Character Animation - Project 2

For the second animation project I animated a character to a sound clip provided. Below is my final animation:

Below are the exploratory thumbnails, storyboard, and action breakdowns:

Below is the progress I made with each pass:

Blocking

2nd Pass

3rd Pass

4th Pass

In this project, I learned how to lip sync which is a vital skill in animation. I also learned about the importance of overlapping actions and follow through. Overall, I'm very happy with how this project turned out, even if there are some small things I would tweak.

Character Animation - Project 1

This month I was in the character animation class and we had two projects to work on in the four weeks.

Final

For the first project, I chose the scenario "your character walks up to lean against a tree (or sit down on a bench) and a spider drops down and scares him." Below are my exploratory thumbnails, storyboard, and action breakdown for the scene.

Below is the progress I made daily on the animation:

Blocking

2nd Pass

For the 2nd pass I adjusted my camera angle to improve the horizon line and to make Antsy take up more space in the frame. I also strengthened some of my weaker poses and began to add breakdowns between the actions.

3rd Pass

At this point, the walk was basically done and I added anticipations to the actions.

4th Pass

In this pass, I worked on improving my weak anticipations and adding them where they were much needed. In the final animation at the top of this post, you can see that there were a lot of anticipations missing and I had to work to improve the final pose.

This project taught me a lot about animation and showed me what I still needed to work on in order to improve my skills. In this project, I learned the proper poses of a jump, but I still had some trouble with the landing since he was falling. I also learned about the importance of anticipation, which was always lacking in my animations before I started this class. Overall, there are still a few things that I would fix in this project, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Character Rigging: Rigging Job

I found a job as a Technical Artist (Rigging) for Telltale Games in San Rafael, California.

Link:  https://telltale.com/jobs/?nl=1&jvi=oCyt3fwq,Job&jvs=Indeed&jvk=Job

Here are the responsibilities and qualifications they require (from the link above):

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with Animators to design, create, test and maintain character rigs
• Skin character models efficiently with an eye for quality deformation
• Develop character rigging pipeline tools for deployment to other team members
• Troubleshoot pre-existing character rig setups/scripts
• Develop new techniques and processes to solve character production challenges
• Work with Character Artists to create topology guidelines that meet technical needs
• Work with production management to prioritize tasks
• Maintain coding standards of the Tech Art team and submit code for peer reviews

The skills and experience you’ll need:

• Expert Autodesk Maya proficiency
• MEL, Python proficiency
• Experience with setting up production pipelines while being able to follow guidelines
• Self-motivation and taking initiative
• Ability to collaborate with multiple teams such as Character Art, Animation, Engineering, and Production
• In depth knowledge of Maya, preferably 3-5 years of production experience

And you’ll really get our attention if you have:

• C++ experience

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Most of what's part of the qualifications for this job have been covered in CRI to a certain extent. From this list, CRI has taught me how to skin character models, create rigging tools, and what topology is needed for certain rigs. Also, CRI introduced me to coding, MEL, and Python. The structure of the class has also taught me how to be self-motivated and how to troubleshoot issues with my rigs. For this job, it seems that I would have to learn more about coding and how production pipelines work. These qualifications seem to be in line with most job listings for rigging, besides the fact that some companies require experience with 3ds Max. Overall, CRI has prepared me greatly to gain more experience in rigging and to be fully qualified for a job like this.

Visual Development

Final Render

This is my final project for the Visual Development course this month. In this scene I UV and textured the pulley and scraper, and added textures and stickers to both the wall and glass bottle. A useful tool I learned this month was how to utilize the mila_material. The way you can create multiple layers on the material made adding stickers and posters extremely easy to accomplish. A tool I explored on my own was the program Nuke. We did not need to use Nuke for the class, but I decided to check it out and play around with the program so I could get familiar with it. Overall, I'm happy with how my render turned out and I'm excited to apply what I've learned from this class to my future projects.

Below are my light render and texture layouts for the pulley and scraper.

