Animation strategies- Week Nine (Research and Final Animations)

This week, I decided to solely focus on researching and finishing up all of my animation assignments. I researched various media, the most being the book, ‘Animators Survival Guide’ by Richard Williams. This helped me to understand many concepts that I wouldn’t have thought of prior to these animations. This book is a necessary reference that is very helpful to beginner animators, and also intermediate animators alike. Below, is my process throughout this week…

Research for my run/walk animations

Underneath, I have began to conduct research in preparation for my walk animation. For this animation, I will be using the free AZRI Rig provided by www.gameanim.com, recommended by our tutors. I decided that for this particular animation, I wanted to animate this character displaying feelings of joy and happiness through the walk itself, which evidently is dependant on the body language of this action. To help me with this study, I have sourced some pages from ‘The Animators Survival Guide’, in which I specifically picked pages that were relevant to what I am currently studying. These pages were really beneficial to helping me understand how to make an effective and believable walk. Initially viewing these pages, I briefly evaluated the information and have further included these descriptions to show my thinking process.

Walk Animation Research

Notes

 Sometimes people walk strangely, and from what I’ve gathered from above, sometimes it is interesting to just experiment with the positions- so long as it’s believable. First comes the contact method, in which the start frame and end frame meet in the middle. Then there’s the passing position, and furthermore the high/low positions. So in an easier format, this would look like,

Contact Positions> Passing Position> Low/high Inbetweens = Walk cycle.

This method of creating a walk style seems easier to plan, allows for dynamic movement and is overall more efficient in comparison to the last one. It has been adopted by famous animators such as Milt Kahl and Art Babbitt and it starts with two down positions, both the starting and ending pose. After this, the passing pose is added in the middle, with finally the mid positions being the contacts. An easier format looks like the following:

Two down positions> Passing position> Mid positions (contacts) = Walk cycle

I feel as though this is a similar type of walk that I want to achieve, however, I don’t want my character to have too much bounce, therefore will take inspiration rather than guidance from this page. I find this way of adding the starting, passing and high/low positions in different steps is a really handy and less confusing way of doing these animations, I will keep this method in mind for any future walk cycles I do. However, in the meantime, I will take influence from what has been shown here to make my own type of joyful walk.

Honestly, this double bounce looks so much better when applied to a character like the one above. I love how fitting this type of walk is for this character and it suits the personality that is conveyed. I have thought more about this method, especially after this application, and have decided that I will attempt to create a similar type of movement with the AZRI rig. I’m not exactly sure how well this will work out, but it’s worth a shot!

In conclusion, researching this book for help with my upcoming animation assignments has been really helpful so far. With the walk animation, I definitely feel as though the pages above have been a huge help to my knowledge of this topic.  Reading this information, which has clearly been knowledge accumulated from years of working in the industry as a professional animator, definitely shows me that there is more to it than it just being keyframes and in-betweens. Instead, it is an expression that represents the sole being of a character, and to achieve this, it has to be done right. One thing I liked most about some of these pages is how it talks about fellow professionals in the field and their advice with this process – take Milt Kahl for example. This happens all throughout the book itself, and I adore this feature. Not only is it amazing to have guidance from Richard Williams, but to also hear about his process of asking other animators for advice makes me feel all the more relieved of being a beginner in the field. It’s also great to see various tips from different animators throughout the book.

Observing others’ work

In order to get a better idea of how I will actually animate my walk cycle, I reviewed other walk cycles with a similar type of feeling. This was mostly to inspire my own animation, however, I decided last minute to evaluate these animations, what they excel and lack in. Doing this type of critique and coming to a conclusion definitely has aided me in what I should and should not do whenever I begin my cycle. Descriptions of these videos can be seen underneath…

I really like this animation and feel as though it is really fluid and expressive- it definitely reflects in the emotions of the walk. From watching the video on repeat, I have a rough idea that one of the main factors that it effectively gets this emotion across is in the movement of the arms, legs and the brief pausing of the strut. It makes the character almost seem like he has nothing to rush to, and is simply enjoying the walk. This comes across really well, however, one thing I would’ve changed is how long the pause is for. Personally, I feel like this drags on too long and almost comes across as unbelievable, and makes it almost annoying to watch… Regardless, the animation is brilliant and the strengths here are definitely something I will think about when I start creating my own animation.

Like the last animation, this one is really emotive. I love the bounce that the model does! It really makes the character feel excited, despite not having any expressions on its face- the power of body language here is amazing. One thing I probably would say is that the bounce is a little too strong. This might just be a personal preference as I don’t want my own animation being too exburberant. Despite this, I love the animation on the arms, even the hands whenever they move back. It is really fluent and well done for certain.

I left this one to last because I feel as though it is probably my least favourite. The animation with the legs and arms aren’t the worst, however, the leaning back of the character really throws off the whole animation. I’ve watched this one over and over and still can’t understand why and if there was a reason to this pose, but regardless it doesn’t translate well at all. Even parts of the timing are a bit off, and I’d almost say that the movement of the arms is slightly too fast. Nevertheless, the walking animation itself isn’t horrible, in fact, I quite like the movement of the legs and feet, but one thing I will take away from this is to ensure that whatever my character is doing translates well to the viewer.

Walk Animatic

Below, I have done a quick animatic to layout the starting of my 3D animation. This was completed using Krita and admittedly I didn’t have a whole lot of time during this animatic and used limited references. I did, however, get inspired by a walk reference I found on Youtube and this is sourced below. Ultimately, this animatic isn’t perfect, and I am aware of this. This exercise in itself was done to get a brief idea of the frames I will need to produce for the final thing, therefore it’s only for my own benefit, despite its quality and horrible timing. I will be recording myself doing a similar type of walk and probably will source this for the final thing.

Source: Confident walk by Kevin Parry

Run animation research

Below, I have conducted research using the same format as I had done with my walk cycle. This is due to how effective it was previously, and how I want to keep up this level of progress. The rest can be summed up with this process below…

I really like how Williams’ has laid out his run cycle here and even without reading the dialogue, it is really informative to just look at how these frames have been laid out the way they have been. I find that this process itself is very interesting and quite impressive. As someone who wants to reach an intermediate level of skill in animation, this allows me to have a format in which I can further practice in and getting advice and visual representations from professionals such as Williams’ is a great source of learning. I will further use these types of diagrams in order to plan out my future animations.

This page is kind of similar to the last and features a more realistic style for the animation chart. Unexpectedly, seeing this is really helpful to understand how the human body would actually move in this instance. It has further made me realise that studying from real-life and animating how the body would actually work would probably make it far easier to animate in a certain style. Instead of just guessing or improvising with a style, it would really make you think about how you can translate this into different forms, ultimately making the animation believable and probably giving it a better sense of weight as well. Moving on, William has also stated that when the body is moved upwards for a run animation, it should only be roughly the size of 1/2 or 1/3 of a head. This is something I wasn’t aware of before, and have in the past made the mistake of making my characters move too far up. This is something I have naturally improved on myself, but even so, hearing this piece of information has given me a rough estimate of what I should aim for instead of ‘eyeballing’ the movements. Ultimately, this information has been extremely helpful and also thought-provoking in a way – which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Although a lot of these diagrams and advice seem to mostly apply to traditional animation, I can definitely see how this could also benefit me in my 3D Animation assignments. For example, with the tips about overlapping the frames, it would make the animation more smooth and easier to follow, in comparison to an animation that would be jankier, and animated poorly. It would make a huge difference and further make it more pleasant to the eyes to view an animation that is more smooth, ultimately making it believable to the audience. Some other pieces of information that were helpful include the updated chart, which shows what the animation would look like if alterations were added. For example, if the middle position was moved forward a little, it would further exaggerate the run, probably giving it more life and giving it a sense of dynamic. This is very interesting to see on paper.

In conclusion, like before, this book has once again provided a vast amount of knowledge about what makes a run cycle effective. I will be further taking what I’ve learned here, both from this book and past mistakes, to move forward with my animation. By reading some pages from this book, I feel more confident in my ability to continue my assignments, and even for animations in the future. I will continue my research from here and look at examples of others’ run cycles. This will help me to get a rough idea of what I should realistically aim for.

