Ashe/Brigitte Animation Breakdown

  This was a fun project; while I try not to overdo the Overwatch characters, every time I get to work with them it's a joy. Due to their popularity, the rigs are usually high-quality and the characters themselves are simple and attractive, which makes it easy to pose facial expressions.   

 I'm gonna go over a number of little things in the video, stuff that I found interesting or challenging, and some new techniques I came across.   

 In animation you are constantly working within the 3 axis, “X, Y, and Z.” Frequently you come across a situation where you need to drive an object or bone along one axis (say, Y) but the axis of the object doesn't match this orientation. In this situation, I often use an “empty” object, parenting the object/bone in question to this empty, and then animating the empty itself to drive the object/bone.   

 The example given is Ashe inserting the plug into Brigitte. Ashe's hand wasn't matching the position needed, so I created an empty and used a “Child-Of” constraint to drive the action.   

 This is an important tool to have in your bag of tricks, as nothing is more annoying than fighting a bad axis orientation and trying to compensate it by modifying the other three axes as you animate.   

  While we're on the topic of axes, I want to tell you what my favorite part of the animation was.   

 Did you catch that? Enhance! 

 It's very subtle but the little “head-bob” motion there I feel was extremely realistic, and kind of represented a personal “level-up” in working with the graph editor. This type of realistic, off-set motion is very easy to accomplish in the graph editor, you just have to embrace off-setting your splines in the right way. In excess of using reference footage, I recommend keeping a small hand-mirror at your side to be able to use your own movement as a guide.   

 Movement on the Y-Axis (the swivel) is combined with an extended movement on the Z-axis (the sway).   

  In this animation I also started focusing on animating the cheeks more, something I usually neglected in prior works. I MAY have overdone it in a few places, but I'll keep trying to improve there. Always important to remember the whole face is connected; nothing moves in isolation; the mouth pulls down the cheeks which pull the eyes which pull the brows, etc.

  During the "sucking toes" scene, it was important to communicate that Brigitte is still sitting on a vibrator, her whole body shaking. I couldn't overdo it, otherwise her head would become out of sync with the toes. I used a "noise modifier" to provide a very subtle "shaking" effect. The modifier can be animated off/on, and it's a fantastic way to make a character "shudder" (something you come across fairly often in this line of work). 

  The kissing was hard! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially for a first time doing mouth-to-mouth kissing like this (I've done a few “hen pecks”, but eh, those don't count).   

 Keeping the lips from intersecting while also making sure the motion remained natural was the challenge. I animated in order from chest, head, jaw, lips, and that seemed to keep things nice and tight. Once you finish animating the chest/head, you can't touch them again, as that will screw up any animation done on the mouth/lips. So make sure you're happy with it before moving on.   

 I did a neat little trick with the camera during this segment. I used an empty set between both characters, and used TWO child-of constraints at 50% value, set to both characters' heads. Then the camera had a “track-to” constraint (at low influence) set to this empty. This gave the camera a nice, subtle “flowing” motion while also keeping the lips in focus (this same empty was also used as the “Depth of Field” target).   

  The whipping may have been my favorite scene. I spent a long time working out Ashe's "pull back" and whip, massaging those splines and making sure it communicated impact (carrying over some lessons learned from a similar scene in the "Succubus Doms Elf" animation). 

  I've said it before but it bears repeating; learn the graph editor! It's truly what will take your animation to the next level, and while it's not a "magic bullet" or anything, controlling the interpolation between movements is necessary to sell believable motion (very few things move in a straight line, nor a "bezier curve"). 

  The whip marks were done in Photoshop and exported in various layers (8 in total), and then animated on/off at the appropriate time. I did this step last, as each image-texture was 8k, which slowed down the whole file a bit (I would have used 2k or 4k, but the Brigitte model herself used 8k textures, so I felt I needed to match that). 

  When constructing these bigger scenes, that's always something to consider; how big an object/texture will end up being, and whether it's possible to add that in at a later stage. You want the program running as smooth as possible while doing the animation itself, so you can get real-time playback. It's a puzzle!

  All-in-all, like most of the big animations, it was a bit chaotic until the end, where inevitably it all starts coming together. I can't thank Midnight Datura and Silky Milk enough for their great voice acting; gotta love how much fun Midnight seemed to be having with that Southern twang. Ashe was a fun character to animate and there's something appealing about seeing a "big strong girl, all tied up and helpless" like our Brigitte. 

  Also want to again thank the artists who provided the framed pieces seen around the background of the scene (for the record I did offer a small payment for use, as all artists should be compensated! Not all accepted but it's appreciated either way). It really gave a neat flair and charm, I think, and of course they are all talented and deserve a shout out, so thanks to @pockettickler, @MrWrapture, @DukeGothic, @gingeslu357, and @Mmj3D. 

  Let me know if you have any questions or comments! I always enjoy talking about the process and I myself still have a ton to learn and refine, which I hope to keep doing. Happy to have you along on the journey. 

  Stay safe and well! I'll be back with some previews of Jinx Tickles Akali soon.