Toolkit 2 - Maya Lesson 1 Arcs and Starting Poses

   Following the collaboration briefing, we moved onto Toolkit 2. Toolkit 2 will comprised of 3 different areas and these will be : 

- Drawing

- Animation

- Maya (including associated software)

 

For our returning maya lesson, we recaped a few of the basic principles of animations. Mainly, the importance of arcs in the body and its movement. The body works from the spine outwards, comprising of C and S curves when in motion. Also, the body always maintains its balance via the center of gravity. The shoulders and hips work in opposite directions to make the center of gravity work, so when it comes to animating we have to keep this in mind. 

  Today's task was look up 5 images of real movements and try to capture them on to our own character rigs. The rig provided was supplied by the university, and will also star in our collaboration projects. When looks for the references, we must avoid staged movements, these lead to false and unrealistic creations in animations.

  I decided to look at more sports based activities, which the brought about the following images. Below are my own attempts creating realistic poses. Working from the Root and the spine outwards gives the best starting point, then moving on to the legs, arms and finally head. By getting the Root/Spine correct, the rest of the pose will fall into pace. 

   For the meantime, we are leaving exaggeration. The goal to capture to motion, arcs and realism behind the poses. 

Pose 1

Pose 2

Pose 3

Pose 4

Pose 5

  I found this activity a lot of fun and really enjoyed it. Its apparent that I need to work more on my arc placements as a few of these are a bit stiff, but they are not bad for a starting point. More practise will make it easier and will enable me to create them faster.