[Riot Creative Contest 2017] - Santiago Solarte

tiagosol

Hi everyone, I've been crazy busy with work but I was really looking forward to participate on the challenge. I'll start to update as soon as I have something.
happy animating everyone!!

tiagosol

I've been very curios about animating a character with a skateboard so this might be the perfect opportunity to do it. 
The rig is from the famous body mechanics rigs https://gumroad.com/l/xhRK 
The skateboard. I found a free rig from Alex Smith on his youtube channel . www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xPAz1ZcnGs 

Character Introduction:
Her name: Chao. She is: Adventurous, risk taker, likes to have fun riding her skate. Her friends are just rebels she meets going through her adventures.  Doesn't care much about rules but friendship is the most important value for her. She grew up by herself. Never someone has break her hearth, she breaks them first. 

I've been doing some sketches and trying to find references on youtube and pinterest. I guess the more references I get the more the model looks and movements will change. 
For now I'll start exploring the run                      

tiagosol

today gathering some reference for a basic push. I found couple of tutorials on youtube. 
ex: youtube.com/watch?v=p3NXd3DhH08
I found some other references on framepool.com/en/search/skateboard/?keywords=skateboard

Getting familiar with the idea of how skater's mechanics work, i  got my first pass. What I really like from Riot animations is the way they implement force in actions just with few frames. This anim has 8 keys, I focused on exaggerating the push to give the illusion of going forward and thinking as well about the visibility on the isometric view, so far I like the feeling, timing needs to be refined  though

tiagosol

today i converted those steps keys on spline. Is always good to check how's your timing working in that mode. The idea that i had on blocking when i passed to spline became messy and floaty, so i cleaned more the motion and focus on the push a bit more, giving the character more momentun before the leg push on the ground.   
I added as well some motion to the skate giving the cycle a better feeling of going forward. 

tiagosol

now the fun part, start exploring the character. i decided to go with straight ahead animation looking for a nice flow and nice moves on the skate  

Maccam

Looks cool!

I think that you would have a more interesting loop if you could alternate between a foot impulsion and a rolling moment, with a nice trick at the end.

By the way, the flip at the end of you loop isn't very readable...

Keep going

ajramsey28

what a cool idea! love it. I think her foot lifting off the skateboard is a little weird, especially on heels, thats just asking for an accident. XD When I skateboarded as a kid(I wasnt very good) I would never lift my foot off the board while pushing because it would shoot out from under me by the force. looking forward to more stuff.

tiagosol

thanks guys, yeah i've been just playing around after work with ideas, the skate flip looks bad hehe, I didn't like the idea in the end and i will keep her dancing a bit more on the skate. @ajramsey28 thats a really cool tip, i will keep her foot on the board and I should add as her super power, be able to skate on high heels!! haha 

tiagosol

i was able to do a quick sample of the overall cycle, needs lots of refining but the idea is there!   Chao having fun riding her skate!