Animating Walks: Japanese vs Western Walk Cycles

[@Dirkoin]

when i was learning animation, it was never mentioned there are different styles of animation between countries. We would always just look at Disney and or other American productions for references

[@Akihiko-senpai]

honest to dear god it was as if nothing existed outside of disney. you'd be lucky if you had a prof who even mentions spiderverse.

[@deddrz2549]

@@Akihiko-senpai I mean spider verse is relatively new, I doubt it was out when he was first learning animation

[@MisterMoodyHere]

@@deddrz2549 yea true. not that spiderverse shouldnt be mentioned in schools, it’s amazing and can be really useful to 2d and 3d animators alike, but disney is over a century old now and much more well-known!

[@timefliesaway999]

@@Akihiko-senpai spiderverse is American too. You’d be rather lucky if they mentioned anime.

[@Akihiko-senpai]

@@timefliesaway999 spiderverse being american is the point here. old fogeys are still out there thinking that western animation is exclusively disney. maybe i should've used spongebob as the example instead if that makes my point more clear?

[@ilsognoastratto]

As a beginner animator, I found this really interesting: sometimes the differences between western and japanese animation, apart from the drawing style, can be found in small, but crucial details

[@gbyamg3dartist552]

How its going for you after 1 year?

[@ilsognoastratto]

@@gbyamg3dartist552 so kind of you to ask! I can say I pulled off a small project of mine, but study and other things took over, still i go back to animation from time to time!

[@gbyamg3dartist552]

@@ilsognoastratto oh thank you for answering! Oh that sounds good, don't give up, 3 or 5 five hours per week is good if you doesn't have enough time at the day

[@ilsognoastratto]

@@gbyamg3dartist552 thank you! How about you? Are you learning animation as well?

[@ast3077]

very true

[@lilyl5492]

the Japanese walk looks more spritely, 'spirited', and the US one seems more heavy footed and 'cool' swagger, which is interesting. I thought it was a cultural aesthetic choice, but it's also something technical? fascinating!

[@everyonesplace1267]

@oivinfand he labeled it as a “western” walk style, which doesn’t strictly put the focus on canada.

[@gtassa01]

​@oivinfthank you for getting upset on behalf of those canadians then, God knows what they would've done without you

[@lilyl5492]

Owhf. Sorry about that Canada. @oivinf You are correct, I assumed western meant all of north america and the 'western standard walk' would come from early disney training or similar because it looks so familiar, like early micky. but obviously I missed the key word, and flubbed it further trying to be succinct when typing. Let me know if there are some canadian animations you'd recommend (as a form of re-education, or just for fun) ...Presumably there are a million different ways to animate a walk. beyond these two 'standards', every culture, and every artist could have their own ideas about it... now I want to see some really silly/cool ones anyway, blessings to all animators and commenters from a kiwi on an island in the great big realm of australasia. (I get the issue of national insult, but hopefully this is also kind of funny)

[@hundvd_7]

​@oivinfLet's be honest, it *is* the US walk cycle. Because it's basically Disney. Of course any country can use this, but it's not wrong to point it out as the country of origin. If anything, it's more accurate than "western" because I think e.g. French animation has a third, distinct style.

[@ForwardSynthesis]

@@hundvd_7 How do the French do it?

[@misterprickly]

Though I find the Japanese WC to be a faster one to do, I like the western version for it's smoothness and beauty. Personally, I would go with the style that works best with the character. Kind of like, the way Toy Story had Woody animated using inverse kinematics, to move more like a rag doll and Buzz was animated using forward kinematics, to move more like an action figure.

[@nahometesfay1112]

Wow they used different kinematics for each character? I assumed that while every character has their own animation the fundamental techniques would have been the same. That's so interesting!

[@marikothecheetah9342]

Japanese is more natural, really. You do rise slightly as you shift weight from one leg to another. It's very difficult to walk without that tiny bolt, because that propels us to move. Give me natural animation any day.

[@misterprickly]

@@marikothecheetah9342 Too bad the majority of anime walk cycles do allow the characters to use their ankles or toes. I know that it's a time saving measure but in many ways, it looks incomplete.

[@marikothecheetah9342]

@@misterprickly too bad the western animation does not even try that, unless it's a movie feature. Also, Pixar/Disney nowadays just uses the same set of animation cycles, not to mention character features. I love animation and I used to watch a lot of western animation but now? Ugly, simplistic, dull - TV series especially. Plastic, same face syndrome, no substantial story - movie features. There is nothing what I can take out of current western animation, apart from a few, very rare gems. And yet, Japan has a freaking Attack on Titans and its awesome battle scenes. :/

[@misterprickly]

@@marikothecheetah9342 Jeez ya!

