The last of the weights and forces task is the jump. I have chosen to animate a standing jump. My thumbnails are below:
Throughout this task I had several issues with the rig. Most annoying were the feet: for unknown reasons they would suddenly be out of line with the controls. I didn’t know why this happened and had no proper way of fixing it apart from individually fixing the frames. I had other issues with the arms not animating properly but I sorted this out eventually.
Continuing the weight and force task, I was to animate a person standing up. Again we were to demonstrate IK and FK targets, basic physics and bipedal movement using the SAE rig. My thumbnails are below:
I found that I had a lot of trouble with the FK and IK targets. Initially I linked them together but this seemed to destroy everything, so in the end I just used the rig as it is.
Within the the weights and forces task we were asked to demonstrate a character picking up an object. I choose to have the SAE rig pick up a large (and very heavy) box as I thought this would really demonstrate weight. I used the Richard Williams example of a pick up as a reference.
Below are my thumbnails for the pick up. They are similar but less exaggerated.
I also choose to add some extra facial expressions for fun. Also, I experimented with the render settings so as to give the render a 2D effect. I used the “Tech” render setting with the Quicksilver renderer. My final video is below:
In this task we were asked to demonstrate weight and force. We also learnt the basics of using a rig and the difference between FK and IK targets. Below is an image of the rig that was provided to us.
For the action of throwing a ball I wanted the movement to be exaggerated but not crazy (so no baseball pitches). I only sketched a couple of thumbnails in class but I added to them later after watching a reference video. I find that acting things out myself really helps but I still need a reference to see the movement in perspective.
From my thumbnails, reference material and Chris’ direction we began to key in the poses. Chris taught us how to use stepped keys when animating action. It is very similar to 2D animation: first key the extreme poses (key frames); breakdown the action (breakdowns); add holds, overlapping or extra actions where necessary (inbetweens – although these will mostly be done by 3dsMax but it really helps to include some to get the ease in and out correct). Below are the key poses from my animation (click to enlarge).
As I had a lot of keys and a lot of holds, the animation was fine when I set the curves to auto. After a bit of tweaking I was finished. Below is the final video:
I think that Jon is a bit floppy but overall the animation is okay.
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