3D Animation 2 blog - 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 ‘tossing/catching’ detail. Getting a proper ‘weighted walk’ 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 ‘tired’ dropping motion as they let go of the box. Placing the box on its side allowed me to get passed the parenting issues I couldn’t work out.

Final Pass:

 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 can’t decide if the arms dropping feel too quick or too slow, but otherwise I’m very proud of how this turned out.

Grandma’s House:

I filmed my initial references using the audio only. I decided to play Lucy as very engaged, yet also inquisitive of Grandma’s 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 Lucy’s sitting pose was acceptable, which I was very happy to keep. However, this required me to redo most of Grandma’s animation from scratch.

(progress of overall animation may not necessarily be in this order)

  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 Lucy’s animation) an effective technique when beginning the smoothing process was to first include a ‘holding keyframe” (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 Lucy’s right hand to her knee was a good way of keeping both components in sync, but because of my issues with parenting, I couldn’t 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. 

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.

  Grandma pass 3 (SH4):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7Oi7HUshQ

Grandma pass 4 (SH4):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qc8MzHgWJA

  Finalising the animation, I paid attention to the use of arched motion (particularly with Lucy’s head and Grandma’s 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.

  Lucy pass 6 (SH4):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vamlSm6kiMo

Grandma pass 5 (SH4):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyDM0TRsrrk

  In order to fix the ‘white eyes’ 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 Grandma’s breathing does perhaps come off a little robotic. I’m 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,

Lynda Maya Essentials training certificate:

Ball with tail bounce:

I decided to go with more of a hopping motion for this task, beginning with video references of myself. This helped greatly, especially in terms of how the lower body swings forward before the fall.

(link to reference)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XwPWjriCT8

When putting together my sketches, I decided on the second jump, the squirrel would over-shoot itself and land face first, before recovering.

Sketches:

Blocking pass:

I blocked the sketches out in Maya, but problems soon arose as I attempted to smooth animation over the tail.

I found it increasingly difficult to create a proper flicking motion, and ultimately decided to scrap my original reference for the tail and work it out from scratch in Maya, which after trial and error, I finally managed to correct.

Pass 1:

The additions of the shuffle at the beginning and the shake off at the end were ideas I wanted to implement early on, and feel they add a lot to both the anticipation for the jump, as well as the overall character.

On my final pass, I simply tweaked some of the spacing and timing, exaggerating the squash and stretched a little more, as well as figuring out the proper force and weight, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

Final Pass:

Silhouettes:

It was a challenge finding some compelling references for these poses, as some of my early examples lacked in negative space and did not convey motivation particularly well. I tried to find poses as distinct from each other as possible, as well as expressive in their own right.

My method of distinguishing proper action poses was very much determined by which references showed the character in the middle of a specific movement, while also unmistakably clear what each action was.

Action references:

For 1. (bottom right)

For 3. (middle centre)

For 2. and 5.

For 6.

For 4. (top centre)

For 7. (bottom centre)

Acting references:

For 5. (top left)

For 6.

For 1. (top left)

For 2. (top left)

For 3. and 4. (both top centre)

For 7. (middle right)

Working with silhouettes definitely made it apparent how important negative space was to these poses, which resulted in having to reposition the model or the camera slightly on a few of them. The hardest was action pose 4, with the character bent over towards the camera, hiding his arms over his body. It took some work, but I think I got the pose as clear as I could have.

As for the rest of them, thinking specifically about negative space definitely helped a lot in finding some very expressive, very clear examples to work from, and they almost all came out wonderfully.

Action Poses:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Acting Poses:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Walk Cycle:

When we were first planning on using the “Lucy” model rig, my initial idea was for a playful, care-free, ‘high-and-mighty’ type of walk, with a little girl stomping around like she owns the place, hands held behind her back.

(link to reference):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7fGZP1__kY

Original Sketches:

However, when the Lucy model was unavailable, I went back to the Morpheus rig, where that exact attitude of walk would not translate as well. It was also recommended that I do include some arm movement, rather than keeping them stuck behind his back.

Revised Sketches:

Blocking pass:

I redid the sketches and applied the blocking into Maya, still holding on to the very loose, carefree mood I started with.

Pass 1:

Pass 2:

I was fairly happy with the animation after the smoothing stage, however it was pointed out that there wasn’t sufficient enough force to push the character to their next step. I spent some time retooling the animation, ultimately having to redo a few motions from scratch.

(link to redone reference)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRaMxpvX-Eo&feature=youtu.be

A good way I found to test the fluidity of the walk was to create the ‘over distance’ animation first, then remove the keyframes for the ‘on the spot’ walk, rather than the other way around.

Thinking in terms of ‘legs catching the body as it falls’ helped greatly in working out the believable physics, and speeding up the overall walk added some extra needed liveliness. I’m not sure if the speed and energy in the arm swing fully matches the legs, however when I tried to stylise the leg motions more, I ended up with an unavoidable sliding effect.

There’s still a slight bit of jumpiness in the ‘over distance’ animation, which I can’t decide works for the mood of the walk or not. Otherwise, this is about as close to my vision of the walk as I was able to make it, and am mostly satisfied with the end result.

Final Pass (on the spot and over distance):

Run Cycle:

Due to a surgical procedure, I could not film myself for reference as I did the last two. I knew I wanted to do a jumpier, more lively run in the same vain as the walk, finding the reference image below as a starting point.

Sketches:

Blocking pass 1:

For this cycle, I was recommended to create a second blocking pass. While this did flesh out the general look and feel of the run, I found it a far more difficult process when bringing it in to smooth and refine, having to get rid of a lot of the key frames I had just put in.

Blocking pass 2:

Pass 1:

That being said, I was very impressed how the flowing motion of the legs turned out, giving it a very appealing feel. My final pass was spent correcting the arm motions, having felt stiff in the previous pass. The motion of the wrists I’m still not entirely sure about, whether they are too stiff as well, or if a looser motion would feel unnatural. Otherwise, I’m very proud of how this turned out.

Getting the spacing correct for the run over distance was a bit of a difficulty, but I feel I got it as close as possible. There is a little slowing down on every foot contact that makes the run feel slightly awkward, but that’s my only real issue.

Final pass (on the spot and over distance):

Jump over a distance:

For this task, I used professional athletic long jumpers as reference. Using the video below, I mapped out my sketch between take off and contact.

(link to video reference):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gzlvlcwRfs

Blocking pass:

In the blocking phase, I added a bit of uncontrolled flare to the arm and leg motions to give the jump a little more excitement. However, in the first smoothing pass where I key framed the rig over a gap, I had trouble determining the speed, height and length of the jump.

Pass 1:

I came to find that adding a run animation at the beginning in my second pass helped greatly in working out the distance.

Pass 2:

By far the most difficult aspect to animate was the landing. The original idea was for more of a sliding motion, but I could never get it to feel natural, even when studying the references.

So I ultimately decided to cut my original landing and build a new one. I simply had the character land on his feet with a slight swinging weight to his upper body. While I like the motion in his the arms showing the shift in weight, I feel like having him take one more step after landing would have added a little more believability in regards to stopping force.

I also still think the running animation at the start is a little rough, but it’s fast and short enough to not become too noticeable. Overall, a lot of work went into this one, and I’m happy to see it turn out as well as it did.

Final pass: