Advanced Animation / Task 1, 2 & 3 Exercises

April 22, 2024 - July 22, 2024 / (Week 1 - 14 )

Anandya Dewi Saputra / 0354651

Advanced Animation / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Task 1, 2, and 3 / Exercises

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LECTURES

Week 1:

This week, we got to get an outline that will contain the entire outline of the class activities, we will also learn about some exemplary work done by seniors. The main priority will be 3D animation, which is done using Blender. This lesson is going to develop on the principles covered in the "Fundamentals of Animation" module, and thus we will need to practice those fundamentals using advanced animating techniques.

Week 2:

This week, we have a brief of the animation principles "fluid and flow" that we learned in Animation Fundamental, after that, we had an in-class exercise which is to animate a bouncing ball in 3D, which we have mastered the basics in 2D from the previous module. 

• Fluidity ; timing, spacing, slow-in/slow-out.
• Flow ; continuity, arcs, overlap, follow-through

We also learn another animation principle squash and stretch which we also have learned from the previous module "Animation Fundamental".

Fig 1.0 Fluid and flow lecture notes

Fig 1.1 Elasticity and flexibility in animation

Week 3:

This week, we learned to use the animation principles which are drag, follow through, and overlapping. We had an in-class exercise to create animate a pendulum in a blender using the principles we learned. 

Fig 1.2 Drag lecture note

Fig 1.3 Flexibility/follow-through lecture note

Week 4:

Public holiday

Week 5:

This week, we learn on how to familiarize ourself with character rigging as it is to be one of the first few steps you need to take before going into 3D animation. Rigging is a technique of preparing a model to be animated by constructing a structure of bones, joints and controls to transform its movement. This is an important initial step in the creation of real 3D animation to be used in characters and objects. We also have an exercise to rig a pose based on the emotion wanted.

Fig 1.4 Character ringging

Week 6:

This week, we learned how to animate a walking cycle, an essential scene in 2D and 3D animation. To achieve accuracy and ease, we break down the cycle into four key poses: contact (heel of the front foot touches the ground), down (body lowers as the front foot bears weight), passing (back foot is in front of the front foot), and up (body goes up as the back foot pushes of). These steps allow us to animate easier and more efficiently.

Fig 1.5 Walking cycle lecture note

Week 7:

In this week, the learning content remained on the walking cycle. Rather than simply translating the moves, we employed the graph editor to fine-tune the fluidity and regulate the pace from one keyframe through to another. It also assists in improving the cycle’s flow and locking of all elements so that each movement appears natural and smooth. The Graph Editor mostly used in Blender is very effective in animating since it is a visual control to animate attributes like location, rotation, and scale. It allows for the change in the curve slopes (the pacing/speed) controlling the keyframes and defining the easing for a better motion look and other characteristics for precise control. The Graph Editor also enables the creation of appealing loops and accurate motion for characters and objects.

Fig 1.6 Graph editor walking cycle

Week 8:

Independent learning week

Week 9:

In this week, we learned to animate a jumping scene. To break down a jump animation, you can follow these key poses and steps:

• neutral
• anticipation
• push up
• jump
• contact (landing)
• overshoot
• recovery

Exaggerated poses are always better when it comes to animation. The timing between each breakdown will help to gain a better result, especially when combined with the previous animation principles.

Fig 1.7 Jump animation lecture note

Week 10:

Consultation week

Week 11:

In this week we learned about animation workflow. To achieve the scene we want, there are 4 steps to break it down; 

1. Animation planning
2. Layout
3. Animation blocking
4. Animation polishing

It's very important to keep track of what and who are we gonna animate. It is also important to use references to gain more accurate scenes which will also make the task easier.

Week 12 onwards:

Consultation week

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INSTRUCTIONS:

EXERCISE 1: BOUNCING BALL ANIMATION

We animated a bouncing ball in Blender, to be honest, I have a hard time understanding how to use Blender since I'm new to 3D and I also took the module 3D Modeling just this semester so I haven't mastered it yet. It was very confusing at first but Mr. Kamal taught us and gave us a walkthrough on how to animate the ball. 

Fig 2.0 Animating a bouncing ball

I had a hard time adjusting the curves and understanding the X, Y, and Z lines so I asked Mr. Kamal to help me. After he explained it he helped me on how to use the feature to adjust the curves/path for the animation. It was tricky but eventually, I got the hang of it. After animating the movement of the ball, our last step was to animate the rotation.

Fig 2.1 Animating a bouncing ball

Fig 2.2 Animated bouncing ball

even if this is less time-consuming compared to manual 2D animation, I feel like this is harder. This type of animation doesn't need the skill of drawing but more of a sculpture (for the model) and the knowledge to run the application for us to animate it.

EXERCISE 2: PENDULUM ANIMATION

In this week, we are required to animate a pendulum. Like the bouncing ball, we have to render in 1280 x 720 and 24fps. In this assignment we are required to use the principles drag, overlapping, and follow through. I used the same graphic as the bouncing ball since I feel like it has the principles. 

Fig 3.0 Animated pendulum

In the next class, Mr. Kamal showed us how to add more movement to the pendulum which involves giving the body movements too rather than just the leg. I tried to animate another movement in Blender.

Fig 3.1 Animated pendulum

EXERCISE 3: EMOTION POSE

For this assignment, we were assigned to create four poses that reflect the feelings of 

• happiness
• sadness
• anger
• fear

This exercise taught us the basics of 3D animation so we could familiarize ourselves and understand the fundamentals for future projects. The first thing I did was look at how rigging is done and how to transform each rig to get the wanted pose. At first, it was quite challenging, but as I went on it was quite easy to handle. I realized that a character that is more like an animated human or a monster is more complex in rigging than a more cartoonish character with less detailing.

Fig 4.0 Happy pose

Fig 4.1 Sad pose

Fig 4.2 Angry pose

Fig 4.3 Scared pose

I differentiate each lighting with emotion since there is a lot of research about the psychology of colors and emotion. Happiness is always depicted with the color yellow, sadness with blue, anger with red, and fear with either green or purple. In this exercise, I chose fear to be the color green. This was the final exercise assigned by Mr. Kamal. Next week, we are required to begin animating our final project. Since each exercise has built on the previous ones, I feel more confident and prepared to finish future projects.

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FEEDBACK:

Exercise 1:

Play with the graph editor to create the right phase for the bouncing ball

Exercise 2:

Don't put so much movement on the pendulum, simply follow the animation principles.

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REFLECTIONS:

In summary, all the types of exercises offered above were comprehensive in teaching all the basic aspects that are required in creating 3D animation. Learning was rather fun, and the difficulty gradually rose up but not for no reason, but which is to help to develop our knowledge and adapt us for the next tasks. This progression made it possible for us to gain a better understanding of 3D animation in general.