Game animation show reel

If video is not working please click on link below to my animation games show reel ;

https://vimeo.com/83945365

Looking over my animation plan, I covered all the material I wanted but if I was to extend this show reel I would of liked to include some ground work or the use of the clench and perhaps a few take downs. overall I am pleased with my show reel as it demonstrates fighting techniques, combinations defense and other elements that are implemented in fighting games. I have really enjoyed working on this project from start to finish and may decide to do more animations for future opportunities ahead.

Rendering

I had left myself plenty of time to render as I had run out of time during the 11 second club submission for the competition. Rendering is not my strong point but it’s something I want to get better at.

 To achieve this I needed information for the screen size on the render and perhaps some basic settings. From previous rendering experience when loading Maya for render I knew I wanted to create the animation in mental ray.

In the rendering settings I selected mental ray in the render using drop box menu at the top.

From here I went to the common tab and named my file and set the rendering to Targa files with a frame padding suiting the animation time line. Another thing to remember is setting the appropriate camera as I have made this mistake countless times during this process.

I then set the settings in quality to production as I wanted really good scenes in my show reel.

After I proceeded into the indirect lighting settings and turn on global illumination and final gather to get the lights bouncing around my scenes more.

From here I was ready to render out my scenes. Here are my settings within Maya.

I plan to render out three different types of view for each of my made animations and compile them in premiere pro. The three different views are:

-Front

-Side

-Turntable

By rendering out with three different cameras I was able to see the different views of my animations. By doing this it would help to really show off my games animation show reel.

After the long process rendering out my scenes I imported all the files into premiere pro. From here I selected the best scenes that were rendered into the premiere time line and set up a title and end tile. With everything in place I needed a soundtrack to put in.

The sound track that I chose to put in was done by Crystal Method,-song ‘Roll it Up Edited’ and credit them at the end of my animation.  Once I had edited into place I put a fade effect on the end title which when I played over would fade out nicely on the last couple of seconds of my show reel.

My show reel was near completion I just had to export it out. Here is the settings I used for exporting out my show reel.

Compilation

After making all these animations I thought I could try and tie some of them together such as the four combination punches and the dodging animation. This would make a nice animation to add to my show reel implementing two animations together. This is how it turned out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdBWO7VEoOw

creating this animation was difficult because I had to move the attackers punches slightly so that they appear to miss the opponent. I also had to stop it colliding at certain points of the animation. but because the key frames were in place I tried to match them up. I thought the best solution was to move the dodging opponents key frames to match the speed of the punches.

Work in progress play blast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKZjTEKhII0&feature=youtu.be

I think this compilation works well I'm happy with three of the four combinations but I think it still works well.

The next compilation is the knockout punch I combined the superman punch with the fall down animation to show a finishing move knock an opponent out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9SY8ZFJMLI

Joining this animation together was easy I just moved the two rigs close together within range of the superman punch. From here during the extension of the arm during the super punch I aligned the fist at the head just before the knock out animation begins.

I was pleased on how this had turned out as it appears like the super move has knocked out the unsuspecting opponent.

The Final compilation was the dodge strike animation joined with the front punch and stagger animation.

side view one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1beOoBP34A 

 side view two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlhlC73cTE&feature=youtu.be

Overall I think making compilations was a good idea I got to try out how to implement interaction with two rigs being so close to one another and that you have to watch out for the inbetweens in case the rigs collide during the play through s.

By putting these comilations together I have made a more interesting visual for my animation show reel for games. It also indicates heavily that its made for a fighting game such as UFC.

Victory

In all fighting matches we all love it when you win and have a cheer at the end to show that you are clearly the winner and dominated your opponent. So I attempted to create an animation being victorious as I consider winning a crucial part at the end of fighting matches to give that sense victory to the player.

Before filming the footage I thought of the victory pose I would imitate. I wanted someone with arms in the air getting the crowd going but I could not find any video footage for what I wanted so I looked up some images that might have captured this pose.  There weren't many images of a full body victory pose that I could locate but these were the closest I could find.

To get the movement I wanted for my pose I got help in recording reference of a victory pose. Here is what was recorded.

Victory cheer side

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_jJR31yhVw&feature=youtu.be

Victory cheer front

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzj53DaoXqU&feature=youtu.be

The pillow that I’m standing on will be the defeated opponent. This can easily be made using two of the same rig. What I did was import a previous model that I had animated which was the knock out video of the rig falling to the ground

Earlier defeated model that I imported into my new scene

From here I position my new rig beside the fallen rig and animated the movements looking over my reference footage to get the important frames into place.

Here are the key poses I used for this animation.

pose 1

pose 2

pose 3

pose 4

pose 5

The making of this animation was easily done except when it was time to animate the arms moving up and down. for some reason the left arm was moving in an arc motion when I wanted only a gentle rocking of the arms going back and fourth this was fixed by changing tangents within the graph editor as well as re positioning of the hands on the right key frames.

play blast of victory pose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-7WQgfXfxE&feature=youtu.be

I think this came out well as it shows that the victor is dominate over the defeated opponent and could be used at the end of an intense fight between warriors which can also be implemented into fighting games. 

