Digger Jump - Straight Ahead Action

Critical Evaluation

This is the Pose to Pose Jump Blocking exercise playblast, using Autodesk Maya. I animated the object using the straight ahead action technique.

First of all, the main topic of this project was the Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose principle. This was a challenging exercise, because the use of straight ahead action could not produce an appealing animation easily. However, I believe that the timing is successful, even though I could not set keyframes and let the software to create the inbetweens, in order to organize the motion. The anticipation is quick to prepare the object for the upcoming action, also the follow through is very well depicted, demonstrating the force due to the jump. Furthermore, spacing was also a difficult part of this project, because I set keyframes on each frame of the time slider, and placed the positions of the controllers progressively, from the start to the end. However, in my opinion, the ease in and out portrays the movement of the base and the head during the follow through efficiently, as the latter shows an aspect of slow in and out, also the deceleration and acceleration as it lifts and falls, depicts the jumping very well.

On the other hand, this technique created various problems. Firstly, I could say that the arcs are not curved enough, and the animation appears abrupt. Even though I edited the points on the Motion Trail, the arcs were still straight. Secondly, I believe that the spacing of the head is not correct. This could be probably because I animated it in various positions when it moves forward before the jump, or backwards when the digger is on the air, and forth again during the fall. Additionally, I did not have a great control over the rotation, because the ghosting of the controller could not depict the poses of this attribute. Thus, the whole animation of the head is odd and unnatural in some parts. Thirdly, this animation has no secondary motion, due to the fact that it was very tough for me to animate the antennae frame by frame, and also produce an appropriate movement.

This exercise was a great opportunity for me to deal with spacing, when actually positioning the controllers progressively. Additionally, using Motion Trails and ghosting, I could be more occupied with the ease in and out.