[@sebbychou]

Problem is you're not animating the "western walk" with the follow through delay between the hip/arms and head that the extra drawing(s) allow you to do, that you can't do with just one up/down. The way you did it you were left with just the in-between without your extreme position key, destroying the dynamism of the walk. A similar problem happens when 2D animators go from 12fps 2D animation to 30fps (or 60fps) 3D animation where you end with the extremes at the wrong place and the movements looks... off.

[@marikothecheetah9342]

"Problem is you're not animating the "western walk" with the follow through delay between the hip/arms and head that the extra drawing(s) allow you to do, that you can't do with just one up/down." - of course, he doesn't. it's not like he worked for western and Japanese animation studios... XD

[@sebbychou]

@@marikothecheetah9342 Not sure what you're trying to imply here. I didn't say he lacked skill or credentials. I said his exemple is flawed. It just demonstrates he's more familiar with one style over the other.

[@deddrz2549]

After looking at the western one made me realize why the walks I originally did were either much faster or slower than these walks. I would do the key poses that people think of(the one that is used in the Japanese) then create one in-between for each of the in-between poses, so when it was finished it would total either 8 frames on ones, or 16 on twos, rather than being 12 frames like how the western and Japanese animation is paced. Overall, at least in this example, while the keyframes are a bit less iconic, I feel like the down and up pose not being as strong of poses actually makes it feel a bit more natural to me.

[@Ouchimoo]

Yeah the other video I looked at the American 2D was done on 16. I don't recall what I did in 3D. I think it was just however fast the reference was.

[@darkwraithcovenantindustries]

Japanese animators have a lot of experience becoming as efficient as possible with little hacks to boost productivity that may seem small on their own, but when combined they have a big impact. The walk cycle difference is a good example of this. This has been honed like a blade over the years, since animation exploded as an artform in the 70s into the 90s and beyond. This is because there is just so much more animated and drawn content that comes from Japan compared to the West, there is such an increased demand. When you have tight deadlines, you better be efficient, or you are going to burn out. A lot of mangakas experience burnout in Japan, which is a darker side of the manga and animation industry. Western animation is more influenced by film, so it's much much more fluid, at the expense of being much more time consuming, we also don't have the same often extreme overwork culture in the West. It's so interesting to see how all of this has given Japanese animation such a unique feel, while still managing to convey so much. Great video, I learned so much from this one!

[@seir323]

"There is just so much more animated and drawn content that comes from Japan compared to the West" really had me thinking. Not only Japanese shows, but Western shows were/are ALSO animated overseas, like Thundercats. So those same animators used their training and toolsets for both. "Western" animation then seems to (usually) be made by and for a domestic audience. And with less demand domestically, animation can afford to be more labor-intensive, or experiment with different styles, and have different habits than animators in different countries. But, it comes with less opportunities for animators, and maybe less consistent training? This is mostly conjecture, based off of my experiences 10+ years ago (T_T) trying to find a path towards getting an animation gig. I think it's a lot more global now? But I also distinctly remember a forum post where South Asian animators were lamenting they couldn't work on something more unique or challenging, while Western animators were lamenting they couldn't find much regular "day job" work. And that changed my whole perspective.

[@karenfuchs4252]

I'm pretty sure burnout and overwork is also incredibly common in western animation too. Animation is wonderful but it's kind of a thankless industry

[@deathybrs]

@@karenfuchs4252 To be fair, working for a living, in any industry, anywhere on this planet, usually has a huge overwork and burnout problem... especially if your job is one they can make salaried. Heaven help you if you work in an industry where they have managed to get away with pretending you're a contractor.

[@KaneyoriHK]

It all should boil down to preference. I prefer the smoothness of the Western Walk Cycle, but like the ease of the Japanese Walk Cycle. So I would change up which I'm using depending on the scene. If there's more emphasis on a character walking in, I'd choose more frames, but for general walking I'll stick to more simplicity.

[@fluffyboi758]

A little history lesson to add some context; When Disney and Warner Bros were starting out and animating their respective films and cartoons, animators had a lot more leeway with their walk cycles, allowing them to essentially "create" new patterns of walking that don't actually exist. This combined with their weekly quotas put the animators in a spot where they did what fit better into their work quotas. The reason there was a problem with animating on threes was that it always had a chance of not meshing well with another layer (usually another character or object) that was being animated on twos. and if it did mesh well, the cadence of the exposures would suddenly be slowed, sped up to ones, then back to twos. when they wanted to make everything smooth, the animators would simply boost everything onto ones, and switch back to twos as needed. Unfortunately what animation that has been grandfathered in is not what it used to be here in the west.

