Once I solidified the concept for my FMP, I moved on to storyboarding and previsualisation. This stage wasn’t tied to exact dates, but it took place early in my summer break. I spent around two weeks on previs, working scene by scene to understand how the pacing, camera movements, and transitions would work.
The storyboards helped me map out the key beats:
The animator working late at night
The moment he falls asleep
The Maya character coming alive
The teleportation into Unreal Engine
The Blender character encounter
The beginning of their rivalry
Creating previs during the summer gave me a strong roadmap before diving into full production. It wasn’t perfect, but it allowed me to experiment freely with ideas, spacing, and scene layout without worrying about detailed visuals yet.
Previs
At the same time, I started collecting references for character design. Since I wanted my main Maya character to be semi-realistic with stylised hair, I studied characters from games like Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, and even some anime-inspired 3D works. I also experimented with the Ahoge plugin to generate realistic hair without using XGen, but I ultimately rejected it because I didn’t like the final result. So I stuck with a stylised hair approach.
Moodboard
For the Blender character, I chose Ramon Arango’s “Mars” rig, and for the animator I used the “Mireuk” rig by the same artist. These rigs fit the aesthetic and saved me time so I could focus my efforts on creating my hero character from scratch.
This stage helped me clearly see the visual style, pacing, and character interactions of the entire film before modelling even began.
For my Final Major Project, my initial idea came from a question I kept asking myself during my summer break: “What if the rivalry between 3D software like Blender and Maya could be turned into a short film?” I’ve always seen the online debates between artists using different software, so I thought it would be fun and creative to turn that into an actual narrative.
At first, the idea was very vague. I imagined a Maya character coming alive inside the software and then somehow teleporting into Unreal Engine, where he encounters a Blender character. They would end up getting into a sort of friendly-but-intense combat, symbolising the rivalry but also the creativity shared between digital artists.
During the first week of my summer break, I spent time thinking about how I could make this concept more engaging. Since I’m a night owl and often fall asleep at my desk while working, a stronger idea came to me: what if the short film starts with an animator (me) working late at night, who then falls asleep in the chair? Once he falls asleep, the Maya character he was working on suddenly comes to life. This instantly made the story more personal and grounded.
To bring the idea to life, I began planning the characters, the environments, and how the transition from Maya to Unreal Engine would work visually. I also planned which parts I would create from scratch and which ones I would use pre-rigged models for. My main Maya character would be completely original, sculpted and designed by me, while the Blender character and the animator would use pre-rigged models I found online.
Before moving into any production step, I created moodboards using references from Pinterest and ArtStation. These helped me shape the overall tone—somewhere between realistic and stylised, similar to Final Fantasy or Devil May Cry. I wanted realistic body proportions and skin textures, but with anime-inspired stylised hair.
This idea development phase helped me turn a simple thought into a fully structured concept, and it gave me a clear direction for the rest of the project.
This week marked the final round of tweaks and polish on my acting shot. After addressing all the previous issues, I received my final feedback from George. He pointed out a few last areas for improvement—one of the main notes was to make the card flick action feel snappier and more dynamic.
I took this feedback on board and went back into the animation to make those adjustments. I refined the timing and added extra polish to key moments to give the performance a more natural, lifelike feel.
Now that the polish is complete, I’m really happy with how the animation has turned out. It feels much more alive and expressive, and it’s satisfying to see how far it’s come from the initial blocking phase.
This week, I shifted my focus to refining the lips and facial expressions now that the body movements were in a better place. During our feedback session, George mentioned that the movement had definitely improved from before, but there was still room for refinement. I took his notes and made adjustments accordingly.
One specific issue he pointed out was with the eye roll—my character’s iris was getting cut off by the eyelid, which shouldn’t happen. I went back and fixed that, making sure the eye movement looked smooth and natural.
Once I had made those fixes, I started working my way up from the lips to the eyes. After I was happy with the expressions, I converted the animation to spline. As expected, it felt a little too mushy at first. So I opened the graph editor and began cleaning up the curves, adding movement holds where necessary to keep the performance sharp and clear.
I also revisited the lip sync, as it wasn’t quite hitting right. I fine-tuned the timing and pushed the expressions further to add more personality and energy to the performance. Overall, this week was all about polishing the facial animation and making everything feel more expressive and believable.
I still need to fix this and I will make the necessary changes before submission.
