Donatella's 3D Computer Animation Blog

My 3D Computer Animation Progress
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1.9 Week 9 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 9: Lip-Syncing

Introduction

This week, Nick gave us personalized feedback on our lip-sync animation. In order to improve my work, he suggested to go over again the skin weights and smooth the transitions. So before creating my phonemes’ blend shapes and working on my lip-sync animation, I painted again my skin weights.

Part 1: Paint Skin Weights

Skin Weights (head, jaw, neck)

This time, I made sure to smoothen the skin influence on the edge.

In this sense, instead of only having black and white parts on my face rig, now I have also grey ones.

Part 2: Phonemes

After painting the skin weights, I moved on to my lip-sync animation.

The first thing I had to do, was to analyze the phrase my character was saying in order to determine which phonemes I had to model.

Phrase: Oooh, that’s a bingo! Is that the way you say it? “That’s a bingo?”

Then, I used Gary C. Martin’s article on american character animator Preston Blair’s phoneme series as a reference for my animation.

Phoneme A,I

Reference for Phonemes A,I
Blend Shape A,I

Phoneme O

Reference for Phoneme O
Blend Shape O

Phoneme U

Reference for Phoneme U
Blend Shape U

Phoneme B

Reference for Phoneme B
Blend Shape B

Phoneme N,S,Y

Reference for Phonemes N,S,Y
Blend Shape N,S,Y

Here, I would like to point out that Christoph Waltz has a tendency to show more his teeth in the upper jaw. For this reason, the teeth in the lower jaw are hidden.

The Rest Phonemes

Reference for the Rest of the Phonemes
Blend Shape Rest of Phonemes

The Problem with Phoneme TH

Reference for Phoneme TH

When I wanted to create the blend shape for the phoneme TH, I realized that the rig we were working with did not have any tongue.

For this reason, I replaced that phoneme with another one to fill in that sound, and hope that this week we can learn how to import a tongue to our rig.

Part 3: Lip-Syncing

Outcome 1

Even though I managed to create several blend shapes, instead of using Preston Blair’s phonemes as reference, I am going to focus more on Christoph Waltz.

I am planning to redo the lip sync animation, focusing specifically on his smile and facial expression.

Lip Syncing – Final Animation

Conclusion

Having reference pictures of the phonemes was an essential tool to create the different blend shapes. However, they can only be considered as a general guide due to the fact that every person has their distinctive way of talking. For this reason, the most challenging thing was to adapt them in order to visually communite Hans Landa’s face expressions.

Reference List

  • Blair, P. (1994) Cartoon Animation. Walter Foster Publishing: California
  • Martin, G. C. (1996-2007) Gary C. Martin CG Imagery Development. Available at: http://www.garycmartin.com/phoneme_examples.html (Accessed: 5 December 2022).
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1.9 Week 9 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 9: Body Mechanics Spline

Introduction

After shooting our own reference videos for our body mechanics animation, we already started animating our rig.

Body Mechanics – Animation Progress

First Outcome

In my first animation, the upper body of my rig is barely animated and for this reason it appears to be extremely stiff.

Second Outcome

In my second animation, the hips are moving much smoother than the first version.

However, the chest of the character still appears to be very stiff and furthermore, the foot is sliding on the floor.

Third Outcome

In my third animation, I can say that the upper body is slowly becoming more flexible than before.

However, I still need to keep working on the rotation of the upper body.

Fourth Outcome

For my fourth attempt, I decided to delete the arms of my rig in order to focus on the animation of the body.

I learned that I first needed to polish the body animation in order to go on with the arms animation.

Fifth Outcome

Finally, I managed to get a smooth animation of the upper body.

In other words, the chest, abdomen and hips are forming a smooth “C” shape while they are rotating.

Now that the body is animated, it is time to start with the arms.

Sixth Outcome

After animating the arms, I realized that the timing was not going so well.

In addition, in some parts it looks as if they are being dragged from side to side, rather than swinging in a more natural way.

Furthermore, I was pointed out to rotate more the feet when they leave the ground.

Seventh Outcome

Besides from fixing the feet and arm animation, I tried to increase the rotation of the head to achieve an overlapping action.

However, I pushed it too far and now I need to reduce the rotation.

Body Mechanics – Final Animation

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1.8 Week 8 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 8: Body Mechanics Planning

Introduction

This week, we got an overview on how to record reference videos since we are going to need them for our body mechanics animation.

Body Mechanics – Planning

For my body mechanics animation, I wanted to create a short and simple animated dance. Since I never had the experience of recording my own reference videos, I decided it was a great opportunity to practice that.

First, I recorded myself dancing and then I sketched the key poses of my animation.

1. Reference Video

What I learned in our lesson was that it is essential to have reference videos from different perspectives.

