Parkour - Gimbal Lock And Other Fun Stuff

So Steve really liked my blocking for the Parkour. He gave some really great tips to enhance some poses and that he felt I would be really happy with this animation when I'm done. Apparently he wanted to build me up before this week when I wandered in to the wonderful world of Gimbal Lock! (no offense to Steve, of course!).

Sooo, Gimbal Lock.. aaah, good times. If you don't know what it is and for some crazy reason, interested in it, check it out here. Essentially, it crept up in my project when Stewie was doing a lot of flips. The torso would look fine in blocking but as soon as I went to spline, he was twisting like a pretzel. The torso would rotate on all three axis several times over a short span of frames. OUCH! Hehehe. Anyway, hours later I had it all straightened out, but it still got me very frustrated. I'm sure this isn't the last time either!

I'm fairly happy with this phase of the animation, but I know I have plenty of work ahead of me. I need to add some more overlap to the places where he stops quickly, like the wall jumps or the landings, but at least I know they're needed. I also have to smooth a ton out, lock planted feet in place... the list goes on and on. I only have 2 weeks to finish up before this class is over. Better get a move on!

Parkour - Insane even with pixels!