[@jmhorange]

No, that's incorrect, first you have to understand how the introduction of sound gave us 24 frames per second. Before sound, there wasn't a standard to film speed, it varied a lot. The slowest speed you can run a film at is 10 frames per second (old computer game animations often played at this speed to save memory). Any lower than that, and the human eye perceives film images as individual photographs. With the introduction of sound, you couldn't play with the speed of film, it had to be standardized or else it would distort the sound. 24 fps became the standard. It's also a good standard because it because you can hit various music notes very easily since 24 can be easily divided into whole numbers. That's also why old cartoons are planned and synced to music. It's a very effective way to plan out a cartoon, using music. Now live action is always set to 24 fps. But for animation, you can get away with shooting on 2s, shooting every drawing twice. Because that gives you 12 fps, above the 10 fps minimum. For most actions, there's not much benefit to shooting on 1s, ie. doing 24 drawings a second, it's a waste of resources for little pay off. But for fast actions and for most camera moves, you need to animate on ones so the image doesn't strobe. As far as shooting on 3s, there's nothing wrong with it, and it can be a stylistic choice, but if you shoot on 3s, that's 8 fps, below the 10 fps threshold for the human eye to perceive movement. I've only seen a few instances in old cartoons were an action was on 3s, usually on a very very slow action where the limitations of the ink line width and the closeness of the drawings meant inbetweening it properly would cause the line to jitter around even among the best ink draftsmen, or draftswomen since most women did the inking and coloring of the final animation that would be seen on screen. Also with Western walks. It's often that a character will walk on 16s or in some cases 8s, it's easier to inbetween and do on 2s. For 12s, if the budget allows, it should be on 1s or some of the keys have to be cheated or lost on 2s, but even on 1s, it has the added issue that the inbetweens will have to be thirds. This is more difficult for an inbetweener following up an animator to do. It's always best to give inbetweeners drawings that need to be placed half way than in thirds. If you must use thirds, do one of the thirds yourself so the final third is half way between for the inbetweener to do. 2/3 is halfway between 1/3 and 3/3. Walks are fun to do. I always love the chance to define a walk cause you are defining a character's personality. Anyways, I love Japanese animation, and many other interesting styles from around the world. Soviets had good films, I love the Russian Winnie the Pooh, much more than Disney's. But as an American animator, I practice the American method. There's no right method and I love seeing how many cultures interpret animation :)

[@hyzmarie]

@@jmhorangehuh. Welp, I always animate on 10 fps. I didn’t know that was the minimum, but an animation program I used to use would have you type in how long to hold each frame for (in seconds, including decimals) and 0.1 seconds for each frame was smooth enough to not look awful. Then again, it was pixel art, which has a definite limit to how many inbetweens you can do.

[@jmhorange]

@@hyzmarie Yeah there's nothing wrong with 10 FPS, it's just 10 isn't that great for drawings, half of 10 is 5 drawings, but there is no half for 5, you can't draw 2.5 drawings. Contrast that with 12. 6 drawings is half of that and 3 drawings is half of that. Mathematically, 12 and 24 are known as highly composite numbers, they have more whole number divisors than any numbers before them. This is why before the metric system, you see measuring systems across cultures based around 12, why there's 24 hours in a day, 360 degrees in a circle and some ancient numbering systems use base 60 instead of 10. Highly composite numbers are easier in some cases than our modern decimal system especially when dividing things. So while they did have to choose a number above 9, 24 FPS isn't just a random number they chose. Even when I have to work at 25 or 29.97 FPS for different TV requirements or international standards, I would animate at 24, and use an app to interpolate it to these frame rates so I can animate easier at 24. But whatever works for you :) what program were you animating in? One of my professors back in the early 2000s animated on like Disney games in the 80s and 90s but he just had to do the drawings on paper, others would turn that into pixel art.

[@hyzmarie]

@@jmhorange I was using Pixel Studio for iPhone at the time, although since, I’ve migrated to FlipaClip (which I despise) and finally RoughAnimator

[@cringesuperhell]

i feel like i've learned so much just reading these two comments, haha- thanks for taking the time to type them out! @@jmhorange

[@TheAttmaster9]

Man I've had The Animator's Survival Kit on my shelf for years at this point, these videos are making me want to finally give that thing a proper read.

[@hyzmarie]

Yeah definitely give it a look! I got it and it changed a lot!

[@gtassa01]

You lucky son of a bitch you read that fucking book IMMEDIATELY

[@angeldude101]

I can definitely say that the lower framerate of the Japanese-style was very noticeable, and even a little distracting next to the much more smooth western-style with its higher framerate.

[@qmulus_yt]

the western method is smoother while the japanese method is more fluid. the japanese method is also more practical when it comes to animated tv shows since those have more budget restraints than theatrical releases

[@kullenberg]

What do you mean by "more fluid"? I would have thought fluid and smooth were synonymous in this context.

[@madeleineharlow2466]

Im not sure what they intended, but for me in this case ‘fluid’ would be how choppy it is, while ‘smooth’ would be the strength of the arcs. So you can have something that’s ‘fluid’ but moves in a way that’s feels disjointed

[@Sangor03-SH]

I've learned a lot from this underrated channel, i even watched your videos again and again, and learned even more. I hope you'll reach the subs that deserves you. You're one of the best anime animation teacher.

