Abegayle Elmes

• In graph editor, hips should be like a bouncing ball. When the hips are looked at from the front view it should be an infinity symbol .
• The feet should stomp when they hit the floor.
• The fingers should overlap subtle.
• The toe should have a flick the foot touches the floor.
• Hair will also be overlapping

Animation Principles to include:

• Overlapping – Fingers, Hair
• Slow in & slow out – the feet as they come into contact with the floor. Like a stomp.

Detail should be so subtle you don’t know what it is that makes the animation but without it will look strange.

Animators should be better than a simulation.

atools instal

Arc Traker Tool

Overlap in graph editor

Baking – Separate the the animation from the rig to copy on to another rig using locators.

The difference between FK & IK controls on a rig

When I came to spline and polish, I was intimidated from all the lines in the graph editor. It looks very overwhelming. This was the task where I was going to have to learn how to use the graph editor better/not be intimidated.

Ask out tutor said “The graph editor is you best friend and worst enemy.”

I was advised to start with the hips first. They should be smooth on the graph editor.

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I then made sure there was a toe roll. Once the feet has stomped then the toe will come into contact with the foot after. This gives a sense of gravity to your rig.

I wasn’t feeling too confident in my splining so I decided to test the render but I wasn’t going to fully render the animation until I had done a better job at the splining.

The render looks very dark, so I need to increase the daylight.

Here was a gradual line for translate X as the animation is going in a straight line. Luke had shown me that I don’t need to be worried about deleting a few points so that I can get it as straight as possible.

1st Spline & Polish Outcome

As you can see, there is an overlapping of the toe roll and there is also slow in and out of the feet so that there is more of a stomping movement. I have add in some overlapping of the hair but I think it is too subtle.

After having contacted my tutor about not feeling like the splining and polishing had gone so well, Luke made a video which explained in further detail where the problem lay and what I needed to do to improve. It started with the hips. There was a break in the motion trail, this meant that there was too much movement in translate z on the graph editor.

I have circled in blue where the hip rotation has broken. It should be smooth up and down.

I have now smoothed out the hip rotation so it is a consistent wave from A to B.

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I started to really hate the pink floor and walls I had made for the staging. So I decided to use the stage from the asset library. I added in the pattern used from the rigs shirt on the poster board behind. I soon realised it was too much and too big so I deleted the boards and the top of the stage because the animation was dwarfed in the staging. This undermined all the work I have done. I also was test rendering the animation because the rig looked over exposed.

I settled for just the bottom part of the stage and a simple cloud background. This looks quite dream like and unnatural but I thought this style was fine because the walk was a bit of a dream like strut.

I had rendered this animation at least 5 times and this strange hair simulation seemed to be happening. Eventually I asked Luke who helped me get rid of it. It was very frustrating not being able to solve this issue.

The task was to make a minimum 8 step stylised walk using a rig. I need to make sure I am referencing this from footage side and front on to get the full virtual perspective for the rig to walk in.

Principles included:

• Slow in & out – the feet movement as it comes into contact with the floor and off again.
• Follow through / Overlapping – fingers, hair
• Timing – of the walk cycle for A to B
• Pose to pose Animation – Block poses of the walk cycle
• Staging – the environment/floor. Made to look like a funky/disco vibe.

Feedback on the Stylised Walk Reference

• Would have worked better if Ed walked towards the camera and not on the spot.
• Would have been easier to his hips moving.
• Would have been better if his whole body was in the shot.

I wish I had got a better reference video from my friend. I think it would have been easier if I just filmed myself but I liked Ed’s walks was trying to make my work not just about me. This way the character I have is based off my friend. I think I now can see the importance of a good reference when making animations. If I were in a studio and I was asked to make better references then I would understand why if the animation was really difficult. A good reference is like a good plan for an essay. The more thought out it is the better and easier your easy will be to write.

To get started I thought it would be easier if I took screenshots of each time Ed moves in the video to track what pose and on which frame. I got quite confused as it was difficult to see where his feet contacted the floor and his stylised walk was very complicated with an uneven rhythm. Trying to figure out the poses as I went became too complicated and the timings were all off. So, I decided to lock in the key poses of the walk cycle which I had learnt from the walker reference.

