This post will act as an overall conclusion of my work on the second coursework component of the Animation Strategies module and as a final evaluation of my progress during the entirety of this module.

What Was Done Right.

When it comes to what I think went well over the course of the entire module, I feel that my experimentation has went immensely well. By experimenting prior to developing the finalized animations for submission, it allowed me to gain a better understanding of how to approach animating each of the projects within this module as I would be able to improve upon any of the short-comings that may have been present within the initial practices. Another aspect that I think went well with the development of my coursework is keeping the shapes and silhouettes of my characters more consistent in the second coursework assignment. Following the feedback I received from my first coursework submission, one aspect that was quite distracting was how some parts of my characters would either become bigger or smaller for no reason during the progression of the animation. As a result of this feedback, in my second coursework I paid more attention to keeping the proportions of characters during the progression of frames more consistent and I felt that this attention to detail definitely paid off and my coursework 2 entries were much more consistent with the character proportions.

 

Where Improvements Can Be Made.

Despite my satisfaction with my progression through this module, there is definitely points that I wish to improve upon in future projects. T he biggest improvement I want to make in future projects is be more adequate at time management. Despite the result of my progress, I still think i was not good at managing my time with each aspect of this module especially with the second coursework component and I can’t help but feel that if extra time had been taken to experiment further, then perhaps the results could have been of a higher standard. Another aspect I want to get better at is having more consistent line art within 2D animations I develop in Harmony. My second entries suffer the most from inconsistent line-art which looking at it in retrospect I feel is a bit distracting especially in my finalized weight-lift animation which the head line art is noticeably finer than the body’s linear which does make the end product look slightly odd. These are aspects I intend to improve upon in future projects.

 

Overall Conclusion.

Overall, I found this module immensely helpful for learning core strategies when it comes to animating characters such as runs, walks, jumps etc. I can confidently say that I have gained a much better understanding of how to approach animating sequences that are essential skills to any animator within the industry. I only intend to improve further from my progression by taking on more complex experiments and animation sequences following this module to increase my ability to observe and bring characters to life through animation.

Coursework 1 Progression.

Coursework 2 Progression.

Lip-sync referencing.

Ghostbusters. (1984). [Film/Movie] Culver City, Ca United States: Columbia Pictures.

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Full Television Commercial | GHOSTBUSTERS. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRee26pfVzU [Accessed 4 Jan. 2024].

Initial Introduction and Practice.

The final sequence required for the Coursework 2 submission was a lip-sync sequence. This was easily the toughest process out of the 3 animations I had to develop for the submission, I did not have any past experience at animating lip-syncing and so I was going into this whole process with no prior knowledge. For the initial practices, I used a reference that was provided by the lecturer’s slides and also a pair of audio files to animate my initial lip-sync practices. I first started with the 3D animation practice and was able to develop it quite quickly, I also added a bit more animation to the rest of the character model to make the sequence look more organic. If I have any points I would to improve upon, it would be the pacing of the mouth movements, it stops far too early and it is immensely distracting. After this 3D animation practice, I then developed a 2D sequence using a provided character face and audio file. The animating process of this practice was quite time-consuming due to redrawing various moth shapes repetitively for each frame. But I was able to complete the 2D practice too and I was satisfied with the final result, the only aspect I believe that could be improved would be the pacing of the mouth movements on certain words or sounds as it feels like the mouth is moving too fast for the audio. Another aspect I would add to improve the sequence is a bit more facial animation such the face’s shape changing slightly on certain words and sounds to make it look more realistic. After completing these practices I then decided to create my final lip-sync sequence in 2d

 

Progression of Submission Lip-Sync sequence.

