INTRODUCTION

This project is a continuation of a previous animation piece, developed during a production training. The goal this time was to expand the scene with a key moment: the dragon would not only crawl to the cliff’s edge but actually spread its wings and leap off. Just like before, I had three weeks to complete the assignment. However, a major difference this time were the weekly feedback sessions, which I found incredibly helpful, they gave me the opportunity to refine my animation with targeted improvements.


RESEARCH & PLANNING

Since the core concept was already in place, I was able to jump straight into planning the leap and the wing movement. I didn’t want the jump to look too forceful, more like the dragon is allowing itself to drop off the edge rather than actively pushing off. For that to feel believable, he had to move even closer to the cliff’s edge. I wanted to break up the crawl a little, so I added a moment where one of his claws slips. I found fitting references in reptiles, like an iguana that momentarily loses grip with one claw while climbing but regains balance. For the wings, the leap, and the glide, I went back to studying birds of prey. I focused on how they shift their posture before takeoff, how the wings open up, and how gravity impacts the overall motion. These references really helped me craft a believable rhythm and weight.


WORKFLOW ANIMATION

To begin, I refined the transition from crawling to jumping by reworking the ending pose of the previous animation. Once the rough blockout was done, including two more steps forward, the slipping claw, the initial wing lift and the jump, I moved on to blocking the camera. I adjusted the camera angle to give the jump more space and presence, and added a subtle screen shake during the takeoff to emphasize the weight and impact of the moment. After that, I focused on refining the transitions. I broke down the animation into groups, starting with the most essential body movements, then the wings, followed by the claws, and finally the tail and neck. I spent a lot of time playing with the timing, because it was key in portraying the dragon’s weight realistically.
At first, the animation had more motion, especially in the fingers, but that ended up making him look lighter than I intended. So I dialed it back to make the overall feel heavier and more grounded. I also made sure to integrate the little claw slip to add tension and contrast within the crawling motion. Animating the wing spread took quite a bit of sensitivity, it had to feel organic and seamless, while also serving as the dragon’s preparation for the leap. It needed to feel like one continuous, fluid movement.
After the last feedback session, I made a slight adjustment to the camera. As the dragon moved through the scene, the original camera perspective started hiding some key parts of the animation and didn’t feel quite right anymore. The tweak helped show off the important poses better and made the scene more visually dynamic.


ENVIRONMENT & LIGHTING ADJUSTMENTS

Since this project built directly on the previous one, I didn’t need to rebuild the environment from scratch. I only made smaller tweaks, like breaking the stone slab where the claw slips to sell that moment better. I also had to slightly expand the environment, as the new camera angle revealed more of the scene than before. The clouds I had previously created with fluids were toned down and reshaped to better fit the new composition, and to save some render time, too. As for lighting, I adjusted the timing and animation of the lightning strikes to emphasize dramatic moments. I also made sure the volumetric effects like fog and flashes worked in sync with the updated motion. I reworked the render settings completely, since the previous ones resulted in unnecessarily long render times. This time, I managed to optimize them more efficiently without losing visual quality.


CHALLENGES, SOLUTIONS & LEARNINGS

My biggest challenge this time was getting the timing right. If the movement was too fast, the dragon felt too light, too slow, and it just looked off. I really wanted to capture the feeling of his massive weight convincingly. The claws also gave me a hard time. They needed to lift off the ground naturally without snapping, and their movement had a huge impact on how powerful the jump felt. Figuring out the right moment for them to leave the ground and making that transition smooth took more time than I expected. The wing movement also required lots of detailed work to make it feel realistic, heavy, and majestic at the same time. Thanks to the weekly feedback sessions, I was able to improve the animation step by step. It was extremely helpful to get direct input and explore possible solutions together.


CONCLUSION

Overall, this project pushed my animation skills further and showed me just how valuable regular feedback and iteration can be. I’m happy with how it turned out, and I’m already looking forward to expanding the scene even further with a dramatic flight through the stormy skies.