Caber Toss

This is my last assignment for class 2!  Huzzah!  The biggest challenge with this one was getting this giant wood pole to feel ridiculously heavy. I approached this by keeping the character limited in his movement under the weight of the caber and making sure the caber didn't stray much from the momentum it gathers as it's walked forward.  With all of that weight, the character can't get his feet off the ground very high or for very long, his arms can't bend hardly at all, and he's got to do everything he can to stay under it or it's going to topple over.  The arms got a little too stretched in my efforts to make this all work, but it was kind of fun to push the limit :)  It was fun to get a kind of cartoony feel throughout the shot with the really pushed, curved poses and snappy timing.

With the size of the character's head, it was constantly in the way.  That was another great challenge.  I had to get creative with how he navigated around this giant pole without batting his head against it with every move or face planting into it while he's moving it forward.  I had a version where he face planted into the pole, but it wasn't really working, so I decided to toss it and simplify.

My favorite parts are the lift in the beginning and the final throw.  I think those moments were the most successful.  If I had more time, I'd rework the final pose.  My mentor commented that I should get into the final pose faster and simplify it so he's just watching intently as the caber flies through the air and lands.  It doesn't really make sense why my character gets into his final pose, I just got carried away and liked the pose :)