MMED 3020 - week 06

TODAY: the 2 Strike Attack!
This is a 1 week assignment and will account for 10% of your final grade. Hand-in be due at the end of next class (week 7) *revised* at end of class week 9!

2-Strike Attack (2S) Using a rig of your choice - Biped, CAT, Ludo, Max...Whatever animate a 2 strike melee attack sequence using bare hands and feet or a simple weapon (dagger, sword, axe)  The character should start in an idle pose and from that position move to make 2 distinct and separate strikes against an opponent of about the same size (target stand in will be a simple box of human size). There should be an escalation here: the second strike should feel more powerful and damaging than the first strike. The attacks also need to include some forward movement: no pinned feet here! After the two strikes, the character should return back to their idle pose. Attack should be no longer than 5 sec (150 frames). Featured principles: Staging, Posing, Timing, Arcs

Rubric (or What I'll be grading on this assignment)


  • Do you meet all the assignment parameters (including file type and ratio)
  • Does the second strike feel more powerful than the first?
  • Are the strikes clearly staged?
  • Does your character start and return to idle?
  • Is there some forward movement to the animation?

A few helpful tips:


  • Use reference to guide you: start with real life, not animation (ie: photocopy of a photocopy)
  • Make sure to use pose copy tools to return to the same pose as the start.
  • Planning will make it much easier to complete this task on time: draw it out before going into 3dsMax and consider exaggeration, line of action and silhouette.
  • The second strike must be clearly more powerful than the first: the distance the strike travels and the time it takes will have a significant impact on this.
  • Anticipation and overshoot will help sell the strikes: bigger wind-up = more power.

Final hand in will be an .AVI file only with the following parameters:

  • 960x540 resolution
  • MPEG-4 compression
  • frame it close so I can see the action clearly
File should be named: <Last>_<First>_2S.avi
   eg. Latour_David_2S.avi



update from week 7 in class demo, the common issues I'll be looking at:

  1. Balance & weight shift (plumb line and balance beam)
  2. Timing and spacing of striking surface (accelerate to target)
  3. Amplitude of strike ( Bigger anticipation, bigger follow-through)