How to Draw Posture and Balance in the Figure making a Forceful Motion

The animated figure above illustrates the follow through of a forceful motion. (Click on the picture to see the animation) In the animation I arranged multiple views of Bernardino Genga's study of the muscular anatomy of the Gladiator around a line representing its center of gravity. The torso is thrust forward from the center of gravity is supported by the left leg which is positioned beneath it and is balanced by the opposite arm and the right leg being thrust back. A similar concept, in this case the motion leading up to a forceful motion is  described below in the notes about Figure 19. from Trattato della Pittura By Leonardo da Vinci.

How to Draw the Human Figure in Motion and How to Draw Action Figures

Click on the picture to see
the animated version

To draw a figure in motion or to animate a figure the first thing to observe is the structure of the skeleton and how the parts move as an action is completed. Observe each part of the body by itself and notice how foreshortening and perspective come into play as the parts move.

The animated example here is derived from Eadweard Muybridge's photographic study of a nude descending a staircase.

The dots represent the joints and the lines represent the bones. By reducing the figure to this simple form a framework can be built to represent movement. The Biomotion Lab Walker is an interesting example on the web of how to reduce a figure to its bare essentials, this example produces the illusion of movement with only dots representing the joints. The example goes farther and allows you to experiment with faster and slower movement and a male or female figure.

This is the basic structure for animation, for motion capture and for rendering computer animation for motion pictures and game animation.

Fencing School

 

 

Fencing School from Bibliodyssey.

Muybridge's Fencing Photographs at Kingston Museum.

The Male and Female Figure in Motion: 60 Classic Photographic Sequences