Motion Animation:
For this animation, I wanted to attempt something that was confusing to me. So that I could see how trying to figure out a movement would work with 3D. I decided to try tackling a skip, with a spin in between.
First I wanted to look at reference, I mostly used my mirror in my room, but also looked at these sketches by Glen Keane.
As well as some YouTube videos of skipping.
I mostly used these references to get a sense of understanding the movement. This combined with replicating the movement in front of my mirror really helped me to not only visualise the poses and timings, but also to feel the momentum and weight. This helped me to figure out why certain parts of the movement happen. Such as when the knee comes up and stays, it both acts as a launch boost off the ground, as well as a weight shift when landing.
2D Sketch
I ending up quickly sketching a very rough but helpful 2D animation to help me keep the visualisation and understanding fresh.
Getting Started
Beginning a complicated animation in 3D was a new experience. Since I no longer had to deal with scale problems, or in-betweens. But I instead had to struggle with new challenges that come with 3D, such as timing issues, finding weight and using my common sense.
Workflow
I found that while 3D has a lot of benefits, one of the main things that was hard to disconnect from, was being unable to quickly try out multiple different outcomes for a movement. For instance with 2D you can easily sketch out various quick, expressive poses and see what they look like straight away, where as in 3D its much more about fine tuning and slowly finding the right pose. Having to individually rotate and move each body part.
I feel like it was this factor that I struggled with the most during the animation process, as its such a huge change in terms of what I’m used to. I think its because of this difference that I found myself animating completely straight ahead. As I felt it helped me to understand and keep in mind the momentum and timings more.
The Spin
When tackling the spin I wanted to make sure the movement not only maintained a sense of timing, but was also easy to read. I mostly used my understanding of the skip movement and applied that to a spinning skip. A lot of times while animating I had to quickly get up on my feet, feel out the movement slowly, then with what I had gathered from getting up in mind, change the animation. For instance, finding when he began spinning was quite difficult when considering his weight shift and direction, also adding the delayed foot at the beginning of the spin was a consequence of constantly acting out and trying my best to feel and replicate the movement.
Small Touches
I tried to add more of an exaggeration to the feet, highlighting them more.
However, I ended up preferring the simpler version, before these changes. As I felt it was easier to read, and more streamlined. So I went and changed back to the original foot movement.
I added more distance between each skip using this control.
Which I feel helped to sell the forward momentum of each leap more. And made the skip look more practical.
Adjusting timings
I felt as if my initial timings, were a little too fast and jumpy. So I ended up slowing my animation down.
Website used: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-animation-and-rigging/how-can-i-slow-down-an-animation-ie-make-the-walk-cycle-last-30/td-p/4108490
Fast (Before Slowed)
Slowed Down (After Slowed)
I’m happier with the slowed version. As I feel it gives the viewer more time to read what’s happening.
Final Motion Animation –
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/db81bed87595/
Conclusion:
Overall I’m really happy with this animation, I think it sells the movement and momentum well, and I’m really proud of how the spin turned out. I’m excited to get more comfortable with Maya, and therefore hopefully learn how to create better timings when animating in 3D. But for now, I feel that I’ve learned a lot from this exercise in terms of workflow, planning and executing 3D animation.
Emotion Animation:
I wanted to have fun with this one, and take my time to find an emotion to tackle that interested me.
Scared Experiment
I originally was going to go with this idea, however I thought it was a little too short.
Bored/Happy Animatic
I ended up being really happy with this idea! I felt like it gave me a good opportunity to utilise the rigs functions and work on my 3D animation timings. The emotion it focused on also felt much more fun to jump into than the first idea.
Getting Started
When I first started creating this animation in 3D, I wasn’t certain as to whether or not I wanted to stick with it. As I again, had trouble with translating my 2D timings and poses into 3D Animation. I felt this especially when tackling this project, as the focus is on creating emotion, and I just wasn’t happy with how little character Monty had, and how lifeless Monty felt. However, when I struck upon this hip tilt pose.
I immediately felt much happier with how the animation was coming along. As I started to get more accustomed to the 3D workflow, and how to utilise the Monty rig more effectively and efficiently. Giving me a stronger sense of freedom when animating. One of these realisations, was utilising the separate controls for rotating the body/hips and eyes separately. This allowed me to add loads of subtle follow throughs, to the more muted movements. Such as the looks around, as well as the leans from left to right. Making them easier to read, and less jarring.
The Double Take
When animating the double take towards the camera, I used this reference from friends, to get a sense of timings. As well as using my mirror to act and feel the motion out.
The main challenge with this, was that it was quite a fast exaggerated movement. That seemed quite easy to mess up. And I didn’t want it to be confusing or a hard motion to read for the viewer. I just had to trust what I had learned and my knowledge of timings in a 3D program. The end result I feel, is a really nice little segment in my animation. Overall, the double take turned out really well, and I feel it utilises a lot of the key principles of animation.
Little Details
I decided to add more emphasis on the initial hip tilt. As I felt that pose was quite important in selling Monty’s boredom. I added a squash, as well as a little rotation to accomplish this emphasis.
Without Hip Follow Through
With Added Hip Follow Through
Breathing
I remember watching a behind the scenes of Disney’s Tangled, and hearing one of the animators talk about the importance of breathing.
So I decided to create breathing in my animation, utilising the squash and stretch tool, as well as adding subtle body rotations. Doing this, I felt added a little more life and character. Overall making the animation much more interesting.
Breathe in
Breathe Out
Final Emotion Animation
https://syncsketch.com/sketch/803cac74c97f/
Conclusion:
Overall, I’m really happy with this emotion animation. I feel as if the emotions were displayed clearly, and I felt much more confident approaching this animation than the last one. I feel like I’ve improved and learned a lot throughout this exercise in particular. I think this is because it more heavily relies on aspects I’m struggling with in 3D, such as timings and poses. With this in mind, I think as I animate more using 3D software ill become increasingly comfortable and accustomed to it. And ill hopefully be able to pace myself better and bring even more energy and character into my 3D animations.
Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BmsViDMg6tmm68JnJ7WuFdqKS94Q33sn?usp=sharing
(Includes playblasts and Maya Files)