Observing others’ work

Below, I have also looked at run cycles made by other people. Reviewing animations last time really helped me to understand what to do and what not to do for my animation, therefore I decided to do this once again. Not just that, but looking at animations by other people can be really inspiring so I’m hoping for a win-win!

I chose this animation as it is quite good for how simple the model is. I adore the animation on the arms and hands as it is very fluent and consistent and conveys the movement of the character very effectively. One thing that throws me off, however, is how fast the legs are. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t paired with the stiffness of the back and lack of movement in the head as it starts to make the character look like they are running really awkwardly and doesn’t translate well at all. I do feel that maybe there was more focus on the arms rather than the rest of the body movements- which is essential when animating. Everything needs to be considered.

This animation is absolutely superb! I love how the whole body moves in conjunction with the run. For example, on the down poses, the model’s torse also bends and this further emphasises the down and high poses. Ultimately, I don’t really have anything bad to say about this animation, though I personally would’ve added some subtle head tilts to go along with the bend, but regardless this is an animation that has inspired me nonetheless.

This animation is quite decent for the pace in which the model is running in. I really like how the legs and arms move at once, they are consistently paced and well animated. Another thing that I found quite interesting is how this person has twisted the torso sideways in order to give the added impression of the arms swinging back and forth- this is really effective! One thing I would say, however, when looking at this long enough it does start to seem a bit off and I think this is due to how only the upper part of the torso moves. When running this way, it’s very unlikely that this would happen, and the twist would likely show all the way down to your hips (albeit subtly). Not all is bad, as watching this animation has given me the idea of also giving the AZRI model a bit of swing whenever I animate the run – this would make it more dynamic and easier to watch.

By far, this animation has to be my favourite out of all of these videos so far – it’s just so expressive! I adore how this person has used exaggeration in the arms, legs and even the head as it tilts. It feels cartoonish, particularly a rubberhose-style of animation in the sense that the limbs almost seem too flexible (which is obviously not a bad thing in this instance). Overall, this animation translates very well and I aspire to become this good at animating that I can manipulate exaggeration to enhance the movement and add personality.

Run Animatic

Like the walk animatic that I did, I also had barely any time to get this out either. Then again, it is just to roughly plan the type of animation I will be going for- nothing major. This one was heavily inspired by photography by Eadweard Muybridge. I drew some frames inspired by the key poses shown in this image sequence, and all in all, I think it turned out reasonably well for an animatic. Again, it isn’t perfect, but what is during these stages? It is simply just a plan for myself and didn’t need to be perfect whatsoever. The actual animation, however, will be done to the best of my ability.

References for AZRI Animations

Here are the main references that I ended up using whenever doing my final animations with the AZRI rig. Moreover, I ended up also recording myself doing the type of movement I wanted to achieve, but as I had to do it in a spot, I couldn’t get the movements of the legs to be accurate, therefore sourcing this directly would’ve made my animation look stiff. To counteract this, I looked at some other sources to see how the legs would move in a walk/run cycle and then pieced together my observations from the upper torso movements I made during the recordings of my own run/walk cycles. Ultimately, this worked out relatively well and although it was initially a tad complicated, I was able to use what I’ve visually learned to make my animations. Throughout this process, I also looked at some of Eadweard Muybridge’s photography, which I’ve already used a couple times during this project, and I have included the specifics below. These images are really helpful in understanding the main poses and body movements, especially in their image form. It honestly makes it a lot easier to follow along. The only thing I would say about them is to not rely on them as a primary source, as using image sequences too much can actually make your animations a little stiff – it’s generally good to get a balance of video/image references, and recorded content can be good for understanding the timing needed for these types of animations.

The references:

I really like how both of these videos have a front and side facing profile as it helps to understand how the side movements should look from the front. Moreover, the first video has a grid overlay and I thought this was quite a clever addition as it makes it easier to grasp the proportions and length of the walk. Ultimately, both of these references are amazing and I would definitely check out this channel as they have a bunch of different references that are brilliant for animation!

