WHAT DID I LEARN IN ANIMATING A WALK CYCLE????

This is me.

This is me trying to push away the cold unloving embrace of the universe as I realize animating bodily movement is incredibly difficult and I would probably have more fun making a bracelet out of a mixture of my own hair and sewing needles.

Basically the idea is, that you set a pose at key frame one and then copy this pose at the end, say 33.

 Here is my kung fu esque start and end pose for this animated snippet.
In between 1 and 33 there will be a middle key frame and that is where you will put your motion in the complete opposite of key frames 1 and 33.

Wowzers that is some crazy parallel dimension type stuff there, I am talking Twilight Zone level weird.

There will be key frames in the middle of the 1st to the 16th and the 16th to the 33rd, and that would be key frame 7 and key frame 22- where the natural bodily movement that was actually really difficult to capture magic happens. As it turns out your legs when walking are not the only things that move, your arms, hips, torso, head and everything else moves with you. And the major difficulty I had when making this walk cycle was making sure Franklin here (my model) looked adequately balanced or didn't look like he had a metal rod instead of a spine or as though he was snapping off an ankle in the midst of a zombie like stupor as he walked.

For a while he looked like a ken doll, then a half frozen penguin. But he now looks at least partially alive, even though he may be suffering from a rather ravaging case of polio.

This is key frame 7 as I made sure to lift his leg in the air as he MOVES FORWARD. This is important, otherwise your model will look like they're stuck to a shuffle board.

As well as the addition of shifting his torso so it appeared his body weight was shifting as well as his shoulders, and employing the idea of the stretch and squish, as the body also moves up and down as it connects with the pavement. THAT IS CALLED GRAVITY, FOLKS.

Despite all my complaining, I had fun.

Noah's Arcs.
Arcs are important to life like movement, this is due to the rotation of joints in a person or an animal or the rotation of a gear in a machine. The result of this pattern is an arcing path of action that an animator may notice and thus latch on to.
Thus arcs are a principle of animation due to their addition to the quality of an animation. An animator should focus on key points where arc like movement would occur, like the full extension of a leg as a person walks, or someone waving their arm.

See why the arch of your foot is so important? It allows you to move normal. (That is a joke and i am flat footed myself, homies)
Arc like movement however may not be obvious is nature, but more subtle. Like an arch of a brow in confusion, or the twist of the mouth in bemusement. The arc principles are important for bodily motions, and that includes the facial expressions of a character.

Something as simple as the turn of the head is indeed an arc, and thus the arc principle is a massive part of the animation of movement.

Play that funky music white boy~

 Solid drawing can refer to 2D animation where it would be applied so that 2D animations look 3D, so with 3D animation it seems rather redundant, but this is not so. But solid drawing does not defer to only that, solid drawing in 3D animation helps to ensure that every pose a character may take on in a key frame is decipherable to the viewer.
Something to avoid while employing this principal is twinning, where the poses on either half of the body are identical, making the character appear to be a robot. Sometimes the issues in an animation fail to be apparent. Solid drawing in 3D animation refers to the double checking of the animation so that everything is smooth and unique.

Awesome.

The principal of staging.
Staging basically means that everything within a scene is in place and decipherable to an audience. For example, a long shot of a soldier walking up to his home, finally coming back after a year away overseas to his unsuspecting wife. To make the scene clear the shot should include the soldier smiling hurrying towards his home, he is excited to be back with his loved one. He rings the doorbell and waits, the shot should then focus on the face of the wife so that her emotions are shown, which would be shock, happiness and she bursts into tears clutching him as that shows the pain she went through after months of being alone. Through viewing the expressions and environment of the characters one is able to understand the story of what is occurring within a scene, this is the principal of staging and it is incredibly important in animation as well as in general acting.
If a scene is muddled and it is not clear how the characters are feeling as they do something then the audience is lost on what is occurring thus losing them.

Character shows fear as he backs away.

Character turns to run and then steps on rake.

Character is promptly hit in face with said rake and knocked out, easy to understand.

What's the appeal?

