This week, we continued our work on the Ball with Tail animation, picking up from where we left off last week, and learned how to convert the Block Out animation into Spline animation. We began with a critique session, where everyone received feedback on their Block Out animations, which helped me identify the adjustments needed to improve my work.
After the critique, we resumed our previous progress and I learned how to convert Block Out animations into Spline. Following the conversion, we proceeded to the Graph Editor to refine the animation and correct the ball’s path using the Motion Trail feature. We made slight adjustments to the ball’s trajectory to enhance the realism of the jump. Next, we fine-tuned the Translate Y graph in the Graph Editor to incorporate ease-in and ease-out effects for the jump.
For the tail animation, we made minor adjustments in the Graph Editor to smooth out the movement. Additionally, we discussed keyframe management and learned how to delete unnecessary keyframes at the end of the animation process to maintain a cleaner and more organized Graph Editor.
This week, I adhered to the planning I developed during the previous week and converted my Block Out animation into Spline. I utilized the Graph Editor to add ease-in and ease-out effects and used the Motion Trail to improve the bounce distance and trajectory of the ball and made several additional adjustments to make the ball with tail animation look more natural.
In week 3, we delved deeper into Anticipation, which is one of the 12 Principles of Animation. I got to learn that it is essential to recognize that all movement is generated by forces, whether external or internal and Anticipation serves as the most natural method for building internal force to facilitate dynamic motion. We were told that “An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an unbalanced force.”
We were advised to master the rules before attempting to deviate from them, as it is crucial at this early stage of our animation journey to establish a solid foundation before advancing further.
For the ball with tail animation, we were encouraged to watch videos of squirrels to observe how their tails react during movement and jumping. We closely observed the natural movement of the tail and how it follows a curve naturally towards the direction the squirrel goes in. This gave us a clear idea of how to go ahead with the movement of the tail in respect to the curve. We were advised to concentrate on the ball first, focusing on its bounce, squash, and stretch, before animating the tail. In this task, we were instructed to work in Block Out rather than Spline, achieving the forward bounce along with the tail movement using the Block Out method before converting it to Spline.
For this task I planned my initial steps in 2D and then started to animate it in Maya with that reference. The block out method helped us to fixate the positions initially to set the ball in motion. Although it looked a little jerky at first, I set a few more keyframes to make the movement look a little cohesive. Once the ball was set, I moved on to the tail. At the first keyframe, I shaped the tail like I wanted it as an initial position. As I moved forward, I kept on rotating the tail in a ‘S’ curve just like I had observed in the aforementioned video. By setting a keyframe and blocking the tail at every jump, I tried to make it look natural.
After setting all the keyframes, it looked pretty decent as an initial step towards the final animation. This made me all set for the upcoming week where we will learn how to convert it into spline and make it look way smoother than blocking.
This week, we began exploring the 12 Principles of Animation, which serve as foundational guidelines for creating more dynamic, lifelike, and visually engaging animations. These principles are essential for animators to bring a sense of realism and appeal to their work.
Squash and Stretch – This principle involves creating a contrasting change in shape, transitioning from a squash pose to a stretch pose, or vice versa. It is used to convey a sense of flexibility, fleshiness, and vitality in animation.
Timing and Motion – Timing and spacing in animation are key factors that create the illusion of objects and characters moving realistically, as if governed by the laws of physics.
Anticipation – Anticipation refers to the preparatory movement before an action, such as a jump or punch, helping to build momentum and make the action more believable.
Staging – Staging involves the strategic arrangement of a scene, including the placement of characters, background and foreground elements, the expression of the character’s mood, and the composition of the camera angle, all working together to enhance the storytelling.
Follow-Through and Overlapping Action – Follow Through refers to the concept that loosely connected parts of a body or object will continue to move even after the main action has stopped. Overlapping Action similarly describes how different parts of a body or object move at varying speeds, creating more natural and fluid motion.
Straight Ahead and Pose-To-Pose Action – Pose-To-Pose approach involves first creating key poses, then filling in the gaps with in-betweens. Like pose-to-pose animation, straight-ahead animation begins with a key pose to establish the starting point of the sequence. However, unlike pose-to-pose, straight-ahead proceeds from that single key pose, progressing through the sequence without additional guiding keyframes.
