Original subtitles

- [Instructor] If you've watched the previous chapter,

it's no surprise for you that the first thing we need to do

is search for references.

This video, I will show you what I'm looking for

in my references and how I use them to plan my animation.

I'm convinced that we are in the golden era of learning,

or there is a bunch of stupid things on the internet,

and you can waste your whole life watching funny cats

and stuff like that.

Nowadays, you can find tutorials

for almost everything in life.

You won't necessarily get good references from tutorials,

but you can learn a lot about the purpose of a stance,

the purpose of a footwork,

how the body's supposed to be moved

to land an accurate switch kick, for example.

Watching this kind of video would bring your attention

to small details, whether they are cultural or technical.

And those little details will bring believability

and authenticity to your animation.

So it's always a good move to mix your references

with watching tutorials.

And you should not limit you references to real life videos.

You can use drawings, you can use video games,

you can use movies.

One of the most important thing

is that you enjoy the reference you've taken

because whatever is appealing to you in this video,

it will stimulate you to put them into your own animation.

Finally, when it comes to real life references,

try to find the references from the master on their art.

Since I want to do a Muay Thai combo,

I'm watching for references featuring the masters

at this art, like Saenchai, Jacquot, Liam Harrison,

or Jonathan Haggerty.

Then you need to plan your own animation.

If you are working in the movie industry,

you will probably have a storyboard or an animatic.

If you're working for games,

you will probably have a list of moves

provided by the game designers.

And if you are working for yourself,

then you can choose whatever kind of move you want to do.

But I advise you to do a minimum of planning ahead

and then edit your references accordingly.

In my case, I want to do a left jab, a cross,

followed by a powerful hook,

and then going into a switch kick.

It's a pretty common combo in kickboxing and Muay Thai

and, animation wise, it's interesting

because the first two punches are straight,

then the second draw a nice curve,

and the last move draw an even bigger curve.

So we will have a nice contrast in shapes.

I've gathered multiple references from different people

doing the same move.

And then using a video editing software,

you can use a Blender, for example,

I make sure I'm syncing all the videos together.

And I use the extreme to do it.

In this case, the different hits

of the punches and the kick.

Finally, don't hesitate to rework the timing

of your references until you get a nice rhythm.

You can slow some parts, accelerate other, or just cut in.

No, listen to the hits on the reference.

(men yell)

Now, what I will do is that I will cut the sound

and only keep the impact.

(punches thwap)

(men yell)

And it goes like, pum-pum, pum, pum.

So while I was looking for contrast in the motion

of the reference, there is also contrast in the rhythm.

And if at some point you have some linear reason

into your reference, use video editing

to get to a mock contrasted rhythm.

And the best way to do it is to do it with your mouth.

Make the sound and the rhythm with your mouth,

tum, tum, tum, tum,

and change it to ta-tum, tum, tum.

Once you find a good rhythm,

just edit your references and go to the next step.

With my reference exported, the first thing I do

is that I load it into SimSketch or Keyframe Pro.

From there, I will scrub through the video.

And I need to identify the golden poses or the extreme.

I'm looking at the poses where the character

are the most impactful.

So it's generally the moment where they hit the bag

or just one frame after,

as the punch goes a bit through the bag.

For those first punches,

this is the moment where the body is fully in extension.

And I will then do the same with the hook

and the kick.

Then I will try to spot the contrasting poses.

In this case, the anticipation for the hook

and the anticipation for the kicks.

Once I spot them, we can analyze those poses.

So, as we did in the previous chapter,

the first thing I'm looking at are the line of action.

On the idle stance, the weight is generally

on the rear foot so that they can block incoming kicks

with the front leg or the front shin.

Which means the line of action will generally go

through the punching fist and the real leg that is pushing.

On the hook, the energy generally come

from the front leg and the hips.

And finally, on the kick, it's quite easier to identify

by just watching the silhouette of the character.

One goes from the pushing foot

and the other on the swinging leg.

From there, I will be looking at the secondary shape

exactly as we did during the previous chapter.

They generally help to define the silhouette

of the character once we have defined the line of action.

From there, I will go more into detail

and I will try to define the orientation of the chest

using the shoulder line, the orientation of the hips,

and the orientation of the head using the eyes.

I'm also drawing lines on the tip of the feet

so is that I can remember that I need to double check

the orientation of the feet.

It's super important.

It's super important to pay extra attention to the feet

because they will directly influence the hips' orientation.

And we need an extra attention for this specific animation

because footwork in combat sport is super important,

as it delivers power and balance

and so it will bring believability to your animation.

So once you've done this for your golden poses,

you will have to do it for the breakdowns, et cetera.

So now that know my reference workflow,

let's jump into the next video where we

will start blocking our animation,

using the key poses we have defined here.