BlogPost 11: Final Project (Part 2) - Stairs Cycle

For the second part of the final project for 3D Visualization and Animation, a task of making the model walk up a flight of stairs is expected for me to complete. In this second part of the project, I'm given the chance to complete a bonus mark assignment which is to make the animation jump down after walking up the flight of stairs. Since there is a bonus mark given, I decided to give it try, treating it as a new challenge for me.

Similar to the previous Walk Cycle assignment, I started by making key poses for the animation, for example; where the animation should jump to and when should it start dropping down and land realistically. I used references for the stairs cycle:

 

Image Reference for Walking Up Stairs Cycle

With the above reference, I was able to create the key poses accurately. The position of the hands, arms and legs are so important in creating a realistic animation for making it walk up the stairs. I then looked in the movement of the spine and hips to create a even more realistic animation. I have to take note of every single position of each body part so that the results of this project will be a positive one. Honestly, I had much trouble making the arms move in the right position as the body is moving upwards and causing the hand to move accurately together with the body, and also swinging at the same time. 

I have to point out that the bonus assignment is a very difficult and challenging task. Creating a motion of the animation jumping off the top of the stairs really caused me quite some time to create it. Every frame has to be looked into and the position of the animation will not be diagonally the same as the animation has a high point of its jump and that's where the acceleration of the body is slowed before it increases again when it reaches towards the ground. It made me think back the laws of gravity and how the body should move accordingly when the character jumps off, reaches the top point and lands realistically. Below is the image reference that I followed for this bonus assignment:

 

Image Reference 1: A Long Jumper's motion

 

Image Reference 2: A character jumping cycle from a stationary position.

It took so much time to just calculate where does the body move fast or where does it slow down when its in the air. The movement of the arms are also concentrated to create a more realistic production. I continuously stood up to jump off from some high point, focusing on what I do when I jump off and the way I land. From these "Personal Exercises", I was able to mark out the key poses of the animation when jumping, and landing. The head is also moved and positioned together with the shoulders, spines, hips to create a realistic mood for the viewer. Being in the air is still the most difficult part that I have to do as I have to keep in mind with the weight balance, laws of gravity and balance of the body. As a result, I completed the assignment and was quite pleased with my result of the animation. As I have explained in the previous blog that I'm going overseas on the 16th of December, my "Personal Dateline" was shorter than the given dateline 3 days earlier. If given the time, I would either mock up an environment around the character, or giving some audio and effects to make the animation a complete and a good one. Going through this second part of the project, it made me more excited for the next term to come and pushed me to be daring and take on challenges that are given to me.

Stairs Cycle (Perspective View)

Stairs Cycle (SideView)