Donatella's 3D Computer Animation Blog
My 3D Computer Animation Progress

Category: 3.13 Week 13

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3.13 Week 13 Advanced & Experimental Project 2

Week 13: Body Mechanics Blocking Plus

Introduction

This week, I focused on creating my blocking plus draft for my body mechanics animation with George.

Blocking Checklist

Personal Blocking Checklist

Blocking Checklist

Before working on my blocking plus, I created my personal checklist based on the feedback George gave to my classmates:

Create balanced poses, keep silhouettes clear, avoid clipping, rotate the body towards the camera.

Blocking Process

First Outcome

Even though I added more breakdown poses and moving holds to my animation, the main issues I need to work on are:

  • The timing when the character stares at the balloon.
  • Push the poses when the character is about to fall from the edge.
  • Improve the overlapping action of the wrists.

Second Outcome

For my second draft, I edited the poses of my character and exaggerated the tripping sequence at the end.

Furthermore, I also learned how to include the frame rate counter into my playblast.

Third Outcome

After working on my last corrections, I am now ready to start working in spline and cleaning the keys in the graph editor.

Furthermore, I will also work on the lightning effect once I polish my spline animation.

Categories
3.13 Week 13 Advanced & Experimental Project 2

Week 13: Animated Artefact – Character Rig & Reference Videos

Introduction

This week, I defined what type of rig I wanted to use for my animation and I also started shooting some reference videos to help me pose out my character.

Customizing my Character Rig

Original Rig (Animation Mentor)

I downloaded the Steward Rig from Animation Mentor, as I was looking for a friendly and cartoony character.

The rig I chose has limited facial expressions, since I wanted my animated artefact to specifically focus on how the body can communicate an idea and feeling.

Customized Rig (Mime)

I edited the textures and colors to convey the idea that the character is a mime as they are known to use their body to express an idea.

To do so, I had to unlock the geometry layer and select the faces individually to change the colors.

Shooting Reference Videos

In order to start blocking my animation, I created some reference videos based on my animatic. In the following recordings I only focused on the movements of the main character.

Part 1

A creature appears out from a bucket and gets the attention of the character. However, when they inspect the bucket it is empty.

Meanwhile, a creature appears from the back and when the character sees it, they start running into the next room.

Part 2

The character enters into the room next door, and when they think they are safe, they realize there are more creatures observing them.

Part 3

The character crawls back into the main room and looks around to see if the first creature is gone.

After inspecting the room, they feel relieved as they think it is empty.

Finally, the character leaves the scene, failing to notice that a creature is attached to their back.

Further Thoughts

In the following weeks, I will import these reference videos into my Maya file and retime the clips I recorded. I will also create a previs animation to integrate the creatures into my scene.