KKP's The Flavor Of Eskrima - Left To Right

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The Flavor Of Animation Series

While I do endeavor to do my best to model my animations based on the martial arts style I've researched, the fact of the matter is that many ideas don't translate very well for dueling animations, as used in SecondLife. For example, in Eskrima, blocking is a very dynamic action, based on principles that can be summarized as "parry, disarm, and disable/kill." In order for the animations to look proper, faithful representation of this would require an accompanying animation for the defender as he is parried, disarmed, and disabled/killed. However, to allow such a thing between dueling individuals would likely cause issues and questions of fairness in combat. So rather than trying to make a faithful interpretation of this and other concepts, I have, instead, decided to capture the essence, the flavor, if you will, of the idea with movements that better suit the purposes of these animations. I sincerely hope that those who do practice these various styles of martial arts feel that these are successful attempts!

What Is Eskrima?

Eskrima is a martial arts style that originates from the Philippines, with the island of Cebu given the credit for its birthplace. This is a very brutal and deadly style of combat, as everything about it emphasizes its original and primary purpose: killing people, with either weapons or bare hands, so much so that the Philippines' army actually uses this style of combat in their training.

I find Eskrima to be a very fascinating discipline, as it's the very first combat style I've encountered that trains its students to fight both armed and unarmed at the very same time, as the movements are exactly the same, whatever they happen to have in their hands, or not have in their hands. And when I say hands, I mean both hands of any one student: Eskrima is a dual-weapon or two-weapon fighting technique that emphasizes the development of true ambidexterity, as the Eskrimador is expected to be able to have each hand doing something entirely different from the other, thus making their movements more difficult to predict.

What Weapons Do Eskrimadors Use?

As mentioned, earlier, Eskrimadors can just as easily fight unarmed, as well as armed. However, if they do decide to wield weapons, the most traditional and iconic weapon of Eskrima are sticks made of rattan. This being said, because the training is focused on the idea of making the weapon an extension of the body, pretty much anything can be used, from two knives, sword and dagger (a style known as Espada Y Daga, in the Philippines), two swords, or even improvised weapons. If it can be used in melee and wielded with a single hand, it's a viable weapon for Eskrima. As such, whatever single-handed weapons you, as the customer, devise can legitimately be used with these animations.

The Animations

The animations included in this pack are based upon a series of movements called the Heaven 6, but while another pack of the same name moves from right to left, this one features movements from left to right, allowing for "left-hand dominance," or as much as can exist within an ambidextrous style of combat. While it can be used as a continuous sequence, the individual parts of the movements may also be used as separate attacks. Hence, the animations included are the full sequence of the Heaven 6, the sequence broken up into three parts, then the sequence broken up into the individual 6 parts that spawned the name. I have also included 4 additional animations: a ready stance, a draw animation, a sheathe animation, and a blocking animation. Two additional animations are a draw animation that ends with the included ready stance, and a sheathe animation that had originally been a mistake, as I had forgotten to properly turn the hands. However, just in case a clever weaponsmith may have a use for it, I've included it in the pack. That brings the total number of animations to 16.