After finishing the blockouts, I moved on to polishing the animation. For the woman, most of the work involved cleaning up her arm and hand movements since they interact with the holograms. I refined her arcs, added slight follow-through, and adjusted timing so her gestures felt more natural. The rig limitations from earlier remained a problem — her elbows, knees, and especially her face couldn’t handle exaggerated poses without deforming, so I had to keep everything subtle and rely more on timing and head movement rather than strong expressions.
During polish, Maya crashed and I lost the main file I had been working on. I only had an older backup, so some of the polish I originally added didn’t make it into the final version. I redid what I could, mainly focusing again on the override moment: her pause, eye movement, and the quick turn when she realises the mech is powering on.
For the mech, polish was about clarifying weight. I refined the timing of each step, added slight holds before impacts, and cleaned up torso and arm offsets so the movement felt heavy but intentional. I also tweaked the head turn during the override, giving it a slow, deliberate rotation that helped it feel more aware and threatening.
Finally, I adjusted how both characters interacted with the environment — aligning the woman’s hands with the holograms and making sure the mech’s steps landed correctly in the space. Even with the rig issues and the crash, the polish stage helped tighten the timing and make the whole sequence read more clearly.