This is the first animation project of GIT 312. The objective was to animate the Ball Bear character in a way that it attempts to hop to the last platform. However, I decided that it would fall in the lava instead.
Using the software Maya Autodesk, Professor Henteges built a rig that has controls for the transformations and rotations for the character. The scaling of the character on the y-axis, or squash and stretch, was built on a separate control.
The videos below are quickly rendered by frame using Playblast. The image sequences are then assembled together as a video in Adobe Premier Pro.
The process shown is the final step of using step tangents to block out the key poses, which show the most exaggerated forms. I also ended up placing breakdown frames between some of the key frames to visualize for myself the type of motions created.
This is the final step of using spline tangents to smoothen the motion to create in-between frames. One major change from the previous phase was removing the nod as the character winds up for his second jump attempt.
A side perspective showing the final refined animation with a static camera. I ended up dialing down the head shakes from left to right since the motion was too dramatic to be natural in my perspective. I also removed the wobble as the character nears the cliff edge, and changed it to a 'slipping' motion.
The story I wanted to portray was the character brashly jumping atop the next platform. After knocking his head on the wall, he bounces off dazed. After regaining his senses, he plants himself into the ground before making a series of successive, empowered jumps. However, the momentum was too much as he skids toward the edge of the cliff. As a last ditch effort, he attempts to jump across, but falls short with his lack of footing. After ricocheting off the cliff walls, he looks up, regretting his mistake and submerging into his demise.
The final animation. The camera was created in the final version of this animation. I also changed the character's rotations towards the end to make the character look up towards the camera as he sunk into the lava.
