Original subtitles

- We will now start to polish the hook.

And, as usual, I will start with the center

of gravity of my character using the torso root controller.

Our goal during the punching stage

is to better sell or communicate

what we have blocked out before.

We need to bring as much impact into the hook

as possible and make sure

that all our body mechanics are correct.

As our character is recovering from the right cross,

there is a weight transfer onto the right foot.

I need to move the center of gravity of the character

toward the right leg.

His weight will be supported onto the right foot,

and he will be able to move the left foot

toward the next step.

So I've lowered the value of the X location curve

until frame 31 as the character

is making a step with the left foot.

And once the left foot is in contact,

I can transfer the weight onto the left foot.

Now, working with the Z curve,

my goal is to create a nice arch that will go down

as the weight shifts toward the left leg.

And then the character will raise a bit.

When we watch the curve,

we can clearly see the weight shifting

toward the right foot between frame 28 and 13,

and then transitioning onto the left foot until frame 38.

While the character is traveling to the left,

the value of the X location is raising,

he's lowering his center of gravity,

so the value of the Z curve is going down

and stabilize just before this little drop here.

This drop in the Z curve over two frames

is micro-anticipation.

On the timing, my character is easing

into the anticipation on frame 42.

And then, from frame 42 to frame 45, is releasing the hook.

Using this kind of moving hold from frame 32 to frame 42,

we have created a long and slow anticipation into the hook.

To break this anticipation

and bring even more contrast to the hook,

I will insert a key frame on frame 40,

and then I will push the anticipation pause on frame 42,

meaning that I will lower the center of gravity.

And I will also rework a bit the Y location curve

so that the character is pushing a bit backward.

Basically, I am pushing the curves the opposite direction

than during the hook motion.

This little extra anticipation over one or two frame

is called a micro-anticipation and it's used a lot

in cartoonish animation or game animation.

From there, I will be working on the Y location curve

of the center of gravity.

Here, I'm slightly pushing the character back

so that the left foot is not supporting too much weight

and can be raised and pushed forward into the next step.

Once it hits its contact point,

I can shift the weight onto this current foot.

Then I will ease backwards for the moving hold

of the anticipation until frame 40.

And from frame 40 to 42, I will push the character backward

a little faster so that we do create the micro-anticipation

we were talking about just before.

During the hook motion, I will tweak the curves

frame by frame.

Whenever we have a very fast motion,

we have a lot of changes into the pose of the character.

That's pretty common to animate on ones,

meaning that you will add a key frame

or insert a key frame, every frame, every one frame.

In this case, I'm just watching the arcs made

by the motion path of the center of gravity of my character

and I'm just pushing the different curve

so that it creates a nicer arc.

I have the pretty squared angle.

Here, I'm just curving it into a C shape.

From there, I will slightly rework the X location curve

so that the character transition into the other shoot

a little faster between frame 46 and frame 48.

Since we are the very detailed blocking

of this parts of the animation,

the polishing stage in this case

is really about refining the arcs

and the speed of the motion over a couple of frames.

I will repeat myself again, but the more detailed

is your blocking, the easier and faster

will be your splining and polishing stage.

As usual, once I'm done with the location curve,

I switch to the rotation curves.

My goal as usual is to bring contrast to the motion

so, generally, when you switch to splining,

your curve will be smoothed out, which is normal.

Your job from there is to favorize

whether the previous pose or the next one.

Prior to the hook, I will make the body drag.

So when the character is going down,

I will raise the upper part of the body

by pushing the X rotation curve down.

And then as you dive into the anticipation for the hook,

I will push the curve up.

So, basically, I've created a drag

and then a slight over shoot,

and they will do the same with the twisting motion.

As he goes toward the anticipation,

I will make the upper body dragging by pushing

the Z quaternion curve down.

And then, as his weight is shifting upon his left foot

and easing through anticipation for the hook,

I will push the Z quaternion curve up

and they will do the same with the Y quaternion curve.

Again, your job is not to know by heart

which curve does what, but what the body should do.

In this case, I want to drag while I'm switching stance.

And once I've reached the new stance,

I want to push the anticipation.

So I need to figure out which curve does what

by just clicking them and watching my character.

When I moved the Z quaternion curve,

I can see that the torso of my character is twisting,

so I will work on that curve

for this specific part on the animation.

And since I want to put the micro-anticipation as before,

between frame 14 and 42,

I will slightly erase the Z quaternion curve,

which make the character twisting his body.

Then we have this huge drop into the curves

that generate the twist the opposite direction

to perform the hook.

What I will do from there is create a slight over shoot

by rotating the Z quaternion curve angle down.

This way, the torso will continue rotating a bit

just after the character hit the bag.

This will bring more weight to the motion,

while if we were to rotate the body the opposite way,

just after the hit, it will make a bounce motion

that will be perfect for a light punch or a bouncing ball.

Again, since we had a very detailed blocking,

pushing those curve is pretty easy

and I'm not really modifying their shape,

but just choosing whether to push them down

or push them up a bit

to favorize the previews our next pose.

For example, on the X rotation curve here,

I'm pushing it down a bit so I'm favorizing

the previous pose where the character

is leaning into the punch.

And then, as he will be walking backward,

I will push the curve a little up

so that the body is dragging forward.