[@Mechaghostman2]

I prefer the look of the western one because it looks smoother. It feels more alive.

[@Papuaani]

The Japanese version is more stylized. The western version is more alive. If on ones I think it would start to create that illusion of a living, breathing creature moving on paper, which is what the western animation tried to achieve.

[@Morzhow]

The keyword is “tried”, but then went towards 3D and simplified TV Shows, which is really sad. But as i see, in some schools or just independent enthusiasts return the tendency back, trying to revive the traditional paper-like animation

[@Andre_Shelf]

Thanks for the insight! The way i was taught when i started was that the contact and passing poses were "fixed", but you can put the down position on either 3 or 5 and the up position on either 9 or 11 (depending on your own creative decision on how you want the walk to look)

[@kieguy]

The quick summary...this video is really about the different frames per second of film/animation standards of different countries and how that affects drawing out walk cycles, not that people in different cultures walk differently or instinctively depict people walking differently. Of course different people can and do walk different... And that's what I was expecting this video was going to be about...am I wrong here?

[@CLNDSTNStudio]

Wow I didn't even consider there was a difference. But it makes sense after taking into consideration the frame timing... good stuff!

[@권순재-j1f]

Hmm... On what basis do you distinguish between the Japanese and Western versions? I was trained in the U.S. by Pixar animators, but I was taught in the contact-down-passing-up style, and that's how it's taught in Survival Kit too, which is a popular book for American animators.

[@capo3645]

Came here to say this... I'm trained in Europe and the "Japanese" style is the only style we've ever been taught and its the one in all the books. Video seems sus tbh unless this is specific to US cartoons maybe idk

[@danika9411]

​@@capo3645 Same in Germany we have been taught the japanese version.

[@wolfiekun]

Same here, I only learned the strong key pose version. I've never heard of this video's "Western" style walk until just now.

[@jeanandre4023]

@@wolfiekun Because the "Western" walk cycle method shown in this video is not generally in use . Maybe some animators use that method (?) , because I've seen some rather eccentric work methods used, but what he shows in this video is certainly not a standard "Western" approach to animating a walk.

[@khunagueroagnis2558]

Dude, your awesome! I think the Japanese one looks more "choppy" and pretty 🤩

[@urbangoose001]

This gives me open room to choose which would work best for each scene or character. If the scene flows quick like a fight scene or action sequence, "Japanese" it is for blocking out thumbnails and complex movement. If the scene is in flow or much calm, "American it is for details in character habits, or quirks. I can the see the benefits of using both when needed, and vice versa. Example: Japanese style to have the hero win the fight(action), American as to show the slow defeat of the villain(in monologue). The moods and atmosphere created from the character's action, with this foundation is really cool. It's really in the storytelling and what direction you want the scene to play out.

[@roccobot]

The Japanese version is definitely less smooth, and definitely better to my eyes. A great demonstration of the fact that smoother ≠ better

[@qmulus_yt]

something i noticed about western cartoons, such as steven universe or amphibia, is some of the movements are animated on ones but have a lot less "flow" to them, making them look jankier and more robotic; while anime uses less keyframes but has a better overall feel to it this could also be seen in family guy, where it's always animated on ones, but the stiff recycled poses and fast movements cause it to feel very low-effort

[@roccobot]

@@qmulus_yt Maybe Family guy isn't the perfect example since I think it's more a style choice, but I 100% agree anyway.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

Most of the times, "Less is more", especially for a good timing. I used to do animation semi-professionally, and one of my main critiques for novice animators was that they were using too many frames and messing up the timing. For instance, a quick blink takes three frames at most (open eye, closed eye, half-closed eye, back to open), well, some guys were doing 5 or 6 frames, and it looked very anti-natural. I told them to drop the extra frames, and the animation immediately improved. Once you develop a sense of timing, you can drop all the unnecesary frames and get the exact feel you have in mind: Slow, quick, bouncy, robotic, fluid, choppy, realistic... But developing that sense requires doing a lot of animation work, and studying how the greats do it. Not impossible by any means, I was doing that animation work when I got out of art school, and I wasn't (and still am not) a good artist anyways. Either way, when a stick figure moves naturally, it looks way better and more appealing than a messed-up but "realistic" animation.

[@ConfuzzledOwO]

​@@qmulus_ytalot of western series just use character rigs and tweens for their animation as it saves time and is more cost effective, so that's probably what you're referring to when you're talking about family guy looking cheap and recycled because it literally is. Regardless, for an animated sitcom I think stylistically it fits the show just fine.

[@Vleaso]

@@qmulus_yt I think you're wrong, those shows are almost 100% animated on twos, with exceptions sprinkled here and there. It might be because the animation is handed over to a Korean animation studio, but they're definitely not any more or less smooth than Japanese cartoons.

