Week 11 – Animation progress

 

This week, I began to start my part of the animation and also made the 2D slime ready for use. Most of this week has been taken to start our animations and to fix some minor issues we had with texturing models…

 

 

My Animation progress so far…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planning the movement of the devil slime

Below is a quick sketch made by one of my group members to indicate how and where the devil slime should move when on the table. This was really helpful to have this sketch as it meant I could constantly go back and reference it whilst doing my part of the animation.

 

Quick animatic of animation plan

In order to plan out what I was going to animate, I roughly sketched out an animatic to plan where and how the slime would move. This was drawn prior to starting the official animation and overall made me feel more confident with my skills. Ultimately, doing this quick animation has taught me the importance of pre-production, and makes me realize how much of a difference it makes in comparison to diving straight in. The animatic itself is really good for the amount of time I spent on it – which wasn’t long at all. Being looser, and free with my art, seems to make my animation more fluid and smooth and from now on I will try to practice with this style in the future.

 

Initial devil slime rig & model

Below is the original model and rig that I made for the devil slime. Although this version has an overall good design, there were a lot of issues getting the rig and blendshapes to work correctly. For example, the tail when positioned would bend abnormally and wouldn’t give us fluid movement like we were hoping for. As a result, we ended up changing his model to suit the rig and added squash and stretch. This was done by my other group members, whilst I was preparing to texture the slimes. Overall, I feel as though my attempt to model and rig went really well, and there were a lot of good features with it – especially the blendshapes which fitted the model’s personality extremely well.

 

 

Initial rig and joints

 

Blendshape 01: Angry

 

Blendshape 02: Surprised

 

 

 

Video example: Original devil slime

 

Video example: Improved devil slime

 

As shown in these two videos, it is evident that the change of the devil model, particularly with the tail was worth it. Prior to the change, the tail wasn’t as flexible and couldn’t curve very well, which would have made it a lot more difficult to animate. The squash and stretch features also add to the slime model as it gives the impression that the character isn’t completely solid, giving the bouncy effect desired for slime.

 

 

2D slime design

Here are the final designs for the 2D slime character, which will be imported into Maya and shaped on a 3D plane. Before our group came to a conclusion on the final appearance, I experimented with making him green, however, we decided that this would clash as the basic slime starts off as green. I decided that I would draw out various expressions of the 2D slime below, in order to allow whoever is animating them to have more flexibility and options with expression. These drawings took quite a while to do due to having to get the shape and expressions right. I also gave the slime lighter parts to indicate reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspirations and references

Here are some of the inspirations  I have been looking at throughout this project. A lot of these inspired me with their variation of designs, expressions and emphasis of fluidity with the use of gradients, reflections and shape. I will go into more specific detail about these references below…

 

Slime rancher

One of the reasons I chose slime rancher as an inspiration for this project is due to the vast variations of types of slimes. This encouraged me to think more outside the box for my initial idea stages. Not only that, but the art style itself is very similar to what I originally imagined for our slime models, so it helped a lot to have something that resembled the sort of style I wished to go for. Ultimately, I have definitely thought a lot in terms of Slime ranchers use of round shapes, colours and expressions when making my concept ideas, and I feel as though this really helped me to think outside the box a bit more.

 

The binding of Isaac

Another inspiration for this project came from the video game, The Binding Of Isaac and this is more so in terms of movement and the animation from the game. The two main sprites I focused on was C.H.A.D and Gish, who appeared to be the most slime-like out of the series. When in battle with these creatures, they have very fluid motions which made me think more on the lines of physics, especially when a slime substance would jump and fall- it wouldn’t retain the roundness or be solid as a ball when in the middle the air or coming into contact to the ground. Instead, it would change shape due to the water content of the material.

 

 

 

 

Slime Princess- Adventure Time

In addition, I also looked at some slime characters in TV shows, the main one being Slime Princess from Adventure Time. I chose her as an inspiration as I love her design, it is simple but also really effective. Moreover, I like how she has a different shape than most slime characters I have researched into so far, showing that this can be done effectively. Although I probably won’t use Slime Princess as a main motivator, I will keep in mind that good character design doesn’t have to be compilated and sometimes being simple proves more sufficient.

 

 

 

Dragon Quest

The basic slimes from Dragon Quest initially inspired me to create the original 2D slime design. Although that has changed a lot, I do feel that this influence helped me progress a lot more into the final character design of the 2D slime. Moreover, Dragon Quest played a huge role in the earlier stages of this project, not just with the basic slime character, but also with the different types of slimes.

 

 

Magma slime

Another slime I used as inspiration from this universe was the Magma slime. When we first started out with our project and ideas, this encouraged my design for the fire slime. This inevitably was ruled out as an idea due to how difficult it would be to rig and animate the flames to match the sequence. However, it still deserves a mention due to how much I love the Magma slime’s design.

 

 

 

Practising slime physics- animation and sketching

Prior to my animation, I decided to experiment with slime physics in order to help me visualize the animation sequence I have been doing lately. I did this using 2D software as I figured it would be far quicker to do in comparison to using Maya. I really like the outcomes of these quick animations as it has expanded my knowledge and in a way has given me a better understanding on how the slime would move and come into contact with other obstacles.

 

 

Practising ball animation to help visualise slime movement

Outlining ball with slime body

 

 

Putting what I have learned into action

Overall, after re-visiting and practising with ball animation, it has made me realise that ball animation can be applied to pretty much any subject. In this case, it has been really helpful to plan out where the slime will land, and working with the timing of this prior to the refining stage makes it easier than diving straight in. Furthermore, I will be using this technique from now on to improve with my animation, whether it be pre-production or for reference purposes- both would benefit my work a ton. Ultimately, I feel as though these outcomes turned out extremely well due to how fluid and consistent these animations are and this makes me feel really proud of my progress.

 

Reference used

Here is the reference that I used for the quick animations shown above. Although I didn’t copy this frame to frame, I mostly used it in a sense to get a grasp of how the ball would rise and fall in accordance with the timing. Ultimately, this all worked out really well and incorporating the slime body onto the ball definitely gave the illusion that the slime was not solid, and that the physics was that of slime.

 

 

 

Slime movement reference & inspiration

Below is a video that I watched of some pixel art slime animations. These were sprites for a video game, and I really liked the nostalgic, retro feel of this style. Moreover, I love how this artist encapsulated the movement and personality of these sprites as it makes the actions of the slimes believable. One thing I’m definitely inspired by in this video is the artists quality of in-betweens as they are consistent with the weight and motion of the slimes. This is definitely something I would like to try to think more about.

 

Quick animation inspired by the pixel art style

I was so heavily inspired by this artist’s pixel animation that I wanted to create a short jump movement of our cat slime character. Although it doesn’t relate to the 3D side of the project, learning how to understand the physics and shaping of the slime when it jumps and falls will really benefit me when I begin to animate on Maya. Moreover, I really like how this turned out as I feel this animation is really fluid and is timed perfectly, it really gives the illusion that the cat isn’t a solid object. The gif itself is rather low quality due to having to size it up. The original canvas size was 100×100 so it was really small when I initially imported it. I knew this would happen, but felt the need to clarify why it looks like this. I have added the original size as well as an example…