Push and Pull - Stop Motion

Before perfecting my walk cycle, I first wanted to attempt some other one of the exercises. Below is the Primary resource which material which I used for my 'Push and Pull' animation, I acted it out myself whilst recording it, I assured not to make the same mistakes as I have previously done in my primary material in the following two ways;
- By having the camera positioned so that I am the direct approach as appose to a low angle such as seen within my 'sneak' primary material, thus making it easier to determine my posture
- By having my full body in view, especially feet, as it was essential to see how the force of the body affect the positioning and movement of the feet, something that wasn't captured in my 'Emotion to Emotion' piece.
I am satisfied with this source material and along with the bar sheets I think it should be enough to produce a good animation from.

Below is the bar sheet which I created with reference from my source material. The pacing is relatively the same as is seen in the video, however certain movements and postures are greatly exaggerated in the diagrams on this bar sheet, this was due to the fact I couldn't exaggerate many of my action whilst recording them due to the cramped space, and I really wanted to have a clear representation of what position I want the armature to be in when it came to animating. Due to past experiences in the stop motion room, I decided it would be best if I put the push and pull into separate animations created within separate sessions, the reason being that I often panic about the amount of time I have left, therefore am more likely to rush the last lot of frames within the animation. By doing this I am assuring that I can remain all focus onto either the push or the pull, and work on perfecting them instead of worrying about time, hence why the bar sheet provided only shows the 'pushing' aspect of the animation. 

https://vimeo.com/216015313

This is the final result. As you can see a lot changed in-between the planning and production phases, as the final animation features both the push and pull, contrary to what was planned. This was improvised whilst animating, as the moment when the armature grips the object was meant to be followed by a push, but I tried to incorporate the animation principal known as 'Anticipation' before the armature pushes against the object by pulling itself back in order to gain more momentum and force, as observed from my primary material. However, I felt that I went overboard with this principal, resulting in the armature appearing as though it is pulling the object, so instead of restarting, I decided to run with this by having the armature's arch away from the object extended and becoming slower and slower as the arms stretch further and further out, thus showing strain as it attempts to pull it. The video reference material was very useful at this point. 

This improvisation resulted in both a positive and negative, the positive being that the push and pull are both successfully chained together, resulting in more of a natural progression. The negative on the other hand, is that the 'push' aspect of the animation isn't as expanded on as much as I intended to be. I am very satisfied with the initial push thanks to the 'follow-through' of the body as the hand stays stationary against the object, showing that the armature was unaware of the weight of the object, resulting in the body falling through, as acted out in my source material. Despite this, there is no further progression in the force of the push, as the armature isn't seen going into the push with more force by changing its posture and using both hands, and instead goes straight into the pull. Regardless, I still feel enough force, effort and reaction is shown in what I animated of the push that I am satisfied with it.

My main concern when going in to animate his was the position of the hand as it is either resting or pulling against the imaginary object, as if it moves position at all, the illusion that the object stays stationary will be ruined. As I did previously with other animations, this was heavily assisted via the 'onion skinning' feature, however as subtle movements may built up overtime, the hand may move ever so slightly, but still enough to ruin the effect, which is why I decided to mark the position of the imaginary object by gently sticking a sticky note on the monitor, therefore I will always have reference for where the object would be.

I wanted the armature to succeed in moving the object in his much more forceful second pull. The forcefulness was shown through a faster speed in the beginning of the pull by using fewer frames, which leads to a more noticeable slow down as the strain begins, and also more anticipation. The second pull ends with the hands coming closer to the body, making the armature step backwards as the object hypothetically is moved closer towards it, clearly showing that the armature has succeeded in it's attempts.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the final result, the only complaint being the lack of push development, therefore next time I will think carefully about whether or not I am over-exaggerating an anticipation effect, thus not having to improvise where to take my animation next. But this animation process has shown me that even if things do go wrong during the process, sometimes running with the mistake could create some interesting and successful results.