WEEK 16 – Acting Shot in Blocking +

Autodesk Maya

Blocking Plus It’s an animation technique that builds upon the initial blocking stage, keeping the energy alive throughout the process. Blocking work is the foundation of our animation. It’s where we establish the key poses of our character’s movement, focusing on the overall flow and timing of the shot. Blocking plus goes beyond the basic blocking stage. Instead of jumping straight to splines (which can make movements stiff), we have to refine our animation by adding step-keyed poses in between the keyframes. These additional poses help solidify the timing and weight of the movement.

George also gave us some useful advice like avoiding putting everything in spline too soon and stepping up our blocking. In order to do that we were encouraged to use two different techniques such as 

• Moving Holds: These are short pauses within the animation that add weight and anticipation. Imagine your character briefly bracing against the force of a jump.
• Copied Pairs: Duplicate keyframes to create a sense of held poses. This can be particularly useful for actions like holding an object or standing still.

The secret to creating the perfect and smooth motion is in a technique called breakdowns. 
Between two key poses in our animation – the start and end of a movement. A breakdown drawing is a pose that sits in between, filling the gap and clarifying the movement’s flow. Most animations involve movements that follow arcs, like an arm waving, a character bending, or a leg walking. These movements all follow a curved path, like a swinging pendulum. The breakdown pose helps define this arc more precisely.