little demo reel fight

snickerwicket

Been working on this fight scene for my demo reel, I'd love some feedback.
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/162681#198473
I'm using the external world rigs from David O'Reilly.

AnthonyAnimation

Cool start! Weight shifting and feeling planted on the ground are really important to fight scenes. I recommend starting in stepped keys that way you can focus on timing and poses. Unless someone is jumping or running you'll want at least one foot on the ground at all times to maintain an anchor, otherwise you'll get knocked over easily.

Try looking at some reference and acting it out to get a sense of timing and pay close attention to where the hips are in relation to the legs.

snickerwicket

Really good advice! I was thinking they didn't look 'heavy' enough so that will probably help a lot. What do you mean by stepped keys?

RKirtlink

In your graph editor in the tangents menu you can set keys to spline, stepped, linear and a few other settings that I haven't really used. Stepped keys show only the frames you have keyed on playback without all of the interpolation you normally get between them when using spline. Stepped is really useful when you're initially blocking out your scene and trying to get strong poses and good timing.

AnthonyAnimation

Everyone has a different workflow and for fight scenes it can be easier to animate straight ahead. You can do your initial poses in stepped keys (usually by keying all the controls) and it allows for easy re-timing. Then move onto the breakdowns which will help sell the weight. After that is when you can move to linear/spline tangents.

snickerwicket

@RKirtlink Thanks for the explanation!
@AnthonyAnimation huh I've never heard of that before! That sounds like it will be really handy.

It's coming along, I added a bit where the hobo kips up and elbows the green shirted guy in the face. When it looks a bit more presentable I'll link it in. Also thanks to whoever commented on the syncsketch link.

snickerwicket

Updated the fight! Going to call this project done soon and move on to other things, so if you see anything that you think could look better I'd appreciate the feedback!

https://syncsketch.com/sketch/162681#199959