Lighting Render

Pulley Texture

Scraper Texture

Character Design and Creation

In this class, we were tasked with blocking out multiple characters then choosing two of them to finalize throughout the month. In this project, I found that using ZSpheres worked best for blocking out characters and establishing their silhouette. Dynamesh did not work for me in the block out phase because it was a lot more difficult to establish solid and smooth forms.

Asset 1 Reference and Block Out

Asset 2 Reference and Block Out

Once the basic silhouette was established, we had to separate objects, create clothing and push secondary forms. This was a lot harder for me than it should have been because I already had major clothing edges in my block out which caused me to get odd-shaped extractions. What I will do differently next time I model a character is make sure that my block outs don't have excess detail so I won't have to backtrack and smooth the shape when trying to extract clothing.

 Asset 1 - Secondary Forms

Asset 2 - Secondary Forms

Finally, the last two weeks of class were spent working on secondary details, props, and hair. The only major issue I encountered was towards the end when importing Asset 1 into Maya. After decimating the pieces and importing, some pieces of the hair had black spots due to back-faces overlapping with front-faces. I attempted to fix this by building up and moving the back-faces, but unfortunately this would ruin the entire object since there was not much thickness to it. Fortunately, I avoided this problem with the Asset 2 hair by extracting thicker pieces.

 Asset 1 - Final

Asset 2 - Final

Besides the black spots in the Asset 1 hair (which is only a problem in Maya, not Zbrush), I am surprised and extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish in this class. I see small issues like rugged edges and facial features that could have been shaped better, and the hair detail is also a bit blocky. Overall though, I think this was a successful project and I hope to avoid these issues in my future projects.

Project and Portfolio 2: Final Project and Reflection

Here is my final project for my second portfolio class this month:

REFLECTION

After a month of working on this animation, I can say that I have learned a lot and I am proud of this work. Right at the start of this project, I instantly began to learn new techniques that have aided me in improving my craft. In the first week, we were told to focus on only planning and creating reference for what were were going to animate. I found the amount of time given to complete this to be a bit much and I began animating in the middle of creating reference. This turned out to be a bad idea because most of my key poses were not strong enough and needed tweaking. This obstacle was a valuable learning experience for me because I realized the importance of reference and thoroughly planning before animating. Another aspect of animation that I learned during this month was how to convey weight in poses. When I came into this class with only a month of animation experience, I did not realize the importance of contrapposto and shifting weight during movement. After finishing all of the key poses and breakdowns, I noticed that my character was stiff but I did not know how to fix that problem. The instructor then pointed out that the hips did not move enough nor did it show enough weight to be a believable pose. He then showed me how to improve my breakdowns by moving the hips and getting his whole body to move during the actions. With the help I received, I was able to significantly improve my animation and succeed in making my character believable. If I were to scrap this project and start over, I would plan out my actions more thoroughly and pay closer attention to the weight shift of the character. All in all, I learned a great amount this month and these new lessons have helped me create an animation that I can be proud of.

3D Animation: Final Basic Walk

For the final project in the class, we had to build upon our walk cycle and create a moving walk plus a simple action. In order to do this, we learned how to import out walk cycle and make the ant move in space by adjusting the graph editor. We also learned how to plan a simple action and how to utilize overlapping action to make the animation not seem robotic. By using what I have learned throughout the month, I was able to create a convincing walk and a solid simple action.

Blocking out the key frames

Final Animation

3D Animation: Walk Cycle

Final Animation

In this project, we had to create a walking cycle for an ant character. For this project, we learned the poses of a walk cycle and how to have good curve progression in the graph editor. In this project, I learned how to utilize the graph editor to my advantage and it helped improve my walk cycle significantly.

Contact and Passing Poses

Contact, Passing, Up, and Down Poses (Stepped)

3D Animation: Smash Ball

Planning

Final Animation

In this project, we had to animate a ball in a video game. For this, we had to learn overlap, drag, and follow-through as well as apply what we've learned from the bouncing ball project. In this project, I was able to figure out how to create a convincing roll on my own by rotating the ball and keying specific frames. This helped my animation look more realistic.

