Throw Animation

Once our group animation idea had been finalised, I could begin work on the more specific animations I needed to do. I began with the throw animation. First I focused on the right arm, the one which was actually throwing the item. To get the basic frames for this in, I based the positioning of the arm at each point on myself acting out the motion. The most difficult bit to get looking right was the movement of the arm coming forward up to the point the object was released by the hand. In order to get this looking good, I worked out that the top section of the arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, had to begin it movement slightly before the lower section of the arm moved. This gave the action a more natural flow. The left arm was much more straightforward. The left arm during the throwing movement acts as the counter balance to the right arm, and as such all it really needs to do is lift up as the right arm goes back, and move down again as the right arm comes forward.

After the arm movements had been mostly completed, only a few other things needed to be done. The right left stepped back and the hips rotated right to balance the figure during the throw. The right shoulder also moved down and back, before moving up and forward in time with the right arms movements. The only other things done were animating the head so as to look in the direction of the throw, and the adding the blink animation.