This weeks session of Animation 102 was very practical, we would be doing an exercise of emotion to emotion in Maya and Stopmotion and receiving feedback on past work. We were first reminded of the exercises that we'd be doing over the module and a story needed to be told in the animation as this was part of storytelling criteria. This was something that myself and other members of the group, had forgotten in our animations, but with this new knowledge we would apply it to future work. Starting with this weeks exercise of emotion to emotion. The task was we would pose the character in a pose from our body emotions list then animate that pose into a second emotion pose of our choosing.
I received feedback from Joe regarding my sit down stand up animations and we agreed it seemed slow and would require performing reference footage to get a better idea of the positions and speed of the rig. The point of the sitting down standing up exercise was to get us better familiar with Buckid for future exercises.
This was also an introduction to locomotion in walking. Viewing an animation from week 1 of the module we looked at cubes moving which gave us an idea of space between footsteps in a walk. Walking would be covered in next weeks lesson. I set to work on the exercise, at first it seemed simple. However, whilst I isolated the key frames in each cube it moved at too fast a pace, and the cubes didn't stop as the other moved forward. Even doing each cubes frames in line with the other didn't work. Thankfully I found a solution and using translate X on each cube after their move it made one stay in place as the other moved. They were colour coded in red and purple so that they could be told apart from each other. This was saved as a play blast but I couldn't resist rendering this in Arnold remembering the method I used from last semester.
Next task, was the emotion to emotion, my story had the character thinking in curiosity, then turns to see something scare him. The first step was to pose the character into a relaxed position then move the arms across the chest and hand on its chin as the first key frame. Learning from animating the sit down stand up over the weekend I animated each limb one by one. However, there was still an issue of the limbs moving in the other frames. I asked for Joes opinion on this matter and he said it would be best to translate the channels one by one instead of all at once. From this advice I found the problem was not having a pause in the arms before moving. I was also advised to use reference footage and so with Georgias help we recorded myself performing the exercise. The animation was then finished and rendered, and was saved to a pen drive.
Locomotion exercise.
Emotion to Emotion
At the time I was a bit nervous about today, not knowing some of the details of the exercises and after hearing the exercises needed stories to be told in them I was embarrassed that I didn't take a closer look at the brief to see those details. However I realised that we make mistakes to learn from them. Joes feedback was very insightful and I realised I should've looked back at the reference footage. Whilst working on the locomotion I was getting anxious as I was trying to figure out why the cubes weren't moving and stopping correctly, but I was relived when I figured out the issue. When working with the rig I was beginning to feel that I couldn't seem to solve why the limbs wouldn't stop moving in the hold frames.
I was relieved as Joe advised to use reference footage of the performance, and even more when I asked Georgia for help in filming which she was more than happy to help. I was relieved once the animation was finished but I was disappointed that I didn't have time to finish the render.
I realised that today would be different but knowing that we would be going straight to a practical exercise in Maya would be beneficial in getting a second opinion on my animations. I asked for Joes opinion on the sit up sit down animation and his advice made sense and how I should consider the poses and reminded of the use of what we learn in maya for stopmotion and bar sheets in the module. In hindsight I jumped into the locomotion exercise in a rush and when I move fast things go wrong and in doing so the cubes didn't move or hold in place. I felt more positive when I found a solution and turning to others for help when I couldn't do it alone.
I received feedback from Joe regarding my sit down stand up animations and we agreed it seemed slow and would require performing reference footage to get a better idea of the positions and speed of the rig. The point of the sitting down standing up exercise was to get us better familiar with Buckid for future exercises.
This was also an introduction to locomotion in walking. Viewing an animation from week 1 of the module we looked at cubes moving which gave us an idea of space between footsteps in a walk. Walking would be covered in next weeks lesson. I set to work on the exercise, at first it seemed simple. However, whilst I isolated the key frames in each cube it moved at too fast a pace, and the cubes didn't stop as the other moved forward. Even doing each cubes frames in line with the other didn't work. Thankfully I found a solution and using translate X on each cube after their move it made one stay in place as the other moved. They were colour coded in red and purple so that they could be told apart from each other. This was saved as a play blast but I couldn't resist rendering this in Arnold remembering the method I used from last semester.
Next task, was the emotion to emotion, my story had the character thinking in curiosity, then turns to see something scare him. The first step was to pose the character into a relaxed position then move the arms across the chest and hand on its chin as the first key frame. Learning from animating the sit down stand up over the weekend I animated each limb one by one. However, there was still an issue of the limbs moving in the other frames. I asked for Joes opinion on this matter and he said it would be best to translate the channels one by one instead of all at once. From this advice I found the problem was not having a pause in the arms before moving. I was also advised to use reference footage and so with Georgias help we recorded myself performing the exercise. The animation was then finished and rendered, and was saved to a pen drive.
