Original subtitles

- So this is the final stage of this animation,

where we will polish the forearms and the hands.

As we did before with the arm,

I advise you to use the wrist tweaker controller

to track the arcs.

If we have a look to the final version of this run cycle,

we can see that the forearm eats it's extreme

at frame three when moving back.

This is the moment where the elbow is the most open.

Then when we're studying the reference,

we have seen that as the elbow is reaching its extreme

on frame eight,

the four arm is bending inward to compensate.

After frame eight, the elbow or arm start to rotate forward

and the forearm is still closing until frame 11

and from frame 12 to frame 15,

the forearm is slightly open before closing again,

while it reaches its highest point.

So as we watch the references,

we understand that it's a little more complex

than a simple follow-through animation.

Forearm polished, we can now jump to the hands.

Only play with the rotation channels of the hands.

There is not that much to track regarding the hands.

We could track one of the knuckle joints,

if we do want to track the arcs of the tip of the hands.

In my case, I jumped back to the reference

and I'm really focusing on using both hands.

You can see how it dives inward as if he was swimming.

So my goal is not to have this level of exaggeration,

in this kind of swimming motion,

where he's really trying to pull himself forward.

Again, it does show us that the hand

is not only dragging back during the motion.

So instead of showing you all,

I've pushed each controller in the rough editor.

We'll have a look to the final results on the right.

When the hand is moving forward,

as it reaches the passing pose,

it's relaxed as it is dragging a bit.

This is the time where the Z value is at its maximum.

Then as the arm reaches its extreme pose forward,

the hand curves toward the head

and as the arm comes down, the hand drags a bit.

So on frame zero 24,

the hand is reaching its opposite extreme

where the thumb is getting closer to the forearm

by rotating the wrist.

Then the Z curve makes a quick bump on frame three.

This is where the hand is trying to reach backward

to get this kind of swimming pose,

as if the character was trying to pull himself forward.

The wrist and forearm are almost aligned.

And then as the arm reaches its extreme on the back,

the hand is curving forward

as if it was compensating the movement

of the elbow and get ready to dive forward.

So from the side view,

mostly working on the Z turn and rotation,

we can see that it's a little more complex

than a simple drag again.

If we now have a close look

to the Y and X rotation curves,

we can see they have a sinusoidal shape

because they will mainly influence the twisting

of the wrist and its left to right motion.

So they are mainly used to keep a nice shape of the wrist

that doesn't look too broken.

The hand is slightly more rotated inward around frame 14

during the passing as if it was pointing

toward the place it wants to be.

So, that's not super complicated when it comes to work

from the front view, just try not to have two broken wrists.

And if you have something to remember about this polishing

it's that the hand is not necessarily dragging

during the run cycle animation, which is a common mistake.

From there, we will be able to mirror the motion

of the left arm onto the right arm.

So I've pressed Alt + H to unhide all the curves.

And then I will select all the controllers of the left arm,

the shoulder, arm, forearm,

and the hand controller we have polished.

In the graph editor press eight,

to select all the curves,

press Control + C to copy the curves.

And then I will jump onto the other arm,

select the shoulder, arm, forearm, and hand controller.

Select all the keys but the one on frame zero

and delete them and then select

all the keys on frame zero

and press Control + Shift + V

to paste the mirrored animation.

Then, as we did for the previous cycles,

I will duplicate over the curve by pressing Shift + D,

X and 24

to offset them by 24 frames on the x-axis.

Then I will press eight to select everything,

press G X minus 12,

to offset them back by 12 frames.

This way we have a 12 frames offset

between the right arm and the left arm.

Finally, I will move the play head on frame zero.

Press I to insert the key frame on all controllers,

then select all the keys I just returned on frame zero.

Press V and set the angles to three.

I will then select them again,

press Shift + D and 24

to duplicate them on frame 24.

And now I can get rid of any key frames

before and after frame zero and frame 24

and our run cycle is finally done.

In the next video I will just share with you a few tips

on how you can change a bit your run cycle with ease.

As always when it comes to art,

you will have to make multiple run cycles

until you get them right.