Evaluation

I've learnt loads during this project of developing my skills in character animation. I am happy that i have come to this point where i am capable of animating a character for my future production. I learnt again the animation principles which is important when animating and the maya Graph editor which was difficult and still is.

I found this unit very useful building up on my skills towards my final animated film.

Last Walk Test

Richard williams walk cycle sheet

Screen Shot in Maya

My Walk cycle Test 

Graph Editor

Maya Graph Editor: 

I found out that taking on board being a good character animator, that the Maya Graph Editor is really important if you want to get excellent results of your animation.

I also found out that the graph editor will be my main tool for manipulating the shape and timing of animation curves. I can edit the timing and basic tangent types in the Time slider, but the graph editor is the best place to view the animation curve's shape and use tangents to edit that shape. I believe i am getting a better understanding of it slowly, of how the curve shape works, but realistically it going to take years in for me to master this. 

My first test i did for learning the Graph Editor, was using a cube and animating it around, seeing how the animation curves react in maya when i animate. I used some animation principles such as slow-in slow-out, squash and stretch and looking at the timing most of all. 

The Graph Editor is really stressful to get to grips with for the first time. It took a while for me to understand a little about what the animation curves shape and the use of the tangents.

Video Footage: Lazy Joey Walk

Joey is describe as a lazy kind of guy, So i made a video footage as reference  of joey walking Lazy. I thought this was a good example of the walk that i might use.

Video Footage: Joey angry at the Mac

Here I broke down my video footage into key poses, analysing the timing and gestures of myself.  i found pretty much all the animation principles in this one small video footage that i made which was very useful indeed.

Video Footage: Joey angry

Scene 2 Shot 12: Joey is still not getting he's nuts, and is really angry abusing the machine Now.

Here I took a video footage of myself acting like Joey at the vending machine when he is angry, abusing the vending mac, stressed and angry (highly).

Here again the look into its line of action, its timing, body movements and facial expressions.

Here i did a small animatic of joey getting angry using my video footage.

Vending Mac: Animation Test.

Shot3: The interactive vending mac comes out from under the ground.(entrance)

Here i decided to do a test from my production (knockout nutz) of the vending mac coming out of the Ground. I wanted to make the entrance of the vending mac appealing to the audience. I was thinking about using about using exaggeration on the vending mac.

Screen shots

                             Test in Maya 

Video Footage: Ash walking

Live action Footage: Joey at he's Desk.

Here I looked into a scene from my production Knockout Nutz. 

Scene1 shot 2:  Joey is at he’s desk late at night working away on the computer. He finds him self stressed, Depressed and Angry.

For this scene I was trying to picture how joey would be at the desk late at night working away like a robot. So i decided to put myself in he's shoes, by acting out how i would be.

After Filming myself i did an review of my footage. First i found out that i look like an idiot, second it was pretty useful to see what i am trying to do towards the character of joey. It Helped a lot to see the key poses, body language, facial expressions and most of all the Timing.

Key areas of performance:

-Facial Expressions

-Hand movements

-Posture

-Timing 

-Appeal

Here i took key shots from my video footage and looked into the gestures of the character (Joey) how the   arms and hands move, Its facial Expressions and body language which is really in important in this shot.

Here I did a test in maya, where i created an similar environment of how the office would be, and downloaded a pre-rig of an character.

I took down the Key poses of the character and then put in some of the in-betweens.

Here i was looking into what shots would be useful towards this scene of telling the narrative. I know when camera animating the shots is going to be important towards the storytelling of the narrative.

This is a test of joey that i did in maya, him working late at night.

Advert Reference Videos

I researched on the internet to try and analyse specific adverts that matched our idea of our advert. I looked at the pacing and editing of the shots as well the narrative storytelling. I also looked at how the product is promoted within an advert, also its connection to the story of the advert and the characters performance. I believe these are valuable factors of how to successfully promote an advert.

Exploring Pre-Rigged characters

These are some useful Links for downloading Character pre-Rigs for animation.

                                                 22+ of the most fun rigs for maya

                                                               Animation Buffet

After looking into arrange of different rigs, I thought that this Character Rig would do towards using. I found this rig easier to animate then a few others. Looking into arrange of animation rig kind of helped me towards how I would want my character to be rigged for animating.

 

These two were quite good and easy to handle.

Facial Expressions test

Here i looked into some facial expression. i found out that quite a few of my shots are going to be of the face (Joey and Ash). so i decided to do a little experiment on animating the face, looking at its facial movements of the characters mouth, eyes, eye browns, nose and head.

After looking at the you tube video tutorial i decided to do a small experiment using a pre-rig character of a head. Animating the mouth, eyes, noses, eye browns was pretty difficult to get use to making sure everything flowed through.

Here is a small Test i did side by side with the animatic.

Joey: Character Design

This is the Character Design and Facial Expressions of Joey. I designed the character of joey, then got Shuhel to Draw it so that the consistims of the drawings will look the same.

Here are some Facial expressions of Joey: happy, sad, bored, angry, mad....etc.

