The Roof Jump

After the reaction, comes the "Roof Jump" I have been working on the timing of this Jump it is quite tricky to figure out because I don't have reference videos as that would have been to dangerous to film. So I have my friend doing some reference videos of jumping across a n "invisible" gap, well the ground. You can see the reference videos just below.






And I have also been using Richard Williams "The Animator's Survival Guide" to help with the run up and jump because it has 2-3 pages on poses, I've added a picture of the poses I have been using to help me animate, below.

I have also been looking at Youtube videos, of Roof Jumps, mostly these two videos below are very helpful to show what the arms and legs are doing when the character is in the air.





I planned out some simple poses also, so I could start blocking out the poses, and work out the timing of the Jump, Here's some quick pose drawings below.

There not the final poses set in stone,because I will probably keep changing the poses until I'm happy that they're perfect. Here is my progress so far of my Jump. I have been making many changes, and tweaking the time for the past day, I like the timing so far.




And while the main character is getting ready to jump, the other character is running right behind him, trying to catch him, so I have been working on that whilst animating the jump, I have just been using a basic run cycle for this. This is my progress so far, below



I've been working on this jump non stop, to get it right, I want it perfect, the timing, the poses everything, I must have started over about 8-9 times now, and again I keep saying it looks right until it doesn't. So I think at this point I have got near enough to finishing off the stepped faze. After watching the whole chase scene from Total Recall (2012) about a dozen times and pausing each frame and copying it, I think the jump is becoming more life like. I mean I still need to tweak the arms, legs, back and landing pose, but I think the timing is almost there.



Now that I've almost finished tweaking the jump, I'm working on the other character, who is chasing the main character, but won't jump off the roof after him. instead just tries to grab him. This is what I so far....



More progress with the main characters stumble from the jump, and him picking himself back on, I've been working on this most of the day and tweaked it several times, but I think it's quite close to being finished, obviously I still need to spline my animation.


From my storyboard, I had the main character get up and turn back to the chaser and give a sarcastic wave, to say "haha got away" so I have been working out some ways he would do that and this is my progress so far...

I used a reference video to plan out the steps for the wave, and below you can see the poses I have drawn from the video.

Reactions

I have been working on, the main characters reaction after he nearly skidded off of the roof, and when he hears the Roof door slam, he quickly turns his head to see who it was.



Above is some simple reference of expressions and how I would do a quick head turn. Below is my progress so far of this part of the animation.



So I am still working on the reaction of the character hearing the bang, and then discovering that it's the guy who has been chasing him, so I'm up to the part where the "Chaser" has started running towards our main character and he has to think of what to do next, which in his case is too jump over to the other roof. The character really doesn't want to do this but it's the only way he can get away, so I want to show him scared and him thinking about not doing. Below is reference video of me doing the reaction.



Before animating, I drew out the poses so I could work out the timing, here's the drawings below.

This is what I have so far with his reaction of seeing the guy at the door, below

More Reference Video's

You can never have enough reference videos to help you animate, I have just taken some reference videos of  myself as the girl after dropping the boxes. I wanted to show her annoyed and eventually picking the boxes up as the main character won't help her pick them up.




I just continued doing the same thing, just changing things slightly, I like at 22 seconds, I do a slight head shake, which I think would be a nice subtle movement for the character. Here is the second reference video I took, pretty much the same concept, just slightly different movements.

Camera Angles

Camera Angles is what I struggle with most, I've been looking at action films such as Total Recall and Kick-Ass to see what kind of shots they use. For my first scene of my animation, I have came up with these shots, they're very rough and I will be making them look alot smoother when I get to the polishing stage of my production. I have also took my original storyboards in to consideration, because there was quite a few good frames in there, just some didn't work to well.




For my next scene which is the rooftop scene, I wanted the scene to be alot like Kick-Ass, so I have took some screen shots of the angles I like and what order they'll be in.

I've been working on the Camera angles for the second scene, I only have 3 at the moment, because I am still working on the skid. Ignore the run cycle, because it is still a "Work in Progress".




This is for after the scene below it's missing a camera angle, where the camera looks over the edge of the building when he almost falls off.