This was the walk cycle reference I used for the walker. It was very helpful to have a simple version printed out next to me to guide me with the reference I had gotten my friend to do. This helped me fill in the gaps where I could not see in the recorded video.

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I also sketched out the movement of the video reference so I could try and figure out the movement of the hands and it was not visible with the baggy clothes. This was also helpful to see where the face and shoulders were pointing.

In the walker animation I had not attempted to do the hip rotation so I wanted to make sure that I had the direction correct as I had noticed in the critique with my tutor it was a very easy thing to get mixed up.

Ed’s stylised walk has very exaggerated hip and chest rotation so I knew it was important to have a reference to know the correct direction.

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I used these examples from online to understand in what direction the hips should be moving. I noticed that when people in the class were getting it right it takes a trained eye to know why.

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Once I had animated the movement of the arms it seemed that it was easier to tell where the hips needed to be rotated because it gave the rig a sense of balance.

I chose this rig because I really like his lanky and conservative dress style. I wanted the walk to really contrast this. It was hard at first to get use to the rig as I feel it can be hard to get right when the model is so skinny.

Here the arms are very noticeably flailing all over the place. This rig has very elongated arms which means that to get flow is actually quite hard when its my first time as the proportions are lanky.

1st Final Outcome

I added in the hand on hip pose to that I could play with rotation movement of the fingers.

Critique Feedback

• Frame 8 – Elbow needs to bend the other direction
• Frame 22 – Knee is broken
• Frame 42 – Knee is broken
• Frame 55 – Elbow needs to be brought down
• Frame 59 – Rotation on hip needs to turn out
• Hips should be a straight line on translate Z
• Overlap in spine needs to happen with the rotation of the chest.
• Drop Luke a message to help me out with this.

For my first final outcome I am please with having done the hip rotation. However, I think it is far from finished. I have a lot of changes to make. Nevertheless, this is that fastest way for me to learn.

Romation – Sleeping Beauty & Cinderella

Matchmove – points of a body is translated to a computerised animation. e.g. spiderman

Workflow in 3D Pipeline
– Building rigs
– Building 3D environments

Polish Pass

• Overlap fingers, toes & facial expressions
• Breathing – chest movement
• Hands breathing

Unique movement not repetitive movement

Parent

Contraints:

Point –

Orient – Rotates with the parent.

Scale – Gets larger with the parent.

Aim – Object will always face in the direction of the parent.

Principles Included:

• Solid Building – I built the hat, eyes and the flower which I then parent constraint to the walker rig. The walker as a bit more character now with his outfit – They fancy.
• Staging – I added the sun to the scene with eyes who followed my walker as they walked from point A to B.
• Parent / Child – The suns eyes follow the walker as they go from

I wanted to add to my existing Walker so that he becomes more of a funny character. I had looked at already existing assets but thought they all looked a certain style and wanted to create my own.

I wanted to parent a hat and some eyes.

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I had made the corrections to the animation from the critique in class however I had seemed to have missed a step and wasn’t sure how to resolve so I contacted Luke to help.

Having watched this recording he explains that there too many added in key frames which he deleted. Then moved the sequence closer together so there wasnt a break in the walk cycle.

This was done on the graph editor. However I have some how removed the side bar in the graph editor so cant navigate to the translate x, y & x. I need to ask in class how to get this side bar back.

I wanted to add more to this animation in regards to the parent and constraint I had learnt in class. I took one of the assets which were on the drive – Lava planet. Made him into a little character so that his eyes could always follow the animation as the walker passed it.

Playblast:

Critique

• No changes to the walk cycle
• Add in a hip rotation

I am quite pleased with the outcome because I initially found the walker rig intimidating. Now I have a fun animation with a constraints and parents in it.

I wanted to take this animation further so I could render it on the render farm. I added in a background of the galaxy and made the floor look more like the surface of the moon. I did this by using one of the already existing props on the UAL One Drive called the lava rock. I increased the side of it so much that it looks though it could be the moon.