This week, I focused on improving my acting shot by refining the blocking and adjusting the character’s body movement. During the feedback session with George, he pointed out that my character was moving around too much—especially considering that the character is leaning against a wall. He advised me to reduce the overall movement and instead rely on more subtle, nuanced actions.
Taking that feedback on board, I went back into Maya and started dialing things down. I worked on toning down the larger movements and instead focused on making the performance feel grounded and natural. Even though the character is mostly stationary, I wanted to make sure they still felt alive, not stiff or statue-like.
Most of this week was spent carefully tweaking those body movements—adding small gestures, subtle shifts in weight, and slight head and shoulder adjustments. The goal was to maintain energy in the performance without over-animating. I’m much happier with how the animation is feeling now, and it’s definitely more believable.
In today’s class, we took a deeper dive into animating dialogue, focusing on how to make speech feel expressive and believable—not just technically synced.
Vowels Carry the Emotion
When animating speech, it’s not only about matching the mouth shapes to the sound; it’s about showing how the character feels while speaking. Vowel shapes are particularly important, as they help convey emotion through the mouth. Words aren’t just spoken—they’re felt, and that needs to come through in the animation.
Think in Phrases, Not Words
Instead of treating dialogue like a string of separate words, it’s better to think of it in terms of phrasing and natural flow. In real life, we tend to blend our words together—for instance, “how’s it going?” often sounds more like “howzitgoing.” So rather than animating each word literally, focus on the rhythm and energy of the full sentence or thought.
Animate What the Character Feels, Not Just What They Do
One of the key takeaways from the session was to animate based on a character’s thoughts and emotions. Great performances are driven by internal motivation. Try to capture this with a few strong key poses—usually around three—that express what’s going on inside the character. Stick with those poses and give them time to breathe instead of constantly shifting or over-animating.
This approach is something veteran Disney animator Aaron Blaise also highlights in his teachings.
Understanding the Mechanics of Speech
Knowing how the body creates sound helps you animate it more accurately. Here are some main elements involved in producing dialogue:
Tongue
Lips
Jaw – You can feel how the jaw works by placing one hand under your chin while speaking. It doesn’t move in large jumps—subtle motion is more realistic.
Teeth
Vocal cords
Nose – Surprisingly, even the nose plays a part in how we speak. Small movements in this area are often added during the final polish phase of animation.
Phonemes: The Building Blocks of Dialogue
Phonemes are individual units of sound that combine to form words. Understanding how they’re pronounced helps you create mouth shapes that match the sound naturally and convincingly.
My Work:
This week, I started working on my acting shot. I brought the character rig I had chosen into Maya and set up everything I needed to begin.
First, I imported the audio clip into Maya and began by focusing on the lip sync. I started blocking out the mouth shapes to match the dialogue, making sure the timing felt right. Once I was happy with the lip sync, I moved on to the head and body animation.
Using the reference video I recorded earlier, I started blocking the character’s movements and expressions. I made sure to keyframe all the important poses while keeping the acting performance in mind. At this stage, everything is still in the blocking phase, but I’ve managed to build a solid foundation with all the key actions and emotions lined up.
I’m looking forward to refining the performance in the coming weeks and making the animation feel even more natural and expressive.
In today’s class, we started exploring a brand-new topic—voice acting, which will be a key part of our next assignment in this unit.
What is Voice Acting Really About?
Voice acting plays a vital role in most animations. It’s not just about shouting “Look!” while pointing; it’s a much more layered process. True voice acting combines vocal tone, facial expressions, and physical movement to tell a story and make a character feel real. It’s this combination that helps bring out the personality and emotion behind the character, making them more relatable and believable to the audience.
We were shown an example that demonstrated how voice acting and reference footage work hand in hand during animation production. The video walked us through different stages of the process and showed how referencing is used in a professional setting to add authenticity and detail to performances.
Lessons and Insights from Today’s Class
Today’s session gave us a lot to think about when it comes to improving our animation work. One of the key takeaways was the importance of getting solid reference footage—and how powerful it can be when done right. It’s best to capture everything in a single, consistent take. If the performance doesn’t feel convincing, it’s worth re-recording until it feels natural and true to the emotion you’re trying to express.
