Arks - 02 Ikebal

Critical Evaluation

This is the Arks - 02 Ikebal exercise playblast, using Autodesk Maya.

Initially, the main theme of this project was the principle of the Arcs. However, this was a complicated animation, because it contained a number of other principles. First of all, I animated the anticipation of the action by rotating the head of the machine, and I believe, that the timing is very efficient, because it is fast enough to prepare for the next anticipation. I achieved to create an appropriate second anticipation, as the ease in and out is very well structured to depict the energy that the object gathers in order to hit the ball. In my opinion, the reset of its original position is also successful, thanks to the timing which is slow enough and of course, the spacing, portraying the machine returning to its initial pose after this great strike.
I created a Motion Trail and moved its points in order to form a more curved arc. I believe, that the arcs are obvious enough, even though the machine motion is more mechanical than the motion of a living being.
The secondary action was also very important. I animated the antennae and also created some overlapping action, in order to depict the different timing of these separate movements. I did the same with the head rotations. In my opinion, the follow through in the end was also successful, because it depicts the gradual energy loss, while the positions of the antennae poses are decreasing.

However, I believe that the action of the machine hitting the ball is not very strong. Even though I adjusted the spacing using the Graph Editor, and also viewed the ghosted positions through the frames, the action still appears smooth. Additionally, the controller of the ball had not the rotation attributes in the Channel Box, so I could not orient it, and its motion is unnatural. Furthermore, I believe that the antennae stop is not smooth enough, this would be probably a problem with the timing.

This project was a great opportunity for me to be occupied with many different principles in order to create a coherent motion.

P.S. I wrote the name of the demo version exercise in the introduction.