After submitting our first assignment, we were introduced to the second assignment and what we would need to do to complete it; namely one animation demonstrating weight, one animation with a run and jump and one animation with lipsyncing.

I used the video shown in class as a reference for my weight-lifting animation.

https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxATt34vgHfIaQ_GdVWtZ4BQ64QQwVOjrh

I took screenshots of the movements I deemed big enough changes from the last movement and used them as references for my keyframes.

These are the screenshots I used.

This is the first attempt at a weight lift animation, using the above frames for references. This animation never passed the blocking stage as something had gone wrong with the model, and the face had warped to a degree that I could not seem to fix. The weights were also too short and stopped the character from spreading his hands out properly with enough space left. I decided to start over.

This is the new block out. I added some stretch to the arms when the man is dropping the weights, and some facial expressions to help the emotion of the animation. The timing of the hands and the weight don’t add up entirely, but I made the hand keyframes while the interpolation mode was on ‘bezier’, so they line up when smoothed.

This is the refined version of the animation. I think it displays weight really well, especially with the details of the facial expressions, the shaking of the arms and the way the weight bounces slightly at the end.

I asked Aodhan for feedback, and he suggested several details to enhance the overall result:

• Add shaking strain to the legs 
• Add an overlap to the upper chest and head when lifting and dropping 
• Small bounce on weights/hips and torso when at apex height 
• Drag the shoulders down more 
• Remember C shapes 
• Weight is a bit floaty when coming up, change the timing 
• Feet come down faster at the start

One thing I couldn’t exaggerate as much as I wanted to was the ‘C shapes’, specifically when the man is bending down, the back is very straight and I couldn’t get it to bend much, so I settled for pulling down the shoulders.

This is the completed animation. I think it is the best of the three – it’s smooth, fits the purpose and loops well.