Defeat

In my opinion defeat is a vital part in some fights to show a sore loser or having a defeated opponent upset when the judges announce the winner or a show of losing hope when not declared the winner.

I think this adds to a game even though its not a crucial part but still can be associated with the type of game I am aiming for. Here I have filmed my cousin acting defeated.

Front view of defeat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8B_yzllGEs&feature=youtu.be

Side view of defeat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5giAlLF86Q&feature=youtu.be

With this footage I was able to get the key movements to help create the animation defeat.

to make this animation. I studied the movement and how the toes were to bend during the fall of the footage. It was troublesome to try and keep the toes looking right when he goes over the feet during the fall to his knees.

here is the break down keys of the defeat

pose 1 

pose 2

pose 3 

pose 4

pose 5

pose 6

pose 7

pose 8

I like this animation as I feel like its really captured that disappointment of the model after a defeat. I'm also please with how it has turned out as I found the feet the most difficult but yet was able to  achieve the look that I wanted. 

Here is a front and side view of the animation of being defeated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8Kl63uySw8&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jpA28qPSCY&feature=youtu.be

I hope to some day make more variations of defeat as I don't think its a big focus on the game animation I am making for but I still want to include this small element into it.

Knockout

Knockouts Within all fighting games like Ultimate fighting championship you would see elements such as a knockout where you or the opponent would fall to the ground due to a heavy blow thus losing or winning. I got my cousin to film footage of me falling on a cushion to avoid injury.

Here is an attempt of me pretending to be knocked out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU-daF3pLYw&feature=youtu.be

This was a fun experiment to create this footage so I tried to recreate it as an animation. I started off with a normal stance leading with the left foot and from here I worked out the key poses and positions using the reference footage.

Pose 1

Pose 2 

Pose 3

Pose 4

pose 5

pose 6

I also added a bopping effect at the start of the animation so it seems like it was caught off guard in the animation or just after finishing a move.

This footage was filmed because I believe it relates to the game animation I’m trying to imitate. Knockouts are usually the means to win. When that happens the player is overwhelmed with joy when he or she wins, so I believe it’s an important part to have in this animation show reel.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG6Jo1r82eo&feature=youtu.be

 Overall the knock out could have been better, such as using online referencing of fighters being knocked out. If I was to do this again I would research more into knockouts and how people pass out from taking a heavy blow to the head.

Counter and staggering

Counter and staggering

Again changing another goal in my animation plan instead of having props I thought I would have more movement and likely scenarios that would occur in a fighting simulation game. Moves such as countering and staggering an opponent is what I will have instead implementing props into my animation.

I will make short animation showing a counter attack as well as a stagger from being hit from the counter. Looking through my earlier research on dodging I used the knowledge to create a counter attack.

Here is the reference of myself dodging the incoming attack and countering with a right punch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UJZMDtFE28&feature=youtu.be counter front

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=389x-ZQ8uDw&feature=youtu.be counter side

Establishing key poses

The foot work on this animation was tricky as I felt I was on my toes most of the time when creating the reference footage. Making the rig step forward on its toe was simple but when it came to twisting the toe to show force in the counter punch I’m not sure if it’s convincing enough to give that punch power. Another problem I faced which I eventually overcame was how the arm would cock into position before executing the punch. The problem was within the elbow and wrist joints which were fixed using the graph editor.

Here is the result of my counter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfUkU6__3c0&feature=youtu.be 

Looking at the final result I can see that my model wasn’t bending down as much as the reference footage was but the reason why I was not able to put the rig in that position is because it would break and become very deformed so I brought the waist down as far as the rig would let me. But I think I’ve still manage to show a certain amount of force being shown in the punch to stagger an opponent.

Staggering

When thinking of how to stagger its usually when your off guard and being hit from a blind spot or anywhere if you don’t see it coming so to try and capture the essence of staggering I filmed myself throwing a jab and pretend to be caught off guard by the punch.

Footage of jab and stagger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P7C6pP4ZAE&feature=youtu.be

Breakdown key posing positioning.

Taking hit

Step back

Step back 2

Regain footing

The Key to making this animation was the position of the feet and arms as the model went back sharply before regaining its footing. It was different than the rest of the animation as this animation was led by the head due to impact. So to try and seem like the head is dragging the body. And by adding in the quick foot work I felt that it really achieved in creating a stagger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfj40T-WyM&feature=youtu.be

Kick combination

For kicks I wanted to do a quick combination involving a fake or off guard snap kick which then leads into a Muay –thai kick shown in the links below.

Human Weapon (Muay Thai, Ninjutsu & Silat)-(0-34secs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgpnHP10XM

Muay Thai Kick : Sport Science "Hardest Kick" (3.09 – 3.43)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTuDnueBb9c

The next step is to try and mimic this movement and include the fake kick to catch an opponent off guard. I have taken video reference of myself performing this combination to get an understanding of how the body performs these kicks which will give me a good understanding when animating the model.  

To perform this movement I kicked out front this could be used to distract the enemy by making them flinch or a simple distracting and by doing this move it sets me up for the kick. The second kick uses power generated from the waist, by giving that twist the foot gains momentum to throw at the opponent. Extra force is added from the left arm as it throws the weight over the body, at the same time the balancing foot does a twist generating a lot of force while the right hand keeps up a guard protecting the face.

Front snap kick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EERmOauI3cQ&feature=youtu.be

After looking over the captured reference footage I then moved on to getting the key movements of the kicks. The rig will be posed in a ready combat stance. Next I set the key poses I needed along the time line which I would go back and adjust later. Here are the key poses to the kicks.

Pose 1 neutral position

Pose 2 step preparing for front kick

Pose 3 front kick

Pose 4 landing/stepping forward to prepare for second kick

Pose 5 side kick

Pose 6 neutral position

These where the key poses I had planed out, here is a quick play blast to see what it looks like so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMCt4NVHB5A&feature=youtu.be

looking over the animation I found that there was something missing such as maybe an obstacle the rig could have in contact with as it seemed strange to kick and stop halfway to land back in neutral position. In fact it’s not possible to stop your foot with that kind of force behind you. So what I did to make it seem more realistic was put a pole object to show that he fakes the first kick and comes in contact with the pole on the second kick.

By putting in an object it helped guide me to see where I can plant the foot and it also showed that I was over extending the leg making it appear too straight for the type of kick I wanted to appear.

After I had implemented the changes to the kick and with the added pole it really gave a sense of kicking an object and not thin air. I think this makes it more realistic than my last attempt. Here is what it looks like without the pole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8L9-SiGLkQ&feature=youtu.be

With the pole in place I feel more relieved about the animation. if I was to do another kick I might have had it break the pole I perhaps show more force in the impact. I’m pleased with the timing and the way the movement has turned out.

Finishd version with the pole in place to give it a more realistic feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeL_TRSqECk&feature=youtu.be

Knock out or signature moves

In fighting games there are unique signature moves assigned to each character. These moves aren't likely to be used often as they require more energy or the opponent has left an opening giving the opportunity for these moves to hit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJc6Ns57c6w – heavy hay-maker (7-14 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sS2mWXNs88 – flying knee (13 – 30 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHI4jhoHQh8 – superman punch (10-15 seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj3xL9zoY1M – spinning hook kick ( 7 – 11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKeGWKi4m7w shows 10 special moves in video game

I will be doing two of these signature type moves. The two that I have picked is the Superman punch and the flying knee. I tried attempting these moves but found them difficult to pull off so I used reference footage online following a tutorial on how to perform these knockouts.

Superman Punch

FightTips with Shane Fazen -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrxEe0Hxtyc  – superman punch

Following the steps form the tutorial on how to perform the superman punch. I froze the video footage for moments I thought were key positions in this move. by doing this I was able to move the rig into positions and shape according to the reference footage while adjusting the time line so that the animation ran smoothly.

Here are the key frames I took from the footage that I thought needed to perform the knockout.

Fight stance

  

 Preparation before the punch

lift off

Punch

Land

Back to stance

To perform the superman punch it comes across as a jump but in fact it’s more of a push because you’re pushing your body into the opponent. And the force is generated from the push of the ground and also the thrust of the opposite foot to give it power.

Comparing my animation to the video referencing I find them very similar in the way they move which has made this a successful animation. There were some issues with popping joints but using the graph editor and changing the tangents levels I was able to create shaper and fluid movements to help me achieve this knockout punch.

The end result animation of my superman punch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-e0nFhFex0&feature=youtu.be

Flying knee

Carlos Condit's Flying Knee - MMA Surge, Episode 42 video reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvHgpUB0DYY  - flying knee

Using this video footage I was able to create the flying knee. I tried to get self-footage but was unsuccessful as I couldn’t pull of this move correctly. So how is the flying knee performed?  

From your left fighting stance you throw your right foot forward bringing the right knee up. Once the knee reaches the highest point you jump bringing your left knee up and drive it forward towards the opponent.

Breakdown of important key frames to perform the flying knee

Pose 1

 Pose 2

Pose 3

Pose 4

Poise 5

 Pose 6

Pose 7

Pose 8

With constantly looking at the reference video stopping and at key moments to try and capture the form of the body while he performs the flying knee was difficult but it turned out really well. Here are the finished videos of the flying knee showing one from the side and one from the front.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ez2IMUIsOA  - flying knee front view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zBdRZDQxGc - flying knee side view

the most difficult part with working out this movement was to establish where the models hands were going once the model was in the air I kept them balanced but natural as possible. using the graph editor i was able to fix some of the popping from the joints which also made the animation run smoother. One of thing I am not sure of was the landing in the flying knee but overall it appears to look like the reference footage which is what I wanted to achieve.