3D Animation: Bouncing Ball

In this project, we had to animated a ball bouncing and slowing to a stop. In order to complete this project, we learned about squash and stretch and built upon the principles taught for the previous project. We emphasized timing and spacing in order to create a realistic animation.

3D Animation: Car Race

In this project, we had to animated cars moving from one side of the screen to the other at different times and speeds. In order to complete this project, we learned about anticipation, timing, and slow-in/slow-out. We also learned the basics of animating in Maya which included how to key frames a create Maya in-betweens.

2D Animation

This is my final flip book for my 2D Animation class. This was an ongoing project where we had the freedom to animate whatever we want in a flip book we were given. The main principle used here was straight ahead action since we were drawing frame by frame instead of planning the animation pose to pose. Timing is also another principle that was required to make sure that the movements were natural and made sense as the viewer is flipping the book. Also, I used principle of arcs when dealing with the main character's arms, as well as overlapping action to make her arm movements look realistic.

This is my bouncing ball with a string attached to it. The idea is to show how gravity affects a ball and also how a string would react with a moving ball. The principles used here are squash and stretch for the ball and follow through for the string. First I animated the ball using pose to pose, then went back and attached the string and animated it using pose to pose.
(Disclaimer: this video was not taken on a professional camera setup made for animation and is the reason why the background moves)

Art 2: Character Design

In the final week of Art 2, we learned how to create an effective character design, utilizing silhouette and unique characteristics. For the final project, we were tasked with creating an original character that fit the theme of "Hellantis" (a blend of Hell and Atlantis). For my character, I chose to turn the theme on its head and create something nobody would instantly think of when they hear Hellantis. I decided to make Hellantis the name of a punk rock band who originated in Atlantis, led by a humanoid demon named Dallon. Below is my turnaround sheet for my character and the maquette I sculpted in the final week of class.

Art 2: Animal Anatomy and Texture

In the third week of Art 2 back in January, we studied animal anatomy and used what we learned to create our own mythical creature. For my competency, I chose to blend a squirrel, a bear, and a bat together to create a unique creature. You can see my creature with texture and its skeleton below.

Art 2: Human Anatomy and Proportion

In the second week of Art 2 back in January, we learned about human anatomy and how to properly draw and realistic and proportionate body. We worked with gesture drawing and captured actions and movements in quick sketches. For the week's competency, we had to convey two different emotions through gesture drawings. Below are my gestures that convey action and tragedy.

Art 2: Atmospheric Perspective

In the first week of Art 2 back in January, we built upon what we learned in Art 1 and were introduced to atmospheric perspective. For the first major project, we were tasked with adding value to our perspective drawings from Art 1 or creating an entirely new scene. While I thought my hallway drawing was good for showing linear perspective, I didn't believe it was a good composition to follow through with and add atmospheric perspective to. Instead, I created a sci-fi scene that showcases both linear and atmospheric perspective. You can see the final product below.

Art 1: Perspective

In our final week of Art 1 back in November, we were introduced to linear perspective. We learned how to properly use 1, 2, and 3 point perspective in order to create the illusion of depth. For the final competency of the class, we created a perspective-based line drawing that we would then add value to in Art 2. I chose to draw the hallway outside of my apartment and you can see the final line drawing below.

Art 1: Value

In the third week of Art 1 back in November, we built off of what we learned about line and began to practice adding value to our work. After learning how to manipulate light and dark in order to create the illusion of depth. For the week 3 competency, we were tasked with adding value to our line composition created in week 2. Below is my completed still life.

Art 1: Line

In the second week of Art 1 back in November, we learned about line work and the effects line weight when trying to convey and image without value. We created our own still life setups and below is my line drawing of this composition where I utilized the line techniques we learned.

Art 1: Composition

In the first week of Art 1 back in November, we learned how to use composition and how composition helps make a piece of art more visually interesting. In this competency piece, I used the "Rule of Thirds" to help the viewer focus on the still-life in the center of the paper.