Slow In and Out – The slow in and out principle of animation, commonly referred to as ease in and ease out, suggests that objects in animation should accelerate and decelerate gradually rather than making sudden movements.
Arcs – The arc principle of animation is a technique that encourages animated objects and characters to follow curved paths, or arcs, rather than moving in straight lines.
Exaggeration – It is utilized to emphasize or enhance specific actions, poses, expressions, or movements beyond their natural constraints.
Secondary Action – This is an additional action that supports the main act.
Solid Drawing – This process involves incorporating height, depth, and weight into a drawing to create a convincing representation on a two-dimensional surface.
Appeal – It is one of the animation principles, which makes the character or design stand out.
I learned that these principles serve as fundamental guidelines in animation, which we should adhere to initially. However, once we fully understand and master their use, there is flexibility to creatively break or bend some of the rules.
Following the discussion on the Animation Principles, George presented a YouTube video titled “Everything is a Bouncing Ball.” The video illustrated how every movement and action can be conceptualized in relation to a bouncing ball, demonstrating the principle that all actions can be viewed through this lens.
This week, our primary focus was on Overlapping and Follow-Through Action, as our upcoming task involved creating a pendulum that demonstrates this principle during its swing. I learned how a pendulum moves while in motion and how it comes to an abrupt stop. To grasp the concepts of Overlapping and Follow-Through Action more effectively, George recommended that we observe and attempt to animate the movement of a blade of grass, illustrating how it reacts and sways in the wind.
After these discussions, George set up a project in Maya and demonstrated how to animate the pendulum while achieving the principles of Overlapping and Follow-Through Action. This week, I began my pendulum animation by first sketching the desired movements in 2D. Once I had a clear plan, I aimed to adhere closely to it while creating the animation in Maya. In the end, I made a few adjustments to my initial plan, resulting in a successful animation.
In the first week, our tutor, George, gave us an introduction and outlined what will be covered in Term 1. This term, I will be learning various animation techniques in MAYA, like bouncing ball, overlapping action, weight shifts, walk cycles, and body mechanics.
During the first week, we learned about bouncing ball animation and how to create a more realistic bounce by applying fundamental animation principles such as arc and squash and stretch. Before animating the ball in MAYA, we were instructed to first plan out the animation, including key frames, when the ball makes contact with the ground, and the timing of its speed variations. Planning the animation beforehand is crucial, as it simplifies the process and is considered a best practice. As George emphasized, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
My planning for the Bouncing Ball.
Once the planning was complete, we were instructed to open MAYA and create a new project by navigating to File > Project Window, naming the project, and selecting a save location. Setting up a new project in MAYA is a good practice for keeping everything clean and organised. We were also advised to save the file in the MAYA ASCII format, as it allows for partial data recovery in case of a file crash.
After creating a new project, I needed to set it up in MAYA by going to File > Set Project, navigating to the project’s folder, and then selecting “Set Project.”
To animate the bouncing ball, we were shown YouTube references of various types of balls and how they bounce. We were then instructed to replicate the bounce of a tennis ball in our animation.
We were instructed not to import the bouncing ball rig directly into the project, but instead to bring it in as a reference. This is done by navigating to File > Reference Editor > Add Reference to import the rig into the workspace.
After importing the rig into the scene as a reference, we learned about two of the twelve principles of animation that would be essential for creating the bouncing ball animation. The two principles covered during the first week’s lecture were:
Arc – The arc principle in animation emphasizes that objects and characters should move along curved paths, rather than straight lines. This reflects the natural movement of living beings, which typically follow curved trajectories.
Squash and Stretch – Squash and Stretch is an animation technique that alters the shape of an object or character to convey a sense of flexibility, weight, and impact.
We were introduced to the Graph Editor and instructed to animate the bouncing ball using Spline instead of Block Out. Once the bounce and rotation animations were completed and refined in the Graph Editor, we were introduced to Motion Trail and learned how to adjust it to enhance the animation.
With that, the first week concluded, and we were informed that critiques would begin in the following week to provide feedback on our animations.