Locomotion exercise.
 |
| Emotion to emotion. |
Feelings:
At the time I was a bit nervous about today, not knowing some of the details of the exercises and after hearing the exercises needed stories to be told in them I was embarrassed that I didn't take a closer look at the brief to see those details. However I realised that we make mistakes to learn from them. Joes feedback was very insightful and I realised I should've looked back at the reference footage. Whilst working on the locomotion I was getting anxious as I was trying to figure out why the cubes weren't moving and stopping correctly, but I was relived when I figured out the issue. When working with the rig I was beginning to feel that I couldn't seem to solve why the limbs wouldn't stop moving in the hold frames.
I was relieved as Joe advised to use reference footage of the performance, and even more when I asked Georgia for help in filming which she was more than happy to help. I was relieved once the animation was finished but I was disappointed that I didn't have time to finish the render.
Evaluation:
I realised that today would be different but knowing that we would be going straight to a practical exercise in Maya would be beneficial in getting a second opinion on my animations. I asked for Joes opinion on the sit up sit down animation and his advice made sense and how I should consider the poses and reminded of the use of what we learn in maya for stopmotion and bar sheets in the module. In hindsight I jumped into the locomotion exercise in a rush and when I move fast things go wrong and in doing so the cubes didn't move or hold in place. I felt more positive when I found a solution and turning to others for help when I couldn't do it alone.
Analysis:
Given what I'd learned over the weekend it was important that I see the tutors thoughts on what I'd done to see if I could learn anything to build upon for refinement. When executing the animation I realised I should've taken the time to print a bar sheet to take timings afterwards for the stopmotion aspect of the emotion to emotion exercise and possibly the locomotion to aid in timings for the walk task next week. In learning from my mistakes I should've taken into account of setting a still keyframe for the characters limbs to hold its position so that when it moves it wouldn't affect the starting frame. This was something I should've accounted for in the exercises.
In rendering the animation I possibly should've considered the time it would take to render as the next class would start at the time our class ends.
Conclusion:
Looking back on this session I would've done many things differently. In terms of the Maya exercises I would've done bar sheets first before working on the animation as was advised to me many times in 101. In doing the animation itself I would take the process slower and if any problems had arisen I would ask for a second opinion on an occurring matter before I proceeded with the exercise and isolate a possible solution from the feedback. This lesson has provided the opportunity for questions and answers regarding the use of the Maya rig and how to hold the limbs positions when doing another position for the body. This will be of great use.
Action Plan:
In future I would first plan out the animation using the bar sheets to give me a better starting point, as well as possibly take reference footage of my chosen poses before starting the process in Maya to better help in the poses and movements. I would also consider the possibility of future sessions in Maya to collaborate or seek advice from the other students of the group to see if they came across a similar situation and if there was a way to correct it. I will also look to the animation brief to see what the exercise is and what the story would be behind it for production. What this experience has shown me is the importance of having something to work from for this kind of animation practice and will use what I've learned to help in the next exercises on the course.
Stopmotion suite:
I began doing the emotion to emotion exercise using stop motion animation using the barsheet that I created this morning and from doing the exercise in Maya. However first some reference footage was needed so I had some recorded prior to this exercise.
Using the reference footage I was able to translate the movements into the armature. Much like the other exercises I did the piece at two frame capture settings. I made it do several foot taps before it moved to the turning moment as I felt it built up the tension to the next few scenes. I moved the armature carefully building the movements. I decided to have one extra scared pose where the character would curl up slightly, to show he was really afraid. I did this because I felt that having a simple stand end pose didn't seem to be a very good use of performance. This was then rendered and saved to my pen drive.
Looking back on this animation task I would think that I performed this exercise very well, and would have to be one of my better exercises. I would've done some things differently though such as the thinking pose as I felt it didn't look a lot like a thinking pose. I would've seen if there were ways I could've some how added fingers to the armature to show one finger on its chin. In hindsight I should've asked Joe on this matter if it was okay to do something like this to the armature and if so I would remember to do so in the future. In conclusion I was rather pleased with the end result and look forward to the advice and feedback I would be given about this exercise to help me improve.
Looking back on this animation task I would think that I performed this exercise very well, and would have to be one of my better exercises. I would've done some things differently though such as the thinking pose as I felt it didn't look a lot like a thinking pose. I would've seen if there were ways I could've some how added fingers to the armature to show one finger on its chin. In hindsight I should've asked Joe on this matter if it was okay to do something like this to the armature and if so I would remember to do so in the future. In conclusion I was rather pleased with the end result and look forward to the advice and feedback I would be given about this exercise to help me improve.
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