Character Animation
Week 1 //YEAR 2
TASKS
WEEK 1 – Character Animation 03/10/23.
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This module is based in Maya as Maya has the more robust animation software. Whilst rigging is specific to each program – the principles remain the same. Therefore we are being taught the principles of animation.
The first port of call in any animation is to decide the FPS (Frames per second). This is usually 24/25.
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Use Maya in the Animation Workspace (as opposed to modelling)
We also need to set the playback speed (Preferences > Time Slider> Playback speed (24×1)
SETTING FRAMES
The hot key for setting key frames is ‘S’ – if we use the Autokey we need to set the first frame and remember that this is on.
Another helpful element is the Graph Editor (Windows > Animation Editors > Graph Editor) –
EDITOR GRAPH
Use channel box (right hand side) to | Key selected (Rotate and move for example)
COPY FRAME 1 and paste it at the end for a LOOP.
VISUALIZE – CREATE EDITABLE MOTION TRAIL.
MOTION TRAIL
We can use the Graph Editor to create, view, and modify animation curves various ways.
PROGRESS//RESEARCH//
#BOUNCING BALL
I found this lesson to be more difficult than anticipated. I watched all of the videos, consulted my copy of 'The Animators Survival Kit' (pic attached) and thought this would be easy, but my first iteration was dreadful, I wish I'd kept it. I had a lot of experience using the Editable Motion Trail - but the results were horrendous, the animation was jittery and moved in places it shouldn't, the flow of the bounce wasn't right, and it looked 'floaty'.
I looked into the original reference material and realised my errors.
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I was trying to key every single frame, I knew my autokey wasn't working for some reason, so I thought if I did it precisely, frame by frame, manually it would look good. It didn't.
PROGRESS//RESEARCH//
#BOUNCING BALL
I scrapped that project and started again, I looked at the reference materials provided (Ball Bounce Basic.MA) and noticed that the key frames were a lot different, the spacings. There was much more time and movement between key frames - in the final instance I think I used 60. In my first iteration there were 130 odd.
The two things that 'The Animators Survival toolkit speaks about in this example are timing and spacing.
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I felt a lot better once I had realised my error - and managed to animate a bounce that I am happy with - I also ended a little burst at the end, just as a personal flourish.
PLAYBLAST BALL BOUNCE
Ball Bounce and Burst.
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After I got this right, I went back to look at Keying in frames via the channel attributes box, I key'd an animation where the ball reappeared, changes shape and floats away using that method.
BALL BOUNCE//MORE
Ball Bounce and Burst.
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After I got this right, I went back to look at Keying in frames via the channel attributes box, I key'd an animation where the ball reappeared, changes shape and floats away using that method. I'm not a huge fan but might as well share it.
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I tried to use the graph editor and could not get along with it. I tried to watch extra videos but I much prefer to work the way I work.
GRAPH EDITOR REFERENCE MATERIAL:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-6D38EAEA-6032-471E-BD0E-54A74D4443C0
Key Attributes channel box...
Editable motion trail in full.
Character Animation
Week 2 //YEAR 2
WEEK2//OBSTACLE COURSE
I was not in during this class - but working back thru the slides, I understand that we started with a recap from lesson 1.
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BALL BOUNCE//MORE
Ball Bounce and Burst.
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After I got this right, I went back to look at Keying in frames via the channel attributes box, I key'd an animation where the ball reappeared, changes shape and floats away using that method. I'm not a huge fan but might as well share it.
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I tried to use the graph editor and could not get along with it. I tried to watch extra videos but I much prefer to work the way I work.
GRAPH EDITOR REFERENCE MATERIAL:
https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-6D38EAEA-6032-471E-BD0E-54A74D4443C0
Key Attributes channel box...
Editable motion trail in full.
Character Animation
Week 3 //YEAR 2
TASKS
Flour Sack animation -
Week 3 – Flour sack and animation rig –
Save in stages – so you can roll back.