Despite the fact that I only had limited space to record my reference video, I managed to position several cameras in my room.

However, what I failed to do was to film from a 3/4 perspective, rather than from a front or side view.

2. Key Poses

After shooting my reference video, I sketched the key poses of my animation.

It was actually very useful to have visual references from different perspectives.

Now that I have my reference videos and also key poses, I can import them into my Maya file. In this way, I can start posing my character more effectively.

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1.8 Week 8 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 8: Lip-Syncing

Introduction

This week we are getting familiar with lip syncing animations and in order to animate our face rig, we have to add several facial expressions.

For my lip syncing animation, I decided to use as a reference part of a conversation held by Hans Landa from the movie Inglorious Basterds.

Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa – Inglorious Basterds

Part 1: Character Rigging

Christoph Waltz – References for Rigging

In order to create a lip-syncing animation of Christoph Waltz, first I wanted to customize my face rig.

I used some reference pictures (front and side view) of the actor in order to analyze the shape of his face.

The shapes of his face that caught my attention were:

  • Plane Face (forehead and chin are aligned).
  • Straight & Sloped Forehead
  • Cleft Chin
  • Wrinkles around his mouth
  • Puffy eyes

Even though I am aware that my rig doesn’t entirely resemble the actor, I can say that I used many of his facial features as a reference in order to customize my rig.

Part 2: Lip-Syncing

In order to start my lip-syncing animation, I had to first import the video and audio into my Maya file.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro to export the video into frames (.jpg sequence) and also the audio (.wav).

After importing the video and audio into my file, for this week we had to animate our character rig like a puppet.

In order words, we needed to analyze the audio waveform in order to determine when our rig was opening and closing its mouth.

Part 3: Work in Progress

In order to create a more realistic lip-syncing animation, I am going to add over the upcoming weeks more facial expressions.

Not only does the mouth move when the character is talking, but also the eyebrows, cheeks and forehead.

For this reason, I am going to analyze what types of expressions I need to add in the Blend Shapes panel in order to improve the animation.

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2.8 Week 8 Design for Animation

Week 8: Literature Review

Introduction

This week we got some advice on how to write introductions and conclusions. Whereas the introduction should define the research topic and inform the reader the purpose of the critical report, the conclusion is supposed to describe the outcomes of the research.

Another topic we talked about was the literature review, which should present the sources and also the concepts we are going to critically analyze in our research.

Since I have already chosen the academic papers and bibliography list I would like to explore on my report, I can now start working in my literature review.

Literature Review

What follows next is a brief description of the concepts I am going to analyze in my literature report.

  • Performative Gender: In her studies of gender and performative acts Butler (1988, p. 523) states that gender is not predetermined and it can be perceived as the reflection of cultural and sociological traits.
  • Action Heroine: In his studies of gender Brown (1996, p. 53) argues that the female character can be defined as the action heroine when she has an active role. However, when they fight alongside men this can be interpreted by some critics as a gender transvestite.
  • Affective Involvement: In his studies of digital game involvement Calleja (2011, p. 135) explains that the player can get an emotional engagement with the character due to the absorbing nature of games.
  • Purpose of Story: In his studies of game writing Bateman (2021, pp. 6-7) describes there are three techniques to create a connection between the character and the player: immersion, reward and identification. The first one is linked to how the fictional game setting becomes the new reality of the player. The second technique is related to how the player is awarded after overcoming challenges and achieving in-game goals, which should motivate him to keep on playing. The third one has to do with how the player identifies himself with the game protagonist.
  • Identification: In her studies of sexuality and gender in the gaming field Shaw (2015, pp. 72-73) argues that players can establish two types of connections with the game character. The first one is linked to the physical aspects and the second one to the emotional one.

Reference List

· Bateman, C. (2021) Game Writing Narrative Skills for Videogames. 2nd edn. London: Bloomsbury.

· Brown, J. (1996) Gender and the Action Heroine: Hardbodies and the “Point of No Return”. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893 (Accessed: 29 November 2022)

· Butler, J. (1988) Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893 (Accessed: 29 November 2022).

· Calleja, G. (2011) In-Game from immersion to incorporation. London: The MIT Press

· Shaw, A. (2015) Gaming at the Edge. Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture. London: University of Minnesota Press

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1.7 Week 7 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 7: Walk Cycle Animation

Introduction

After getting feedback on the planning of our walk cycle animation, we started animating the rig.

Walk Cycle Animation

Outcome 1 (Blocking)

My first animation did not go as planned because I accidentally animated the master controller of the rig.

For this reason, it looks as it the character is sliding instead of walking.

Outcome 2 (Blocking)

Even though my second attempt looks better than my first one, the feet of my character are still sliding.

I definitely need to keep working on keeping the feet on the ground.

