   This is my reference video and animation analysis for the walk cycle animation

3. Canvas, 2025,Camera Locomotion Animation Cycle, R. Cunningham. Available at:

   Storyboarding, Previs, and Camera Animation: Character Animation for Film and Games (CI7880_ALL_TB2_24)

   This tutorial helped me with solving the issue of the textures glitching

4. Canvas, 2025,Animating walk cycle, R.Cunningham. Available at:

   Animation Workshop: Walk and Run Cycles: Character Animation for Film and Games (CI7880_ALL_TB2_24)

   Only watching these tutorials, I managed to understand and develop successfully my walk cycle animation

5. Youtube,2021 Learn CGI with Yawyee, Maya Progressive Walk Tutorials I A Step By Step Guide. Available at:

   Maya Progressive Walk - Animation Tutorials | A Step by Step Guide

   I learnt how to create a progressive walks thanks to the suggestions in this tutorial by learning how to measure the distance between the character’s feet and use it to animate the root controller further

6. Youtube, Stayin’ Alive, 2017 (Remastered), The Bee Gees. Available at:

   Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Official Music Video)

   Soundtrack that was used as a basis for the animation; it led the timing of the whole project