Obstacle Course Animation

I have decided that my obstacle course will consist of 3 separate obstacles: a rope crawl, a jump and a cross on the monkey bars. Below are the videos of the initial animation.

 
When the man lifts his legs to the bar at the start it is a bit slow and then as he crawls across the bar he moves far too quickly. I have to sort out these issues before hand-in. I like the element of the spikes. It adds a real sense of danger. I think I'd like to do something similar with the other obstacles so that they too have that element of danger.

I think the jump works pretty well. There is good squash and stretch and he makes great height. I'd like to add in an object for him to jump over though otherwise the action seems a bit pointless.

 
The monkey bar obstacle works well. As he crosses the bars he has a good pace. There is a sense of secondary animation within the obstacle as the legs move separate from the rest of the body - this gives the impression of momentum, propelling the man forward across the obstacle. I'd also want to add in another element to this obstacle. Maybe something below the bars to keep him from wanting to fall - water maybe...

Animated Obstacle Course Plan

Putting everything together about what I have leaned about movement and weight, as well as the 12 principles of animation, I now have to create an animated obstacle course. Using running, jumping, climbing &c I will create a piece of animation about a character negotiating a series of physical obstacles. Before I jump into the animation progress, I first need to plan out my obstacle course; what sort of course will I have? What will the various activities be? Once I've created my course, I can then decide how my character overcome the obstacles put before him and how easily (or not so easily) the he will navigate around the course. To create my course I will look at existing obstacle courses and then use elements of that in my own. I want to make my obstacles course look exciting and not just like the usually genetic courses.  I have used references of army traing obstacle course as well as the TV show Gladiators to help me get a sense of what an obsticle course is.

The point of this exercise to to show off what I have learnt about the world of animation thus far. To do this I want to include as many of the 12 animation principles as possible. I will add in a sense of anticipation when my character is faces with a difficult task. I could add exaggeration when my character faces difficulty to add a sense humour or maybe a secondary character who completes the course with ease to show a comparison between the strong and weak. This would also add sympathy for the character giving him more appeal.I also want to attempt secondary action to add a better sense of realism to the piece. I could do this by giving my character hair.

Weight

After looking at pushes and pulls, I have begun looking at another aspect of weight - the lift. Looking at reference videos of lifting and acting out a heavy lift myself, I been able to create quick sequence sketches on the key movements in a lift.

 

This animation is very rough and the struggle of the weight isn't really there. Because of this, I have gone on to draw another weight - this time using a weightlifter. I have watched reference videos of a weightlifter and then drawn quick sketches.

 
Once animated I can see that it works a lot better but there still isn't much anticipation going on within the action. He seems to pick up the weight with ease and the timing of the animation stay consistent throughout. To help improve it I would make the weightlifter hold the weight for a while at the beginning and then try and vary the speed at certain points (making the action faster as he moves the weight to his chest and then slower when he lifts the weight above his head) to help improve the sense of anticipation.

Push/Pull Revisited

I have taken my previous pull and pushes and improved them. I have added in the objects and horizon lines so that they communicate better. There is abetter sense of anticapation which makes the weight more convincing. I have also sorted out the crazy line in the pull so that the weight remains constant.

 

 

Push/Pull Animation

Using my reference videos and sketches I made, I have animated 2 versions of a push and a pull. Let's start with the pushes. Firstly the object the stickman is pushing is missing from both push attempts. This makes it hard to see the effort the stickman as too but into pushing the invisible object. Also he seems to push the objects with too much ease. He lacks anticipation which would make the push look more like a struggle. The first animation is a bit unclear. It is supposed to look as if he is walking up a hill. However, that is a bit difficult to see without a horizon line. By simply adding in this line I can make my animation a lot clearer and easier to communicate. For my second attempt, I would say that the struggle is a lot more effective although the object is really needed to show the full extent of the weight acting on the stickman.

 

For the pull, I think that the sense of anticipation is a lot more successful. You can clearly see the struggle of the weight even though the weight isn't evident in the actually frame. The tope that the man is pulling goes a bit wild in the last few frames - making it look as if the weight has suddenly become lighter. I need to make sure that the rope line stays consistent throughout to maintain the illusion of weight.

Pull

After looking at the push, I have now begun looking at the pull. By again completing a simple key sketch diagram, I have found that the easiest way to portray a convincing pull is to make my character pull a rope over his shoulder. This shows that the object is just too heavy to pull by hand and an aid is needed. Hopefully that will give my animation convincing strain.

Push

After looking at reference videos, I have started to have my own go at animating a push and pull - starting with the push. To get a good feel for what is involved in a push, I have began by skimming the reference videos and quickly sketching out the key frames which show the strain on the body. I have done this for both of the reference videos as I felt that the first sketch didn't really indicate a successful push. It didn't really communicate a sense of weight which after all is the point of the exercise.

The second sketch is a lot more effective push. I really shows the effort my stickman has to put into pushing the heavy object. Although he sketches are a good guide for my animation, I mustn't forget to add in a sense of anticipation to make the weight of the object the man is pushing convincing