Principles used:

• Squash and Stretch – The weight of the sphere when it comes into contact of the pillars
• Follow Through & Overlapping Action – the tail movement after the body has contacted the pillar. This creates a more realistic movement of the tail in relations to the body.
• Slow in and out – As the fox moves from one pilar to the other, there is a slow in and out like the bouncing ball animation had.
• Staging – I’ve added some eyes, pillars and back drop just to add to the environment and make the animation more playful.
• Pose to Pose – Like the bouncing ball the fox body would need to follow a similar path. The tail will also need to have blocking poses are the ball moves from one pillar to the other.
• Secondary Action – Gives the tail more life as it is moving independently from the body. The movement is different as it is a different form. In the ‘real world’ the principles of gravity and weight apply differently to different objects due to shape and mass.
• Timing – The tails timing works on a different cycle than the body. The tail is still moving after the body has stopped.
• Arc – The movement of the body and the tail both follow the movement of an arc to make the movement more natural.

Rig Controls

What are they?
A technique used in skeletal animation for representing a 3D character model using a series of interconnected digital bones.

Why are they important?
A rig gives you more control on your 3D animation. You can monitor the movement to great a personality

How do we use them?
We use rigs by their controls which is either in the channel box or you can use the mover icons to move them left, right, up, down, smaller, bigger, rotation. depending on how accurate you need it or how natural you can interact with the rig.

What are good ones?
A good rig is a rig with well thought out controls. You should only be able to more a rig control in the way in which it needs to be moved. For example if the toe doesn’t more a certain way in ‘real life’ then it shouldn’t have to in the virtual animation world. A good example of this is when you have very accurate face controls. Which will allow you to more the mouth to make certain sounds. This means the rig has been well though out to speak in a realistic way. This is dependant on the purpose of the rig. If the character is a cartoon then it can have more playful controls which are more exaggerated and a realistic rig should have controls which mirror a more realistic movement of its character.

This could be controversial as it can depend on the use of the rig. If it very categorised this can be limiting to what you can do with the rig.

A good rig is easy to use. You know where the controls are and you have options depending on your preference. e.g. with or without a moustache.

Animation Reference:

This was a reference I found on the internet to use because I didn’t feel totally comfortable drawing my own when it comes to a tail movement. I think this reference wasn’t the best because it didn’t show the timings or the right tail movements which might have been why I found this task particularly difficult. However the reason i did choose it was that the positioning of the tails direction. I think I could have done better with my reference selection.

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I always enjoy making my animations fun and silly with the staging. I added eyes to the fox animation so that I felt a little more ownership over the rig even though I know everyone else was using it. I liked adding the bright colours to the scene to play into the cartoon and playful vibe.

Focusing just on the blocking of the animation I wanted to make sure they were nice arcs which were similar to the bouncing ball. I used the side view so that I could see the animation move from X axis.

As you can see that I have used the graph editor to smooth out that initial arc and need to curve the spline the second jump. This is pose to pose animation which I will focus and then work on the secondary action of the tail as it is more complicated.

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Here I have used the trail motion tool to make sure the tip of the tail is always touching the trail. This is because the tail will always follow the primary action. The line works as a great reference where the tail should. This definitely helped me get my head around where this movement should move to. The tail rig had 4 different sections to it which I could move to imitate the movement of a fox tail. It was important not to more one more so than the others otherwise it would make an unrealistic shape of a tail which defies the rules of movement in the ‘real world’

Using the motion trail of where the body moves and the tail really helps to visualise the idea of how primary and secondary action are different. I can also go to the graph editor and smooth out any curve that I think don’t match the rest of the movement.

Final Outcome:

Feedback

• Timing needs to be after. Grab all keys and scale in the graph editor. (24 frames per bounce not 30)
• Frame 3- Need to change tail direction.

I didn’t enjoy making this animation as much as I thought I would. I think it was really hard to get my head around the overlapping of the tail to look realistic. I realise that how I thought the tail would move in this situation was actually not very accurate which make it confusing. However I think that next time I will have a better idea how to complete this principle in my animations.

For my showreel I decided that I would go back and make some of these changes as I didn’t feel too proud with the movement in the graph editor and also the colours were a bit sickly. I made the changes that I wrote down previously. The jumps are more realistic with 24 frames per jump rather than 30+. I also changed the arcs so they were like a bouncing ball. I did attempt to improve the tail movement but I definitely think there is room for improvement.

Previs is the parameters in which you are going from A to B.

Blocking is the key poses.

Referencing is when you draw out how the animation will work on the different key frames.

• Walk cycle
• Break down of everything
• Put timings in
• Need Floor
• Foot Shape

0-24 is a complete walk cycle (2 steps)
12 frames per step

Here is the existing walker rig. I have controls in which I can move the body, knees, ankles, toe roll and the whole rig. This means I have all the movement to make this rig walk.

I’ve highlight with some doodles to show where the controls are located. The knees are in the cyan blue circles, the feet are the pink scribbles and the toe roll is the green lines. Theses are where I need to use these controls to make the block poses. The red triangle is to move the whole rig – however this does mess the block poses up if I move it so need to watch out to only move the controls I need to.

My goal is to make this walker do 4 complete walk cycles which is 8 steps.

This is the reference I am using for this walker in order to make sure that I get the poses correct. I will start at position 0 and complete this sequence 4 times. This is a great reference to use as it shows what frames I will be moving at. The diagram of walker in each pose is very cleat and there are directional arrows to help at each point. It is very clear so I wont have too much issues in how the walker will move at each frame.

Principles used:

• Timing – The pace of the movements of the feet
• Pose to pose animation – Block posing each pose through out this walk
• Staging – Simple backdrop to give a floor to walk on and sense of environment.

Feedback

• Too high up on key 10
• Move body forward on frame 42

This exercise was quite daunting at first. I asked my tutor fir help before I even really started because I felt so overwhelmed by the idea of all the controls. But with Lukes validation I started to feel more comfortable in how I was to move the rig. The good part about the walker rig is that you only need to focus on the body and the legs. I had to walk a lot around my room so I could memorise the walk cycle. This is one of the most basic forms of animation but crucial. I am feeling more confident now than before with using new rigs.

In our first week we were asked to complete a simple animation of a bouncing ball in Maya.

Principles used:

• Timing of the bouncing ball which reflects the weight of gravity in real life.
• Slow In, Slow Out of the ball as movement and speed changes as the ball hits the floor

24 frames = 1 second
12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1 = key frame sequence of a bouncing ball
The key frames reduces by 2 each time the ball bounces. This is due to the speed of the ball on impact on the ground progressively reduces on each bounce because of the reducing in height over which the force of gravity is applied.

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Using the graph editor I was able to shape the lines into the bouncing ball path. The peak of each arc are made to slow down the ball were as the sharp acute angles at the bottom touching the floor speed up the ball. The ball is changing direction so quickly so that it looks as though it is bouncing off of a flat hard surface.

I added in the tail ghost so that the motion trail is visible after the ball as moved. This is a good way to visually see if your ball is bouncing in smooth arcs and snappy bounces. The ball in the tail will be more spacious between each other in the arcs. And very close together when the ball touches the floor.

This is my first time using the program so I wanted to familiarise myself with how the new interface worked. I had to convert my existing knowledge of Cinema 4D into Maya. I made my bouncing ball into a character. Added a backdrop and colour to give a little personality and fun to the simple animation.

Principles used:

• Staging – Creating a simple blue back drop, giving the illusion of a sky.
• Solid building – where I built the clouds and swirl as objects the ball would hit in the maze.

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Final Bouncing Ball

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I wanted to learn how to render each of the projects so I started off with my simple bounding ball to render. I used the pipeline on the uni computers. I followed Lukes tutorial on how to select the correct settings so that the Deadline render farm would successfully render my animation. I had a few issues at first because I didn’t understand that the files all had to be on the uni system in order for the render farm to access it. This was useful figuring this out now so that when I had texted and images in my animation – I would know to link them on the uni system.

Design a Maze for the Bouncing Ball

I wanted to keep to the theme of my first animation but add fun objects in which my ball would bounce off of. I built puffy clouds and shiny red spirals. The scene became too hectic and took focus off of the little yellow ball so I simplified the set I designed.

I wanted there to be a pin ball effect in the spiral to contrast the large rounded arcs of the bounces on the clouds.

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Final Bouncing Ball Maze

Things I could do better next time:

• Add in the Squash and Stretch principle
• Improve the arcs on the red spiral

I improved the arcs in my animations and added in squash and stretch to the ball. I also made the clouds look as though they were marshmallow like material. I did this by making the ball melt into the cloud shape compered to the spiral which I kept as a solid object.