I started to animate the last 10 seconds of my part of the animation, which was the first throw. I was most excited to start this, but also apprehensive because this is where our animation really starts to kick off and I wanted it to look really exciting and full of fluid movements.
I made the mistake of starting this part before consulting Hayley. We had already agreed that my character would stand at the left of the stand and hers would go to the right, but we never talked about which arm we were throwing with, as to keep it natural, we were to use the same one for each throw. Therefore I had gone and started to animate the left arm, to change up my camera angles, and she had used the right.
Seen as how I had only done a little bit of the action, I didn't want her to have to start all over again as I knew she had tried really hard on it, therefore I just decided to change camera angles and use the other arm as well! However this was an example of our poor communication, and for future references we agreed to talk about EVERYTHING instead of just assuming what the other was doing.
Therefore it was time to animate the throw. I did a number of these because I was trying to get used to Hayley's character's arms and the joints in her skeleton, as they were placed at very different points to mine, so it took a few times for me to get the perfect throw! Looking at my reference video, I tried to replicate my own throw, but it was better said than done.
In this try, he looks like he is ready to to a forward stroke in a swimming pool! Therefore I evaluated that I had not bent his elbow enough, and I had placed the shoulder and hand too high!
With this next throw, I still had the hand too high, but the force of the throw was perfect. Hayley had helped me with this one in class as her throw was perfect and I was struggling a little bit. I tried even doing the arm movements myself as I was animating to try and mirror the action, but because he has more muscle than me, and I wanted to illustrate strength and force, I couldn't get it quite right!
However third time lucky, and I was finally happy with the throw. I tweaked it a bit more, so that it would 'feel' right, and look like an authentic throw. Hayley also liked it and said it was much better than the first. After showing Mat and Hayley the throw that I had achieved, I was given some great feedback. The initial throw was fine, however just before the brother lets go of the ball, I was advised to perhaps move the hand back and over exaggerate the action, and then let it spring back to a more natural movement. I hadn't even thought about this as I was so concerned about how the body moves and how both arms would be effected, therefore I am so glad that Mat pointed it out to me.
I applied this feedback and think the throw looks much better. and looks as though there is more weight on the right arm and left leg which was what I had been trying to convey initially! His throw also looks so much smoother, and this has greatly improved my throw from such a small change! Overall though it took me a good few tries, I am so pleased with the result! In this particular scene I really got to think about weight and where to put it, as well as force and the 'follow through' of movements. The 12 principles of animation apply just as much (if not more) here than to drawn animation and I have really started to think about them and make a conscious effort to illustrate them in each of my scenes!
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