10/12/2025

  Post 7 Azula Correction:
       This week, I dedicated my time to restarting and refining Azula’s flip animation to achieve a much smoother and more natural motion. After identifying the issue from last week—where the flip felt uneven due to being animated from the base control—I decided to completely rework the movement. This time, I focused on animating from the hip control instead of the root. By doing this, I was able to make the flip rotate around the character’s center of mass rather than her feet, which made the motion look more balanced and believable. This adjustment immediately fixed the jittering problem I had previously encountered, especially the awkward bump caused by overlapping rotations on the x and z axes.
       Once I got the flip motion looking consistent, I turned my attention to the landing. In my earlier version, the landing felt too abrupt and lacked weight, so I made several changes to improve the realism. I started by having Azula extend her left foot forward to touch the ground first, followed by her right foot to steady her stance. This gave her landing more rhythm and flow, instead of both feet hitting the ground simultaneously. To emphasize the force of impact, I lowered her hip controller and head controller slightly right after she landed. This subtle movement gave her body a realistic sense of weight transfer and made the motion feel more grounded. It’s a small detail, but it adds a lot to the believability of the animation.

       While polishing the landing, I ran into a strange technical issue on the timeline. Whenever I scrub through the frames—especially around the landing—the left foot occasionally translates in a circular motion before settling into its final keyframe position. The odd part is that it only happens depending on how fast I scroll through the timeline, which makes it hard to identify the root cause. I’ve checked for extra keyframes and double transformations, but nothing obvious stands out. I plan to ask for advice during critiques later this week to see if anyone has encountered a similar problem or can suggest a workaround.

Looking ahead to next week, I’m planning to take the animation a step further by changing the landing environment. Instead of Azula landing on the ground, I want her to land on a rock-styled wall, kick off from it, and slice through a boulder that Toph will throw at her. This will create a more dynamic moment and set up a strong finishing attack to close out the video. I’m excited to explore how this new sequence will bring the two characters’ fighting styles together in a more cinematic way.