Diving into the Pool

Critical Evaluation 

This is the Anticipation - Diving into Pool exercise playblast, using Autodesk Maya. Due to some technical issues, I used the ball of the previous exercise (Anticipation - Small and Large) and its rig to animate it. I also hid the other ball and elements that I did not need in this particular scene. I modelled a simple ladder and a board, also a small pool using the Revolve tool, after shaping it by a CV curve, according to the demo video.

The main topic was the principle of anticipation. In addition, I used a video of diving athletes as a reference, because I wanted to challenge myself and try different kinds of motion. According to the video, the athletes run across the board, jump and stretch their arms vertically, bend down and jump off the board, rotate and dive into the water. This could be very difficult to animate, however, I anticipated the anticipation by stretching the ball before it squashes to leave the board. This could enhance the element of power building in order to jump. I stretched the sphere before the elevation and rotated it as it rises the air to make the impetus stronger. I created a slow in for the jump, and the distance between the last frame when it is on the board and the next one is great enough to demonstrate the power that was gathered during this anticipation. I squashed the ball when it is on the air because it comes to a more passive state due to the power, and stretched it again when it falls inside the pool, as it releases the energy which was built during the rotations on the air.

This exercise was a great challenge for me to try different kinds of motion, and also a very good opportunity to be occupied with the principle of anticipation, and manipulate squash, stretch and timing to make the motion as believable as it is possible.

Athletes Diving reference video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTcatD-anCw