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

Category: 3.19 Week 19

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3.19 Week 19 Advanced & Experimental Project 2

Week 19: Lip-Syncing – Spline Animation

Introduction

This week, I worked on changing my lip-sync animation from stepped to spline and replacing the placeholder elements.

Work Methodology

Attaching a Camera to Face

In order to start working on the lip-syncing animation, I was advised to attach a camera to the face.

I used a parent constraint to attach the camera to the forehead controller.

This was extremely useful, as I have already animated the key poses of the character.

Using a Mirror as a Reference

Apart from the facial reference video that I had recorded, I also used a mirror to help me animate the mouth.

I had to hear the audio over and over again whilst repeating the sentence out loud. This helped me understand which parts of the lips were moving.

Spline Animation Process

Spline Animation (Body)

Before working on my facial animation, I only focused on the body.

I changed the keys from stepped to spline in the graph editor and then cleaned up the animation curves.

Spline Animation (Face)

I started creating different mouth movements based on the phonemes.

I used Studio Library to help me create the poses for each phoneme.

This saved me a lot of time as many of the sounds appeared more than one time during the audio.

Intro Scene

Blue Screen

For my intro scene, I initially wanted that the character was mad at his computer because his rendering process had failed.

However, I reconsidered my decision as I felt that my character was too old for that situation.

For this reason, I adapted it into the blue screen of death in Windows 10.

Spline Animation

Categories
3.19 Week 19 Advanced & Experimental Project 2

Week 19: Animated Artefact – Animation Polishing

Introduction

This week, I focused on polishing my animation and adding for the first time the creatures into my scene. This means, that I finally managed to replace all placeholder elements and can entirely focus on enhancing my animation. I also had one feedback session with George, which is going to help me to take my animation to the next level.

Animation Polishing

Overlap: I specially focused on creating some overlap when the character moves around the room (turns around, holds the bucket and stands up).

Dust-Off: After my character stands up after crawling backwards, I attempted to animate him dusting off his shirt. However, I definitely need to revise that action as the hands should feel as if they are pushing off from the chest.

Stretch and Squash

As regards to the creatures, I made sure they were slightly squashing and stretching (see green function in the graph editor).

However, in order to improve the animation, I am going to treat them as if they were bouncing balls and in addition, they are going to appear in the air and then fall to the floor.

Iris Shot Film Technique

I decided to include an iris shot at the end of my animation, as it is a technique which was widely used in silent and cartoony films.

In addition, it highlights the fact that the creature is attached to the back of the main character.

Hero Image

If I had to choose one hero image that features my project, it would \be frame 384 as it is the moment where I metaphorically show the character’s paranoid state of mind.

Animatic vs Animation Shots

Looking back at my animatic sketches, I can say that I managed to maintain the main essence of my ideas. In addition, I also gave my story some background context by adding some furniture and elements into my scene.

Further Comments

For next week, apart from polishing the animation and working on the feedback, I will focus on adding some color and lighting into the scene. In addition, I will also include some special audio effects and background music.