All language subtitles for 03-15-01-Squirrel detail Blocking

- It's time to detail our idol blocking

and also give it a timing path.

Character is entering the
shot after a run cycle.

Have a look around smell the air,

held something and flee
into a neuron cycle.

The first thing I will do is
to offset the second jump.

So I will select the root bone

and I will change the last key

by increasing its value
by minus 0.7 meter.

This is the distance our
character is traveling per bounce.

Enter the stage the route is at zero,

travel by minus 0.7 during the first jump

then stop and stays at minus
0.7 during the second jump,

it will travel to minus 1.4 meters.

From there I will be
working on the first pose.

So I will just give me some space,

moving the key frame
a bit forward in time.

Whenever we build the breakdowns
as we did during the cycle,

we mean to address any
specific changes or big changes

between each key poses
also called golden poses.

So the run cycle our
characters stops on three legs

and is having a look around.

I will create two breakdowns to absorb

the impact of the landing

and define the steps
made by the front legs.

It lands on both front leg

and then I will make him switch

from left leg to right leg.

So there is a little shuffle.

The most of use was to flatten the feet

as our character is stopping
the feet are well-grounded.

As I want my character to raise one

of the front leg to make a step leaning

the character toward the foot
in contact with the ground.

If you remember in the previous video

we were talking about balance.

So whenever my character
is raising one leg

is shifting his weight toward the one

in contact with the ground.

So you need to input a
bit of location offset

in each controller and a bit
of rotation in each controller.

A bit of twisting too remember
to use the body controller

as the main controller while the hips

and chest controller are
here to shape our character.

I oftenly reset the rotation
and location of the chest

and hips controller by
pressing Alt+R and Alt+G.

And then re-transform them
when I'm creating a breakdown.

When I'm happy with the pose
I will slightly offset it

on frame 15 and insert a key
frame on every controller.

Now I will refine a bit
the pose by scrubbing back

and forth onto the current
pose and the previous one.

I'm trying to figure
this transition motion

between the new pose and the landing pose.

But I will make the tail drag a bit

by rotating it a little down.

And since the chest and
head of our character

are also weighted or heavy I
will make them drag a bit too.

So I will slightly push
the head inward the bodys

quash a bit and rotate it a bit downward.

As the tip of the nose is
dragging into the next pose.

Don't hesitate to check
out the provided file

to have a better reference
of the current pose.

For the next breakdown I
will select my key pose

on frame 20 and duplicate it.

To build a nice transition
between frame 15 and 17.

I will calculate the motion
path of the body controller.

I've already explained you before

that arcs in animation are very important.

This is why I'm using motion
path is to see those arcs.

Here we can see that the frame
15 is higher than frame 17.

So I will push frame 17
up and frame 15 down.

Make sure that you check your
arcs as soon as possible.

This is really something
I wish I knew before.

Because as soon as I've
learned this technique

and I've embraced it my animation quality

and speed to produce it
have leveled up very fast.

So even if you're blocking
will take a little more time

it will be way more accurate
and way more appealing.

Hence the polishing stage will
be way easier and way faster.

Don't forget to check your
arcs from every position,

the top the side et cetera.

As the body controller
arcs looks quite right,

just drag a bit the chest
the head and the front leg

between frame 15 and frame 20.

On this frame 17 I'm creating and easing

toward the frame 20.

From there I will mainly be tweaking

the poses on frame 15, 17 and 20,

20 being our key pose 15
and 17 our breakdowns.

So I'm double checking the arcs

of the body controller from the top view,

And then I will mostly be refining

the tail of the character.

I want to have quite of a contrast

between the different poses.

We watch the reference the squirrel

has very snappy motion of the tail.

And it wipes it quite a lot
even if it's a subtle motion,

each time it changes pose the
tail has rapid wipe motion.

That's why I'm trying
to bring some contrast

in the tail pose during the blocking.

Those poses will give
the rhythm to the idol.

I will offset a big
chunk of the animation.

The next step I want the character

to hold the pose for a second or so

and then jump into the one.

So here it's out to give you
a tip of whatever to say,

hey you have to input maybe 10, 15,

20 frame between the two poses.

I'm just playing the
animation and thinking,

okay will jump he will
stop have a look around

and then switch to a more relaxed pose.

And you won't find any footage of this

but I'm almost acting the scene

I am figuring out that I
am the squirrel I stopped,

I'm curious about what's around me

and then I relax and sit.

So I figured that 10 frames
was okay for the time being

but holding the pose for
10 frame is a bit too much.

