Animations
Here you'll find projects ranging from animated shorts to character controller animations. I'm always experimenting and I love to try new styles always adapting and learning.
Intro Cinematic
This was the intro cutscene for a small shooter game where the premise was to have wacky physics in a 1v1 style arena. I wanted to emphasize the bouncy and noodly features the character had within the game and the cinematics.
Hop
This animation went through many iterations. When I was originally designing it, it acted more like a super jump, where the character would crouch down real low and spring upward. The problem with this was that both legs would go up at the same time, and land at the same time. This looked incorrect because it didn't look like he was jumping at all, because the legs went up at the same time. I ended up changing the animation to have one of the legs lag behind a bit so it looks like the character is really pushing himself off the ground. Then later I added the legs shimmying around mid-air to add a little character. One of my favorite parts about this animation is how his shoulders go upward when he reaches the apex height, making the movement a little more fun to look at.
Ground Pound
The ground pound animation was me experimenting with weight and force. I knew I wanted it to be quick and powerful looking. The way the tie flops over his face at a high speed paired with the motion of the arms charging above his head makes the animation feel like it has some real aggressiveness and power behind it. I think the most important part of this animation though, is the landing. There is a slight delay before the arms connect with the ground. All that charged-up energy is beginning to go into the impact. Once the hands hit the ground, the spine, and hands bounce back up a bit to make sure that energy isn't lost. When I recorded my own reference video for this animation, I landed on my knees, which was pretty painful, it looked like I had lost a lot of that energy, so in the final version of the animation I had him land on his feet and then move that energy into landing that pound.
Kick
I'll be honest, I struggled with this one the most. Initially, it was because I didn't know what type of direction I wanted the kick. My first iteration had the arms not contributing to the power of the kick, and my second iteration looked too stiff. I think getting feedback on different versions of my animations is vital. I would ask my group members, friends, and family what they noticed was off about the animation. I always try to get some constructive criticism, even when I think my animation is done because it gives me another opportunity to take another look at it and improve. My final version is everything that I wanted it to be, snappy, powerful, and fun. The subtle details pull it all together in my opinion. The left foot rotating as the right leg kicks forward and the right arm pulling back to rebalance itself makes every part of the body look like it is moving together to pull off this kick.
Punch Combo
I was initially inspired to do a punching animation akin to Street Fighter. What I came to realize was for the project we were making, which was more grounded, doing a jumping uppercut isn't exactly realistic. I then started to do a bit of research on Mike Tyson and was inspired by his movements in the ring. I thought it would be cool to challenge myself. Instead of just doing a jab, I wanted to do more. I would start out by creating a punch combo (Right, Left, Uppercut). I was really happy with it, but I felt like it wasn't as interesting to look at as it could be, so I decided to have the character walking forward as the punch. After this, I added a more realistic head movement to have the head hide behind the hands to protect himself. I was still able to retain some of that Street Fighter-ness with the uppercut, adding the character's heels going up instead of a full-on rising uppercut. What I ended with was something that could pass as realistic, but still has a bit of cartoon-ish charm.
Run
Not your typical running animation, our character here is in quite a hurry! This is one of the first animations where I started to experiment with overexaggerated movements. Another really fun piece where I decided to go in a different direction than I originally intended. Originally, I had a more realistic running animation, but as I started to become more comfortable with controlling a rig, I ended up adding my own little charms to it. If you have ever seen Toy Story, my inspiration was how Woody runs in those films. If you aren't familiar, he runs very clumsily, flailing his arms and arching his back backward like his head is too heavy to support the weight of it. To really emphasize that speed, I made the scarf appear to be flapping in the wind.
Walk N' Wave
My very first animation for the character controller was the one that I learned most from. I experimented with secondary animations like the tie swaying back and forth. I utilized the animation layers tool in Blender to seamlessly blend together the wave and the walk animation. Before I finalized the animation I wasn't satisfied with how stiff it looked, this is when I learned the importance of hip movements and toe movements. This is when I really dialed in and truly studied how I walked in my reference video. In the end, the floppy toes ended up being my favorite part of the animation. I wanted to give the character a friendly yet slightly clumsy look, and the final product displays that perfectly. (Note: It does loop perfectly, but the gif was too large of a file)
Workspace and Misc.
Just a few examples of what my workspace looks like when creating my projects, and a few miscellaneous items! (WIP).
My workspace in Blender (Character Controller).
My workspace in Blender (Maze Animation).
