Introduction
I have been given a new assignment for the next couple of weeks due to be completed by 4 Apr 2021. This assignment will be running alongside the team animation project assignment 3.
For this assignment I am to show off my 3D animation skills by choosing one of two pre-made 3D rigs to create two animation cycles with. One of these should convey weight of motion and the mechanical aspect of the body while the second one should convey both the emotions and personality of the character.
(The links to the Assignment Brief)
https://learning.ulster.ac.uk/webapps/assignment/uploadAssignment?content_id=_5369248_1&course_id=_309897_1&group_id=&mode=view
Research
Before I started 3D work we had several classes teaching us the basics of how to animate in Maya because I wanted to learn these skills first I would only work on the pre production elements for the first 3 weeks starting with research.
I first looked at a book by Preston Blair called Cartoon AnimatioN. This is my main go to book for animation not only because its done by an official animator for Disney who was responsible for things like the dancing hippos in Walt Disney’s Fantasia and the Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene who shows how to develop characters shape and mannerisms, to create movement and coordinating dialogue but it is beautifully laid out. This book is done in such a way that it is easy to digest, the words are kept to a minimum with the illustrations and examples conveying the message which is much better for a visual learner like me. Below are some of the images from the book showing the specific scene I studied for this project.
My second book is the The ANIMATOR’S SURVIVAL KIT by Richard Williams the Director of Animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. This book I find more intimidating but it is more expansive and has much more detail on all aspects of animation. He believes that the way a character moves is as important as how the character looks which is how I feel about animation. Richard Williams believed in one drawing per frame of film creating amazingly smooth animation and showcasing characters ease of movement. He believed in ink, paper and perspective, believing they could tackle subjects while retaining the strength of 2D animation without trying to mimic the more restrictive live action in 2 dimensions.
Below are screenshots of the book and the pages I took into account for this particular project.
With both of these books I read up on exaggerated movement and squash and stretch physics this was because I wanted my animation to be very bouncy, full of life and show off the entire body moving which will in turn complete one of the assignment’s criteria.
Animation 1 (Jogging)
Before I began working in Maya in my notebook I drew out a rough animation plan that I would use as a reference for this task, I used lined paper because it allowed me to keep track of the size and height of both the character and his movement. This is the drawing for Rig 1- jogging.
I then took a picture of my plans and sent it to my computer via email as an image. I then opened up a new Maya file and imported the Monty rig in to the project. For context you could pick from two pre-made rigs off Blackboard for this project and I picked Monty because he was more alive looking with his eyes and feet. Next in Maya I added a new layer and within it created two plain squares and assigned them my rig 1 animation drawings as textures. This layer’s settings were then set to visible only and restricted after I had adjusted the image’s size and placement to my liking. This meant that I could not affect them whilst I was animating my models but they would act as my references within the programme.
Now it was time to animate the project, this was done by using keyframes on the timeline and within each of the those keyframes positioning the model to my liking based on my references. I even moved the base of the model to fit in line with each step of the reference sheet. The programme Maya automatically filled in the animation between the keyframes.
Once I had my base keyframes in I edited their timing in the dope sheet, this allowed me to fix the timing between each keyframe to show my character jogging at a consistent pace and to not have one action move slower or faster than the other.
After I fixed the timing I edited the setting of the character’s base to position zero on all keyframes so that he would be jogging on the spot. I then, with the help of my Tutor Alec cleaned up the animation by adjusting the model positions between the keyframe or used the graph editor to adjust the stretching body so that it would bounce in a more convincing way. Once I was happy I saved this file and moved on to creating the second animation rig for this assignment.
Animation 2 (Shocked)
Just like my first rig I drew up an animation plan on lined paper and uploaded photographs of it via email. While the first rig was simple jogging to show off the weight of movement and the body mechanics of a character the second animation was to be my character getting scared, falling over, conveying emotions and show off his personality through animation.
So in a repeat of my first animation rig I opened a new Maya project with the Monty rig in it in addition to setting up my second animation plans on a second layer which was restricted and visible only. Again using the joints on the rig and keyframes I animated the character in accordance with my reference even moving the bases to line up with each image so that I could better pose the figure before setting the base positions on all keyframes back to zero in order to make the action make sense.
Using the dope sheet again I adjusted the timing of the animation for better pacing unlike jogging, timing could be different between each keyframe to better represent the movement for example falling would be a quicker action than swinging the head side to side.
With all the keyframe animations done and their timings sorted out I went ahead and fixed up the animation between each main keyframe. Alec gave me some feedback to help with this such as showing me how to use the graph editor to fix a shaky foot. The problem had been that despite all the positioning values being the same in each keyframe the foot was unstable, Alec showed me how to use the graph editor to adjust the animation and stabilise it. Once all the fixes were done I saved the project and prepared to export both animations.
Exporting and SyncSketch
Before I exported my two animations I turned my references invisible since they did not need to appear in the final video. I created a camera for each one so the videos would be exported using that viewpoint. I then exported both animations into playblast using QuickTime with the settings recommended to us by Alec.
I also created a SyncSketch account with the viewer setting adjusted so only people with the link could see my work. This link will be sent to Alec and everything will then be uploaded onto BlackBoard, as back up both exported videos will be uploaded to Onedrive and my Youtube channel.
What I liked/did well
I actually liked animating in Maya, as much as I like 2D animation unlike other people I view both 2D and 3D equally with each having its own merits skill levels and outcomes. For example 2D Animation can hold more styles, while 3D Animation due to its cameras is better for fast paced action. One of the strengths I found to 3D Animation is the ease of which movements can be fixed as instead of having to redraw the entire frame or even the animation after that frame you can adjust the key frame and the Maya programme can fix up the movements between each key frame itself. This helped me as I like to go back, review and fix things up and add smaller movements. It is also pretty fun to basically watch my lifeless model come to life and the project gave me freedom to decide his/her personality.
What I did not like/could have improved
If there is one thing that can be painful working in 3D is that sometimes leaving the animation up to the computer can lead to errors or less than promising results. While not often I could come across a bug where the characters foot would not animate properly when copying and pasting a key frame did not lead to an exact duplicate making its whole way through the movement. I even had my computer crash and delete one of the animations I was working on, however it was at the early stages and not much progress was lost.
I also forgot how the ultimate walker rig worked and in my initial action drawings drew the leg going higher that the model could replicate, but that was an easy fix because I just adapted the animation to the model and I was going to end up making small adjustments to the model anyway to create a smoother livelier animation. Next time however I will double check the model before making the initial animation sketches, so this was a useful learning experience.
Conclusion
Overall I think I did well during this project and outside of the small errors with Maya’s automatic animation coding nothing came up that caused me a lot of trouble. I am happy with how quickly I picked up animating and a lot of the new skills I learnt during this like how to use the graph editor and the dope sheet will help me in all fute 3D projects such as the upcoming Assignment 3. I really enjoyed this task.
Final Videos for:
Rig 1 Jogging
Rig 2 Shock