Progress So Far

Here is an uploaded video of my character's animation so far. I am quite pleased with his movements so far, but feel his walk cycle seems a bit too easy for the amount of weight he is supposed to be lifting. I will tweak the timeline and upload an update once it is done.

Character Persona

Name: Dave Jones
Age: 19
Occupation: Trainee Builder
Marital Status: Single

Dave is currently on an apprenticeship at a builders yard in Chelmsford, it is a very hot day and he has been given the task of moving steel girders from one side of the yard to another.
He is wearing his steel toe-cap safety boots, but considers it too hot for a t-shirt or hard hat.
Despite Dave being very malnourished, he is a very competant brick layer and a hard worker, although his ego sometimes gets in the way of his work. He feels he doesn't need safety gear as he is not working near the forklift truck.

The foreman has not yet noticed his blatent dis-regard for safety. If he did, it would no doubt cost Dave his job. His terrible lifting technique also shows he was not paying attention during the manual handling and satey techique videos. This could turn out to be one painful day on the job for Mr Jones!

Example of a Fall

I uploaded this video to show how a humans body folds under heavy weight. Although the man fails to lift the weight past his shoulders, he holds onto the weight all the way whilst falling.

Note, how from 14 seconds in, his body collapses downward and his legs bend, followed by the fall backwards and a turn of the head.

Example of a struggle followed by collapse

The above video is another very good example of the three things that happen when a weight is too heavy.

1/ The Shake (12 seconds in)
2/The Step/ loss of footing (13 seconds in)
3/ The Fall (14 seconds in)

Although this happens very quickly, I plan to prolong my bipeds struggle to show his strain and perseverance to fight the weight.

Example of Heavy Weight Struggle

The video above shows a struggle whilst lifting a heavy weight, followed by the person collapsing under the heavy weight. The things most noticeable about the struggle are:
1. The man is shaking due to the weight of the lift.
2. There is a slight pause before he falls
3. There is a little step back before the fall

These elements will be included in my animation to make it more realistic.