Advanced Animation - Exercises

2 Sept 2022 - 30 Sept 2022 (Week 1 - Week 5)

Zetie Binti Bahaman / 0351297 / BDCM

Advanced Animation

Exercises

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LECTURES

Week 1 - Lecture 1

There were no lectures but a brief course introduction that included an overall view of the module.

3D Software

Advanced Animation

-Modeling

-Texture & Material (Shader)

-Rigging

-Animation

-Rendering>Render Engine>Maya Software

A good animator:

-Fluidity>Timing/Spacing (Slow In and Slow Out)/Arcs

-Flexibility>Drag>Follow Through & Overlapping

-Clarity:

in terms of ideas>Secondary Action

in terms of emotion>Exaggeration

in terms of visual>Staging/Timing

Week 2 - Lecture 2

Fluidity in Animation
Animation Quality

1.Fluidity:
-Timing & Spacing
-Slow In, Slow Out
-Arcs

Apply Methods
-Pose to Pose

2.Flexibility

3.Clarity


Size Resolution
High Definition (HD) 

-720p > (1280x720)

-1080p (Full HD) > (1920x1080) Height -- Camera Staging

Framerate
-Video>TV>25 fps

-Film>24 fps

The more frames you have, the better the outcome for slow-mo shots. Hence, it's best to determine it earlier on. 

Timing
As an animation, we should have a sense of timing to know how many drawings are required between Point A to Point B.

In Between Drawings:
- 1/2 second - slower action, more drawing

- 1/4 second - fast action, less drawing

3D animation: - use a graph editor to manipulate the spacing

Spacing

Even timing/spacing = constant speed
->This gives a linear line and makes the movement very mechanical (robot-like)

Instead, we are to: 
-> Slow Out/Accelerate 
-> Slow In/Decelerate

Arcs

In animation, object should move in arcs to show gravity pull except:

-no gravity (e.g. a ball moving to the left/right)

-single axis direction (e.g. a ball falling downwards)
-linear  movement

Understand the Rig

Root
- Initial placement, size & rotation in the scene

*Note: We seldom animate this controller.*

Body
- Animate the position

Spin
- Animate the rotation

Squash & Stretch 
- Push and pull

Week 3 - No lectures due to public holiday (Malaysia Day).

Week 4 - Lecture 4

Week 5 - Lecture 5

Clarity in Animation

- One action at a time

Staging

- controlling what we want the viewers to see and convey ideas to them.

Secondary Action
- support the main action to add more dimension

- must not overshadow the main action

Anticipation

- more realistic

- make it easy for the viewer to understand the next action 

- lead the viewer's eye direction

Solid Drawing

Line of Action

Straight line - Static, monotonous, dull
S shape line -  Standing pose -> more neutral
Imbalanced - to show action


Week 6 - Lecture 6

Walk Cycle Animation

Poses

1. Contact
2. Down
3. Pass
4. Up
5. Contact (Flipped Pose)
6. Down
7. Pass
8. Up
9. Contact (Same drawing as no.1)

Timing
Refer to Animator's Survival Kit, page 116

Animator's Survival Kit, page 116

Natural Walk
1 Step -> 12 frames (Half a second)

Walks - Animators Survival Kit, page 108

3 frames = 2D Animation

1 frame = 3D Animation

Methods of Animating Walk Cycle

1. On the same spot
2. Progressively moving forward

Method 1
Static

Mind the spacing of the feet 

Method 2 (Easier)
Animate the camera moving together with the character.

Pose to Pose

1. Start with contact (Extreme)
2. Flipped contact (Extreme)

Switch to 4 Viewpoints
Ctrl + Alt + Q

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INSTRUCTIONS

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EXERCISES

Week 2
Ball Rig Exercise

Modes in Blender:

1.Object -
2. Edit - Shape the component
3. Pose Mode - to be able to select each component/ This mode is always used for animation.

Display arcs on the 3D viewport:

- Select body controller
- Property editor
> Motion Path > Frame Range (Start:1; End: 50) > Calculate - click to create

*Note: Every changes in the graph editor will not automatically adjust on the viewport.  Always click on Update Path button for the changes to take effect.


Manipulating the Key and Graph Editor

Fig 1.0 Keyframes Manipulation

Adjusting the spacing of the animation curve

Fig 1.2 Adjusting the Graph Editor Curve

Works In Progress in Blender

Fig 1.3 Animation work in progress

Final Outcome - Bouncing Ball Animation

Fig 1.4 Bouncing ball animation, MP4

Week 4
Bouncing Ball Exercise
Elasticity - Squash & Stretch

As we learned the basic keyframing in the previous week, now we are to apply the animation principle squash & stretch onto the bouncing ball animation.