For my finalized submission, I decided to use an audio clip from the film (“Ghostbusters” (1984)) which in this case was an exert from the “in-universe” commercial for the Ghostbuster’s business as it was exactly ten seconds in length which was the requirement for the final submission. I was able to obtain the audio I needed from the official Ghostbusters YouTube channel in the video titled “Full Television Commercial | GHOSTBUSTERS” (2020), I recorded the audio exert I was after through Audacity and then began work on animation the framework of the three character I would be using. This was purely done to get an idea of each character’s body movements down first, I would then Animate the mouth movements in time with the body movement, this was the process I spent the most time on to make sure I got the pacing of the mouth movements to match up with the audio and once I got it to a stage where I felt it was in sync with the audio, I then drew the character designs using the framework as a basis while also adding in a few in-between frames to make the character movements look less choppy and more organic. Due to my initial complaints with my first 2D practice, I also made sure to add a bit more facial animation in the final version to make the sequence more realistic.

 

 

Evaluation and Conclusion.

Overall, I feel that I was able to create a lip-sync sequence very well and I’m immensely satisfied with the end result. I’m especially pleased with how I animated the mouth movements to be in sync with the audio I was using and the use of facial animation to add to the movement of the overall character animation which made it feel more fluent overall. Despite my satisfaction with the final animation, I still have some points I think that could be improved upon in retrospect. By far, the main aspect I would improve would be the facial animation on the second character. This is because while looking at it now in retrospect, I feel its a bit too stiff and could perhaps benefit from having more changes in the facial shapes during certain words and sounds especially during the point where he lifts his head upwards as it is far less noticeable and the facial movements are very stiff which I will try to avoid in future projects like this. In any case, after completing this animation I can confidently say that I am more aware of how I should animate lip-sync animations. Especially following this project, I am able to also determine what I should and should not do while developing any lip-syncing animations in any future projects.

 

Bibliography.

Ghostbusters. (1984). [Film/Movie] Culver City, Ca United States: Columbia Pictures.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lip+sync+animation+reference+front&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiQxJPR3MSDAxVkmicCHRSaBy8Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=lip+sync+animation+reference+front&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJzoGCAAQBxAeOgYIABAIEB46BAgAEB46BggAEAUQHlDnCFjREGCoFWgAcAB4AIABUogB7gOSAQE3mAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=UCmXZZDcD-S0nsEPlLSe-AI&bih=961&biw=1903&hl=en#imgrc=TYa27co71hHmQM

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Full Television Commercial | GHOSTBUSTERS. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRee26pfVzU [Accessed 4 Jan. 2024].

 

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Initial Jump Practices

One of the first animation practices I created during this assignment was actually a basic jump to show a basic shift of mass quickly from one point to another. for this practice, I referred once again to Richard Williams’ “Animator’s Survival Kit” (Page 213) (Faber and Faber 2001).  Using the survival kit as a basis, I was able to create a set of keyframes and then I was able to animate these Key-frames within Harmony. Along with animating the keyframes, I also added some early anticipation poses as well as slowed down the starting poses to create a more organic jump that looked more realistic. I felt that this first Practice went well but if I were to do it again I would perhaps try to make some of the leg movements less choppy while the character is airborne or how the foot that has a delayed fall seems to fall a bit too slowly. In any case, this exercise was helpful for me when understanding how to animate a character executing a basic jump. I also had some experimenting at animating a 3D jump between key poses through the weekly lectures just to get some more experience with developing the exact same sequences through different means of animation. Although, I felt that it came out looking quite impressive, I decided quite quickly that I wanted to do the final submission animation in 2D.

 

 

 

Development of Final Run-and-Jump

After I completed the first jump exercise, I began to establish what I would do for my final submission animation. The main idea I came up with was a simple run and jump over a large box. I would eventually find out that as it turns out I couldn’t find a point of reference that perfectly reflected the action I initially envisioned. To compromise, I decided to find a point of reference that came close to the poses I required and then interprete the loose ends of the my sequence. The main Reference I used for getting a loose idea of the required poses were two YouTube videos by the users “Adam Turnbull” and “Amar Nawaz” known as “Animation sequence test – Run / Jump / Turn / Stop” (2016) and “Character Animation| Jumping Over| Task 06| Maya” (2021) Respectively. By using both of these videos, I was able to grasp a close idea of the type of poses I would require to animate my final run and jump animation. After getting my key poses transferred I then began experimenting with animation smearing with the sword as I thought due to the sword constantly moving back and forth rather quickly and felt that using smeared frames could emphasize the speed. However, when put into practice I found that it didn’t really work and it felt slightly tacky due to the constant moving and the sword not staying stationary for long enough which all came together to make it not look right. So, in the end I decided to scrap the smeared frames and just kept the sword’s frames static. After making any necessary adjustments to the pacing of some frames so the entire sequence felt fluent enough for finishing off the final character frames.

