Advanced Animation / Project 2 (Jump Animation)

 June 24, 2024 - July 8, 2024 / (week 10 - 12)

Anandya Dewi Saputra / 0354651

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

Project 2 / Jump Animation

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LECTURES

All lectures are completed in  Task 1,2 and 3 Exercises

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INSTRUCTIONS

In this project, we are assigned to create a jumping animation in Blender. Start off by installing and gaining familiarity with character rigs such as Snow and Rain (which are given by the lecture). Search for video references of jumping actions to identify extreme poses: neutral, anticipation, push-up, jump, landing, overshoot, and recovery. The requirements for this project setting in Blender are 1280 x 720 pixels HD (High Definition) resolution and a frame rate of 24. To animate these poses, apply keyframing and when animating increase the exaggeration as seen in most cartoons with clear outlines. Adopt unique timing rates and slide holds for an animated feel for the site. Save the animation in PNG image format so that it can be divided into several sequences, after that, edit the image sequences in the appropriate software like Adobe Premiere join all the clips, and save the final file as "Yourname_Project2JumpAnimation". I first searched for a video of a technique called the waltz jump, which is a beginner jump in figure skating. Performing the jump on ice is preceded by the off-ice sessions where the athlete’s coaches teach and demonstrate the technique, which will be followed by the practice on the ice surface later after the skater manages to do it off-ice. The waltz jump starts with us facing front at the beginning, has a half rotation mid-air, and lands with us facing backward. I found an old video of my friend and I doing it in Sunway Pyramid Ice, might as well use myself for a reference.

Fig 1.0 Waltz Jump Animation Reference.

Fig 1.1 Waltz Jump Breakdown

http://www.mibba.com/Tutorials/Other/4584/How-to-Perform-a-Waltz-Jump

After I was able to break down each pose from the video, I proceeded to move on to Blender. First of all I draw the “anticipation pose” in which one of our legs and both hands are extended to check our posture and space on the ice before making a move. This part didn’t really take me that long since there was not much movement going and I concentrated more on lowering the hips to get the bend at the knee. After I finished it I rewatched back the video to take notes on the push-up, jump, and contact landing pose. It was a bit tricky for me since it rotates halfway and I have struggled to decide which leg was pushing up and which one is used for landing. 

Fig 1.1 Waltz Jump Animation Progress

I also noticed that it looks funny how the character looks like being rendered without the full animation. When I rotated the character, it became easy for me to visualize which leg pushes up and which leg is used for the landing of the jump While animating the hand was clenched during the jump and stretched during the landing of the jump. After that, I animated all the necessary rigs and added a few more details such as bounce on the hair, blink at the beginning of hair moving, eyes blinking, and also a smile at the end.

Fig 1.2 Waltz Jump Animation 

Finally, after rendering the whole animation, I decided to spend some more time observing and analyzing the work done. But still, I can say that I am quite satisfied with the result as well as with the accomplishments made during the process. I feel like at the very least I can try to change the angle as it looks a bit weird from this one, until I realized it wasn't just the angle but also the landing position. When we land, it's either both of our arms is at our sides extended, or the left arm is in front and the right arm extended to the side. In the animation that I made, I noticed I put the left arm at the side extended and the right arm in front when I was adjusting the camera angle, I then proceeded to correct it.

Fig 1.3 Waltz jump

After showing Mr. Kamal, I gathered some feedback which is to move the hips back on the take-off position, so it is aligned with the feet and makes it look more balanced. I then proceed to make the adjustment and I also ask him is it's okay to add an existing environment when rendering and he said yes so I rendered it with a room background since I used to practice waltz jump alot in my living room. 

Fig 1.4 Waltz jump rendered

This project has been a great learning experience, and I am looking forward to applying all those things to my final project to always challenge myself to move to the next level. I think that I have done a great job on the animation part, getting the movement, as good as I envisioned, it still brings me the realization that there is still much more that can be done, dynamics of character movements, the timing, and expression.

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FEEDBACK:

Move the hips back on the take-off position so it is aligned with the feet and makes it look more balanced, point the toe when taking off. 

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REFLECTIONS:

Overall, it has been a great learning experience for me, and I wish to maximize the knowledge and skills I have gained in the future. I feel that I’m happy with the animation I have produced and it does represent what I wanted it to be but at the same time, it also showed me that there is always room for improvement. In fact, the character movements, timing, and variation are always a challenge. This puts me in the spirit to keep on improving in my work as well as try to be even more creative in my next projects.