[@jenpachi2408]

Western version looks more fluid for sure

[@VirideSoryuLangley]

The Western style feels more natural and grounded, the step actually has weight. While in the Japanese style, it's almost like the feet are barely touching the ground, which is what would happen if the character was running, but the knees don't come up very high, so it ends up as something that's not a walk but not a run either. I was watching a scene from Fist of the North Star recently, and I noticed this exact same thing: Kenshiro looked like he was almost floating as he walked, and it didn't look natural.

[@RebeccaR1014]

Japanese animation has less frames to draw - that's the difference and that's why he prefers it, it's less work. Saved you 8 1/2 minutes.

[@ilikecats5426]

This is actually amazing, I've tried many times to do walking animations with guides and references but never really succeeded. Only when i watched this video it actually worked for me

[@CapitainCutlet]

It might be bias from having watched only western style cartoons as a kid, but I personally like the western cycle more. It seems smoother, and more natural

[@sound-nin6852]

Thank you so much for this! I really needed a guide and this truly satisfied my needs. You explained everything very well! Keep up the great work

[@sharpcircle6875]

I don't feel like it's westerner or Japanese... Animation is very versatile and walking and running cycles don't always have the same length, so not one kind of step will always be adapted it so I would rather see a variable steps workflow where there is more focus on spacing between the key frames and impact poses.

[@rikimaru6811]

the dude was just trying to rile people up banking on "huur japanese thing" lol this is clearly just a stylistic choice in what to exaggerate, and it is also about the personal gait that the animator is trying to do. Not "French" or "Canada" or "USA" but it has to be "Western". That's the major redflag in these kind of videos.

[@just_a_guy9688]

@@rikimaru6811 Walk cycle: :| Walk cycle, but Japanese: :D

[@--Paws--]

When I first learned to animate, it was always seem to have been the "Japanese" walk cycle even though my teachers were from the US. It is simple and completes the whole process without being too complicated.

[@gde4036]

I was taught, by a retired disney animator, the "japansese" version.

[@yokpok8987]

japanese one looks choppy, western one looks smother

[@rambbler]

Tldr (if I'm understanding this correctly): Japanese animation is typically done on 3s, which means each pose is for 3 frames before moving to next pose. Animation is typically 24fps, meaning there's only 8 new drawings per second of animation. A walk cycle is typically 12 frames, so a japanese walk cycle is only the 4 core poses of a walk cycle. Western animation, due to the standard being animated on 2s, requires more poses per the standard 12 frame walk cycle, which means it tends to look smoother but takes more time, especially if you were doing 2d animation and not 3d animation. This has been my book report on this video :)

[@ZCoreStudio]

I read animator survival kits twice! and still cant mimic Anime Animations Dude you awesome!

[@StudioHannah]

That’s so interesting! I knew that Japanese animations had a different frame rate but I didn’t think about how that would change the walk cycle so much. Very cool!

[@isatche]

I get what you're saying, but I feel the western animation example was smoother. Japanese one has some twitch that makes it less comfortable to watch.

[@Chris-lk3fq]

Yep, can confirm. Went to school in the west, learned to do the walk cycle with four poses on 16 frames. Had to do 12 in-betweens.

[@RoboCoconut]

I talked about this in another room without my phone with me and this was recommended and now I'm deeply concerned.

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

Interesting to see the differences in the process, thanks for making this!

[@jeanandre4023]

The best approach is to animate walks which are specific to the character's body type and personality (a young slim character walks different than a middle-aged obese character or a feeble old lady character, etc.) and not base the walk animation on generic formulas whether "Western" or "Japanese". Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good tutorial overall on animating a basic walk , but with all due respect , I think Dong Chang misunderstands what he dubs the "Western" approach to animating a walk cycle. I've never seen anyone take such a convoluted approach to animating a walk the way he shows it (at 4:42 - 5:06) , where they would first do the five basic poses (Contact, Down, Passing, Up, Contact) then add inbetweens on either side of the Down and Up positions (and throwing out the original Down and Up position drawings) . That is NOT how most animators outside of Japan animate a walk. I'm not saying no one ever animated a walk like that (and maybe he got that from one of his teachers at school ?) because there are plenty of animators who have eccentric working methods, but as a rule that is not how walk cycles are animated, the way he describes starting around 4:42. The only way that makes any sense at all is if your default method is to assume that a "normal" walk is always on THREES , so you have to convert the walk to make it work on TWOS , but if you start off by intentionally animating on TWOS (or on ONES) then no such conversion (throwing out the Down and Up , substituting new drawings on either side of the Down and Up) need take place.

[@dominik.jokiel]

Can you make a video about running? I'm working on a parkour scene and the running part looks wierd, it looks somehow like a fast walk but not like someone is running...

[@nightblind999]

The key boils down to proper posing over timing.