 

 

 

Summary and Conclusion

Overall, I feel that this animation came out quite well and I feel I was able to achieve the type of run and jump I set out to initially develop despite the short-comings of having to use loose referencing and interpretation. Regardless of my satisfaction with this piece, it does have room for improvement. Primarily in its pacing as I feel it is still too slow when the character makes contact with the floor and runs of camera, while also being slightly too fast during the jump itself. But overall Im satisfied with the end product and I do intend to improve upon these short comings in future practices and sequences.

 

 

Bibliography

Williams, R. (2001). The animator’s survival kit. London: Faber And Faber.

‌www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Animation sequence test – Run / Jump / Turn / Stop. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLbgoAy-wUU [Accessed 1 Dec. 2023].

‌www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Character Animation| Jumping Over| Task 06| Maya. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjqierFmHLk [Accessed 1 Dec. 2023].

 

Initial Research and Practice.

For the first week of the second coursework component of the animation strategies module, we began by developing an animation of a character lifting a weight. For this I primarily turned to YouTube for referencing and found my best referencing through  YouTube user Clarence0’s  video titled “340kg / 750lbs Deadlift @100kg” (2016). Using this video, I was able to get a good understanding of the stages that a person takes when lifting a heavy object and was able to establish a set of keyframes to begin work on my first prototypical weightlifting sequence.

Like my past practices and experiments, I sketched out the key frames traditionally to get a feel for positioning and composition and then began to work on the actual animation on Harmony. I was able to come up with my first working prototype relatively quickly and I felt that my key framing emulated the general stages of a weight-lift quite well. However, there were a few aspects I felt could be improved upon. The first and perhaps the most noticeable improvement, is the pacing of the sequence. Looking at the speed of this first attempt, it is too fast and makes the barbells appear lighter than they should be. The other point I noticed was the way the barbells flexing was approached using perspective. When the sequence beings the two weights are cylindrical but my use of perspective unintentionally deformed the shape of the weights as the sequence progresses, resulting in the weights appearing more cone-shaped by the end of the sequence. With the results of this first practice, I felt more confident about what I needed to adjust to refine my weight-lifting sequence.

Final Submission development.

After the outcome of my first weight-lift exercise. I felt I was ready to being development of my finalized weight-lift. This time around I started with my usual process of sketching and transferring the keyframes into harmony and then I began to work on the sequence from the ground up. While trying to interpret the in-between frames, I further analysed “340kg / 750lbs Deadlift @100kg” (Clarence0 2016). This time, I payed closer attention to the slow progression of applying pressure at the upper and lower torso to allow for the gradual lifting of the barbell to emphasis its immense weight. I also wanted to put more emphasis in the anticipation stage of the weight-lift with having the character make sure his foot placement is perfect before committing the lift. With these new observations I was able to begin developing the sequence while also keeping the aspects I was happy with in my last attempt including the barbell flexing due to weight and the weights cracking the surface upon hitting the ground again. Overall the development of this sequence went quite well but I found even after using my new observations, it still felt like the sequence was happening too quickly and I was alerted to this by my lecture’s observations of my animation. This problem was easily fixed by adding more frames and in-betweens during each of the stages of the weight-lift and the progression from initial sketches to the final result can be seen below.

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Conclusion

Overall, I am satisfied with the end result of my finalized weight-lift animation and I feel that I have improved my ability to observe how characters would carry out lifting heavy objects and the sequence that revolves around making a weight-lift look believable. I do intend to improve my observations of this sequence and improve on animating weight-lifts as I feel that there can be some improvements made such as adding more in-between frames to create a more smoother assent when a character is lifting a heavy object.

 

Bibliography

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). 340kg / 750lbs Deadlift @100kg. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdTc2Gv52uI [Accessed 4 Dec. 2024].

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