Animations
Intention
Today (01/11/18) I intend to create test animations to get an idea of how I want the actual animations to play out. These animations will be very basic and wont include any walk animations in order to get the tests completed as quickly as possible.
Process
The first animation test I created was for 'Fly you fools'. As reference, I used the storyboard I submitted to the Trello group. Firstly, I used a plane to create a floor and wall with a window, then placed in the CAT rig to being animating. Initially, I started by animating a walk cycle, after doing this for a short while and not liking how the walk was turning out, I decided to have the character move from one point to the next - without a walk animation. Doing so sped up the process of the animation; with it being a test the animation didn't have to be detailed anyway. Also no camera was placed in the scene, so no camera animations were implemented into the test.
Conclusion & Further Development
To conclude, I think there are aspects of this test animation I can change. Instead of having the rig outright walk up to the bird - the bird could be off to the side, being noticed by the rig looking over towards it while walking, turning to approach the bird.
In terms of further development, I need to look for tutorials for animating walk cycles in 3DS Max. I feel as though I can get the first steps animated easily, however after these steps, the animation tends to lose consistency. I also need to get the timing correct for walk animations too.
"Fly You Fools" Animation
Intention
Today (06/12/18) I intend to animate the "Fly You Fools" scene for our team animation project. I will be following the storyboard I used in the previous test animation, as well as implementing a walk cycle, which I failed to do in my test.
Process - Setting the Scene
I began by isolating the models that were going to be featured in the animation, as well as some of the environment; this was done to keep models from clipping through the ground or trees. Firstly, I started animating the character's walk in side view and found it relatively easy compared to the test animation. This may have to do with the fact I read some of the Animator's Survival Kit in order to gain more of an understanding of animating walking; and partly because I was animating a skinned mesh, rather than the rig's bare bones. Once the initial A-B of the walk was completed, I added in the pelvis movements for the weight shifting, and added the up-and-down motion.
Issues During the Animation Process
Above: Viewport Grabs of both versions of the animation: used to compare the walk to the bird vs. the leap.
Another issue I ran into was that Move Constraints were not working when applied to the models. I couldn't use these in order to have the bird connected to the guy, resulting in the guy picking the bird up. Where-ever the constraint was added entirely killed the movement in that section of the model. It turns out this problem was caused by moving the mesh separately from the bones - when the scene first loaded up, the bones for the bird were not lined up with the mesh. I didn't notice this and moved the mesh into position to begin animating.
Trying to use a dummy didn't work either (placing a box on the guy's hand and on the chicken; adding a dummy helper to them) and resulted in the same outcome as using the Move Constraints.
The solution that was reached was to use an IK Target, which was added to the guy's hand and linked to the bird. When using the IK, I had to make sure the slider was in the correct position throughout the animation; so I had to key it at the start with the slider at 1.0, when the bird is picked up (key slider 0.0), and when it is thrown (key slider 1.0).
There were times during the animation process when the IK slider would act up (moving slowly from 1.0 to 0.0 etc) this was possibly due to keying the IK slider before actually animating further, so when I got to animating the second walk for example, the guy's hand would slowly raise as he was walking - which threw me off as I didn't know what was happening at the time.
There were a few problems I ran into while working on this animation. One of these problems is that, when the character notices the injured bird, he was going to run over to it. However, I couldn't get the motion correct, so I had him slide over as a placeholder, which looked terrible but was acceptable while I finished the rest of the animation. I went back to this later and just had him walk over instead of running.
While this did work, feedback from Faiz suggested that I use a cartoon styled leap in order for the guy to travel to the bird (a reference video was provided from Faiz, which was used while I animated the leap); Matt also wanted this walk to be sped up. Feedback was provided on 11/12/18, with the first test animation uploaded on the same date. Tweaks to the animation were made on 13/12/18 - being completed and uploaded on the same day.
I went back to this section of the animation and added the leap in place of the second walk - as well as tweaked the surprised expression the character gives before moving over to the bird. The addition of the leap drastically sped this section of the animation up, leading to this part flowing much better.
Further feedback consisted of: making the throw towards the end of the animation more powerful, and having the bird travel in a simple arch, rather than spinning around after being thrown. These changes were simple and were implemented quickly into the animation, after the leap was completed.
Above: IK Slider before picking up bird.
Above: IK Slider after picking up bird.
Conclusion & Reflection
To conclude, I am pleased with how the final animation turned out. There was only one major issue while animating this scene, which fortunately didn't endanger the project file and was easily solved.
Feedback from both Faiz and Matt helped me to further refine the animation as well as obtain a decent flow throughout (starting slow, then fast, back to slow). There are still parts of the animation that annoy me, for example, when the guy throws the bird. Even though I went back to tweak this portion of the animation, it still doesn't feel powerful enough. Part of the reason could be due to the stance the character is taking.
If I were to reanimate this scene (or work on further scenes), I would first film multiple reference videos for actions like the throw and crouch. I would film these in order to gain an understanding of how much power goes into a throw - and how someone goes from walking straight into crouching. I would also obtain reference for cartoony shocked expressions (though one was shown in the reference provided by Faiz, I would gather more to compare styles).
Comparison Renders
This video shows picking up the bird without slowdown on pick up clip.
This video shows picking up the bird with slowdown on pick up clip.