David’s comment about weight is very true. Following weight transfers in the body helps you a lot with the poses. When you understand weight, all your key poses are logical. They will be able to communicate the characters motives. And thats something to try to look for in reference. Most of the time in sports the body moves in the simplest way possible. What I mean is that we don’t necessarily think “how am I going to bring my foot forward”, we just think where we want to move it and mechanics do the rest. Therefor, limbs will find the fastest way to get from point A to point B. Which means you won’t necessarily see those perfect arcs but rather more simple movement. Although something to consider is that an athlete already has his or her technique down so their movement will be different compared to a regular Joe. The “how” in these cases is sub-conscience I believe. When I see an athlete skating, I’ll watch for the sequence of moving limbs. What moves first? Second? (what “bone” drives another “bone”). I will also look for overlapping action and count the frames it takes to overlap.

Now when we get to sports like figure skating it because slightly different because a lot of the technique is based on appeal (perfect arcs, precise timing, strong key poses (silhouettes), etc).

Oh dear, now my comment is longer than the original post. Well, it was a lot of fun sharing.

cheers!

I was watching the downhill speed ski races, and I notcied how disappointed the guys who were coming in 20th etc were….
And it made me think of how I’m always so critical of my skill as an animator. But here are these guys, in my eyes, they are successfull because they qualified for the olympics. They are successful because they didnt fall on their butt on the way down. It shows you, there will always seem be something preventing you from being the best you think you can be. The wise thing is to just try your best, acknowledge your improvement, and enjoy the ride!!!!

Jonah, i totally know what you mean about sometimes struggling to see whats really happening, or changing.
Drawings are cool for poses, but when it comes to ‘motion’, one thing that is helping me is to constantly be asking yourself where the’weight’ is. following the centre of mass, and asking where it came from, and where it’s going. Also asking, what created this movement to start (ie, pushing off the foot/hips or maybe an external force), and also, where is the ‘weight’ going.
This is helping me, also, when i’m a bit lost, i’ll consider the angle of the hips, and how they have changed

There are so many opportunities to observe. Thanks for sharing Andrew.

– Theresa

A couple days ago I was watching the olympics slow mo and trying my hardest to observe, but I just didn’t know what all to look for.