For my body mechanics animation, I knew early on I wanted to do a backflip. It felt like a natural progression from walk and run cycles, and a little more challenging than a jump. I used a large variety of references.
Kurosawa films were a huge inspiration in my concept for this animation. The way Kurosawa directs movements has always been so striking to me in conveying tension, emotion and skill within character (/story). I wanted to direct my backflip sequence in such a way that had this monotonous, extreme approach – “his blocking is unrealistic and exaggerated” (Every Frame a Painting) – where each pose feels meaningful and strong – as if you’re supposed to be watching it slowly. This of course adds pressure on making the poses interesting… but I pulled some references out to help me out with this.
Also from Seven Samurai, I loved this pose as potentially a final pose for my body mechanics. The way he holds his sword out perpendicular feels dynamic and strong. I think it would work well with the Azri rig. The pose below is a fantastic standing post. It’s so linear. As I outlined in my initial research, Lango advised not to be too linear, however this will likely be after my recovery which will not be linear, and thus creating juxtaposition and making my character seem highly skilled.
Screen Recording 2023-01-07 at 15.37.14
This scene from Tales of the Jedi (2022) – actually based on the same character as above, but animation, not live action – struck me because it has a really well-executed back-flip and specifically, the recovery. Due to her skill, she manages to maintain balance even after a complex flip. I think this fits with the character I am trying to represent in my Azri animation.
I also used several image references, such as this one from Aaron Durham.
Further, I continually referred to Katie McDonnell’s parkour work, as it was appropriate to emulate such poses with the Azri rig and she’s obviously highly skilled in such acrobatics.
Using Lango’s advice on C and S curves as well as advice from this video by Owen Ferny, I came up with plan/outline:
I came up with this scenario as a means of story inspiration:
Azri – a highly skilled warrior – performs a disciplined backflip over the gap forging in the ground, throwing her sword in the air slightly to show off to her oncoming enemies. When she lands, she looks around her to see loads of troopers flanking in – perhaps more than she expected. She must be ready to fight them off.
Below is my first pass.
I put a lot more emphasis on the energy/speed of each action as time went on, specifically when she gets up after the flip. I wanted it to flow smoothly and quickly and therefore give emphasis to the strong pose itself. I referred to Williams’ advice on timing and spacing. My initial pass had decent timing but the spacing was the issue. I kept thinking of the coin analysis where it’s still one second but the keys are no longer evenly space. I applied this to Azri getting up and made it so that the keys are faster as she gets up, and then slower when she’s in the key poses.
This still did not feel quite smooth enough, so I focused on making sure my in-betweens were transitional according to Williams and also emphasising C and S curves even further in the torso, much like Lango and Ferny had said. The result became gradually more dynamic and appealing. This was my polish:
One struggle that I had in the polish was the hair. I kept referring back to what I had learned from feedback in the Berkeley class about pendulums and C and S curves, and tried to apply this. Obviously with the character design here I had to be much more subtle. It was tricky to not make the hair look like a stick. I find the Azri rig to be fantastic but the hair is quite unintuitive/fiddly – I think this is because it’s designed for game animation and therefore not as capable for expressive/stylised animation which is what a lot of the Dick Williams/Illusion of Life/Frozen/Clone Wars references I have been looking into.
That being said, my finished result was a success, as I followed a sketch of 2D drawings that I had done and keyed/polished these.
I had also been advised in the Berkeley class as well as in uni – and in Animator’s Survival Kit – to be wary of arcs within the animation. I applied this to my polish in the backflip segment by checking that joints followed an arc of C and did not go out and in from key to key. This made it much smoother and seamless.
See renders of the polished pass on Syncsketch.
References
Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. (2022). [Animation] California: Disney.
The Mandalorian Season 2: Chapter 13: The Jedi. (2020). [Live Action] Manhatten Beach, California, United States: Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd.
Seven Samurai. (1954). [Live Action] Japan: Toho.
Every Frame a Painting (2015). Akira Kurosawa – Composing Movement. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8 [Accessed 5 Jan. 2023].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Katie McDonnell – YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmnOG46IshV2NweVC3VYcrw [Accessed 5 Jan. 2023].
Williams, R. (2001). The Animator’s Survival Kit. London: Faber And Faber.
Thomas, F. and Johnston, O. (1995). The Illusion of Life. Disney Editions Deluxe.
www.youtube.com. The 2 Secrets to SOLID Body Mechanics Animation. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsDIi1xeTws [Accessed 5 Jan. 2023].