The Final 10%

Here are the final results for term 2 (without them being properly rendered, which I'll probably get on to later!):


an02 anim 003 FINAL from Aaron Skinner on Vimeo.



dog walk final 001 from Aaron Skinner on Vimeo.



Vanilla Walk Final hiRes from Aaron Skinner on Vimeo.

And that wraps up term 2! These 12 week terms really fly by. Looking back, I'm surprised to find that in my opinion, the dog walk turned out the best of all the assignments. Considering bipeds are supposed to be easier to animate and I'm not much of a dog person, I guess that's something to be proud of!

I'll be deferring this term for numerous reasons and will pick up the next class (AN03) in September. In the mean time, I plan on doing a few more game writing pieces while still practicing animation. I'll still be hanging around the campus, helping out other students. I think the break will be good to consolidate what I've learnt, plus it'll allow me to actually enjoy the great games that have come out recently. Stay tuned!

Week 9 & 10 - Blocking to Final, Timing & Spacing

Hard to find time to update blog between work, assignments and other things. Although it kind of turns out better this way, as you can get a better idea of the shot progression when it's just in one post.

So last update was my bare bones blocking, done to get the basic ideas across. The video below is Blocking +, an extension of that with more breakdown poses. I made a few changes based on critiques, mainly the start - which originally wasn't reading very well so I had to re-do it. This apparently works better.



Physicality Blocking 002 from Aaron Skinner on Vimeo.

Below is what the above basically looks like in splined mode, with the computer calculating the rest of the in betweens and some timing changes on my part.


Physicality Blocking 003 from Aaron Skinner on Vimeo.

It's kind of bemusing how the roll itself (which I thought was going to be the hardest thing) has actually turned out to be the easiest thing to get right. I'm having a lot of trouble getting the start and very end to look right, as the actions are more subtle. In these moments of held poses, it's a fine line between not moving the character enough (having them appear lifeless) and having them look too 'floaty'. The dive roll on the other hand is over so quickly it's harder to see the minute errors occurring there.

Also interesting: During the dive I found breaking her legs slightly (so they bend the other way) actually makes the dive look better, as it makes her legs follow a nice arcing path of action. That's been my first taste of 'breaking the rules/rig' to get a better result, which is kind of cool!