Steps (Squash Rig):

>move the position (squash or stretch)
>set keyframe
>click I to scale

Works In Progress

Fig 1.5 Stretch

Fig 1.6 Squash

Final Outcome - Bouncing Ball with Squash & Stretch, Tail

Fig 1.7 Bouncing Ball with Squash/Stretch/Tail

Animation Flexibility
Pendulum Animation

We are to animate the swinging pendulum and apply flexibility such as drag, follow through and overlapping. Through this process, we also learned to animate in different types of poses such as from one extreme to another. The in-between (breakdown pose) is key to flexibility.

Work In Progress

Fig 1.8 Pendulum

Lighting

Fig 1.9,2.0 Before and After Adding Lights

Final Outcome - Pendulum Animation

Fig 2.1 Final Exercise 2 - Pendulum Animation. MP4

Week 5
Clarity in Animation

Here are the steps to begin the exercise:

Import Reference Image

Object Mode>Add>Reference Image

2 Systems:

FK (Red) or IK (Green)

FK/IK Switch

- Slide from 1 to 0 to enable the FK mode.

- Slide from 0 to 1 to enable IK mode.

Steps:

Switch>Click the Rig>Move/Rotate accordingly

Rendering Process

Add Camera

Object Mode>Add>Camera

Toggle Camera Button>View>Lock Camera To View

Enable Lighting

Lighting>Click Eye

Render>Render Image


Emotion Pose Exercise
Using a ready-made character rig downloaded from Blender Studio,

Fig 2.2, 2.3 - Character Rig Snow & Rain

For this exercise, I used the character, Snow. We are to animate the character’ body and facial expression to depict the action and emotion of:

• Happy
• Sad
• Angry
• Scared

Here is the reference for my action poses:

Fig 2.4 Happy Pose Reference

Fig 2.5 Angry Pose Reference

Fig 2.6 Sad Pose Reference

Fig 2.7 Scared Pose Reference

The first step is to determine the FK/IK switches. It plays a role in the movement of the character rigs.

Fig 2.8,2.9 Getting familiar with the FK/IK switches

Then reference image is added to ease the process along the way as we refer the action pose.

Fig 3.0 Adding reference image

Happy Pose
Attempts and Progress

Fig 3.1, 3.2 Happy Smile WIP

Based on feedback, I adjusted the smile of the character and changed the background to yellow lighting to express the happy emotion even more.

Fig 3.0, 3.1 Revised Attempts for Happy Pose and Lighting Setup

Final Render

Fig 3.2 - 3.5 Happy Pose - Final Render

Sad Pose
Attempts and Progress

Fig 3.6,3.7 Sad Pose WIP

Along the way, I struggled to depict the same pose as the reference photo. So I tested out variations of 'sad' poses.

Another hurdle was the finger gesture. I couldn't quite see clearly in detail the model photo's hand so this is merely on assumption and testing the gesture in real life on myself.

Fig 3.8 - 4.1 Poses Variation and Finger Pose

Fig 4.2 Camera and Lighting Setup

Final Render

Fig 4.3 - 4.6 Sad Pose - Final Render

Angry Pose
Attempts and Progress

Fig 4.7 - 5.0 Angry Pose WIP

The part of the hands are my weakness and something I need to polish my skills on. 

Fig 5.1, 5.2 Camera Setup and Lighting Test

As for the lighting, I wanted to relate fire with anger so hence the colors I chose reflect that of orange, red, yellows


Final Render

Fig 5.3 - 5.6 Angry Pose - Final Render

Scared Pose
Attempts and Progress

Fig 5.7, 5.8 Scared Pose WIP

The pose for this emotion was tricky too as I struggled with the arching back and left leg.

Fig 5.9, 6.0 Lighting Test

I took a long time to settle with the lighting I want for this pose. Eventually, I added black color to my planes (background) and adjusted the position of the lights. The red spotlight aims to give focus on the wide eye scared expression.


Final Render

Fig 6.1 - 6.4 Scared Pose - Final Render

Final Exercise 3 - PDF Compilation

Fig 6.5 Exercise 3 Compilation - PDF

Links

Project 1

Project 2

Final Project

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FEEDBACK

Week 6

Specific Feedback:

My pendulum animation is there but can be improved further. I am to  fix my pendulum timing and spacing so that each movement will gradually transition smoothly.

Emotion Pose Exercise
- The smile is too over, I should fix it and utilize the ready to use features such as hand gestures, facial expressions for the character. I can also adjust my lighting (change colors etc) to represent the emotion, happy = brighter. Also, remove the harsh shadows on the character's shoulders. 

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REFLECTIONS

The exercises has helped me to gain experience and skills in Blender and overall 3D animation. It is still important to ensure that we include animation principles into 3D animation. For example, the bouncing ball animation looked more complete once the squash and stretch has been added in. Timing is also crucial, as well as, spacing to make our animation a lot more smoother.

Attempting to create the poses were time consuming and hard even though we have been given several readymade poses to use. The fun part that I look forward to after each emotion pose is setting up the lighting and camera angles.