In the next shot, I wanted to highlight the hero’s challenge and build tension leading up to the final shot. I decided on a long shot, with the villain in the distance gradually closing in. During this moment, he’ll be firing his weapon at the hero, adding intensity to the scene. This shot will also be more complex, requiring additional animation for elements like the missile and the suitcase flying out of the car.

Blocking - Overall, the timing feels solid. The main focus now is refining the posing and enhancing appeal. I need to ensure the line of action is clear and avoid over-animating.

Splining - At this stage, I focused heavily on the jump off and landing to enhance the illusion of weight. The poses started to feel stronger, but I also experimented with animating the arms in IK while he’s over the hood. Constantly readjusting the arms—and even the legs—every time I tweaked the torso was frustrating. In the next pass, I’ll work on refining the timing, making the movement snappier, and adjusting the floaty arm.

Polishing - In this pass, I added smear frames to the arms in the run cycle using lattice deformers to reduce flickering caused by the arm spacing. I also incorporated squash and stretch on the jump up—something I hadn’t really used in my Stewart animations until now. Additionally, I removed a few frames from the landing and the reach for the suitcase to make the movement feel snappier, which added more weight to the character.