Project conclusions
Its been a while since the last post, but now its update time and first to follow is the conclusion of the digital acting module. And the first of these three assignments we were given, is Project 01 - Heavy lift animation.
This is the first assignment we got and have had plenty of time to do. So this one is the one I have spent most time with.
Its been a while since the last post, but now its update time and first to follow is the conclusion of the digital acting module. And the first of these three assignments we were given, is Project 01 - Heavy lift animation.
This is the first assignment we got and have had plenty of time to do. So this one is the one I have spent most time with.
Project text
"Create a full-body, final, personality lift animation using any rig of your choosing.
The lift should be of a spherical shaped object, although does not have to be completely round.
The character animation should reflect that the lifted object to be VERY heavy in weight."
"Create a full-body, final, personality lift animation using any rig of your choosing.
The lift should be of a spherical shaped object, although does not have to be completely round.
The character animation should reflect that the lifted object to be VERY heavy in weight."
In the Beginning...
To start, I would like to refer to my second bloggpost. This is what I started out with. And you will find my thoughts and feelings about the feel and look of what I wanted for this animation there. I see in retrospect now how awfull it looks now, compared to this new version :P
Then again, in six months time I probably think this looks as crappy as I think the first try do now XD
Which is a good thing!
To start, I would like to refer to my second bloggpost. This is what I started out with. And you will find my thoughts and feelings about the feel and look of what I wanted for this animation there. I see in retrospect now how awfull it looks now, compared to this new version :P
Then again, in six months time I probably think this looks as crappy as I think the first try do now XD
Which is a good thing!
Planning
I have to admit, for this one, no particular planning was utilized. I had several ideas going for other lifts, but in the end, I found myself wanting to "complete" the first animation.
I actually started three or four other animations, and even tried drawing up some quick storyboards, but ultimately I decided to just complete this one. I like it, its funny and was a good exercise in the use of exessive squash and stretch, and not to mention the limits of the rig.
I have to admit, for this one, no particular planning was utilized. I had several ideas going for other lifts, but in the end, I found myself wanting to "complete" the first animation.
I actually started three or four other animations, and even tried drawing up some quick storyboards, but ultimately I decided to just complete this one. I like it, its funny and was a good exercise in the use of exessive squash and stretch, and not to mention the limits of the rig.
I could probably talk a lot of crap about this and that in planning and references, but truth be told, this was mostly just straight ahead and dont look back animating, so there is really not much to tell other than whats been told in the mentioned journalpost.
Keyframes
Like I said, I mostly go straight ahead in my animation, and one of the pitfalls of that is that you easily can get lost in the chaos of malplaced and messy keys. Though I do have a tendency to get a bit messy, I still have a general order of placement and keylengths and so forth.
Like I said, I mostly go straight ahead in my animation, and one of the pitfalls of that is that you easily can get lost in the chaos of malplaced and messy keys. Though I do have a tendency to get a bit messy, I still have a general order of placement and keylengths and so forth.
Rough to smooth
Not much to say but that even though I worked on "top" of a previous draft, most keys has been deleted and redone numerous times, to get a better and more fluent look. In the creation of this little animation I mostly used the smooth curves in the curve editor, sometimes i change a bit back and forth between the step and smooth to get a better view of how things relate. I know people say that the step keys are kreat, but for some reason i feel more comfy with the smooth curves.
Not much to say but that even though I worked on "top" of a previous draft, most keys has been deleted and redone numerous times, to get a better and more fluent look. In the creation of this little animation I mostly used the smooth curves in the curve editor, sometimes i change a bit back and forth between the step and smooth to get a better view of how things relate. I know people say that the step keys are kreat, but for some reason i feel more comfy with the smooth curves.
Not to drag this out, I'll just say that that the road from blocky to smooth has been a long and arduous one. I have said it before, I am more of a drawing/3D creation guy, rather than animator. Though I love animation, I feel my skillset might lie in a different area ^^
Still, I feel I did a decent job with this.
Still, I feel I did a decent job with this.
But I digress, now, about the road from block to smooth, there is not much to say. Due to my way of working things usually just work. That does not mean its been easy. It takes a lot of time to find the right timings and playing in the curve editor. My animation skills are not as refined as I would like it to be, therefore it seems my work suffer from it, timewise, and qualitywise. I dont really know how to place keys and where/when in the timeline, nor how to adjust curves to best suit my needs. Even though I could study up more myself, I have to blame the school partly for this, for it seems to be no animation tutoring, in this animation directed class..
Then again, I suppose this is something that gets easier and more intuitive with years of practice :P
Then again, I suppose this is something that gets easier and more intuitive with years of practice :P
In the end...
...here at the bottom, I dont have much to say. I had a lot of fun with this project, and a lot of grief. One of those is the fact that it was a bitch animating the rock in accordance to his hands. My fellow student, InsaneTK, mentioned I should have put a link constraint on the hands BEFORE animating, which in hindsight could have been very usefull. I would also like to reflect upon the time spent making it, and imo, I spent way to much. Some time has been wasted, but a helluva lot has been put into this, even if it might not look like it (depending on your standards is suppose..:).
All I can think of is left now, is to conclude this matter, and locking it up in the "old" folder, then move on to other things!
...here at the bottom, I dont have much to say. I had a lot of fun with this project, and a lot of grief. One of those is the fact that it was a bitch animating the rock in accordance to his hands. My fellow student, InsaneTK, mentioned I should have put a link constraint on the hands BEFORE animating, which in hindsight could have been very usefull. I would also like to reflect upon the time spent making it, and imo, I spent way to much. Some time has been wasted, but a helluva lot has been put into this, even if it might not look like it (depending on your standards is suppose..:).
All I can think of is left now, is to conclude this matter, and locking it up in the "old" folder, then move on to other things!