How can we add personality to an object. Disney are big on this. Bring in some realism/personality
Bottom Area – Setting the position -
Key the blue and red lines –
Red is right
Blue is left
Yellow is rotation.
Nurbs object –
Nurbs are vectors – just lines (curves, circles) – 3D object that isn’t 3D. You can extrude from a Nurbs. Very accurate. Shoe design for example. Exact.
Channels – All rigs are a type of parented hierarchy (grouped) –
WORLD/OBJECT
Go for the higher hierarchy.
Follows the selection – World or Hierarchy.
Walk animation – World hierarchy good for placing the foot on the floor.
What is relevant to the scene? World Hierarchy –
Relevant to the person? Rig hierarchy.
Double click tool set up.
TASKS//PART 2
Rigging -
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This part of the session concentrated on animating an 'arm rig' - this entailed:
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FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS -
MODIFY>FREEZE TRANSFORMATIONS
Before we start we can to freeze our transformations so that we can scale and resize etc.
We then had to inset pivots at the points of the joints (Have to be in the move tool and have to press 'Insert' to move pivots and then 'Insert' again to save them.
We then had to parent the separate parts - so the tip of the index finger will be the 'child' to the second joint - select the first part (child) - select the part it is to become joined with and click P -
We have to do this for all elements of the hand and arm and then rename them - these can be viewed via Windows>General Editor>Hypergraph Hierarchy> Options>Orientation>Schematics
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Once this rigging has been completed, we can set key frames and play as necessary.
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Character Animation
Week 4 //YEAR 2
TASKS//ARM RIG
FK - FORWARD KINEMATICS (Forward motion) - Robotics/Mechanical. Move joints individually. Independent of each other. Hinges.
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IK - INVERSE KINEMATICS- Rotation is already solved. For humans and animals. Uses a controller and provides realistic human motion.
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Don't get tangled in an animation. Block out and then in-fill.
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You can select multiple channels (set of fingers, etc) -
Just by moving the hand, the forearm and shoulder resolve themselves.
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On an IK rig you will have a driver or pointer (Maya//Null) - an empty item.
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GHOSTING- choose the rig//VISUALIZE//GHOST.
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Attention to detail. The weight is what makes things convincing.
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If TRANSFERRING a MAYA rig into another software you may need to BAKE the animation.
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To do this, select all of the Joints and go to Key>Bake Simulation [ ] (Options).
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Animation data baked to keyframe and the mesh.
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TASKS |PART //LEG RIG
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IK - INVERSE KINEMATICS- for legs top to bottom.
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NURBS - Controller - Use an oval, set for underneath each foot. Move the pivot point (INSERT) to where the ankles are.
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These then need to be PARENTED. (IDENTIFY IK1 and 2 to the NURBS curve)
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IK1 SHIFT SELECT NURBS CURVE - P
Repeat process for IK2 - foot stays in place
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Then need to parent joints to HIPS - again select joint and then PARENT.
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Character Animation
Week 5 //YEAR 2
TASKS
WEEK 5 – 'Posing' and head turn.
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RECAP from previous lessons - Bouncing ball, arc path, timing, spacing, squash and stretch.
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Most exaggerated part of the stretch is just prior and after the 'squash' when it hits the ground and the apex of the arc.
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We recapped what we learned from previous animations.
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Dynamic Posing - Note the weight. S shape on the spine and angles offset on shoulders and hips.
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Base pose - Straight lines on the spine.
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Make sure you check // reference images.
HEAD TURN
I downloaded, extracted and set the project for Eleven Rig -
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I created a head turn animation and implemented a smile. I wish I would have captured a blink or two, but I ran out of time.
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I used the set key frames, used the nurbs controllers and created a playblast.
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I also created a few dynamic poses.
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Character Animation
Week 6 //YEAR 2
TASKS
WEEK 6 //WALK CYCLE
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* A helpful book would be 'Timing for Animation' by Harold Whitaker.
We discussed blocking out - key frames first, and then build.
* Points of contact, etc.
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There has to be reason for the way things are behaving in a scene.
