This projects is one of our mandatory assignments we started a while back.

Previous this semester we made a lift animation in a day, using a rig of our choise. This animation leaked of body weight and animation general. But since the animation had face expressions it was easier to drag the focus away from the poor body animation. I think if you dont take in mind to animate the body finished first before starting on the face, the animation will automaticly become bad. Anyways, here is my first lift animation.

This project was to make a full body lift animation of a character lifting a heavy stone. The rig could not have face expression.

When i started this project it was important to plan the project and how i would exicute it. First off i collected some referance on youtube, read some pages in the animators survivalkit and then i took all my referance and made a pose to pose sketch of the animation. I feel its the best way to plan when you can draw out your animation. You really get a better overview of what to do and how to get started.

When I started the animation i began to set blocking of the the key poses. This is because i wanted to get the timing of the animation right. Then I animated some inbetween poses to get more of a flow to the draft. After the draft was done i animated more inbetweens, and more details like the hands and the stone. After i had a ok result i took some time on and of at the animation. Collected feedback and made polishing changes. And so on it went before i felt i was finished with the final animation. Anyways, here is the final result.

Here is my key poses of the animation. I feel these poses tell the story about the character and the animation. Eitherway, that was the plan. The character was to first wonder how he would tackle the challange, try and feel how heavy the stone was before attemting the first heavy lift. He also was to seem as he had done this many times before, but also struggeling to get the stone to its goal. I draw referance to the youtube video of natural stone lifting. The guy is confident, but still struggeling to lift the stone, and at the same time takes mesures and use a good technique. The same thing i wanted to bring over in the final animation.

I feel that the final animation could be alot better, but it became as a ok result. If i were to do this again i would put in more work in the planning. Test more poses and creating a more solid story for the character and the execution of the lift. Also work more with the blocking stage and try out different poses that i would have drawn in the planning stage.


Description of pose
1: he gets ready and thinks about how he is going to execute the lift.
2: he tries to lift it but fails.
3: he stretches out
4: he drags the stone towards him to create a better grip or footstand. also to check the weight again.
5: he adjusts his feet and bends down over the stone to get a good grip.
6: he now managed to get the stone ontop of his knee.
7: he is trying to get a better stance for the final lift.
8: he charges for an explosive stretch in his legs and back.
9: he bends his back backward while getting on his toes, and also pushing forward. This is because he tries to get the stone as high as possible to reach the goal.
10: finally made it. resting.