This project was created to experiment with the dynamics of shifting weight, anticipation, and overshoot in a 3-D environment. Using a character provided to us by the professor we were tasked with creating a 3-D environment and 3-D objects with which to interact with. We needed to start from a standing position, move to a ‘heavy’ object, lift and then throw it to a nearby table/platform. Sounds easy enough right? Well, in fact, it was quite difficult to really make the ‘rock’ feel heavy to the viewer. I went through several iterations until settling on the final form presented. To help emphasize its weight, the rock is lifted with great force until it reaches its maximum/highest peak upon which it reverses direction and actually squashes the character underneath with the character bracing against it. With the throw, it needed to be fast and short. This would enhance how much apparent power the character was putting into the throw, and its travel distance is linked to how heavy it is. In this case, it does not go very far at all. In fact, if I could go back now and change some things, I would make it travel less and fall faster to really hammer home it being ‘heavy’. Otherwise, this animation accomplished the task presented and was a great learning experience.
