Wk 1 - intro to 3D animation, the bouncing ball
To the left shows the basic animation controls of Maya.
We then looked at references of bouncing balls, focusing on the squash and stretch effect and then tried animating our own. Images below show the squash and stretch effect when a ball is bouncing.
Image to the right shows animation path of the bouncing ball.
Wk 2 - the obstacle course
In this class we learned how to animate a ball using a ball rig. The image to the right shows a ball rig set up.
Wk 3 - hand animation and flour sack rig
In this lesson I sculpted a rough model of a hand, using the different cubes to create the basic shapes, then altering the pivot points to where the joints would be and also parenting the objects to each other. After doing this I animated a small sequence of the hand waving. See below:
Using a flour sack rig provided, I animated the movements of a flour sack and posed it. See below:
Wk 4 - Hand IK & FK
In this lesson we learned the basics about FK and IK set up and how they worked.
Wk 5 - Eleven Rig
In this lesson we learned about rig controls on a human model. We used the Eleven rig downloaded online and looked at how we can alter appearances such as hair and eyes, then we looked at basic movements. The videos below show how we can alter the appearance of the model and some basic moves.
After practicing with the movements I posed the character in different poses. Below show some screenshots of my process and reference photos, which I looked at to compare my model too.
ASSESSMENT 01 - Ball bounce animation
For this assessment I decided to sculpt an obstacle course and then, using a provided ball rig, animate a cartoon-style ball moving through it. Using the ball rig I animated the ball movements separately using the rotation tool, squash and stretch and more like we were taught in the lesson. After animating it I realised it was to slow and using the dope sheet I could move the keyframes along easily and neatly. The way I animated the ball makes it feel as though it has a mind of its own. After animating this, I added basic textures to give some colour and then I rendered it our using the Maya Hardware render and imported it into After effects where I looped it to play twice.
FINAL RENDER
Wk 6 - walk sequence
In this week we learned how to do a basic walk animation. Below shows some screenshots and recordings of that process.
To the left shows a video of me using animation layers. This allows me to make adjustments to the animation without changing the original animation.
I looked at some walk references to further explore how the body movements change when walking in different ways. This is to help with my next assessment. I found some useful videos and images seen below.
Wk 7 - walk improvement and weight lifting
Firstly I improved the walk I did from last week. This was done by adding a roll to the foot when stepping, by turning the feet outwards, adjusting the hips and chest and the swing of the arms. Below shows a comparison of both walks.
The next thing is to do was a weight lift. First we made a basic box lift using locators and parenting to the hands and box. The next we did a weight lift and we used locators to constraint parent it to the hands (this is so that we can animate the parenting so its not permanent).
Wk 8 - Jump
In this lesson I animated the eleven rig jumping. First I made the idle pose, then the ready pose, recoil (squash), weight shift, feet swap and reach (stretch) and finally the contact pose. The process of animating in Maya can be seen in the screen shots and recordings below.
ASSESSMENT 2 - Character animation
For this assignment we had to animate a character moving with personality and incorporating the techniques we have learnt so far. I took the skills that I learnt using the eleven rig and animated another rig called Stewart which I downloaded here:
https://www.animationmentor.com/free-maya-rig/
I decided to animate him going from a standing position to a tucked Planche, to a full Planche and then to a hand stand. Using videos of people doing this online for reference I animated each key position and then went and tidied it up. At first I animated the global scale, rotating it 90 degrees, instead of just animating the character, I then went back and changed this as it was easier to get him from a standing position to planche without moving the global scale.
To animate I keyframed the different movements I wanted, constantly playing it back to make sure everything was going smoothly, I used the dope sheet to move multiple keyframes and too adjust the timing as initially some parts were too quick. I then animated some blinking, added some lights and a background then, using Arnold and After Effects, I rendered out the animation.
Reference videos:
FINAL RENDER
ASSESMENT 03
For this assignment I animated the Eleven rig that I downloaded. Using an online reference for lip syncing phoneme I listened to the audio I downloaded from 11 second animation and I animated the lips accordingly. After all the lip syncing was done being animated I animated the body movements as well as eyebrow and blinking. I animated by key framing the joints at different positions alone the timeline. When all my animation was complete and I was happy with everything I then added cameras to create the different shots that I wanted. Using the camera sequencer I edited all the shots together creating an ubercam which I then rendered out. After my rendering was complete I imported it into After Effects along with the sound.
I had some issues with the texturing of the eyebrows and shirt if the second character.
