Animate a Character JUMP ( Production Assessment B )

For this assignment, I had to create a character performance visual narrative that had a beginning, middle and end. It had to be very simple and short, only 10 seconds long. I also wanted to use facial expressions to convey the emotions of the character. I chose a young female character named Jenny and wrote this story:

Story:

Jenny was a brave girl who liked to challenge herself. She is standing behind a table and thought it would be fun to jump from it. She climbed up and flew through the air, landing perfectly on the ground. She was so happy and proud that she wanted to do it again. But this time, she slipped and began to fall. She was scared but quickly adjusted her posture and landed on her feet. She let out a breath and smiled, feeling confident again, winking to the audience.

Storyboard:
The next step was to create a visual narrative for my story. The best way to do that was to make a storyboard. I grabbed my pen and started drawing the story and the character.

I searched extensively and successfully downloaded a 3D character with excellent controllers that would enhance animating. I evaluated multiple options and chose this character as it perfectly matched the personality of Jenny, the main character.

After turning off the surface selection masks, following I considered camera movement in the shot, so I created a new camera. I placed two panels side by side on my viewport: Perspective in panel one and my shot camera in panel two. I renamed the shot camera to a new name for staging, and within the change setting in the attribute editor, I kept the entire character in the frame on the camera shot. 

 Controller's FK and IK 

Using Reference:

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a female reference for Jump. However, I did come across one that seems to be a good option.

After studying the reference, I placed the keyframes on the Maya timeline. The first contact point was in frame 19, and I set a keyframe in the next frame, 28, where the left leg hit the ground and kept moving. 

Thirty-two, both arms touching the table, 35 legs off the ground 

40 character is right in the middle 46, a position where she is in the mid position before landing on the ground.

Fifty one, two contact points, then 52 move on the heel contact point and stand on the ground.