Appeal refers to the charm of the character, the personality the character displays, thus making it important to have so an audience not only knows where a character stands but can like the intended hero and dislike an intended villain. This is immensely important of a factor in story telling.
Experimenting with the poses of a character in various stages of emotion can help with a characters image, like if they are sad have their faces pointing downwards and the camera angle focused at the top of their head to make it seems as though the character has the world weighing down on their shoulders.
Contrast to a characters normal habits helps to add to the story by giving a certain shock value, like having a character that was considered to be unfeeling burst into a sudden fit of emotion whether it be anger or tears.

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 And why it is important to your animation.
Anticipation builds up to a scene where the real action happens, like an intense meeting of the eyes before a shoot out in a Western film. Anticipation prepares for an extreme, like how if two characters are alone and they slow in talking and look at one another's lips typically that indicates they are about to play and intense game of tonsil hockey.
Without the element of anticipation there is no telling how a character will react or do which is bewildering to a viewer. Sometimes it may work out, but typically it is better to have build up to a scene.

OH HE'S REARIN' BACK--

HANDS THROWN!!!! HANDS THROWN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easing in and Out.
Kinetic energy is a scientific term referring to an object in motion, such motion typically starts out small and begins to speed up. Like when a person walks and then jogs and then breaks into a run, and easing into motion. It is unhealthy for a person running to suddenly come to a stop since their heart rate is so sped up so they must come down from their run by slowly easy into a walk and then stopping, the same principle is applied here in animation.
You ease out of the initial pose and ease into the final pose.

 NYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM.
This makes objects like cars or running people in animation seem more realistic, thus making the animation yet again more pleasing to the eye.

The element of exaggeration and how it is important to your animation.

 Exaggeration in animation typically refers to a more pronounced action in facial expression or bodily movements that help to express a characters emotion, whether it be fear or love. Exaggeration may not be as dramatic as presumed either, the exaggeration  of expression can be as simple as

a slight upward turn of the mouth and a softening of the eyes of a character. Making them look happy in a gentle way with seemingly very little effort. Most of communication between people actually occurs in body language, so it is important for an animator to master hand gestures and a movement of the eyes and eyebrows so that people know what a character is experiencing.
Another object of importance when exaggerating is making sure the shots prior to your exaggerated scene are consistent to the characters perceived emotion. Like a quick shifting of the eyes and worried slope of the brow does not indicate that a character would break into a smile suddenly, more likely that a character would take on a panicked expression and perhaps run away from whatever they are facing.

If an animator is working on a more realistic series of expressions then their exaggeration would be more subtle like the above picture of the character Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug.

YEAH, BOIIIIIIIIIIII SQUISH THAT JELLO, or how the effect of squishing and stretching objects in animation allow for the semblance of real life objects.

 This aspect in animation is implemented in a number of ways, such as if projecting that the character actually needs to go to the hospital:

I am merely kidding, what the principle of the stretch and squish entails is the ability to add character or show an objects weight and flexibility, such as a bouncy ball hitting the floor. As well as exaggerating gestures, making a character more relatable or a scene more dramatic.

Miraculous Ladybug employs this idea in spades.
The compression of an object or character would be the squash while the extension of the character would be, well the stretch.

Wowzers Secondary Animation!

What would the world be like if you couldn't conduct a facial expression while moving any other appendage as it seemed to take up far too much brainpower? Well, flirting would be incredibly awkward especially that wink and wave tactic, don't let your character look like they got injected with too much Botox while their bones got metal plated! Allow your character the ability to walk and wiggle their eyebrows!
Or basically give them the ability to express a personality, unlike all those Plastic characters in shows! (Yes I am referencing Mean Girls) This is the stuff that follows primary action, just a baby detail that makes a WORLD of difference. Like how in South America they have several different terms for a "straw" based on the country, while you think you are asking for a device to drink a liquid through you may be calling someone's mother a goat, I digress. Secondary actions can be as small as a shift of they eye, but again it is important to create your artificial life. Ye animator with a god complex.
Here's how I did this insanely specific precise operation in a program I barely understand to the point it might as well be speaking to me in Cantonese. 
 Now, what you want to do is get to a point where dis boy's noggin be tilted, like so:

LOOK AT THAT SLIGHT TILT, THAT INDICATES THAT WE ARE ON TRACK PEOPLE.
After you have gotten a grasp of what this walk cycle has to offer you would go to the "Show" drop down box and click on "NURBS curves". In the far right corner of your Maya screen you want to click on this bad boy:

The Anim, notice your lack of layers. Onions have layers, and so should all of your projects.

