A walk cycle generator that blends real animation clips
Motion / 64 is a free tool for exploring walk cycles and run cycles in the browser. Instead of cross-fading two animations, it uses a trained autoencoder that compresses each of 68 walking and running clips into 64 numbers. Move across the map and the network decodes a new gait for a 3D character in real time.
What you can do with it
- Blend a casual walk, a sneak, a jog and a sprint to find the motion between them.
- Shape the cycle with three pads: stride length and knee bend, arm swing and elbow bend, forward lean and hip height.
- Watch the measured values change as you drag, and save the loop as JSON for reference, game prototyping or previs.
How it works
Each clip was aligned into one looping stride and encoded by a variational autoencoder. The decoder runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded. It was trained on a small library, so extreme settings can look unnatural, and feet can slide because there is no foot-contact solver.
Questions
What is a walk cycle generator?
It creates a looping walk or run animation for a 3D character. This one blends 68 real walking and running clips with a trained neural network, so you can find in-between gaits such as a tired jog or a stiff march instead of picking from a fixed list.
Is it just a crossfade between two animations?
No. Each clip is compressed to 64 numbers by a variational autoencoder, and a decoder rebuilds a full 64-frame loop from any point on the map. Blending happens in that learned space, so the result is a new cycle rather than two animations played on top of each other.
Can I use the result in Blender, Unity or Unreal?
Save motion downloads a JSON file with one looping cycle: root position and local joint rotations for a 25-joint skeleton, plus the settings used. There is no FBX export yet, so getting it into an engine takes a small import script. It works well as reference and as a starting point for prototyping.
Why do some combinations look odd?
The model learned from only 68 clips, so extreme settings can look unnatural, and there is no foot-contact solver, so feet can slide. The option to stay within the learned range keeps edits close to motion the model has seen.
Built by Gustav Morving, a creative technologist in Slagelse, Denmark. Need custom animation tooling, a technical art pipeline or a browser-based 3D tool? See what I build or get in touch. Another free tool: CURVE, an animation easing curve editor.