Animating my Crossbow

Using reactor I was able to animate my crossbow in such a way that when the pulling mechanism was pulled back and released, the bolt that was attached to it is propelled forward with increased momentum. The way this was animated was using a combination of auto key and set key on the timeline for separate elements of the crossbow.

Frame 0

 The pulling mechanism was pulled back to the point where it can't stretch the ropes on the crossbow anymore which was set at frame 65/100, so over half of the animation is showing the bolt being pulled backwards and the ropes expanding as they reach their potential.

Frame 65

 Once the bolt is fired, the pulling mechanism moves forward slightly and the bolt is propelled forward at a great speed (the bolt moves away faster as it has been set to drop off at a farther away distance. The curve editor has been used to speed up the rate that it shoots off from the crossbow and to stop it from slowing down too much at the end of the animation). As the bolt moves away from the crossbow, the crossbow itself is jogged backwards by the momentum. This is corrected as the mechanism hits the front of the crossbow and relaxes back in place. The crossbow is moved backwards for a few frames before falling back into its original position. At the same time as this, the wheels are animated the opposite way so that it gives the illusion that the wheels actually move with the movement of the crossbow.

Frame 77

A few frames after this (82/100), the crossbow bolt is no longer able to be seen from this view. This gives an idea of the speed at which the bolt has been shot out of the crossbow at. At a different view, we can see that the bolt still moves away from the crossbow up until frame 99 where it drops onto the grass and frame 100 it stops moving completely as the animation ends.

Frame 100

 

Animation of crossbow being fired

Planning my animation

Now that I have some models that may be used for my animation, the time has come to commence the planning and storyboarding. An idea that I have is to show how the crossbow reacts when shooting objects of different shapes and sizes. The problem that I see with this is that it seems repetitive; like the animation isn't thought out enough or could be improved on. To hopefully cancel this out, I will be animating using different physics settings each scene and adding some humour to the animation.

Scene one
The first scene will start off with the camera at a distance in front of the castle, and move inwards as it goes through the castle gate and into the courtyard where the crossbow is waiting in the centre. The camera will pan around the courtyard to show off the area and then focus on the crossbow. If I managed to model a human in time for the animation, there will be a man there that either raises up his arm, letting the crossbow know that it can fire, or if I can rig it so that it looks like he is firing the crossbow himself, I will do that. The first target that the crossbow will fire at will be a barrel. There will be an overlay on the screen that displays information such as the durability of the object that is being shot at, as well as wind speed and direction. The crossbow will then fire at the barrel, either knocking it over or exploding it/penetrating it if I am to make that happen.

Scene two
This scene will start off in the courtyard similar to what was shown in the first scene. The object that will be shot at this time will be a stack of barrels, and the overlay will display the relevant statistics of the object and a different wind direction. The crossbow shoots the barrels and the physics disrupts the stack and they fall over everywhere.

Scene three
Moving up from a stack of barrels, this time we will be shooting our crossbow at a statue of a man. The stats of the object and wind direction is shown again, and the crossbow is fired. The statue will either explode (as intendid) or get knocked over by the crossbow bolt.

Scene four (final)
This will be the final scene, and instead of going up to an object of higher durability than a stone statue, the crossbow will be shooting at a real person. The person will be rigged up with a skeleton and as the crossbow bolt colides, the person should be penetrated and flung backwards as defined by the physics.

Alternate ending
If I am unable to make the crossbow bolt physically penetrate the person at the end, then instead I will set up a camera that is in the point of view as the person, and the animation will end as the crossbow bolt hits the camera and the screen goes back.