SFAS Animation- CallumJBatty

Introduction

Having looked at this brief I was quite confident in how I was going to approach this project. I already knew what rig I would be using and the type of gameplay that I would base these 4 animation states around.

With this project I have used the Bat Sniper rig created by Kiel Figgins. It is expertly rigged and will allow me to create the animations I will set out to achieve; I also made sure before using this rig that it is game ready, it can easily be worked into game engines such as Unreal Engine 4 which I will be using for this project. In terms of what kind of game this animation set would fit into, I’ve decided to animate the character as if it was for a turn-based game like Persona 5 or Pokémon for example. Using a turn-based gameplay as a basis for the animation sequence also gives me an excuse to do more unique movements with the camera as in these types of games players usually do not have camera control during a battle.

After looking at the design of the rig, I decided that I will be presenting the character as a Soldier on preparation for attack and I would use the narrative of the animations to showcase this. She is armed with a futuristic gun which I thought would work great in doing an attack animation for the release state animation. The character’s design looks very nimble and agile, she looks as if she would able to pull off some incredible acrobatic movements. I plan to animate movements and jumps that look crazy and gravity defying, her agile design will work well with the animations I will be doing. She has a semi realistic/slightly cartoony art style and wouldn’t look too out of place in a game like Overwatch which I will be taking a lot of inspiration from in terms of how the character moves (dynamic characters with plenty of smears, overlap, follow-through and secondary animations). Characters that are really quick and have an “elastic” movement have always appealed to me which is why I will be animating my character as very acrobatic.

Summary

Overall I am quite happy with how the project turned out, I think I did quite well with the time constraints that I had. I believe if I had much more time this project could be something incredible. As it is right now I believe I have some nice new material for my portfolio. I set out to make a piece of animation that was dramatic and acrobatic, and I believe I have achieved this. I have also proved that the animation states that I created work as one full sequence and not only that, I have proven that they work within a game engine.

Unfortunately I didn’t have too much time to work on the environment of the piece or the lighting so I had to make due, but I believe the final renders showcase the animations in a way that can be easily analysed. I tried to insert as much dramatic style as I could in the final pieces and I believe it shows in the final animations. I believe with more feedback the animations in this piece could be improved more, but for now I am happy with the final pieces.

(I have included the FBX files in case anyone wants to examine them).

Video Music from https://www.bensound.com/