This week I used a ball & tail model to animate a “jump up stairs” animation.
I firstly made a simple step-to-step jumping forward animation. Then I moved some stairs to the left and others to the right. I adjust the main body movements of that character so that it will turn its body before jumping to another stair.
I paid more attention to the tail movements. The tail should not only move upward or downward but also turn right or turn left when the character is in the air. After blocking the basic tail animation I then modified curves in graphic editor and added some overlapping to it.
Below is the animation, shoted by 2 cameras.
Problems: From my perspective, I think the tail animation between stair1 and stair2 may has some problem. That part of animation is still not quite fluent. What’s more, I think the body-turning movement is not quite natural, which I am still looking for methods to solve.
I then talked with Alan and he think the final part of the animation has some problem. For example, body should turn its direction after it hits the ground, not just turning in the air. What’s more, the tail should stop much slower, which can be more real.
I adjust the body part and using exaggerate tools to extend the time of tail-stopping part.
Here is the final result: