Category: George Term 2 & 3

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 Class:

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 Class:

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.

My planning for the Acting Shot.

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!

In Class:

What I Learned About Advanced Blocking

1. Basic Blocking:
This is where the foundation is laid—key poses, timing, and rough spacing that define the action.

2. Blocking Plus (Blocking+):
This goes a step further. You add breakdowns and more detail to the movement, refining the poses and building in anticipation or follow-through. It gives life to the shot even before splining begins.

3. Avoid Hitting Spline Too Early:
One of the key rules is not to rush into spline mode. Jumping into spline without solid blocking can mess up the rhythm and make the animation harder to fix.

4. Moving Holds:
These helps keep the animation from looking too stiff or frozen. A moving hold is when the character pauses but still has small, natural motion—for example, a slight tilt before turning the head in the other direction. These moments add realism.

5. Overshooting:
This is the subtle continuation of movement after an action ends. Say a character quickly turns their head—there’s often a little bit of extra motion that follows. Including this makes the motion feel more organic.

6. Copy-Pairs:
To hold a pose without creating unwanted in-betweens, I learned that copy-pasting the same frame works well. This way, the character stays in that position cleanly for as long as needed.

7. Timing Tweaks:
To adjust the feel of a hold or transition, I can use middle-mouse dragging in the timeline to shift poses around easily without breaking the flow.

Understanding Breakdowns and Arcs

We also explored the importance of breakdown poses, which act as the bridges between keyframes. They help define motion clearly—whether it’s the arc of a waving hand, a bend in the torso, or how a leg moves during a walk.

Speaking of arcs, they’re vital for making everything feel smooth and natural. Even if the animation isn’t perfect, having strong arcs makes it feel much more believable and professional.

My Progress:

This week, I focused on going beyond basic blocking and started applying what I learned about blocking plus. Instead of just setting up key poses, I worked on adding more detail to the movement—like the landing after the jump, the bounce during the jump, and the motion of the sword swing.

I kept everything in stepped mode and didn’t move into spline yet. The idea was to make the movement feel strong and clear even at this early stage, so that once I do go into spline, there’s less guesswork and cleanup needed.

I also applied the feedback I received from George this week. He pointed out that the movement needed to feel more snappy, and he noticed that the character’s standing pose wasn’t balanced properly. So I adjusted the timing of some actions and fixed the standing pose to make the weight distribution feel more natural. I also focused more on the arcs in the motion to make the animation flow better.

Overall, this week was about refining the performance and improving the quality of the blocking using both feedback and the new concepts I learned.

In Class:

Tips to Block Efficiently

• Work fast and simple—don’t get caught up in minor details. Focus on the main storytelling poses and how they’re spaced over time.
• Reusing poses with copy-paste is totally fine, especially for repeated movements.
• Don’t ignore the hands and fingers—it’s not just about arm placement. Proper hand articulation adds realism and intention.
• While using references is helpful, try not to follow them too literally. The reference should inspire, not dictate, your final performance.
• Tools like Anamonolok can be useful to break down timing and test how well poses flow from one to another.
• If you’re using FK or IK, switch between them as needed for better control over different types of motion.
• Even when blocking in stepped mode, regularly check how things look in spline mode to preview how it will eventually flow—and adjust accordingly.

My Progress:

In Week 2, I started bringing my body mechanics idea into Maya. After planning the action last week, this week I selected a character rig for my scene and referenced it into Maya. I also brought in a sword model, since the animation is based on a sword attack.

To make sure the sword moved properly with the character, I used a locator and parented the sword to the character’s hand. This way, as the hand moves, the sword follows naturally, giving me better control over the animation.

Instead of jumping straight into spline, I began with blocking out the animation. This helped me focus on getting the key poses right—especially the anticipation, the attack, and the follow-through. I kept the timing in stepped mode so I could clearly see the changes between poses and make sure the movement felt strong and clear.

Blocking first really helped me visualize the rhythm of the action and check if the sword swing felt powerful enough.

In Class:

Essential Planning Guidelines

Purposeful Shot Design

Every shot should serve a clear narrative purpose. Viewers should immediately understand what’s happening and why.
Example: A character picks up a gift with curiosity, then suddenly shows panic when it starts shaking on its own.

Action & Movement Principles

Actions should move smoothly from start to finish and follow a clear arc. To keep the animation interesting, add an unexpected twist.
Example: A character tries to catch a falling book gracefully, but it bounces off their hands and hits them in the face—adding a touch of surprise and humor.

Reference Gathering Strategy

Don’t just look for accurate body mechanics—pick reference videos that also express personality and emotion.
References that lack emotional weight might help you animate movements but won’t support a believable character performance.

Animation Workflow Overview

1. Planning Phase

• Think through the full scene concept.
• Mentally visualize the sequence.
• Record your own voice acting to help define tone and timing.
• Import the audio into Maya and start blocking based on this timing.
• Use tools like Anamotolong to help fine-tune structure and rhythm.
• Keep a journal of your daily progress to stay consistent and aligned with your original plan.

2. Blocking Stage

• Start by crafting strong, readable poses.
• Key all body parts in each pose to stay in control.
• Choose your method:
  • Use stepped mode for crisp pose-to-pose clarity.
  • Or spline mode with shortcuts (“.” and “,”) to move between keyframes smoothly.

3. Animation Phase

• Animate in sections—focus on one piece at a time.
• Set a realistic goal, like 1 second of clean spline animation per day.
• Prioritize clarity and polish before moving forward.
• Always check with playblasts—they give better feedback on timing and weight than the Maya viewport.
• Pay extra attention to expressive areas:
  • Head
  • Hands
  • Waist
• Legs might not be the focus in some scenes, but they still play a key role in grounding the character.

Character & Storytelling Aspects

Add contrast to a character’s traits to make them feel more complex.
Example: A character who’s always grumpy with others is shown quietly feeding a stray cat.
Use exaggeration to make silent, pantomime actions more clear and appealing.
Note: Blinking will not be animated at this stage.

Technical Considerations

For now, keep the camera locked in place to maintain focus on the animation. You can always revisit and adjust the camera later, depending on what the scene requires.

My Progress:

This week, we started working on a new project focused on body mechanics. Our goal was to plan a short animation that shows strong, clear physical movement. For this task, I wanted to try something dynamic and exciting, so I decided to go with a sword attack animation.

I was inspired by action games and anime fight scenes, where characters use powerful swings and poses to show strength and weight. I thought it would be a great way to explore timing, balance, and follow-through—all important parts of body mechanics.

To plan my animation, I used Photoshop to sketch out key poses. This helped me visualize the movement before jumping into 3D. I focused on a few important poses:

• The anticipation before the swing (when the character pulls back),
• The attack pose where the sword is mid-swing,
• And the follow-through, showing how the body reacts after the motion.

Even though these are just still images for now, drawing them helped me figure out the overall rhythm and energy of the movement. I tried to make sure the action had a clear flow from start to finish and showed weight in the character’s posture.