The first animation of the production piece is a walking animation. This animation was made following the guide I created by tracing over the video I took as reference. This displays the pose-to-pose principle as the guide features key positions of the character rather than every pose in the sequence. The animation also displays Follow through with the characters feet coming down with each step. Secondary action is also features with the arms and head moving along with the legs. I know that I could have done better with this animation though I left it too late and didn’t have the time to add more. One element I believe I could have improved is the looping of the animation. Rather than stepping forwards at the end of the sequence, the leg and arm snaps back to the front of the model. This breaks the immersion of the animation. Another elements I could have improved are the overlapping actions as well as the smaller details of the characters. Small elements such as the characters head bobbing and eyes moving could have been tweaked a little more to create a more convincing animation.
The second animation of the production piece is an animation of the character warming up and taking a fighting stance. I also used a guide I drew based off of the Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) clip shown in the Animation guide 2 post. This again demonstrates the pose-to-pose principles as the drawn guide features key poses rather than each step of the animation. Another principle shown is secondary action. When the character stretches theirs arms they look down towards them. As well as that, they look down and reach back towards their legs when stretching them back. The character also lowers their head and raises their eyes when taking a fighting stance. Follow through is also displayed in this animation as their legs return to the ground after they are stretched. This sequence also suffers from a lack of time spent properly tweaking it. An very noticeable element I could have tweaked is the characters arms and wrists. When rising and coming down, the arms warp slightly. I believe this is due to bad joint placement but didn’t have the time to properly tweak this as I left it too long. I was also unable to get the character to jump due to issues with the characters controller. I tried at the beginning of the animation but trying to raise the character in the air resulted in the torso and other limbs being stretched out immensely.
The third animation of the production piece is shows the character fighting. This animation is based off a guide made by tracing key poses from Punch and kick references for Artist – Martial Arts (2014). This again displays the pose-to-pose principle due to following key poses throughout the animation. Another principle shown is staging. The camera pans around the character, showing all sides. This gives puts the focus of the viewer onto specific elements of the animation such as punches from the left and right arm. Secondary actions are also shown within the animation. The characters feet are moving throughout the animation while other actions are happening. As well as that the characters torso twists with their punches. The character also brings their fist back to a guard while throwing a punch with the other arm. Arc is another principle I have shown in the animation. When the character brings their knee up and returns it to the floor it follows a natural arc. It doesn’t stretch out too far but also isn’t so close to the body that it isn’t believable. A principle I attempted to and failed to show is timing. Before the character raises their knee, they raise their arms in the air and bring them down. This should have had the knee rising as the arms come down but I keyframed the motion at the wrong time and didn’t dedicate enough time to the animation to redo this segment. I also believe that the entire animation goes by a bit too fast. Actions should have had a bit more time between them to create a more realistic animation.
Overall, I have been able to produce three animations. I do believe that these animations are of a lower quality than I would have been able to produce than if I had dedicated more time to the module than I did. Elements that could have been improved include the rigging of the character itself. I also believe the staging of the animations could have been improved. The third animation was meant to include camera cuts but I didn’t know how to make these work with the render farm. As a part of staging, I could have also improved the lighting of the scenes although I don’t believe that to be as important as the previously mentioned elements.
3Dsk – Photo Reference for Artists (2014) Punch and kick references for Artist – Martial Arts [Video] Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmpVe1k3flc [Accessed: 13/02/2022]
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018) Directed by Tatsuya Nagamine. Toei Company, 20th Century Fox Japan.