Day 25 / 38 – Moho
Today we worked with the rigged vector from Part 24 and made our new little character jump.
Things to Know:
✔ Animating a Vector Character Jumping
The Basic Jump
- Frame_1 Ctrl + F (freeze the character)
- Frame_6 deep crouch position (anticipation) I also used a switch layer on this frame, because my eyes were so complicatedly hand drawn to have her close her eyes.
- Frame_9 Ctl + F (freeze the character- locking it down gives you a little pause before movement).
- Frame_15 move the character to a jump position.
- Frame_24 bring her back to default (ctl + v Frame_1 keyframes).
Refine the Jump
- Frame_12 highlight the back leg target, and take the keyframes from frame_9 and paste them onto 12, this will delay the leg a bit.
- Frame_19 highlight the front leg target, and take the keyframe from frame_9 and paste them onto 19, this will have the foot landing a bit sooner.
- Frame_30 ctl+F to freeze
- Frame_24 animate the impact of her hitting the ground.
- Frame_30 tweak how you want the character ending, and make sure to paste that same pose on frame_1.
“Will you or won’t you? Should you or shouldn’t you?”
― Vera Nazarian
Once you have a rig set up, you can finally treat it like a puppet, build scenes, push poses, and animate. It also quickly reveals the weak spots in your rig. In my case: the feet/shoes kept breaking apart mid-jump. Animating a character quickly shows you what works and what doesn’t. It’s one thing to design a character, another thing to make it move. You start realizing you have to draw with the final action in mind, and these shoes, apparently, were not made for jumping.
Day 25— Afterthoughts
Just one reflection today:
I’m not an animator. At least not in the way I imagine “real” animators. The physics of jumping is hard for me. Hard to see. Some people seem born with that instinct, they draw motion naturally.
But one of my favorite books is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, which argues that anyone can learn to draw. So I wonder: Can anyone learn to animate too?
Or is animation still the kingdom of those legendary Disney men flipping paper at age 18? Do you have to start young? Or can you simply study The Animator’s Survival Kit long enough for movement to finally click?
I do not think I will ever call myself an animator. Only, “sometimes amateur animator” at best.
But boy, do I love it.
If only love were a skill.
jump to it 🦘
nik