[@kane8165]

I know this is two years old at this point, but as Nightblind said it's all about posing. When running you generally want to have the knees raised higher, bent arms punching forward/up, and body leaned forward rather than straight up. I am not a animator though, so I cannot say any more than this. Something to keep in mind is that generally art and animation is exaggerated at least a little. Doing so makes it is easier to convey messages, can be more appealing to the eye, and audiences normally won't even notice if it's a slight exaggeration.

[@thelemmallama]

Hecc, no wonder why I've always thought walk cycles were too complicated! They look about the same to me tbh but japanese style is way easier to make :'D

[@yezzzsir]

Great lesson as always. Nice to know the subtle differences, but I also prefer the Japanese way.

[@aaa-my5xy]

i like the western one a lot more

[@ShangShangChien]

THANK YOU SO MUCH Helps me a lot

[@Rudenbehr]

“Spoiler it’s the Japanese one” Same LOL.

[@catdad626]

this explains why i always felt western cartoons and eastern anime look subtly different in the movement maybe. the frames are used slightly differently, a reframing if you will

[@TheAmazingCowpig]

Huh, ok. Flipping through my own copy of Animator's Survival Kit, Williams actually teaches walk cycles with the so-called "Japanese" timing of 1-4-7-10-13 with strong poses at each of those frames, so having the Western animation industry move away from that is really interesting.

[@danika9411]

Actually the video is not correct. Western animation uses the "japanese" version for the longest time as well. In Europe we use that exclusively. I have never actually seen people use the second version. I studied animation and that is the way animators are taught. It might be that the studio he worked for in Canada prefered the second version. But that is the preference for that studio or that specific region, not a "western" way of animating. Vast majority uses the "japanese" model, because it's not a "japanese" model. It's a most of the world model.

[@jeanandre4023]

And here's the thing : Richard Williams's approach to animation is totally classical "Western" (read: Disney , with a touch of Warner Bros.), so how is it that what Richard Williams teaches in his book and video series is somehow the same as the so-called "Japanese" method ? (except that Richard would advocate that you should take those poses 1 , 4, 7, 10, 13 and put two drawings inbetween each of those drawings so your walk is ON ONES !)

[@jeanandre4023]

Also, go search for a book called TEZUKA SCHOOL OF ANIMATION VOL 1. I think most people will grant that Tezuka knew what was the "Japanese" style of animating. On page 29 and 30 look at Tezuka's examples of a basic walk cycle. It's exactly the same as walk cycles you find in "Western" books on animation like The Animator's Survival Kit. At the top of page 29 Tezuka says the drawings can be exposed for 2 frames or 3 frames.

[@Nebulouslystarlight]

I find it interesting that the western cycle looks more fluid, more cohesive, but the Japanese cycle is more appealing. I have no idea why its less appealing, the western cycle, but it feels like one of those uncanny valley things. Where the Japanese cycle feels more real, the western one reminds me of the Good Neighbors (fae).

[@blueworldcomics7908]

I find the western style to be clearly better by far. The more frames = smoother animation to me... But I'm not expert, I suppose.

[@yes_Iwasinparis]

Sir you are back

[@stevenschmidt]

I spent two years in Taiwan and I remember being able to tell if someone was Asian or American/Canadian/European based on their walk, even from super far away. I could also tell if a Taiwanese teenager had actually been raised in the U.S. by the way they walked.

[@MagnusMoerkoereJohannesen]

Not much of a fan of the Japanese walk cycle. Not just that it seems more jittery, but the "full" down pose makes the entire walk look exhausting. The more languid, swinging style of movement of the western walk cycle feels much more appealing.

[@madsli]

7:40 for anyone just wanting to see the comparison.

[@oppaibot]

I think just interpolate poses from 2s to 3s isn't enough. You need to add more slow in and slow out in spacing. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@Mtaalas]

I thought you'd explain about the differences in gait and how Japanese animation thinks about weight and stride completely differently from the western ones... maybe another video analyzing this stuff? :D

[@cofiecoffcoff4287]

This was super useful and interesting video! Thank you!

[@ThyLoverly]

The western walk reminds me of the characters running in jungle book or winnie the pooh. There's more naturalness to it. While Japanese ones looks bouncier, and people don't always walk with a bounce. Do Japanese animators always use that style for every character? Imagine you are watching an anime scene in a market, where main characters are talking and walking and in the background the extra characters are doing that bouncy walk...soooo unnatural and your attention will definitely be taken away. (Decadence was sooooo good omg.)

[@neatoburrito3170]

Would be cool to see walk cycles where the person has a healthy gait instead of hitting the ground first with the heel. Most peolple don't realise that's a recipe for foot injuries, so that's understandably what most animators would observe in real life and recreate in their art, but mid-foot-impact steps change the gait in such an interesting way that it's a pity it's not often explored in animation.

[@Takolato]

Thanks sir for teach me how student of 3D my instructor illustration speak about make a walk cycle

[@JasonRamasami]

This is very helpful.