Outcome 3 (Blocking)

For my third animation, I got rid of the stretch and squash deformation in order to focus on the position of the feet.

I can say that I already have the key poses of my character and it is time to change the animation into spline.

Outcome 4 (Spline)

In order to change the animation from blocking into spline, I had to edit the values on the graph editor.

What caught my attention was that the feet were sinking into the ground during the contact positions.

For this reason, I am going to need to fix the foot and toe rotation of my character.

Outcome 5 (Spline)

The walk cycle is finally looking much better.

Nonetheless, I was pointed out that I need to adjust the number of frames during the foot rotation.

Final Walk Cycle Animation

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1.7 Week 7 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 7: Blend Shapes

Introduction

This week we learned how to add blend shapes in order to create facial expressions on our rig. These expressions are going to be extremely useful when making our lip-sync animation. We also learned about the concept of phonemes that will help us animate when the character is talking and pronouncing words.

Blink

Independent Blinking

To start with, we animated independent blinking eyes.

Frown

Frown

We also added a frown expression onto the character.

Squint

Squint

Then, we also modified the eyes, so that our character can squint.

Conclusion

The most important lesson I learned this week, was that we have to pay attention on how our face moves as a whole. In order to make a realistic lip-sync animation, we need to understand the relation between the different parts of our face. In this sense, not only are we to animate the mouth independently, but also in conjunction with the other parts of the face.

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2.7 Week 7 Design for Animation

Week 7: Bibliography

Introduction

This week, we worked in groups, met the people from the VFX course and shared our research topics. We also talked about which books and academic papers we were going to use as a reference.

Tentative Research Topic

Tentative Title: How game narrative and character development in the videogame Last of Us can play an important role in gender representation.

In other words, I would like to analyze which key elements of the game narrative (as in purpose and structure) and character development (for instance, traits, personality, appearance, gender and sexuality) in the Last of Us can help to achieve gender representation in videogames.

Tentative Bibliography

  • Bateman, C. (2021) Game Writing Narrative Skills for Videogames. 2nd edn. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Brown, J. (1996) Gender and the Action Heroine: Hardbodies and the “Point of No Return”. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893 (Accessed: 29 November 2022).
  • Butler, J. (1988) Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893 (Accessed: 29 November 2022).
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1.6 Week 6 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 6: Face Rig

Introduction

This week we learned how to create blend shapes on a face rig in order to create different facial expressions. We also used joints in order to animate the mouth opening and closing. In order to change the influence, we painted skin weights over the head, mouth and neck.

Part 1: References

Dark Elves – The Elder Scrolls

The first part of our assignment was to customize our face rig and change the shape of the face.

I decided I wanted to create my version of an elf and therefore, I looked up for some reference pictures.

I analyzed the key features of those creatures in The Elder Scrolls game and found some similarities on their face construction. The vast majority of the elves have:

  • Long faces
  • Sunken cheeks
  • Pointy ears
  • Pointy nose
  • Upturn eyes

Part 2: Blend Shapes

Blend Shapes

After analyzing the key features of the elves, I created two blend shapes for my face rig (one for the face and another one for the teeth).

For each part of the face we wanted to modify, we added a new target and therefore I ended up with one for the mouth, ears, nose, cheeks, eyes, chin, eyebrows, skull and teeth.

Face Rig: Before and after

Generic Face Rig vs Customized Face Rig

Part 3: Create Joints

Face Rig Joints

The first thing we had to do in order to animate the mouth opening and closing was to create joints for the face. I ended up having six joints:

  • Base neck
  • Mid neck
  • Head rotation
  • Jaw rotation
  • Upper Jaw
  • Lower Jaw

Part 4: Paint Skin Weights

Skin Weights (head, jaw, neck)

Then, we used the paint skin weights tool in order to change the influcence of the movement for the following parts of the face:

  • Head
  • Neck
  • Jaw

I learned that we could increase but also decrease the influence using the brush tool, and so the parts of the face that were painted in white had the most influence.

Part 5: Mouth Opening & Closing

Mouth Opening & Closing

Part 6: Texturing & Lighting

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1.6 Week 6 3D Animation Fundamentals

Week 6: Walk Cycle Planning

Introduction

This week, we had an overview on the walk cycle technique and we were asked to read The Animator’s Survival Kit. We were given a rig and our task for now is to plan our animation.

Walk Cycle – Planning

After reading the chapter on walk cycles, the first thing I had to do was to define the timing of the animation.

Then, I needed to sketch the key poses of my rig:

  • Contact Position
  • Down Position
  • Pass Position
  • Up Position

In addition, I had to take into account the minimum and maximum height the walk was going to have.

Furthermore, I also thought about the rotation the rig was going to have during the different positions and also the stretch and squash deformation.