Assigned: Thursday, Jan 20th, 2011
Due: Thursday, Jan 27th at 3:00 PM
Last week you set the key poses in Maya for a forward jump. This week you will be taking that animation to completion in two phases. The first phase will involve inserting breakdown poses. Breakdowns, also referred to as "inbetweens", are poses added in between the key/extreme poses to further define movement. The goal is to add enough poses such that your animation flows fairly well when played at real-time, and things like motion arcs and overlap read.
In addition to defining motion arcs, timing will be an important factor. Time out your key poses before adding breakdowns. Then, as new poses fill in the gaps, make sure the timing still works. If at any time you find your motion doesn't flow as well as it could, retime as needed (using either the Timeline or the Dope Sheet). Remember: this is an art, not a science! It is also perfectly fine if there are places where several breakdowns are right next to each other, such as around the Jump and Fall contact poses.
As a final step, go through your whole animation and set keyframes to spline and then adjust the tangents to create the desired interpolation. You may choose to do this all at once or pose by pose depending on your preference. Keep scrolling through your animation and check to make sure poses don't accidentally overshoot their mark. Make sure that feet don't slide on the ground by setting interpolation type to Flat where necessary. Avoid breaking tangents or using linear interpolation which can result in visible pops in the animation - instead you can set extra keyframes on individual channels or controls to create sharp movements.
Make sure the arcs you defined with your breakdowns are smooth. It may be helpful to place motion trails on various controls such as the wrists so you can see exactly what's going on (In the Animation menu set: Animate → Create Motion Trail).