Boss Intro

Boss Intro

Our second assignment of the 3rd term and my class’s last animation assignment overall. My concept for this cinematic was designed around the Ivory Champion rig by Kiel Figgins. This rig gave me the impression of a holy guardian of sorts and reminded me of the Imperius vs. Diablo cutscene because Imperius’s design felt in line with the rig I chose. Part of my boss intro was inspired by the segment of Imperius calling down his spear from the sky before doing battle with Diablo.

The idea for the boss intro came from encounters with fortress/castle guardians with large, imposing figures wielding equally large weapons against any player characters that try to invade the building. I wanted the boss to start in a state of inactivity and only start moving when it detects any hostile approaching and then summon a holy weapon from the sky before flourishing it towards the camera/player as the boss fight begins.

This assignment presented a different set of challenges compared to the parkour assignment that came before it, most of it coming from the weapon twirling action that happens after the boss picks up the weapon that he summoned from the sky. For that particular sequence I struggled a lot with the boss’s body mechanics and the technical aspect of making the twirl look smooth especially when it came to animating the arms. I also faced some difficulty in the more subtle movements that resulted in earlier stages of the animation looking very floaty all around and unappealing but I managed to overcome that thanks to the help of my lecturer’s critique guiding me on the right path.