Topic 7: Realistic Movement, Using Video Reference & Anticipation

Topic 7 tasked us with completing a blocking pass based on the timings and key poses from a video reference to create the action of a character realistically jumping over a gap and landing. 

This week's lecture focused heavily on the use of realistic movement and anticipation when animating. Realistic movement is crucial when trying to depict human or even animal like movement in a way that does not pull the audience out of what they are watching. A way many animators achieve this is by using reference videos and images to guide them while animating. Movies such as The Avengers (2012) and The Jungle Book (2016) utilised this technique to create lifelike motion in their cgi characters. 

Anticipation is also a major animation principle that aids in the creation of realistic animation. Anticipation is essentially a pose that is a preparation for the main action or movement. For example, when people jump, they do not stand upright and float into the air. Instead, they wind that action up by bending down, building up energy, and jumping into the air by releasing that energy. 

My Animation:

When blocking the character jumping over a gap, the video above was used as a reference to achieve realistic movement, timing and spacing as well as lifelike anticipation.

When working through the blocking stage of the character jumping over a gap I made sure to pay close attention to the key poses to ensure they were realistic and felt natural. I also kept in mind the anticipation the reference video shows. Before the man in the video jumps, he brings his hands up then squats down to build up energy and then releases it when he jumps. Adding this into the blocking stage will allow the more polished animation to look natural and have realistic movement. The reference video was also used to determine timing to give the character a realistic sense of weight.

Reflection:

After working through topic 7 and researching anticipation, it is clear that anticipation is a major animation principle when it comes to creating realistic movement. In real life, people don't just go from a stand still to a sprint or a jump, there is a build up. By adding in anticipation to character animations, it gives that character a sense of weight, intent in their movement and energy behind their movement. The character seems as if they have to build up the momentum and energy to move, this in turn makes them more life-like and realistic.