Last week, I finished setting up the disintegration of the props in the living room again and animated them to float with subtle movements in the air. Now that I was finally done with work. I worked on some of my personal assignments on how I can improve my animation along with the 12 principles of animation. I’ve gone through trials and errors in perfecting my animation. One of the animations that I never tried before but managed to animate was the jump. I remembered seeing a video in social media of the 3D Modeled soldier doing a jump animation. That video is what I referenced for my animated jump.
I learned that a person first poses to show that he is preparing to jump which creates anticipation. The moment the character jumps off the ground, his whole body stretches down. The moment he reaches the peak of his jump, the body returns to its normal state and strike a different pose. Depending on the jump, there should be a little hint of an ease in and ease out when a person falls from the air. As the character falls, it’s natural for the hands to be raised up. The character lands on the grand when his toes touch the ground which gives a contact pose. Here is what my jump animation looks like:
Next animation I worked on was the walk cycle. I used this reference to help me get the basic idea on how the person poses when walking.
I first adjusted the poses like the one above. Next, after getting the flat poses right, I checked the pelvis or the COG and moved it left if the left leg is stretched forward and right if the right leg is stretched. I moved the pelvis down to create a squash effect and moved the pelvis up to give the leg a stretch up. Whichever leg stretches forward, I rotate the arm opposite of the leg forward. When rotating the shoulders. I fixed the neck and the head to maintain its pose straight and still. When ever the hand moves, I try make sure it moves in arcs or in circular path. Whichever direction the hand moves, it points in the opposite or bends the opposite way to create poses of follow – through. Here is my walk cycle:
Another animation I also made was the run cycle. I used this reference as the basic reference and adjusted the poses of my character.
I applied the same method as the walk cycle of moving the pelvis, rotating the shoulder, arc movement of the arms, and follow – through for the hands. Here is my run cycle:
References:
· S., Iverson. (2017, June 4). JUMP! Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/220217483
J., Ritchie. (2017, July 19). The 12 Principles of Animation… With Animated Examples! Retrieved from https://idearocketanimation.com/13721-12-principles-of-animation-gifs/?utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/
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