Task:
During week 4, we looked into the topic of body mechanics, the line of action and opposing actions. For this week’s task we needed to create an animation using a flour sack to practise performance and appeal as well as animating a character pushing a stone which allows us to practise weight, timing and interacting with objects.
Research:
I specifically wanted to research how to create personality when animating as well as conveying the weight of the flour sack through leading action. For the character pushing a stone I also wanted to look into how to convey weight and the force the character will use through the use of timing and using real life reference.
Process:
Flour Sack
For the flour sack animation I knew I wanted to create a little jump and wave. I treated this animation like the last one and started by blocking out the key poses which was a bit of a challenge as I had gotten used to using humanoid rigs at this point so it was odd to have a lack of knee and elbow controls. After blocking the key poses I moved onto adjusting the timing to help create anticipation and weight before filling in the inbetweens and polishing the motion using the graph editor.
Pushing a Stone
For the character pushing the stone I blocked the key poses and adjusted the timing a lot until I was happy with the sense of weight and force it created, next was using the ‘child of’ constraint to attach the hands to the stone at certain intervals which was a little tricky to get the hang of but became very useful within this animation. Finally I created the inbetweens and moved the stone to create the impression of a force pushing the weight of the stone.
Results:
I am overall very happy with the flour sack animation. I feel that the push up and jump has actual weight to it and the standing up straight with the wave added the little bit of personality I wanted but I think I should have exaggerated how squished he gets when he lands to make it seem a bit heavier. The character pushing a stone was a bit more of a challenge to get the timing right; I feel that the character does look as if he is pushing the rock with all his force but the stone feels as if it gets moved too quickly at the end but I am happy with the characters timing and small wall up to the rock as well as getting the ‘child of’ constraint to work properly.