Assignment Part 2

For the second part of the assignment, I have decided to do the scenario where Joe walks up some steps and jumps down. However, I have and interest in Parkour and decide to animate Joe to do a forward-backflip (oxymoron much?).

I used the animation I did in the walk cycle and edited the second half of it. Editing the feet and body to follow the stairs up was more challenging than expected as I wasn't working with a clean sheet where I could do the 3 stages of animation again. It caused some problems where part of the foot will go through the steps and such. It took some time but I managed to refine it. One thing to take note of was the body weight when a step is taken. The body is pushed up when Joe takes a step rather than moving up at the same time he is taking a step.

Once at the top, the anticipation of the backflip is animated where Joe lifts his arms. The arms then pulls down quickly and Joe bends down with his spine bent forward. When the arms reaches the end of the back swing, the body lifts up slightly, getting ready to jump. The arm then swings forward and the rig jumps both upwards and forwards.

During a backflip, depending on skill level of the person, people normally keep their knees as close to themselves as possible to have control of their body during the flip. The center of gravity is also easier to control when you 'ball' yourself up. I have animated the rig to do exactly this with Joe using his hands to hold his knees during the flip. Rotating the body and arms gave me a lot of problems and I took quite long to solve them. The legs too, gave me a lot of problems as placing them too close to the body will cause the knees to dislocate. =D

Aaanyways... moving on. When the flip is almost completed and when Joe is about to reach the floor, the legs will naturally reach out to the floor first. This is to cushion the impact of the fall. When the legs reaches the floor and the foot fully connects to the ground, the body will have a recoil motion (moves down and up slightly). His arms are wide open to balance the body after the flip. Joe then stops for a moment in realization that he did a flip.

And for realistic purposes (and for fun!), I animated Joe to check himself after his flip. He gives the "Omg, I'm fine!!" gesture during the animation. His spine straightens in this process. This has been a fun assignment to do! Haha =D