WALK CYCLE - Contact, passing, contact 2 ... then infill the down and up.
1, 3 and 5 first and then 2 and 4.
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Contact levels are the same for 1 and 5, but down for 2 and up for 4. 3 is slightly higher than 2 and less than 4.
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The 'character' is added during the passing phases.
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Keyframe1
WALKING CYCLE
Set Keyframe 1 -Set 7, Set 13, Set 19 and and 25. Blocking out.
I am enjoying this module, even just the simplest of things like animating a set of legs to walk feels satisfying to me.
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I am glad that I am getting to grips with how to use the Key frame editor, and have captured the simple passing phases of frames, 1, 7, 13, 19 and 25 with just the legs and feet moving so far.
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I had a little trouble with finishing the loop as I was copying Keyframe 1 into 25, but only doing this for one of the feet. I have to remember to copy all key frames over in future.
I then went to work on the hands and arms - this adds a bit of swinging motion - but it still needs work.
I added some rotating in the hips at 1, 13 and copied 1 again for keyframe. Gave my man some swagger.
I then added some rotation for the shoulders. Opposing sides to the hips on the same keyframes.
Character Animation
Week 8/9 //YEAR 2
TASKS
Week 8/9 - Animation Reference // ROTOSCOPING
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We started the lesson with an overview of rotoscoping.
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We discussed Eadweard Muybridge and his books being a standard reference for animators.
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We spoke about how ROTOSCOPING gained influence with Disneys adoption of the method. This is because it was an accurate motion reference that has become popular again in recent years.
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We spoke about how we need to ensure that the reference material is accurate.
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Keyframe1
RIGS
We discussed a number of rigs that we can download and import.
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We learnt about Anim reference and the possibility of filming and editing our own motion analysis material. We spoke about motion references for animals - and the fact that these reference materials need to be correct, otherwise the animation will be off.
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We looked at more 'cartoony' and stylized animations that are usually used in Mobile and RTS games. We saw how we could add personality from body language.
We looked at the process of loading our reference video into the MAYA viewport so that I can pose and animate the figure to match the footage.
I set the project for Eleven Rig Lift Polyplane - as per image.
I have made some progress by following the reference. Though this still needs work.
Further progress
This process was not as easy as I'd anticipated - and took me three separate attempts.
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I had various problems thru out even down to the position of the hands, I thought I had done it but checked from another angle and the hands were way off - but each time I think I learnt a little bit more.
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It's not perfect, but I think it conveys the idea that the weight of the box is difficult for the character to manage and that was the task in question.
Character Animation
Week9 //YEAR 2
Assessment 3// Audio, Camera's and Animatics
TASKS
The brief for Assessment 3 requires me to create an animation synced to an 11 second audio clip.
The brief is inspired by the monthly 11 Second Club competition where applicants complete an 11 second animation using the provided audio clip.
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We had a look at various examples of audio clips and how they could be utilized.
EXAMPLES/RIGS
We spoke about a variety of examples where we can use different types of audio.
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We discussed the possibility of preferring to work on just the character body motion without dialogue. In this instance it was suggested that we may prefer using an 11 second music clip without dialogue which could match character moves such as combat or loops for game. I am at liberty to source my own clip.
Camera Focal Length -
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Should I set a few camera's and flip between the two/three.
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Maya’s Perspective Camera uses a 35mm lens as default which is fairly standard, lower focal length such as 8mm will look more dynamic though stretched. Higher focal length such as 85mm will tend to flatten the image.
I also reiterated the process for importing a reference plane.
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I saved a Youtube reference video as an MP4 (Deadpool) - and imported this into Adobe After Affects.
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I clicked on Output Module and changed this to Lossless. I changed the format to 'Targa Sequence' - which creates a number of sequenced images.
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I saved this into my project folder under Assets.
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I then created a polyplane - went into Attribute Editor//colour// and replaced the image with the FILE and then clicked on 'Use Image Sequence'.
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This created my reference file which I am hoping to use for my 11 second animation.
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