Hey all. Back at it again with this glider.
Link to YouTube
My first post related to this is here if you want to see how it’s progressing.
I really wanted to show those who helped me last time how this is progressing. So big thanks to @sozap @SidewaysUpJoe @LitmusZest and @Splododyne for the help last time.
Now for anyone else who is checking this out, I would love some help/tricks for animating using curves. I’m still having trouble making the flow feel natural. But idk, slow improvements are better than nothing. Anyways, appreciate any and all help to make this scene better.
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Wow… thats great progress !
Like the part where the glider dives into the canon, disappears and then climbs out.
You really came a long way from the first one, congrats and nice job.
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Thank you! I appreciate all the help!
Wow, big improvement! The way the glider enters the scene is much more cinematic and really gives a sense of the speed it’s flying, the movement is much more natural and realistic, it looks like you animated some wing flex, and the camera movement is much better I think. Really nice work! Keep it up.
Thank you! Yes, I did add some flex to the wings. All the advice helped!
I haven’t seen your first version, but this one already looks quite good. I think the idea of the entry sequence having the glider enter from below is nice, but it feels a bit off. The first 1 or 2 seconds before the glider enters, the camera seems to slow down. But then it accelerates very drastically to catch up with the glider. If you could smooth that movement, I think the animation would look better.
Yeah I noticed that too. It’s because the rotation is added to the movement while the camera moves/turns. Not sure how to offset it to make it smoother though…
Any suggestions/ideas?
I’m not an animator and must admit, that I’ve never used the animation tools of blender. My last experience with keyframes was with Maya years ago. I’d first look into the curves editor(*) and try to find some sharp bends in the keyframe curves. If all looks smooth, maybe it would help to adjust the animation to anticipate the faster movement later, e.g. by tilting the camera at the beginning of the movement already a bit forward or starting at a higher altitude. With a higher altitude, the acceleration could also be physically motivated, since the camera then flies downwards.
(*) don’t have blender in front of me and it might be called differently…
I like the second animation. I watched it again for enjoyment rather than technical things.
There are modifiers or such that can be applied to animation curves (curves based on the key frames). You could use that to smooth the movements of glider and camera.
If the glider is following a path/curve consider having the camera follow its own similar path rather than the same path or the glider while pointing at the glider. This would give the impression that the viewer is a another glider or bird, a companion, flying with the glider.
