Author: Negin Jafari

I learned so much in this module; it was super challenging and demanding, yet incredibly rewarding. In the first term, I delved into the intricacies of previs, developing my idea for my FMP. George taught us about the critical role of previs in the film and animation industry, emphasizing how it allows us to visualize and plan scenes effectively before full-scale production. Previs helps in laying out performances and camera angles in a filmable way, making it an essential step for any animator to understand.

After the previs phase and a short break, we shifted our focus to an advanced body mechanics shot. Body mechanics in animation is based on understanding and replicating realistic human movement, which is fundamental for creating believable animations. Coming up with an idea for this shot was a bit challenging initially. I started with a concept involving a character jumping over a stairway and then rolling to avoid a car. However, George advised me to simplify the idea, focusing on one jump and perfecting it, which significantly improved the quality of my animation.

The beast of this term was the acting shot. As someone with more experience in environments than character animation, I struggled a bit with this. Lip sync in acting animation is particularly demanding, as it requires precise timing and synchronization of mouth movements to match the audio. George guided us to find audio clips that we were not familiar with to come up with fresh ideas. This helped us to create more original and authentic animations.I tried my best working on this shot and will continue to refine it in the coming weeks.

This module was tough, but I enjoyed every second of it. I feel a significant improvement in my skills across various categories, from previs to body mechanics and acting animation. The growth I’ve experienced has been invaluable. You can see all my final outcomes below.

After struggling to achieve the desired look in spline animation last week, I knew it was time to make some significant improvements. First and foremost, I focused on ensuring that every curve was in auto-tangent mode to avoid any kind of snapping in my animation. This adjustment was crucial in refining the overall movement and flow of the character.

Next, I worked on improving the character’s entrance into the frame to make it look more dynamic. Following George’s drawings, I added the recommended poses and controlled the hip movement using a motion trail, resulting in a noticeable improvement in the character’s appearance. George also suggested making the bullet hole on the character’s hat bigger and more exaggerated, which I promptly addressed. Additionally, I made sure to add the correct anticipation to the head turn, correcting the previous snappy motion caused by incorrect keyframes.

Another area I focused on was fixing the timing of the arm movement. Previously, the arm took too long to come down, creating a laggy effect. By adjusting the timing, I was able to achieve a smoother and more natural-looking motion. Despite these improvements, there are still several aspects of the animation that require further work. However, I am committed to continuing to refine and enhance the animation in the following weeks.

I wanted to talk about my experience working on the acting shot for our latest project this week. I had to animate the character saying “alright, who did this” in a specific style called spline. But before I could start, I needed to adjust the poses based on George’s feedback from our session.

George gave me detailed sketches on how to animate the character’s mouth for the line, and I made sure to use his suggestions in my work. He also stressed how important it was to make the character’s entrance into the frame look impressive and guided me on how to do that.

Even though I tried hard to make the changes and clean up the animation, I found it tough to make the shot look perfect. I really wanted to get it perfect in the time we had, but I realized that I needed more time and attention to get the result we wanted.

Looking ahead, I know I need to put more effort into refining this shot for next week. I’m determined to improve the spline animation and make sure every detail matches our vision for the project.

This week, I focused on refining my acting animation based on the feedback I received from George. Here’s a rundown of my progress and the adjustments I made:

1. Reshooting the Reference: I reshot my reference, adding a head turn at the end and changing the angle of the camera. This gave me a clearer perspective on how the character should move and interact with the environment.
2. Blocking in Maya: I started the blocking process in Maya. During my feedback session, George pointed out a few critical issues:
   • Camera and Hat Size: In my reference, my face took up a lot of space in the shot. However, in the animation, the cowboy’s hat was too big, which required the camera to be further back. This caused timing issues. To fix this, George suggested using a smaller hat and adjusting the camera focal length and transition.
   • Head Turn Mechanics: In my animation, I animated the whole body and head together, but in real life, the head turns first, followed by the body. I need to correct this in my animation to make it more natural.
   • Expressiveness and Poses: Some of my poses made the character look robotic. I need to add more emotion to the poses to make the character feel more alive.
   • Movement Issues: When the character walks into the scene, there are abrupt movements in the hip. George drew over my animation to help me understand the correct movement.
3. Blocking Plus and Lip Sync: For next week, I need to:
   • Complete Blocking Plus: This involves refining the poses and transitions to make the animation smoother.
   • Add Lip Sync: This will be a challenging task, as syncing the character’s mouth movements to the audio is crucial for believability.

I’m excited to see how these changes will improve my animation. The feedback from George has been incredibly helpful, and I’m looking forward to presenting a more polished version next week.

After finishing the advanced body mechanics, we’re now focusing on acting animation. George gave us a new task: find an audio clip that we don’t know or don’t remember the acting from, to come up with a fresh idea. The criteria for the audio were that it should be between 3-5 seconds long.

Once we find the audio, we need to draw some thumbnails and create a layout of the idea. In that layout, we should show the “before,” “now,” and “after” of the character. Additionally, we should write the dialogues of the audio and illustrate the emotions of each sentence using the emotion wheel.

Finding the right audio was the most challenging part, as George had predicted. I listened to many clips, searching for one with an emotional shift. Finally, I decided to go with an audio clip from Dwight from The Office. I’ve watched The Office many times, but luckily I don’t remember the actor’s action choices for this particular scene.

Additionally, I found a cowboy rig with a silly look and a stupid hat, which inspired an initial idea: a cowboy in a saloon, furious about something that had happened to him. After my session with George, we decided to shorten the audio to just “Alright, who did this?” and make it about a bullet hole in his hat, showing him looking pissed about it.

I realized I need to reshoot my reference because, for now, I’m looking at the camera, which isn’t good for this scene. Next week, I’ll start the animation in blocking in Maya and reshoot my reference.

Here’s my plan for next week:

1. Reshoot Reference: Make sure not to look at the camera.
2. Start Blocking in Maya: Begin animating the scene using the new reference.