Tweaking and Jumping

     I had another attempt with the animating in Maya. My first task was to tweak the walk cycle, adding additional hip, head movement etc. for a more realistic effect. I also edited the foot controls making sure they were flush with the ground whilst the chacter's foot is in contact. The picture below shows me going through this process- not that you can really tell. Still...It's the thought that counts.

      I then proceded to work on the jump cycle. In terms of progress this has been something of a mixed bag and there have been multiple failed attempts.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc0m4GxSK2A   I tried to do something different to begin with and went for a backwards somersault. This was actually going pretty well whilst I was focusing on just the legs, once I started moving the arms however they started adjusting inbetween keyframes in a corkscrew style manner, which was somehow not fitting. My next attempt was a much simpler forward jump however, perhaps partly due to my inability to source a half decent reference, my attempt looked very jarring and unconvincing, to the point that I considered it would be more time efficient to start from scratch. I am now in the process of working on the new version. It is, thus far, much more successful then the previous attempts but not yet finished. Progress update to come tomorrow.