Category: 1.1 C.Animation Fundamentals

Autodesk Maya – final outcome The culmination of the fundamental animation lessons with George marked a significant milestone in the learning journey. Throughout the course, we engaged in a comprehensive exploration of essential animation principles, techniques, and tools under George’s guidance. The final outcome of these lessons was a showcase of acquired skills through individual projects and assessments. We were tasked with applying animation principles such as timing, spacing, and weight to create compelling and believable character movements. The focus on body mechanics, walks, and weight shifts added layers of complexity to the animations, pushing students to refine their understanding …

WEEK 10 Read more »

Autodesk Maya This week in Maya, my focus was on planning a body mechanics shot. Drawing inspiration from extensive references on YouTube, I envisioned a dynamic shot involving a big jump. To challenge myself, I embarked on a multi-step process, beginning with the creation of 2D plans for the body mechanics shot. These detailed shot plans served as a foundation for translating my vision into the 3D space. Through careful consideration of pacing and movement, I seamlessly transitioned from the 2D plans to a preliminary 3D blockout. This iterative process allowed me to refine the shot’s dynamics and overall composition, …

WEEK 9 Read more »

Autodesk Maya For the 8th week, we had to plan our body mechanic animation, taking some references and making a little bit of planning. In the critique session led by George, our walks underwent scrutiny, and valuable feedback was provided to refine our animations. The focus for the upcoming week is to transition our animations into the spline stage. George emphasized the significance of meticulous attention to the placement of each foot as it makes contact with the ground. The critique honed in on specific aspects, particularly the dynamics of the foot, including the peel-off of the heel and the …

WEEK 8 Read more »

Autodesk Maya In this class, our focus shifted to the nuanced concept of weight shifts in animation. The assignment at hand tasked us with crafting a straightforward walking animation in blocking, setting the stage for the subsequent week’s exploration. George, our instructor, played a pivotal role in this process by providing valuable feedback on the incorporation of side-to-side weight shifts and the integration of three dynamic poses. The essence of George’s guidance revolved around refining our grasp of weight distribution and the art of exaggeration in animation. To further enhance our understanding, George recommended the practice of recording ourselves—an exercise …

WEEK 7 Read more »

Autodesk Maya During this week we worked on the walking cycle. There are 3 concepts that define a good foundation for a walk. Key poses: In a walk these would be your CONTACT poses. Breakdowns: The passing position between your KEY POSES. Extremes: These are the highest and lowest points of the walk. This walking cycle is a vanilla walk which means that this is a BASIC walk, that it has no character to it. The time between poses set in the animator’s survival kit is your basic timing for a generic vanilla walk and should not be used as …

WEEK 6 Read more »

Autodesk Maya This week we started working on the weight shift which is the starting point for the walking cycle. No one person has the same walk everyone has their own unique version of walk whether that is due to character, health, age, gender etc. Unreal Engine In this week’s exploration, we delved into the application of the sequencer, capturing key frames from objects, particularly when physics is applied to entities such as a ball or a chain. This hands-on experience illuminated the potential of leveraging physics-based animations as a foundational framework, offering a versatile approach to subsequent creative edits. …

WEEK 5 Read more »

Autodesk Maya The following day, George provided us with a concise overview of the upcoming assignment. This task centered around animating a ball with a tail, emphasizing the meticulous application of animation principles, particularly anticipation and follow-through. To add an element of fun and inspiration, we were encouraged to watch videos featuring squirrels for reference. Later in the session, George conducted a review of our pendulum assignments. During this feedback session, he offered insights into the areas that needed refinement. Armed with these constructive notes, the task at hand was clear – to incorporate the feedback and refine the pendulum …

WEEK 4 Read more »

Autodesk Maya During the lesson, George talked about Anticipation. Anticipation is a mechanical build-up for force, so It’s important to understand now that all movement is created by external or internal forces. Anticipation is the most natural way to build up internal force to execute dynamic motion.Bill Tytla, legendary animator, says “Any animation consists of anticipation, action, and reaction.“An object in motion will remain unless acted on by an unbalanced force.”This Law applies to everything in the universe, including us. It’s precisely because of this law that anticipating left before walking right results in a conservation of energy. To practice …

WEEK 3 Read more »

Autodesk Maya During the initial part of the lesson, George clarified the 12 principles of animation, highlighting that we had already applied the first principle in our bouncing ball exercise by incorporating squash and stretch. Furthermore, our discussion extended to the significance of the bouncing ball as a foundational element in animation, acknowledging its widespread presence in nearly every animated sequence. He then elaborated on additional principles, particularly focusing on overlapping actions and the sequence of breaking/bending joints. We delved into associated terms like Follow-through, Successive Breaking of Joints, and Drag (wave principle). Follow Through: This type of overlapping action …

WEEK 2 Read more »

Autodesk Maya On Friday 6th we were supposed to have a lesson with George, but it had to be rescheduled for Friday the 13th, in this case, I’m going to talk about the lessons as it was in the first week of the term. During the initial class, we delved into the fundamentals of animation, focusing on the classic exercise of animating a bouncing ball. George also emphasized that effective animation is 60% planning and 40% execution, highlighting the importance of a well-thought-out concept before starting the actual animation process, well-planned animations tend to be more cohesive and successful. For …

WEEK 1 Read more »