My experience so far with character animation has been with low poly humanoid models and/or low poly unconventional body type models (e.g. blobs, worms, etc.). So, I decided to test my skills with a high-poly character model with a flexible, appealing art style.
Learning goals for this animation journey was to manually rig and animate realistic clothes physics (the coat), and to learn how to rig a character face made for animation (including eyes, teeth and tongue) from scratch, then animate basic expressions not covered by the university syllabus.
Reasons for choosing these weapons have specific learning goals as well; swords are commonly seen in video games as a standard weapon, so I wanted to try animating more unconventional weapon types.
The scythe is thin and nimble like a sword, though one wields and attacks with it much differently from a sword.
The guitar takes after a club-type weapon, with heavy, powerful swings with maximum impact. I also thought it would be interesting to incorporate real life guitarist stage moves into the character's moveset.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Riku Character Model: https://bit.ly/3y3vP0D
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Scythe Model: https://skfb.ly/6XJvu
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Guitar Model: https://skfb.ly/6Xpov
Guitar attack animation. 2 swings from left to right, then a large mighty swing plummeting to the ground.
Recorded in Unreal Engine 4.27.
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Guitar Model: https://skfb.ly/6Xpov
Scythe attack animation. 2 slashes from left to right to eviscerate mobs, then an upward slash to decimate an oncoming foe.
Recorded in Unreal Engine 4.27.
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Scythe Model: https://skfb.ly/6XJvu
Character idle animation. The character taps his foot to a beat, then excitedly pulls out a guitar from behind his back and jovially strums a few chords.
Recorded in Unreal Engine 4.27.
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Guitar Model: https://skfb.ly/6Xpov
Character run animation. The character flashes a smile outward as he carries his scythe in his right hand, keeping it at bay with his pace.
Recorded in Unreal Engine 4.27.
(Fan-made) Kingdom Hearts Scythe Model: https://skfb.ly/6XJvu

Character and weapon comparison in 3ds Max.
Kingdom Hearts 3 Riku Character Model: https://bit.ly/3y3vP0D
(Fan-made) Scythe Model: https://skfb.ly/6XJvu
(Fan-made) Guitar Model: https://skfb.ly/6Xpov