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

Category: 1.1 Week 1

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1.1 Week 1 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 1: Intro to Maya

Introduction

On the first week, we got familiarized with Maya’s user interface, toolbars and key controls. We also learned how to create polygon primitives and how to edit the amount of subdivisions in order to modify our shapes smoothly using faces, edges and vertices.

References

I decided I wanted to model a Susuwatari, which is a small and furry spirit that lives in the darkness and appears in Hayao Miyazaki’s movies.

In this way, I practiced how to create polygons, snap elements together and edit colors and textures of materials.

I also had to take into account what type of textures, cameras and lights I used so that the Arnold renderer would recognize them.

3D Modelling

Render of a Susuwatari
Susuwatari placed on a HDR Background (https://polyhaven.com/a/fireplace)

3D Breakdown

Extrusion of faces

My Susuwatari is holding a star shaped object and in order to model it, I edited the number of subdivisions of a sphere and extruded different vertices to create irregular patterns of spikes.

Categories
1.1 Week 1 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 1: Bouncing Ball

Introduction

This week we had an introduction to the 12 principles of animation and we were given the task to plan and animate a bouncing ball going from left to right.

Bouncing Ball – Planning

Since this was my first time planning an animation, I learned that I had to take many things into account:

  • The position of the ball in the X and Y axis.
  • The number of frames it takes the ball to actually move.
  • The speed of the ball is given by the number of frames. In this way, when the animation is slower, we need more frames, whereas when it is quicker, we need less frames.
  • The stretch and squash of the ball when it is bouncing.

Bouncing Ball Progress

First Outcome:

My first outcome was not so successful because at some parts the ball did not actually hit the ground.

Even though I added some stretch and squash to the ball, I had some issues with the timing.

Finally, the ball looks as if it is sinking into the ground at the end.

Second Outcome:

For my second draft, I needed to change the view from perspective to left.

The animation turned out better than my first attempt, however, I need to keep on working on the arc movement at the end.

In addition, I may add some tiny bounces at the end because the ball falls to the ground abruptly.

Third Outcome:

For my third draft, I worked on adjusting the squash effect taking into account that the first bounce is the one with the most significant squash effect.

Furthermore, I added a last bounce at the end and made the animation longer so that the ball kept rolling some frames more.

Fourth Outcome:

The animation of the bouncing ball seems to be smoother, however, there are still some stretch frames I need to fix.

Bouncing Ball – Final Animation