Post 10 - Ana Support Animations for Heroes of the Storm
*The contents below are my own opinions and not that of my employer*
Cloaks and Rifles
I was given the opportunity to assist Matt Parker with support animations needed for the Heroes of the Storm version of Ana. Loading into Ana's scene and figuring out her character rig was surreal. I mean, this is where it really hit me how lucky we are to touch every IP Blizzard has to offer on this project.
I had the most fun with Ana's victory animation in this support set. By far, the most challenging I had to "create" was her dance. I use quotations because I had THE best reference for which was simply the game itself. Even though I animated the same dance she has in OW, I made subtle changes here and there. The biggest difference with my dance is that I needed to create an ending. Overwatch dances do not end; they loop forever. In Heroes of the Storm, we need to make our character's dances end back on their stand-ready pose for game play purposes.
Her cloak is a huge part of her character. Honestly, we kept telling ourselves that the cloak was a separate character from Ana entirely. I put a lot of work into making sure her cloak moved and reacted to her movements accordingly. If the cloak needed to make a large move, I went out of my way to be certain it felt/looked as epic as possible.
Hope you enjoy!