Research
This assignment we are building on our runs and learning how to transfer that momentum into a running jump.
For this we looked at how to draw more fluidly by using line of action to guide our poses, keeping in mind to anticipate and follow-through with our action. Generally we see the down pose of the run become the anticipation of the jump and we want to keep an eye on our silhouette and have some form of movement in the air so it doesn’t feel too floaty.
In class we practiced the flow of a long jump, starting stationary, so that we could understand this idea of compression into extension and seeing how momentum is creating with the arms and legs. I started these of by really focussing on the shape of the spine, just like I outlined in the Photographs and then worked on adding the arm movement.
Then i wanted to practice combining the jump and the run, and I found this really good reference. For this assignment I rally wanted to challenged myself to draw thing in a 3D space with some perspective so this really helped in that regard as well. The same compression and extension poses apply here but we also see a delayed foot with the down of the run turning into the anticipation for our jump and then having the momentum carry on after he lands. This was pretty fun and looks more appealing overall but definitely took more planning than animation on the planar background.
Then I really wanted to add some purpose to my run, and I really like parkour/free running videos, so I went and looked to see how they moved their bodies and dealt with the environment. I practiced with a reference and focussed on picking out the curved/linear movements of the spine, as well as the timing and feet placement. I learnt that the front flip here isn’t just for show, it actually helps to slow down the built up momentum from reaching the tall wall, so that when he hits the ground it is a controlled impact.
Then looking at some animated reference I really liked how in Arcane they give subtle changes to the jump to give them all their own personality. Having characters movements reflect their inexperience and having them off balance with awkward posing vs other characters who land very grounded on all fours (which also each character does slightly differently to reflect their personality). I also like the use of secondary action like with the bags, and the hair to also build some visual appeal.
Also with animation we can really exaggerate the compression like in the air in this shot, she has a super quick lift off from the ground and slows down time in the air to get that nice action shot before extending out, paying attention to asymmetrical silhouettes for interest.
MY JUMP
For my references I compiled some videos and uploaded them to sketch fab so that I could quickly flick through them. I chose animated and live action references for the jump itself, looking at the delayed action of the legs, the rotation of the arms in the air and how they anticipate the lift of and the landing of the jump. I also decided to include some story, deciding on some street tagger so I wanted to have this quick contextual animation at the start (I acted this out and filmed myself for reference but I wasn’t comfortable uploading the videos).
Free Running/Parkour References
Then I found while I was trying to rough out my jump I just wasn’t happy with what I was working on. I ended up taking a bit of time to figure out how I would incorporate a story, trying to use interesting angles and include perspective as a goal for myself (since talking to Andrew, including something unique into your animations could make you more memorable for hiring). Nothing I produced seemed to look right to me, receiving feedback for this also didn’t help, I was told that they both worked and looked fine but this just didn’t work for me. This is where I ended up having to take a step back from this and tackle some imposter syndrome to be able to just settle on an idea that showcased that I understood body mechanics and acting for animation.
I then decided to take a look at what I liked best from my references and create something that I can be content with for now. I really liked the compression in the jump from arcane and how it is a straight on angle, and then I really liked the flip and jump up from the parkour jump so I decided to just take these elements and worked on creating them, I found my main source of stress was overcomplicating a lot of movements, so I worked on creating one jump and giving myself the option of adding on movement after if there was time. I simplified m perspective and it helped me to think about the movement more.
I liked how this was looking a bit better and adjusted the timings, especially at the start before adding some more keys and breakdowns. I was struggling to get the flutter-like kick from my Arcane reference, so I decided to adjust the location of my buildings, making the jump area wider and thus make the anticipation and kick off make more sense. I also changed the type of landing to a different reference, since I decided to carry the momentum from the jump to more running, I couldn’t have my character’s body have an unbalanced landing.
I then adjusted the timings a bit more, at this stage I wasn’t sure if my jump and the weight of the character was making sense, so I also decided to swap the anticipation and kick off of the jump to a different reference to see how this looked. I didn’t end up liking this alternate jump too much so I decided to stick with my initial jump and play around with the timing and spacing until I liked it a bit more.
I started to add on some more breakdowns and adjusted the timing. The next big hurdle I found was translating the arm movement, since I was essential combining two of my references I needed to find a balance between each of these arm movements and my first couple attempts had the rotation feel a bit awkward. I also started to plan out my tail secondary action. There is still something about the anticipation and kick off that was bothering me in this animation but I needed to just get this done so I kept at it.
