Polishing the gymnast was not necessarily difficult, nor did it take nearly as long as almost any of the other animation exercises I have done thus far in the term. mainly came down to fixing errors pointed out during our feedback session and smoothing out the graph editor through the means of tracking my motion curves.
The first matter of business was to go through my feedback and fix every incorrect pose according to suggestion. Rather than list my process with every single one of these, I’ve included a thoroughly documented example of the a hip motion curve I was advised to fix, in order to give you a good idea of my procedure throughout the fixing stage.
Here is a screenshot of given feedback indicating the way in which I should fix said motion curve of the hip movement.
Observe the below image on the left, and you’ll see that my original motion curve was a jolty, up-and-down movement. On the right is my adjustment to the hip motion curve, and as you can see it is already much better- the body leans into that upward movement more and comes back down more gradually and gracefully as well. The curve now resembles more of a soft peak.
I’ve also included for your reference the way in which I did this. Keeping in mind our ball-bounce exercise and the arc principle, I’ve taken that peak and prolonged the time in which the gymnast hangs in the air, while shortening her liftoff and landing. I also deleted any keyframes which I deemed unnecessary and instead altered the graph editor to resemble the curve as it was with said keys, making sure to check back often to certify that I didn’t accidentally make a serious mistake.
After making sure that I was happy with the new way in which the hips moved during that specific jump, I went through the entire hip animation and repeated the process- motion tracking, smoothing, and editing the curve on the graph editor. Below is a look at the hip movement during my blocking pass:
And here is the remarkable difference visible in the polish pass:
Just the hip movement alone did so much to add realism and gracefulness to the gymnast’s movement, making her feel less jolty and robotic and more human, more dependent on gravity. I do think that specific mini-jump I smoothed out first is my best work; I feel that it gives her a lot more weight, which is hard to do when the character is completing such impressive acrobatic stunts.
Pleased with my work on the hip motion curve, after having fixed all of the issues mentioned in our feedback session, I went in and edited the motion curve on each limb. I focused on smoothness and weight. Of course, with the hip motion curve already done, a lot of the joltiness had already been resolved, as the limb position is so dependent on the hip movement in mid-air flight. Here’s an example of my work with the motion trail on her foot. Below is the motion curve during my blocking pass:
-and during my polish pass:
Here’s a playblast of my finished work polishing the gymnast’s performance. Note the fluidity and more realistic body movement.
In conclusion, I would like to say that my work on the gymnast was my best yet. It was a very good idea for me to work with a character who wears minimal clothing, as it helped me advance my understanding of body mechanics considerably. It was also beneficial for me to use a hyperrealistic rig as I think that it helped me pinpoint unnatural moments. Not only was the blocking incredibly easier with my more proficient knowledge of rig mechanisms, but the polish pass was fun and painless now that I’m more comfortable with the graph editor. I feel that I now have a sharper eye for detail and know what to look out for. Although I may not have an innate understanding of what the body position would necessarily look like at all times, I’m able to spot a mistake when I see one and correct it independently. This work is so far the highlight of what will be my demo reel, and I’m confident in its representation of my skills. This work is a far cry from my early hard hours of frustration producing convoluted, messy attempts. As I said before, if you had told me that I had made this a month ago I wouldn’t have believed you, so great is my progress, but I now must add that the unbelievability is softened now that I’ve stared at my work what feels like hundreds of times.