One of the major points discussed was the importance of showing genuine emotion in our animations. The goal is to make the audience truly believe in the character. It’s not just about showing a specific feeling like anger or sadness; it’s about showing emotional shifts—like moving from frustration to acceptance, or from nervousness to confidence. These changes in feeling help the character feel more lifelike and relatable.
Our tutor shared two important principles to keep in mind:
Clarity – Can the viewer clearly understand what the character is doing in just one moment?
Sincerity – Does the action feel honest and believable? Small gestures like a nervous cough or fidgeting can help communicate the character’s state of mind.
We watched an animation example that did this really well—it showed a character gradually changing from feeling anxious to confident. It made me realise that I’ve often taken the easy route with my ideas, focusing more on what I could finish quickly rather than what would challenge me or tell a deeper story. I now see that pushing myself to explore emotional transitions and complexity is what will really help me grow as an animator.
Character Understanding Before Animation
Another major theme from today’s class was the idea of fully understanding a character before jumping into animation or voice acting. A strong performance begins with knowing how the character thinks, feels, and behaves. For instance, how would your character walk into a room? Would their mood affect the way they move? These are the kinds of questions we were encouraged to ask.
We also watched a helpful video that showed how studying a character’s personality and emotional state can guide your animation decisions. Doing this groundwork early on not only leads to more believable animation but also helps save time later because you’ve already built a clear mental image of how the character should behave.
My Work:
This week, I focused on finishing and polishing my body mechanics animation. I got my final round of feedback from George, and I made sure to apply all the notes he gave me. After that, I spent time tightening up the small details—like refining the finger movements, adding a toe roll, and making sure everything looked smooth and intentional. I’m pretty happy with how the final shot turned out. It feels like everything came together well, and I learned a lot through the process.
Once I wrapped that up, I moved on to the next task: acting animation.
I started by looking for a good voice clip to animate, and after going through a few options, I chose a line from the game Marvel Rivals. It’s a Loki voice line that says: “Everyone loves a trickster… until the trick is played on them.” I liked the tone of the line—it has personality and gives room to play with subtle emotions and timing.
Next, I picked a rig that I felt would suit the voice and the style I wanted. To make sure the performance would feel believable, I recorded myself acting out the scene as reference. Then I opened Photoshop and planned out my keyframes by sketching them and writing down a quick character description—how he’s feeling, what kind of attitude he has, and how I want to show that through movement.
This week was all about wrapping up one project and prepping for the next. I’m excited to start animating this acting shot and to push my performance even further.
Let me know if you’d like a version that includes images of your reference shots or keyframe sketches—it would make a great visual addition to your blog!
This is the final version, but I will still make some changes before the final submission.
This week was all about polishing my animation and tightening up the final details. I focused mainly on improving the landing—making sure the character really feels the impact when hitting the ground. I wanted to add weight and realism to that moment, so it didn’t feel soft or floaty.
After showing my first spline pass to George, he gave me some valuable feedback. One of the main things he pointed out was that during a step, the heel should make contact with the ground first—not the toes. He also mentioned that the sword needed to follow the hand more closely, with proper anticipation and added holds to sell the weight of the weapon. I went back and made those changes to improve the realism and flow.
Another challenge I faced was with timing. Although everything felt right during blocking, in spline the timing was slightly off. So, I spent time shifting keyframes and adjusting the spacing to make the motion feel sharper and more responsive.
I’m now at the stage where the animation is really starting to come alive—and while it still needs a few tweaks, it’s much closer to what I envisioned at the start of the project.
This week, I took the feedback George gave me on my blocking and applied the final changes. Once everything felt solid, I converted the animation to spline for the first time. The movement looked smooth overall—but in some areas, it was too smooth, which made the motion feel floaty and unrealistic. That’s when I knew it was time to start fixing the spline.
I began by tracking the arc of the character’s center of gravity (COG) and smoothing it out. From there, I worked my way up the body, carefully checking each part. When I reached the sword, I noticed it didn’t have the right weight or impact—it looked like it was just gliding. So, I started adding keyframes for moving holds to give it a sense of tension and proper follow-through. I also worked on easing in and out of poses more effectively to get rid of that floaty feeling.
Most of my time this week was spent in the Graph Editor. I focused on refining the arcs and adjusting curves to get the timing just right. My goal was to make everything feel clean, snappy, and intentional.
Now the animation is starting to come together, and it’s exciting to see it take shape in spline!
