Making the Acting Piece

To start of with, i opened the file with the rig, i saved a new project and named it version 1 - this means that when i capture it will be easier for me to distinguish what capture is what. I have watched the reference video so many times now that i  could quite confidently act out the actions in real time. I am quite excited to get started.

Later on...

I have no keyed out all of the main key frames in the acting piece which is shown in the previous comment with the reference video and the key frames and also in between's. I'm pleasantly surprised with how its going at the moment, the key frames are rather accurate and the movements seems to be in time with the keys on the reference. Now i need to start keying in the in-between frames. These are the key frames which lie in between the original key frames, so i guess you could call them sub-key frames, but i call them in-between's just to keep it easy. There should be a huge difference in appearance and movement after i put the in between frames in, it should be smoother and it should also create a illusion of weight. - This will get really interesting when the actor is on the floor thumping it with his right hand - the disproportion of weight will be really important to make it look right.

Later on...

The in between frames have made an incredible change to the movement, there is a much stronger feeling of weight and power in the body. Even with just the key frames and the in between frames it has quite a strong resemblance to the reference footage. There are some major glitches - where the character falls to its knees - the feet go underneath the floor making the character sink and then rise when i corrected it on a key frame. I will have to correct these, and i imagine i will have to key frame each frame until they have all been done to the origional key frame.

Later on...

I have found that i havent been able to get the right arch in the back of the character when he is on the floor - this is due to the rather basic rig, i understand that is has been kept basic so not to confuse us, however, it means that the moment and arching of particular parts of the body are in fact not as close to the reference footage as i would have liked. I would have liked the torso to have been able to bend more at the hips so the torso was closer to the characters thighs and also the floor. This in hand would have made it easier for me to animate the head looking up - at certain points the head slightly protrudes into the characters shoulders.