This animation is still a work in progress. I have always wanted to do a fully-fledged fight scene, but it is very labor-intensive and done with plenty of camera cuts and teams. So, learning to crawl before I run, I went for a simpler animation that focused more on body mechanics rather than dialogue like I had been doing. These are the most “professional” rigs I have ever used. Big shoutouts to Agoura Studios for supplying these rigs to the animating community for free!
The challenge I faced with this was feeling the weight of the weapons. I shot references for the animation and had to think after the fact about how these characters would carry and use the weapons. Also, I am not a scrawny girl with a heavy, long katana. I’m a massive guy with a short metal sword, so I had to consider what I was to do to sell the weight. I had an easier time with the large hulking guy as we have a similar body type, but even then, I felt that the weight of the club should be felt more than what I had initially acted. To this effect, I am still working on his walk towards the girl and trying to sell the weight of it. It’s a fun challenge.
Once again, I opted to render in Unreal using an Alembic cache. Due to some issues, I ended up having to rebuild my camera shots in Unreal, but ultimately, I was happy with the end result. The goal is to at least add the walk before I move on to another project.
A newbie sword wielder vs. a hulking foe. A exploration of body mechanics.
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