For this Animation I wanted to make a jump cycle, I felt that this would push me creatively and the positioning and key framing is fundamentally different to that of a walk or run cycle.
Research
As I mentioned in the previous post, my main goal for this animation was to put emphasis on anticipation. I found looking at works of comedy, both live-action and animated would help my process. Monty Pythons 'Ministry of Silly Walks' greatly influenced me here. The characters going from standing still and casual, to taking hugely over the top strides with legs flying into the air, made me think about how far I could push squash and stretch, exaggeration and anticipation in my animation.
I also found looking at animated works like Scooby-Doo helpful. Scenes where the characters jump in fear and stay airborne for a few seconds heightens the emotion trying to be conveyed, as well as building momentum and exaggeration. Note this scene where Scooby stays airborne for around 12 frames before connecting with the ground again.
Animation
Once I had the animation blocked out, I refined if by adding in the squash and stretch, and extra details such as the toe roll, and the character shifting its feet and stumbling once he lands. I made use of every function I could in this animation to try and get the most life out of it. With all of this done the resulting animation looked like this.
I was quite happy with how this looked but I wanted the movement to have more momentum and build up. Below is the final animation with altered timing and additional movements to make the action less stiff and feel more organic.
I changed the position of the key frames when the character first crouches to jump and when the character is landing together and farther away for the frames where the character is at the height of their trajectory. The in turn made the characters build up to the jump more anticipate, as well as the characters descent such faster after staying airborne.
References
Monty Python - Minstery of Silly Walks
Whats New Scooby Doo?
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