walk cycle, how do I add keys after the cycle without breaking it?

[Mattyj77]

I have completely forgotten how to do this. How do I add keyframes after the walk cycle, for other movements such as blinking and the mouth, without breaking the cycle causing the walking motion to stop?

[hayasidist]

don't key stuff that's keyed in the cycle.

IOW if you have a bunch of bones that are cycled for the walk, DON'T key those beyond the cycle (unless you want them to stop) but you CAN key anything else.

[slowtiger]

For this reason I often have a split rig: one bone layer for the legs and torso only, and one bone layer for arms and head movements.

[Víctor Paredes]

For this reason I often have a split rig: one bone layer for the legs and torso only, and one bone layer for arms and head movements.

If you want separation, there are several options to isolate parts of the same rig. For example, using the red timeline for selecting bones, colorizing bones, setting bones as Shy, hiding bones, etc.

In my opinion, unless the scene could really benefit with this approach, it's not a good to split the main structure of the character into different bone layers, specially for crucial parts that are constantly interacting, like the legs, arms and body.
Separating makes animation and retakes way harder to do, since you lose the overall connection of the body, such as FK, IK, some Smart Bones benefits, etc.

I remember some projects in which the riggers created one leg, made it walk, then duplicated the leg and offset the animation to have a two legged walk cycle.
As soon as they needed to change a bit of the walk cycle (adjusting the up and down, for example), everything broke very easily and they had to track the movement of all parts on every frame.

Of course, this is just an opinion based on my experience. The best way to rig something is whatever works for you if it doesn't make the work harder or slower.

[slowtiger]

I know about the red timeline, but it needs too much concentration from me to not click the wrong keys, and even then it still happens. So I separate into partial rigs to make my life less stressful. Of course I only do that when needed: like a longer scene of someone walking and gesticulating.