I decided to focus on the jump and look to create some forms to my roughs. This helped me understand the movements of my body a bit better, I separated each body part onto its on layer just like we learnt to do last assignment and this let me isolate and quickly fix up the issues I was having. I was also able to add on some visual interest with the clothing at this stage, having the hood drag behind. As this stage I also managed to fix my awkward arm movement, just by looing back at my reference I realised that I had my front arm rotating incorrectly and correcting this helped convey the initial flail of the jump much better.
Then I worked on the start of the animation, that gave some context and personality to the jump. This ended up being quite hard and when I was finished my first draft of this I sent this to some peers for feedback. I also adjusted the timing of the initial fur raising and prickling up to be more readable. The main issues I have noted in red below, and I wholeheartedly agree with them so I needed to try and make time to correct these. I also think I could adjust the landing to have more compression that will lead into my run better.
I managed to fix the run by adjusting the frames and adding in one more pose to make the run feel more smooth, My next issue was the start of my running jump I first needed to make sure the feet would land correctly in perspective so I created a new guide, but then I found I was getting too much side to side movement which I didn’t like. So I just went and thought about which part was causing the side to side, and why it was so noticeable, I did eventually fix this by fixing the rotation of the torso and making that starting run quicker.
Continuing to make some adjustments, I got some feedback from my peers that the landing could squash more, and I agreed as before it looked like he wasn’t properly taking on the impact, I also adjusted the frame to have him lean and to lead it better into the run after. The start of the animation I still wasn’t happy with but I didn’t want to spend much longer on it since my jump was the main attraction here. The air time I was finding looked a bit too long, and I think this is because I enjoyed the slow-mo effect from one of my references, but didn’t change it to fit my animation context.
I sent this to Alec for some feedback and he agreed with my issues on the airtime, and he directed me to the frame that was likely the issue, as I was slowing down the landing so it eased in which didn’t work with the sense of gravity that I was trying to create. He suggested to either remove this or experiment with how to speed up this landing. He also encouraged me to add some sound to match up with my lights. He also said my sketchy line work was fine for this assignment, something that I was stressing over having to clean up- but the movement was readable and I would just need to clean it up for my portfolio afterwards.
So I went and experimented with how I would correct my landing, and what I found was to actually think of the bouncing ball exercises from last year and remember how I eased that out of the air and let it quickly approach the ground. I sketched out a timing chart for this and then retimed my drawings, then adjusted/redrew some of them to better fit the motions. Then I was really liking how the jump was looking, a quick lift of, some airtime and then swift landing.
Now that my jump was better timed I realised that I had some frames that were holding for too long, so I wanted to tween those too for better flow. This gave the whole animation a flow that it was really lacking before, and likely was the reason I thought it was so clunky. I am not 100% happy with this still but I think it shows some good fundamentals which is all I need for this assignment. Problem solving for this has been fun, but fighting against myself has made it a longer process than it really needed to be.
Then I adjusted the tail movements to have this little snap/flick motion to mark the change of direction and I think this looked quite nice. I am not entirely sure about my timing on the landing still but it does move better than it originally did.- Then when I came back to this the next day the file was corrupted, so I had to redo this little tail adjustment again, I am very thankful that I use incremental saving for all of my work or this would have been a much bigger issue. When it comes to tails I just think of them following a wave motion or a whip motion and that gets me good results.
Then I went and downloaded some sound effects and quickly placed them into Toon Boom and adjusted them to fit correctly with my animation before exporting out the final render.
Sound Refs:
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk
While I’m not happy with the overall final result of this animation, I think I was able to build on what I learnt from our last assignment and transfer that into a convincing jump animation. I had a lot of fun experimenting and recreating movements for reference for this particular brief, looking at animators work and different perspectives to understand how they transferred momentum and shifted their weight in a fluid way and I was able to translate some of that to my animations. I learnt to think more gesturally. capturing the poses I saw from my reference with a simple shorthand before building that up to be more complex, and I was able to have some secondary action as well. I did struggle with this animation the most but that is because I was trying to be too ambitious, and despite my struggles I learnt a lot and had a lot of fun animating throughout.