During this week, we chose our groups that we would continue for our final 3D animation. I went with group 7 which included Neave, Jakey, Jodie and Joseph and the five of us began a Miro board during the afternoon session to gather ideas. After this, we chose the idea which we thought would be the most easiest for us as we are new to using 3D animation and that was the story about the slime. Our initial story starts off with our character which is a slime ball who is trapped in a jar inside a wizard shack. He then breaks free and drinks all sorts of potions with different abilities until his hubris becomes too strong and he explodes from drinking more potions than he can handle. Below, I have began sketching out ideas of possible abilities and forms he can change into from the effects of these potions. Overall, I had a lot of fun drawing these up as it forced me to think more about design, expression and alternative ideas.
Pre-planning via Miro board
Above are screenshots that were taken before and after we decided on our final idea. We did this plan work whilst on a call with one another, so it was easier to discuss and negotiate our thoughts and ideas as a team.
Sketches of ideas
Exercise 02 – Forward Kinematic and Inverse Kinematic animation systems
Here are video examples of me experimenting with the movement with both FK and IK animation systems. At first, this was confusing to understand how these work from a technical perspective and I found their definition difficult to comprehend at first. However, the animation process and movements themselves were really straightforward and easy to grasp. The exercise itself was very well explained by my tutor Alec, who went into depth about the differences between the two systems. As a result, I decided to take notes from this tutorial in order to help me put into simple terms how they work. The notes I have taken can be viewed underneath the videos shown below… In the future, I will look more into both Forward and Inverse Kinematics which will aid me both with the technical and practical sides of 3D animation.
NOTES:
Forward Kinematic
- Moves all controls at once from top
- Controls allow for more flexibility
- Recommended for limbs. E.G. arms
- More organic and fluid
- Has a great arc of action- smooth and fewer in-betweens.
Inverse Kinematic
- Can be used to move from the top, but the bottom component will stay in place
- Commonly controlled from the end of the hierarchy chain
- less of an arc, more robotic movements
- Good for leg movement.