Anyway, basically what you're gonna do is select the head of your character thus making available to you the controls of his facial expressions, the walk cycle is already set, therefore the eye movements and eyebrows are the secondary movements, giving the character the ability to look like he is thinking. He is projecting emotion, which will make a character a lot more relatable to the audience than a character who posses the same deadpan expression through your animation despite maybe being stabbed.

SECONDARY ANIMATION IS IMPORTANT DO NOT FORGET IT.

Follow through and overlapping action; and why it matters to you.
The basic idea to this form of animation is that while a "main mass", like a body, stops moving its appendages will not immediately cease in movement where they would gradually come to a halt. This is a big aspect for it again, gives life to a piece.

So what the heck is this block on a string?
Well the string is supposed to simulate the movement of the body and the delay that other parts of it would have in the process of coming to a stop. See that little curve of the tail there in the photo? That's the product of me wiggling it around and taking as quick a shot as possible.
Anyway, basically this operation would work similar to the movement of a cat's tail.
Kitty tale wiggle for example!

So what the heckle deckle type of magic did I perform to have this effect?
Here's how the legend goes:
YE WHO GOETH INTO THE TIPPIEST TOP OF THE LEFT HAND CORNER OF THY'S SCREEN SHALL FIND THE DYNAMIC MODULE AND PROCURE A SERIES OF OPTION. THEE WHO CHOOSETH THE CHOICIEST OPTION (DYNAMIC NOT ANIMATION) OR PRESS THE BUTTON F5 TO GET THE SAME EFFECT. THEN YE SHALL FIND THE "SOLVERS" OPTION AND CHOOSE INTERACTIVE PLAYBACK!
ONCE THESE QUESTS ARE FULFILLED AND THE BRAVE HEART PRESSES PLAY MAY YE FIND THE ABILITY TO WIGGLE THINE YARN!
IN THE MOMENT OF A CHOICE WIGGLE (WHICH I FAILED TO REMEMBER) YE MAY BE ABLE TO HIT THE ESCAPE KEY AND FULFILL THINE AESTHETIC SENSES WITH THE PLEASURABLE PICTURE OF A STRING BEING SHAKEN INTO A CURVE.

Why is this important to my Animation?

Creating the poses and uniting the specific Key frames in which these poses happen create animation. This step involves the movement of the character, the said movement that contributes to an animations attractiveness due to its closeness to life.

What I specifically going to go over is the Pose to Pose technique, which is more organized in my opinion. An animator would utilize Pose to Pose animation if a director of a film had given them a script and specifically laid out where they wanted the character to be within a scene and at what time the character would strike a pose in question.

So what did I do to get this character to leap off this building? (I promise it did not involve blackmail)

First things first anyone working in Maya needs to be sure of their settings, so step one would be to go to the bottom right corner of the screen and change the character set from None to animcharacter. 

 In Maya one would also go to animation preferences and change the settings of the Tangents. The in being changed to Linear and the out to Stepped. This helps with setting a characters poses so they don't immediately run together. On frame one the animator would press "S" to set a linear step key, which sets the beginning pose of the character.

I am not going to thoroughly  bore you with EVERY ASPECT AND DETAIL of what I did in Maya, but I will provide a basic outline. I moved the individual body parts of the character, rotating and stretching them to my desired pose at the desired Key frame in which they would take it on and hit "S" to indicate that the character would switch into the pose there.

This is very basic animation at it's finest and it allows for a scene of action to be created, making the animation interesting and fun. Very much unlike the animation failure known as Food Fight (don't look it up).