Eadweard Muybridge Photography

These two sets of images really helped me out a ton during this assignment and I would recommend them to anyone starting out in the animation industry. The image sequences make it a lot easier to understand the individual movements of the human body. It overall is very helpful with adding in-betweens and keyframes alike. In future, I will most likely still use Eadweard Muybridge’s work to aid me with my animations, perhaps one day I’ll even try doing something similar myself but at the moment, getting the space and setup for something like this is quite difficult in my circumstances!

My own recordings

In these videos, you can clearly see my struggle in getting the movements down, especially for the walking sequence. Initially, I thought that this would be quite easy to nail down, however, it’s a lot more difficult than it actually seems. Although the movements of the legs are kind of useless to me for the most part, I probably will use my own recordings to help me with the overall movement, as well as the arm and upper torso sequences as these were somewhat decent. Regardless, I will probably have to use a mix of my own findings and previous references to aid my final animations.

Final AZRI Animations

After extensive research, planning and trial and error, I have finally finished my AZRI Animations. These are showcased below, and overall I am very happy with how they have turned out, considering the lack of time I had left to animate them. My favourite has to be the walk one because it has conveyed the emotion that I was going for which is kind of a happy stroll kind of vibe. Moreover, I will be talking more about them in my final evaluation and for now, I have included the videos themselves below. Enjoy!

AZRI FINAL WALK2 from Lauren McConachie on Vimeo.

AZRI RUN FINAL 4 from Lauren McConachie on Vimeo.

Progress on my 2D Animation

During the progress of my action animation, I asked one of my tutors for some feedback as my animation looked a tad off. I decided to ask my tutor, Aodhan, as he seems to be quite proficient in 2D animation and his response was as follows:

I found his advice to be really helpful and getting someone else to look at my animation from a different perspective definitely pointed out some errors I wouldn’t otherwise have noticed. Admittedly, this feedback was from a little while ago, but I included it in this post as I only got around to fixing the animation fairly recently. Ultimately, this advice was extremely helpful towards finalising my animation and has made a huge difference to the outcome. One thing that was changed since last week is the jump of the hyena- it is more dynamic and believable now. The timing was also fixed and finalised. Due to time restrictions, I wasn’t able to fix some other areas of issues, such as the lion pulling back and the size corrections of my characters, but regardless of this, the animation still translates decently well and is a huge improvement to what I was doing last year.

Improved Animation (Post feedback)

Final Evaluation

Honestly, out of the rest of my assignments of this term, this one was my favourite one to work with. This isn’t much of a surprise and is kind of cliché coming from an aspiring animator, however, the main reason I adored this assignment the most is down to how much I have learned this semester. In comparison to last year’s animation assignments, I feel a lot more confident and experienced in my ability to animate and it isn’t as nearly as difficult as it used to be. Without a doubt, this process of learning was frustrating, but I am now happy to say that I am getting there and finally finding my own unique style of animation – this is something I will continue building upon. Moreover, my submissions themselves, I am quite satisfied with, particularly the 2D animation. I put a lot of time into this one specifically, including the character designs, storyboards, animatic to the final result.  It was really rewarding to see this finalised and one of my favourite parts of this animation might be the jumping action as it displays a good sense of timing and the build-up to it is quite effective. As with most things, it could’ve had a bit more added to it such as extra actions, more tweaking or even some sound effects, but working within this deadline has proven to challenge me and that I already have done with creating a 2D animation. Nonetheless, I am proud of my progress this year so far and intend to keep it up for semester two. I will continue to improve my style, and will try my best to better my time management. This would make room for further editing for future animations, so the same thing doesn’t occur again. With the AZRI animations, for the most part, I am satisfied with their outcomes. I did struggle a lot with the run animation as I couldn’t get the positions looking believable and the timing proved to be a reoccurring issue. After a lot of trial and error, I did get it to a standard I was relatively happy with. The same can be said about the walk cycle, but I prefer this one a lot more due to how I was able to nail the happy-style walk I was initially aiming for. Ultimately, these assignments overall turned out better than I had expected, and I will strive to get even better, especially with improving my skills in 3D animation. Ways I will do this include practising more in the field, reading books (e.g. The animator’s survival guide) and observing other animators’ work. Doing so, alongside the process of animating, will help me even more.