[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Florent Arnould

FlorentArnould

Hi All!

Here is my WIP thread for the contest.

I plan on using this guy from long winter studio:

https://longwintermembers.com/characters/

I like his power ranger / super sentai vibe and simple silhouette.
I'd like to make him a lightning fast, fist-fighting type of character.

Can't wait to dig the rig and get started!
Good luck everyone!

FlorentArnould

Some update on the animation! 

I first gathered some references to get the feel of the character and ideas for poses:



Rather than having him running, I thought it would be cool to have him glide like a speedskating athlete to express his surreal speed.
 I am still hesitating between the Recall and the Ultimate. Some rough idea I had were either to have him do a power ranger style choreohraphy, with strong arm poses ( for the recall) or having him do a super fast karate punch fury for the Ultimate, eventually duplicating himself.

After watching a bunch of speedskating video references, I started the blocking:



more on synsketch:
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203326#281867
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203326#281868
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203326#281869

I really like the rig so far, plus it comes with some nice tools including one making mirroring much easier. Pretty usefull for the cycle!

That's my progress so far!

FlorentArnould

I splined and retimed the animation a bit



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203772#282927
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203772#282928
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/203772#282929

I kinda like where it is at now, so I think I'll move on to the Ultimate and work back on it later.

I've been exploring some poses and ideas for the Ultimate or Recall:


I think I am gonna explore a karate moves fury for the Ultimate first. 
I like his fighting poses and the exaggerated limb idea.

Feedback is always appreciated

asphaltcowboy

This is looking fantastic so far Florent!

FlorentArnould

Thanks!

I started blocking the karate-fury ultimate:



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205115#285843
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205115#285842
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205115#285841

FlorentArnould

I have been adding some poses an changing a bit the end. I felt that having him falling on the opponent was not a super convincing attack.
Also having fun with timing and smears!



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205879#287868
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205879#287869
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/205879#287870

I think I'll stick to blocking for a while an start splining later on, there is still a bunch of inbetween I think I should add.

FlorentArnould

Looking back at it after a few days, I realized the timing was not there yet, and it wasn't really conveying the idea of super-speed of trying to achieve.
So after adjusting the poses, I thought having the character to duplicate would help showing his super speed. I did a mock-up in after effect before commiting to have several instances of the rig in the scene, and I think it definitely works better that way



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/798332dc3e95/#299145

I'm curious to see what you guys think!

ChristianOrellana

Wow this looks so fluid!! Great concept, cant wait to see the final product. 

ajramsey28

ahh this is looking soo cool! I love the idea of duplicating his poses to show speed! Its really creative. How would something like that work in a game engine? It seems like it would be complicated to get the poses to duplicate correctly?? Sorry if that seems like a weird question.  

Rambo4you

I think duplicating the character should be fine in a game engine even. I'm not sure though why there are so many frames that dont do much between frame 30 and 40, is it because it's WIP still or to show power. If it's to show power, I would still expect some very settle movement, just frozen frames don't feel right.

I feel like you could somehow improve frame 31 also. I feel like the line of action needs some work there.

I think you can improve frame 7 also, you already showed he is elastic, maybe you can move his right arm lower and the left arm higher.

I really like what you did between frame 44 and 55. Your doing a really cool job, keep up the good work

FlorentArnould

ajramsey28 said:

ahh this is looking soo cool! I love the idea of duplicating his poses to show speed! Its really creative. How would something like that work in a game engine? It seems like it would be complicated to get the poses to duplicate correctly?? Sorry if that seems like a weird question.  

Thanks @ajramsey28 ! My knowledge of real time engines is too limited so answer precisely, but my guess would to trigger several instances of the character just during the animation. 


This is really good feedback @Rambo4you , thanks a lot. I definitely need more poses between f30 and 40 to show more power, it is not going to stay frozen once I will spline the animation.

ajramsey28

Thanks for answering my question! My knowledge is limited also. XD Thats why I was wondering that. haha Anyway I cant wait to see more of this! 

FlorentArnould

Back from holiday, and here is an update. I started splining the ultimate:



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/afd40fce29a5/#313514
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/afd40fce29a5/#313515
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/afd40fce29a5/#313516

I am planning on fixing timing and arcs issues next, but any kind of feedback is welcome!

AnthonyAnimation

I like it! Reminds me of Fiora's old ult. I would try and really punch up that last hit. You want a nice satisfying finish. A larger antic and bigger change in pose will help.

FlorentArnould

Thanks for your feedback @AnthonyAnimation. I tried to emphasize the last hit, but I don't feel like it's there yet.
I also reworked the timing and spacing.:



https://syncsketch.com/sketch/9b68f7053507/#317277

FlorentArnould

Slight timing update before diving into polish




https://syncsketch.com/sketch/8c99f9b4d9a2/#318064

LiamReynolds

This might be personal taste but. I feel though hes not actually hitting? its more like he just appears in a pose and the cube moves. I dont read any sort of antic and hit like Anthony's mentioned. I would expect them to move with his speed and momentum or some bigger overshoot to sell the movement not appear and be very slow.

The last hit is the one that has elements of an attack where it changes posing.  I think the other ones are too fast to read them as attacks maybe, but cool idea!

FlorentArnould

You are absolutely right @LiamReynolds, thanks for your comment. I added a bigger antic and reaction to this version, hopefully it reads more like a fast hit/attack.






https://syncsketch.com/sketch/d65b924ead06/#320851

FlorentArnould

That's a wrap for me! I probably won't have time to polish it next week, so here is my final entry:

It was a fun ride, thanks evreyone for your feedback, and good luck!