Animation Relaxation
[Animation At Ulster University Second Year Blog]
By Matthew Kane
Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/matthewkane
Showreel: https://vimeo.com/matthewkane
Walkcycle and Body Mechanics:
Week 1 Testing the rig and the different functions:
Staring off with positioning , blocking and timing poses this was to help me get used to the rig as it was more complex than the walking ball rig we used to animate different emotions last year. On this rig there is more components to animate for like the sway or swing of the arms the weight distributions of the body and contortions along with the bobing and movement of the head. I had to familiarise myself with the controllers and all the components like nullify twist and stretch as such to exaggerate movement or to prevent the rig from breaking.
This was okay for a first try as i was out of practice and had not worked on a realistic rig like this as i had only used the ball with legs rig which was ore minimalist and didn't need as much work invested in it to produce animations as i was limited in what i could do with it.
The Assignment for this was to create a walk cycle and create a body mechanics animation using either the jack or Jill rig that we where provided on black board. I have difficulty with animation as i tend to focus on 3d workflow rather than bring stuff to life i can do it but it is difficult for me and takes a very long time as i want it to look correct and want to have it perfect which causes problems when i work over time i alot to do specific tasks. I struggle with this aspect as i feel like it is one of my weaknesses as i take to long to complete simple animations as i have to consider all the components like anatomy, weight distribution movements and pivots. I feel like i need more practice which i have done with the animated short project and you can see the vast improvement and development in my work. It also turned out much better as there wasn't as many problems and it didn't constantly crash during my workflow.
I had alot of problems with this rig and i voiced my problems to Alec and i tried to do my best under the circumstances. It kept crashing when working on animations and a crash would be triggered every time i undid something causing me to lose all my progress this happened every time. It also prevented me from fixing any mistakes hence the reason why some of the animation is jumpy and jittery ass i couldn't fix the problems despite knowing and attempting to fix them as it would not allow key frames to be overwritten.
is the reason why my work is not as good and seems jumpy as when i deleted key frames the positions would still remain even if i tried to overwrite them with new key frames. Also there would be problems switching between IK and FK controllers and it simple wouldn't work i had great frustration and wasted alot of time on this even though it did't work. I even tried downloading the rigs again and trying the other version but the smae problems still happened and i even tried bring it onto the macs to work on it in uni but the same problems kept happening :
Even when loading the original files anomalies and problems would occur when it would load and even before i attempted to animate the rig would do things like this and i tried to find out what the problem was by updating Maya , graphics card ,changing the viewport and going back and forth between IK and FK controls to see if i could fix the error i know i probably should have found a new rig to do the same stuff but i didn't know where to look as well i didn't have the time as i had to catch up on the other work.
My walkcycle was the Zombie Walkcycle:
The references i used to make my work:
Images for reference for poses i also looked at the book the animators survival guide along with the mantras and methods i learnt from Mike from last year that so i revisited my blog from last year:
Here is the animation which i acted out very badly as i was so exhausted and couldn't sleep so it turned out very bad but i did know what i wanted to do and create and used it for the pivots and inbetweens and used it as how i would like it to not turn out like: I also looked at for help with head on animation and blocking and finding the right method for me being stepped then splining it for a smoother transition and follow through in movement. www.endlessreference.com
Here is the stages of development:
Here is the final playblast
Here is the final turnaround render;
This was another walkcycle i did but it got corrupted and the file became unreadable but here is the playblast this was done alot closer to the deadline where i used the one i did in week one and developed on top of it keeping the feet the same but just refining and adding detail like the foot movement and the hip rotation:
This is the reference i used but decided to dial it back abit as i didn't want to over exaggerate the movements and i thought i should try to make it more feminine as i had only tried to create more masculine walk cycles.
Final outcome:
I did look at tutorials on how the rig was used and i have seen i being used i some animation show reels:
The Rig was from here: https://vimeo.com/joedanimation/bodymech-update1
http://artofjoe.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
The rig that Alec gave us came from here along with a video explaining the fundamentals of how to correctly utilise the rig as well understanding the purpose for dual controllers and the functions of using IK/FK switching between the two and to use the channel box or the use by moving the limbs using the binded controllers but do not use both or this will either break the rig or will cause your animation to become broken and disjointed. Also sometimes the rig wouldn't allow you to change the controllers from IK to FK and vice versa. When working i found that using the channel box for the animation was far better and easier to understand what is happening and also for adding in more depth like the toe role and ankle / leg pivots and arm rotation orientation and bend it makes it easier to follow and helps to develop a much smoother outcome whenever the animation has been convert to spline and then any last minute tidying to be done.
Also i know how i would fix my animations to make them better but due to the circumstances and problems i was unable to do so but for future animations i will do the following;
Steps to take:
Block out poses
Talk about use of dope sheet instead of time graph
Hold and use slight movement / subtle
Timing slow in slow out speed of play and relation speed up slow down
Extra In between poses making animation streamlined and smoothed more key frames for quicker = less to go faster Break downs key actions timing as go
Spline pass mode
Graph editor spline Maya
Swing arm movements feet and legs spring action
Tidy/ clean up spline feet move through the ground change feet to flat mode all transforms zero out frame by frame
Less gaps step pass less clean up
End add more offset and final touches to arm swing and bend in knees
Polish make look nicer and visually more realistic
Go into settings animation and change from auto to stepped. Spline pass alter / smooth curve in graph editor
Acting style Camera Staging etc. Animation
Graph editor tangent spline, stepped.
I do understand this and i know how to do it it's just if i had a rig that worked then it would have turned out alot better as there is a vast improvement from these animations to my Diving Dave animations and they are much better.
The Body Mechanics turned out alot worse then the walkcycle and i know it is really bad as i still couldn't get the rig to work correctly so this animation is even more broken rushed and choppy then the last and i couldn't even change the timing so that it lasts longer than a section so you may have to use the time slider to play is slower as it is only 1 second long and i couldn't do anything to change this:
Look at examples to give me ideas:
I looked at stuff like this as reference for my work but ultimately went with my jump i did in class which was broken and decided to try and fix it as best i could to do a jump air punch then landing and getting back up.
I did have the time to touch this up or redo it or do another as i still need to do my personal project.
My Body mechanics animation:
Reference:
I used the stuff from blackboard and the Photoshop break down of frames and the stage of the jump the files that Alec had uploaded and wanted to do the same but with a variation instead of replicating the same thing for the jump and then had recording of myself for the jump and the landing and standing back up.
I used some of the helpful links for the animation which helped me to create the animation from multiple angles instead of just side on as it doesn't convey the 3d movement it only conveys it on a "d format which is wrong as it would only look right from one camera angle or perspective and it would be incorrect in any other viewport.
Reference video for movement:
Videos:
This was what i got it to in class and i liked it as it resembled both the matrix slow motion shots and the stretch of elastic girl form the Incredibles:
Slow down the play speed in Youtube or use time slider as it is to quick and i couldn't change the time settings or move the key frames so this is the result:
Fix leg positions:
Final outcome:
To see my more recent animations and improvement in my workflow and what i can do when things are working then look at the Animated short project Diving Dave from week 7 - 12.
