Shooting my reference was a difficult task, as many of the scenes I needed reference for were far to acrobatic for me to film personally. Plus, there wasn't much opportunity to swing a heavy object around in a safe manner.
Therefore, I opted to shoot what I could, mainly focusing on shooting the reference of the female character and deciding that I would find suitable references for the Goliath later.
With the help of Dan and Tim, I shot as much reference footage as I could, using the space as efficiently and appropriately as possible. For me, reference is most useful in understanding the weight and foot placement of characters. Knowing when a character steps or makes micro adjustments are things that may not be intuitive if you were to just go ahead an animate.
That being said, I feel as though my reference could have been better. I made the mistake of trying to mimic each shot's camera, which often left the feet out of frame. I would have had much more success if I had shot wide and captured the entire performance, even if I knew most of it wouldn't be seen in the final animation.
I also filmed some generic reference at the gym, my friend Sam hitting a tyre with a sledgehammer and Johnny doing a forward roll. These were both useful pieces of footage but I ended up using them sparingly in favour of footage that I sourced
This was the reference that I used to animate Sylvanas' walk cycle. I knew there was going to be a long walking sequence in a straight line at the beginning of the film and so it was important that I created a solid walk cycle.
This piece of reference was great in that it provided both the side and front views of the actress in sync, and the grid just helps you track the direction which things are moving.