Animation Mentor Demo 2

In my last two classes at AM, I taught animals and creatures and advanced body mechanics. I asked my students to pick a video reference they wanted me to animate for an in class demo. Here is a breakdown of the second from animals and creatures.

I found a 2 second clip I filmed on a trip to the San Diego Zoo a few years ago. The proportions were well suited to the AM Ogre rig.

                    Original clip

I blocked out the animation during 2 classes talking about my mindset and how I approached the spacing, by favoring the hang time keys and pushing the poses to be more clear. Before class I set up a simple set and put in the first pose. Then blocked using a straight ahead method, a new pose every 6-8 frames

        Blocking pass (75 minutes)

I then spent half of the next class polishing it. Starting with a pass using the COG and graph editor making sure his base of movement was smooth, had weight that F=favored the hang time. I worked outwards to the chest, head and limbs. The blocking was detailed enough, to make splining painless, mostly and working on and arcs for the arms and legs.

  Spline pass (60 minutes)

Hope you enjoyed the clips!