So I will just build a new pose

upon the frame 20 and frame 23

and bring some sort of
variation especially in the tail

I want to change the shape of the tail.

Change a bit the orientation
of the head stuff like that.

I can imagine the character
smelling the air for example.

As usual when I feel like the pose is okay

I will keep frame all the controllers

to avoid foot sliding and stuff like that.

From there we can transition
into the next pose.

The pose where our character
is sitting on his back legs.

We will first create an anticipation

where our character is crouching,

then we will have a transition pose

where the head and the
chest will be dragging

while our character is
moving backward to sit.

So I've started by creating
the crouching pose,

the anticipation if you prefer,

and I'm building it from the current pose.

But since I'm still using the motion path

for the body controller

I know where the character
body is going to be.

So I'm just pushing him
down to create a new arc.

And as I build or pre-build this new pose,

I can create the
intermediate pose with ease.

So this will be really a transition pose

where I start to rotate the body

and the chest, neck and
head will drag behind.

Just imagine that your character

is being pulled by the hips.

The danger here is to overdo
the anticipation in a way.

This is a pretty lightweight character.

So the anticipation
should be very settled.

The heavier a character

the more energy he will have to gather

before moving into the next pose

so the bigger will be the anticipation.

So honestly while I'm
recording this specific video

I haven't started the
polishing of this animation.

It made this anticipation
more subtle when I will switch

to spline and start
polishing this animation.

Getting the right sense
of weight is I believe

the most complicated thing in animation.

And also one of the most important thing

if you want your animation
to be believable.

Even if it's stylized.

So I'm pretty confident I
will get a nice animation

at least something appealing

but nailing the motion of the squirrel

even in a stylized animation

this is not something I will promise

but we will try our best for sure.

We will now detail the turn animation.

There are two very important
things to look after,

as usual the motion arcs
and then the body transfer.

The sitting pose our
character will transition

into the standing up pose.

I will then add a couple of details

by making the character
raising even a bit more

and smelling the air.

As I'm transitioning
between those two key poses,

Look at the arcs drawn by the body

and the nose of the character.

I've exaggerated them a bit
for the sake of this tutorial

but I'm sure it will look pretty
decent and way better than

if I was doing a straight
rotation between those two poses.

The second very important thing
here is the weight shifting.

As the character is turning to his left,

I'm also translating his body controller

and I'm opening the left leg
toward this new position.

The wider the legs are opened,

the more balanced will be our character.

Last detail on this pose is
the right end dropping down.

When the character is raising
into the left turn position

he drops his right hand to counter balance

the weight that has been
shifting on the left side.

And as he's rising he
straighten his tail horizontally

to get some better balance.

To better understand what
I'm showing you here,

stand up and try to raise
your nose as high as possible.

You will intuitively and
naturally push your hands

towards the ground.

You will pull every part of your body down

to be able to raise as much as possible

the tip of your nose.

Your arm will be spreading
and pointing downward

in order to lower your center
of gravity and be balanced.

So the more you spread any
body part closer to the ground,

the lower is your center of gravity,

the more balanced you are.

For the transition into the last pose

our character is hearing
a node in his back.

So his attention is dragged behind him.

So beyond curiosity our character

might be scared or feel in danger.

So what I want to show you here

is that the head is leading the animation.

Parting from the previous pose,

we can see that on the next pose,

It's the head that has the broader motion.

And beyond this head rotation the heels

are also already pointing
at the final destination.

When doing a head turn
you generally first rotate

the eyes towards the target
and then the head follow.

If you have watched cats or dogs

I'm sure you have already spotted
how mobile their ears are.

So in those breakdowns I want to show

that the ears are currently
leading the animation.

I've created a second
step where the character

hear the noise again and
the ears are pointing

toward the noise and he rotates
his head more precisely.

And as he's getting scared
I straighten the tail.

Again think of it and act it

when you are getting scared

you instantly get straight as a stick.

So from there there is no more doubt.

Our character is scared
so I will transition

into the anticipation before the jump.

Here the hips are pulling
the characters back

into the most squashed
position as possible.

The ears are still pointing back towards

the source of the noise.

To want to put in short
pre-data on whatever,

lets build last pose
that is almost the same

where the character is
squashed a little more.

Animation wise this pose
will last maybe for one

or two frame maximum before
the character jumps forward.

The last thing I've done
to finish this blocking

is to duplicate the keys
where I want my character

to hold the pose.

So that when I will switch to spline,

my character won't be moving

because I will have two identical pose.

So I wont have any
interpolation between them.

And he will hold the pose.

Next video will be a time lapse

where I build all the
breakdowns we have been talking.