Characters Descriptions

Joey Character Bio:

Joey is the primary character in this animation. He is a typical IT office worker and is a very unassuming person. Much of his day is spent in a cubicle office in front of a computer, typing away like a drone. He doesn't have many friends and his social life is almost non - existant.

He is a very short tempered and miserable old guy. Below are some of his character traits and description of his appearence.

Personality: Boring, Miserable, Depressing, Angry, Short Tempered, Sluggish, Lazy and Incompetent.

Appearence: Chubby, Out of Shape, grizzled and full of stubble on his face.

Vending Machine Character Bio:

Known as MAC which stands for Machine Automated Central. MAC is a very systematic and interactive machine. He is very much a simple but quite dull artificial intelligence character. With a male computer voice, MAC requires its customers to state a specific code word before purchasing a snack, the code word is - Please. This is a new feature of the machine and is specifically designed to encourage more human beings to be more respectful and well mannered. In an emergency, MAC comes built in with a self defence mechanism in order to protect itself from vandalism, assault and fraud. It is also connected to a secure wide area alarm system. MAC's primary function is to serve snacks on a daily basis and interact with its customers.

Mac's character traits and appearence are described below.

Personaliy: Direct, Respectful, Sophisticated, Interactive, Intelligent and Insightful.

Appearence: Like a general Vending Machine, Abstract, Computer Vision and a Self Defence Mechanism built inside.

Little Man Character Bio:

Known as Little Man to most of his colleagues, he is a very highly popular and respected member of the staff due to his well mannerisms and excellant work rate. He is quite intelligent and self conscious of the surroundings around him. The only person that he hasn't got the chance to know is Joey.

Personality: Respectful, Intelligent, Caring, Hard Working, reliable, competent and Polite.

Appearence: Short, spiky hair, big oval head and smart.

KnockOut Nutz : Synopsis

The Vending Mac

In a busy working office day, a new vending machine has caught the attention of the staff workers. It is the first interactive vending machine of its kind. Everyone seems excited to use the machine except an individual named Joey. He doesn’t seem too interested in the machine at all. But after a long day, when everyone has left except him, curiosity gets the better of Joey as he finally decides to find out what all the fuss is about. When he approaches the vending machine, he gets more than a surprise.

Research- Looking into animated work.

Here i found this Animated Clip where I liked the exaggeration of the walk of Droopy.

Youtube- Desene Animate_Droopy-Northwest Hounded Police.

Here i broke down some key poses of the walk. Analysing the walk and timing.

Ash -walk Cycle (3)

Here I Found some Video Clips of a little man walking across a stage. I thought that this would be really useful towards my production of Ash in (Scene 2 shot 15) when he is walking to up to the vending mac.

Joey-Walk Cycle (2)

Here I Found some Video Clips of a old man walking across a stage. I thought that this would be really useful towards my production of Joey in (Scene 2 shot 2) when he is walking to up to the vending mac.

Normal Walk Cycle (1)

Here I looked into the basics of animating, where I study how to animate a walk cycle. I haven't touch Character animation

The Animator's Survival Kit is one of the best instructional book about animation, in fact it is THE BOOK ABOUT ANIMATION.Written and drawn by master animator Richard Williams, famous for the movie “who framed roger rabbit?”.The book is full of instructional drawings and frames of animation, and practically step by step instructions of how to make traditional animation.

I highly recommended book to any one who likes animation 

Below i took a picture of how a basic walk is done, broken down sets.

                        First Walk Cycle Test.

This is my First Quick walk Cycle where I tried to do a basic walk cycle using my research from richard williams book. I put all its key positions and in between keys in first then and I let the computer do the rest. I Then went to the Graph Editor which was pretty new for me to understand straight away. I found my self messing up the animation through using the Graph Editor.

Scheduling List

This is a Schedule Timetable that i did for myself to keep note of what i will be doing.

To do List

This is a List of areas i will be Covering for Developing my skills for Character Animation:

-Walk Cycles Tests,
-Facial Expressions(Joey) Tests
-Joey Scene: At the Desk Test
-Research Studies
-Video Footage Ref: Live Action
-Learn Maya: Graph Editor

What is Character Animation? Character Animation is the process of bringing a character to life through the technology of 3d animation software.

My role as a character animator will be for me to understand how the character's personality and body structure will be reflected in its movements. Animating a character needs to move in such a way that convinces the audience that it is thinking. That it is alive. Looking at its body language, posture, weight, Timing, Facial expressions and its sudden movements....and much move.

I know taking on board this will require a lot of thinking about the character. what is the character going to do next, is it going to jump, run or stare. Learning and using the fundamental principles of Animation will determine how believable the character will be towards the audience.

I Know that it is not going to be a easy ride through the process of animating, but it is a area that i would want to to progress and develop in.

Dans Unit

Hey Everyone..!! This term I have created a blog for Daniel dalli's unit.


Daniel Dalli sent me a copy of the Project Brief: Advanced Skills, that I will be having as my unit leader this
Term 1.


My understanding of the Project Brief examples that i will have to choose a main role (Artistic /Animation /Technical) that i will be focusing more on through-out the year. I though serioiusly about the area that I would want to consider doing, which will benefit me more this Term.


Here a copy of the Project Brief>