CAGD493 Week 13

 This week I have continued focusing on the tiger kick animation. I wanted to implement the feedback I got last week from the class and move forward in the animating process. I was told to exaggerate my poses more. I decided to bring the COG a lot lower on the moments when the character is bending his knees to create more contrast between the poses. I also looked more at the chest twist and how can I use it in the kicking motion. I wanted the pose right before the kick and the main pose of the kick, to be highly contrasted. 

I also put the tail of the tiger into a curled position so I can later on create an overlap on it and offset its movement. Previously, I have completely skipped past putting it into place and it was like a straight line sticking out of the tiger.

I also decided to set moving holds to move forward in the process of the animation. After doing so, I spent a lot of time adjusting the moving hold so I am happy with the results. I decided that the high pose of the kick should be kept longer than in my reference video, because I wanted it to really stick out and I wanted the viewer to really be able to observe the kick and how steady it is. 

When I was happy with my moving holds I started slowly moving with the process of the animation. The first step was creating a bounce in the COG right after the tiger sets its pose. 

This is the animation after creating the moving holds and the bounce at the very beginning. I am very happy with the bounce, I think it looks good and I believe that it was a good idea making the character go lower. 

Now, looking back at this animation, I can easily see what I need to improve next. I wanted to contrast the kick more, and as much as I have achieved it compared to the previous stage of the animation, it is still not exaggerated nearly enough to what I want to achieve. I also see a lot of issues with the shoulders. 

While working on this animation, I could see problems with the hands, so I have addressed them right away by adding motion trails and trying to create arches in the hands movements. Now I see, I need to look at the shoulders first. The exaggeration of the poses and shoulders movement will be main points of my work next week. 

This is the stage where I am at now: