KNB 211: 3D Animation 2 Assignment 2 - John Everitt
Lift:
Filming my own reference, I wanted to add a little flair and character to the movement. I had the possible idea of my character throwing the box up in the air and catching it again, and implemented that into my first blocking pass.
(link to lift reference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF-YwZ6XeUk&feature=youtu.be
Blocking pass:
However, I did have quite a bit of trouble with parenting components and the use of locators, which began to show as I started smoothing out my motions.
Pass 1:
I was later informed that I had to have the character place the box on a pillar, which thankfully allowed me to remove the off-looking ātossing/catchingā detail. Getting a proper āweighted walkā was difficult, but I discovered through acting it out to give the front leg most of the weight, slowing down on the contact, as well as keeping both feet on the ground a little longer than with a regular walk.
Pass 2:
I finalised the animation through spacing the walk out, as well as giving the arms a ātiredā dropping motion as they let go of the box. Placing the box on its side allowed me to get passed the parenting issues I couldnāt work out.
Final Pass:
Ā I love the look of the initial picking up of the box, as well as of the walk itself, however the walk coming to a stop still looks somewhat awkward (perhaps a little too close to the pillar). I also canāt decide if the arms dropping feel too quick or too slow, but otherwise Iām very proud of how this turned out.
Grandmaās House:
I filmed my initial references using the audio only. I decided to play Lucy as very engaged, yet also inquisitive of Grandmaās story, racing through a thousand emotions a minute. Grandma herself very much plays into the story, expressive with her gestures, but also a subtle sense of tiredness due to her age, masked best she can but shown through the drop in energy between her two lines.
(link to Lucy reference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztf8B6Cn7Po&t=223s
(link to Grandma reference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgCwTJQVXrY&t=34s
(link to Lucy blocking v1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y964uRzVDc
(link to Lucy blocking v2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ2Qkn7_bJo
(link to Grandma blocking v1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbhW28GgvEw
(link to Grandma blocking v2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLlgbPwaIeo
I blocked out the initial animation for both characters, however I was informed that the gestures and energy had to better match the provided animatic.
Animatic:
I was told that Lucyās sitting pose was acceptable, which I was very happy to keep. However, this required me to redo most of Grandmaās animation from scratch.
(progress of overall animation may not necessarily be in this order)
Ā Lucy pass 1 (SH3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tws4V1b4jfs
Lucy pass 2 (SH3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2lJgPxL_Jo
Lucy pass 3 (SH3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MzHM4gvegs
Lucy pass 4 (SH3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FMi0bMsKI
Lucy pass 5 (SH3):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krHehhXUR_s
Grandma pass 1 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBiBcgCTcZw
Grandma pass 2 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPRCjRyNvs4
I found out (mainly though troubles with smoothing Lucyās animation) an effective technique when beginning the smoothing process was to first include a āholding keyframeā (as I put it) between my existing keyframes. Not in the exact same position, but enough to avoid any troubling floating effects with certain movements.
Parenting Lucyās right hand to her knee was a good way of keeping both components in sync, but because of my issues with parenting, I couldnāt figure out how to rotate the wrist properly. Thankfully this is not too noticeable in the final product.
Animating the faces, I mainly used the short cut controls, working from the provided phonemes chart, as well as using a mirror on myself.Ā
Phonemes Chart:
Keeping proper eye contact proved to be one of my biggest challenges, and fortunately I was able to figure out how to parent the eye controls to a locator in order into keep focus in the same position, even as the head moves.
Ā Grandma pass 3 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7Oi7HUshQ
Grandma pass 4 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qc8MzHgWJA
Ā Finalising the animation, I paid attention to the use of arched motion (particularly with Lucyās head and Grandmaās arms), while also trying to add subtle finger and breathing movements to Grandma. I also gave Grandma slower, more frequent blinks during her low energy period.
Ā Lucy pass 6 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vamlSm6kiMo
Grandma pass 5 (SH4):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyDM0TRsrrk
Ā In order to fix the āwhite eyesā issue, I had to cheat the both the eyeline focus and the face direction quite a bit, which worked out seamlessly.
Bringing in the set proved a lot of technical difficulties, mainly due to mistakes made when setting up the project. I was unsuccessful at bringing the textures in and exported the animation using the highest quality playblast I could, but I still feel the quality works for the animation.
Final pass:
I definitely notice I put a lot more work into Lucy than Grandma, which I find appropriate as Lucy is definitely the higher energy character, though Grandmaās breathing does perhaps come off a little robotic. Iām also worried the lip movement is perhaps a little stiff (it might be a bit out of sync), and I definitely could have added a little more detail,
Despite this however, Iām very glad how the scene turned out. Lucy was a lot of fun to animate and I learned many valuable techniques throughout the entire process.









