Forum 4: Future Animation Concepts

 

Sketches:

    The above picture is my attacking ideas for my character. I am going to continue using my Darth Revan character for this animation production. To begin with, he will be in his normal/idle stance getting ready to attack. His first actual attack will be a upward slash with his right saber. While the upward slash is still in the air, his left hand will be going in with a thrust attack with the other saber. While he is retracting his thrust, he will bring down his right saber with a down slash. This will all be finished up with a defensive block pose with the two sabers.

    So this picture contains the concept idea of my character's death animation. The first part is him getting hit/stabbed depending on the opponent. He will hold the wound try to ease the pain. While holding the wound, he will walk forward one or two steps. After this he will fall to his knees while still grasping the wound, and finally he will lay down completely for the final frame with one hand out and the other still holding the wound. 

    I decided to add both the idle and jump animation concepts together for this paragraph. The idle animation will consist of a mixture, two of the three examples here, or focus primarily on one. The first idle pose is just a mixture of breathing and ordinary swaying motions that most humans have while standing in place. The second idle phase would be him turning off his lightsabers, holding up one of his hands while looking at it and ignite his force lightning power. This idle phase would be more of a cool bonus and demonstration of his power. The last idle pose I liked would be of Revan pacing slowly back and forth like a villain would do while menacingly waiting for the hero. 

    The jump animations are pretty "unique" as for his jump up animation, I will have him plant himself getting ready for the jump. When he jumps, while in mid air, I want him to do a flip. When he lands, he will land on one knee with both sabers ignited ready for a fight. The jump down animation will be more simple; as I have him looking down, doing a quick, small jump up and then landing on one knee again with one hand hitting the ground.

Fundamentals of Animation:

    Feel:

The actions that Darth Revan will be using is to show a physical representation of what he is doing as well as a hint of what is to expected. For instance, one of his possible idle poses will be him pacing back and forth. This was meant for dramatic, but it is also a fun way to tell the player to "do something". Another great example would be when Revan lands after a jump; as it will convey to the player that he is ready for a fight or any unexpected actions.

    Fluidity:

I want these animations to be very beautiful and smooth, and with the success of the walking animation, I am confident that I can pull these animations off. However, I intend to use extra framing along with a few new edited models to convey the animations that I want to demonstrate. I also really want these animations to have a lot of polish. These means I will need to dedicate more time and frames to their actions.

    Context:

The feeling that I want my animations to give off would be that of power and dominance. These animations are, of course, for Darth Revan, and I need him to feel feared by the AI, but feel powerful to the player. This fell can be or will be seen in his idle stance with his force lightning or slow pacing, and from his jumping animations. This is a character that definitely commands and demands respect and authority in his actions and presence.