[@justinbremer2281]

The American walk cycle ends up feeling like they're taking bigger steps, to me. Like, the way it "bounces" less makes it just feel like the legs must be going more horizontal to contain the full energy of the exercise, even if they are drawn with the same, measured stride. It's neat how subtle yet large these differences can end up feeling.

[@Milennin]

It's always stood out to me that western animation likes to use more frames for animation for smoother motion, while Japanese animation takes a less is more approach, making their key frames pop better.

[@FreddeGreddeMusic]

I have to say that I've never liked the stuttery 12fps japanese type of animation. I love some anime and who doesn't like Ghibli movies, but. Yeah, the choppiness will always be jarring to me compared to western animation. Honestly, with computers and free-choice framerate, I think 15/30fps is ideal these days, and animate in 15fps for a slightly smoother movement than 12, but also not as time-consuming to draw. Scrolling also looks way nicer in 30fps than 24. Nice tutorial though, even though I still prefer the western one. 😁

[@sudiptochakraborty4335]

Its very helpfull for beginner (like me) thank you sir.......

[@satsubatsu347]

REALLY LONG video that only takes a single sentence to encapsulate: Walk cycles are done on the 4s in Japan and on the 2s in the West. This observation is then derived: Of course you like animating on the 4s more than the 2s... it is less work.

[@mikado_m]

Thinking about the walk cycles before watching i think japanese ones are stocky, like they pause for a little.. while western ones are smooth unless something happens.. Oh :0 Right basically

[@Kingfuconan]

Don't need to delet the Up and Down poses in the western walk cycle, the result is gonna be better

[@hiroprotagonist9018]

Oh wow. Just finished Scavenger's Reign and I think there is something about the western style that really was appealing in the kinetics of the motion. Don't get me wrong, Japanese animation has some amazing kinetics as well - Chainsaw Man comes to mind as a feast for the eyes. This video helped explain a minor technical aspect of this - thanks. Especially for the side by side.

[@keithrowsell6847]

Each to heir own I guess. I also hear people say they prefer dubbed cartoons because that's what they are used to. I feel the western walk looks much better here honestly.

[@miaomiiao]

Seethe westoid.

[@feliciamilleranimation]

I like dubbed so i can actually watch the animation instead of having to mainly look at the words

[@sussyangel7492]

4:18 Japanese Walk Cycle 7:40 East vs. West.

[@michaelmaguire4147]

I wonder if there are any examples of characters being animated where their arm and leg movements are synchronous instead, like the left arm goes forward when the left leg does? (Other than some military marches I think) because I've caught myself walking like that sometimes.

[@ragingrat7670]

I like the western one better. It looks more fluid and real.

[@davebob4973]

ok BIG MAN OK LETS GO LET SEE YOUR WALK CYCLES

[@Gman18]

This was a nice tutorial i have learn so much, thanks!

[@Variarte_]

Having Richard’s techniques I’m honestly surprised you’ve missed the purpose of animating on twos. The purpose of animating of twos isn’t to have a walk cycle fit within a second of time, but to follow a beat. And if you have a beat then you end up with a very musically inclined 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 time. I’m sorry to say but the explanation about western style is just plain wrong.

[@avivagodfrey]

Once I got to where I could see the differences, I feel like it's more Main Character vs. Normal Person. The Japanese way gives a stronger impression because of the stronger poses, but the more casual, fluid walk for the Western style is less eye-catching and more...natural, I guess? It's like having Superman and Joe Shmoe walking next to each other. XD

[@nikkraut5144]

Super interesting comparison!

[@sanstheanimator1964]

Thanks a lot for this, i've been having a hard time doing walk cycles

[@vaxtrixradicalbro4295]

are western animations always locked on twos as a default? i never noticed. ive always been animating for japanese industry styles (or specifically frame rates varying and not constant) so it never really occured to me.

[@jmhorange]

Generally 2s for basic action, 1s for any action that's fast enough to cause strobing if 2s are used. Camera moves require animation on 1s unless it's really slow or going in the opposite direction of the action so the character doesn't stutter by not tracking with the camera every frame and appearing to move backwards for every frame the camera moves when a new drawing isn't used. Generally on a walk or run, the camera will move the direction of the character, not opposite direction, so it will stutter. Also smears usually look better on 1s than 2s so you "feel" it. All this usually on 24 fps. Beyond that, using 1s all the time can result in floaty animation, it requires a different timing mindset than using 2s, you can't just inbetween animation on 2s and get a good result on 1s. It's usually not worth the trouble to plan your animation and timing on 1s unless you need to like in the examples above. From a budget standpoint, you might be required to work on only 2s on a project though, so all the issues above might be accepted to save money.

[@API-Beast]

It seems like some weird confusion about workflows and terms. Generally walk cycles are animated on ones, animating on twos means _holding_ every second frame, not _inbetweening_ every second frame. On ones/twos/threes doesn't tell us anything about they keyframes. So it's a technique used to reduce the amount of drawing that needs to be done for slower moving, less intricate animations. Walking is a intricate movement so it's usually done on ones. Whether you put a keyframe on every third frame or every second frame or something more flexible is solely a matter of communicating with the person who draws the inbetweens.

[@jmhorange]

@@API-Beast Walk cycles are generally done on 2s. Runs are done on 1s due to the speed. Only time you need ones, is during a camera move in the direction of the motion of the character. Left on 2s, since the camera is always on 1s, the character will appear to lag behind every other frame and create a jittering strobing motion. If the camera move is very slow, the lag backwards every other frame might not be that noticeable so 2s could work.

[@Jay-Dub-Ay]

A lot of animators are making headstrong, weak legged animations, like legs are being drawn last to just represent standing and walking.

[@uliveulearnandregret]

idk if anyone else notices it, but Western walk styles feel more smooth in his examples, whereas the Japanese walk style looks skips frames looking a bit like those 60fps upscale we saw a few years ago, where there were noticeable issues with interpolation

[@Munchkin.Of.Pern09]

The Japanese walk cycle style feels more dynamic and bouncy, while the Western walk cycle style feels more fluid and smooth. Different vibes, I guess.

[@szegers]

but this is such strange way to approach it man, and it might be a bit confusing for students. why would you delete your key poses and replace them by those inbetweens which you yourself admitted were kinda weak? yes, running a 12fr a step walk on two's gives you the problem of where to put the down and up pose (choosing bewteen 3 or 5 on down, or 9 or 11 on up) and williams's book recongnizes that. but DELETING YOUR KEYS is NOT the way to work around that problem! Of course your walk on two's looks weaker.. because you DELETED YOUR KEYS haha :D. . in my opinion, the right way would be to put the down on 5, the up on 11, (becuuse, the thing is, the passing position is a key for the legs, but it's actually an inbetween for the up/down movemente (because you would never ease the body into the passing nor the contact, you wanna zip throught them right?) so by putting your low on 5 and your high on 11 you have two poses inbetween your low and your high, and you don't necesarily have to inbetween the spacing of the body on thirds if you have two inbetweens, if you have a brisk energetic walk you can put one of those two poses as a breakdown closer to the middle of the spacing and leave the other one closer to the high position. that way, having more drawings closer to the high position in terms of spacing (not timing) gives an energetic feeling to the body (like a bouncing ball!) (if you want a depressed walk you can invert that and favor your spacing to the low position) so, your video is great, but dont delete your keys! adjust your spacing and timing to the new tempo! :D (i hope this reads as friendly as i intended and not as an obnoxious attack)

[@hlavco]

Looking at the two side by side, I feel like the figure in the Japanese cycle is moving more heavily while the Western one seems lighter. Different styles might work better for characters with different personalities.

[@pklpklpkl]

As a learning 3D animator I'm seeing the Japanese version being taught and we just tweak the interpolation

[@blibeat9252]

i love your animetions

[@LizBizBean]

Ive been teaching myself animation for about 3 years now. Ive also been doing that japanese way for the whole time. Its just easier

[@scottydog6713]

i really do not like smoother animation w more frames just for simple movements, i much prefer the japanese timing when its for simple things. when you over-frame small or simple movements its starts to give a rotoscoping vibe that just, looks wrong in modern toony or abstract styles (classic era animation is the exception lol) more frames is best left for scenes with intense emotional impact, i get why they studios choose a 3 frame setup tbh, its less work and it works well.

[@KairuHakubi]

so if I understand this right, the primary difference is the timing, and which drawings you thus need to add to keep that timing even. so really it's not a country thing, it's a walking-speed thing.

[@na_haynes]

I enjoy the western style, I like that it's much more animated.

[@satomiwildrose]

Very helpful, Thank you.

[@hassan-723]

if i want to animate a walk from the back...like the character is moving forward and giving us its back...do i do the same steps? i mean like this scene 0:10

[@goblininthevoid3658]

Isn't this just the difference between animating on 2s, 3s?

[@goblininthevoid3658]

but it true though. animating on 3s means you draw less and save time hehehehehehe!

[@philip4658]

Thank you very much for this tutorial!

[@fahmiirfanulafifi7064]

This channel is very helping

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

As an anime lover I must say I actually prefer the western one

[@aynDRAWS]

The western method would work good for a bouncy, energetic character, like a kid or a comic relief. The Japanese walk cycle is more grounded and would work for an adult or a responsible character

[@MasterIceyy]

I thought the western one looked more fluid, where as the Japanese one looked more exaggerated and stylised, which for animation is preferable in my opinion

[@aynDRAWS]

@@MasterIceyy it's interesting how we can see the same thing and come to different conclusions about how the style looks. I thought the western one looked more stylised! I suppose that's why there isn't one catch all walk cycle

[@ShimmerBodyCream]

very cool!

[@VirideSoryuLangley]

Ah yes, Dong Chang, that's a Canadian name.