Animation - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 199

Acting the motion out several times myself (yes, I got on the fl oor and squirmed toward a goal, and no, this is
not an appropriate place for an illustration), I saw that I would fi rst glance at the object, slide a bit, then scoop
up the toy with another little slide. That meant I had to have the Beast sight in on his target, squirm, then
squirm and grab.

Using the Up Arrow key, I advanced 20 frames to
create the glancing pose. Timing will be adjusted
after all of the main poses are created, so it's not
that crucial how many frames you advance between
poses when working like this. However, in my “on
the fl oor” practice session, I did try to fi gure out
how long in seconds each bit was going to take as a
general guideline.

On this frame, I created a new pose with the Beast
tilting his head backward to see the toy and his hand
moving up into the air a bit. Normally I wait until
a later stage to work in any facial animation, but
because the direction of the eyes is important for a
“glance” pose to work, I also posed the eyes. Figure
11.22 shows this pose.

Figure 11.22 The next pose

Advancing 20 more frames, I created the “slide” pose
after he has moved across the fl oor a bit (Figure
11.23).

Next he'll be grabbing the toy, and I know I'm
going to need some serious anticipation for that
movement. I may as well build it directly into a pose.
Advancing 20 frames, I created a pose with the hand
drawn back, winding up for the big grab. Of course,
there is also movement in the rest of the body. When
a pose focuses on a change in one part of the body,
you need to be careful that the rest of the character
doesn't simply freeze. You don't need to have them
doing a tap dance in the background, but a careful observation of your own movements—again, you are your
own best reference—will show how your body moves subtly, even away from the main action. Figure 11.24
shows this anticipatory pose.

Figure 11.23 After the fi rst squirm

Twenty frames ahead I built the pose at the end of the grab motion. The Beast's hand is now passing through
the rattle, which we'll fi x later. Note that the whole body has moved.