This is what I have so far, there just maya playblast simply put together, but this is how I want the camera angles to look like, I am gonna add in some environments obviously for establishing shots, because it looks very confusing at the moment.



I'm still working on the camera angles, whilst animating, this is what I have so far, I think it matches the speed and doesn't look too fast cutting. I have used 6 cameras total. And the animation is still in the stepping process, as I am still changing things.

Cycle Cycle Cycles

I've started working on a run cycle, So I can have a fresh mind whenever I look at my different scenes, I've messed around with alot of timing. I have decided to go with the traditional run cycle and just edit the poses slightly to match my running style.

I have used this as my base reference for my animation.

And here's what I have for the timing so far, It's maybe a little too fast because It's just on 1's, but I changed the timing to 2's and it looked to slow, so I think if I change the first 3 poses to 2's and the rest 1's it might make it look more natural and not too fast.




I'm working on the stumble at the moment, and just trying to figure out how to do it, I have this so far, the timing isn't right it needs to be alot faster. It doesn't look right because the run is very fast and then the stumble part is very slow so it's not consistant.




More work on the skid, I think its starting to look alot better, I think the last pose needs to be slowed down by a few more frames.




I've been working on the beginning part of this scene, where the character is standing at the door, taking in the environment, and thinking of his next step. I wanted him to look like he was psyching himself up to run, so I added in a small subtle arm shrug. Here's my work in progress so far...



I know this is only two steps, but I think I have worked out the timing for my run cycle, the first 4 poses are all on 2's then the last 3 poses of the step are on 1's. I think the timing looks better and not incredibly fast like the last cycle.




The run cycle so far, obviously its still in the stepped out stage, but I think it's starting to look better, I changed the arms because they looked very unnatural, like robot arms.




I actually watched this playblast a fair few times and decided it was way too slow and felt the speed just increase while he's running so I kept the first 18 frames on 2's. I then put the rest of the poses on 1's so it looks like he speeds up as he's getting closer to end of the roof, which I feel happens when you run, you need to build up your speed. Heres a playblast of my current progress so far.



Since I have the basic steps down of the run I have been working on the skid at the end of the run, when he realises he's not ready to jump across to the other roof, and comes to a skidding stop, here is my progress so far of the skid.



I think it's starting to look better, maybe a little less arm flailing, I still want some arm movement so it's like he's out of control and can't stop himself from running.




I scrapped my last animation, of the skid, because it was not very realistic, the gravity wasn't correct, because his body was too far over the end of the roof. I watched the skid from kick-ass again, frame by frame and drew out all the poses, below.

They really helped me pose the character, and help me stick to making it look realistic and not to over the top, I'm still working with the timing a bit, but I think it looks good with the poses, here is a playblast of my current progress below.

Animating

I'm justing testing out to see if the run cycle would work here's some progress so far.




More stepped out, I think the timing is right for the run, because I want it to be quite fast, I've only really animated the legs, and the hips just to work out the speed.




I have been looking at the reference videos really closely and copying out the poses and posing my character the same way, here's an example of that below.

Work in Progress so far from just using the poses to animate.



I am animating the running part between the stairs and can't get the timing quite right, I think adding in 1 or 2 more frames to each step will make it the right speed. The video below is to show the timing I have at the moment.



I changed the curves to splined and it looks a little smoother and not too fast, so I may not have to change the timing and go straight on to animating the arms.



A bit more progress, of the running, below, a few things need to fixed and added, such as, tweaking the feet, rotating the back and positioning the head.



And this is just putting some steps into what the girl will be doing, so this is her getting a shock from the guy running at some speed right at her. I think I may slow down the "shock" well give it some anticipation before she jumps a little.




Going through lots of variations of the fall, I have decided to go with this one below, because it's subtle and it goes with the character not being able to stop, but still gesturing that he is very sorry.

Steps

I have been watching my reference videos very carefully, and I am planning out the steps for the run cycle, I have just drawn these 12 steps from the first reference video.

When the person seems to get up a few steps, he starts to step up, two steps at a time.

Front View

Below are some quick drawings of the front of  the body, I drew them again from watching the referencing videos to see how the arms would move and the feet.