Advanced Animation - Project 2
Oct 14th, 2022 - Oct 20th, 2022 (Week 7 - Week 9)
Rusydina Fazlin Athirah Binti Fauzi
Advanced Animation
Week 7 [Oct 14th, 2022]
Project 2 - Action Animation
INSTRUCTIONS
Project
Project 2
Week 7 - Action Animation
Extreme key poses
Oct 14th, 2022
To start the second project, the following brief, as seen below, are the requirements to be met to complete this project.
Project 2 - Action Animation - Brief:
Progress #1 - Reference and sketches:
The first step in the project was to find the kind of actions to be animated into Blender, the decisions were endless, therefore I decided to go for a backflip action, as seen below:
One I had chosen a reference video, sketching out the thumbnails of the following:
- key
- extreme
- breakdown
- In-between (graph editor)
-being able to identify the key poses, leading into the second part of the progress, which is the first step into animating.
The sketches of the backflip below were found through google to help in carrying out the blocking method when animating in Blender.
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| Figure 1.1 - Backflip key poses sketches |
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| Figure 1.2 - Backflip key poses references |
-along with the figure above to identify the different kinds of backflip poses other than just the sketches. When it comes to the in-between poses, brushing through the video can be useful once pose to pose method has been set out.
Progress #2 - blocking/pose-to-pose method:
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| Figure 1.4 - Backflip key poses, blocking poses |
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| Figure 1.5 - Backflip key poses, blocking poses |
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| Figure 1.6 - Backflip key poses, blocking poses |
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| Figure 1.8 - Backflip key poses, blocking poses |
Once I've prepared the poses in the blocking method, Mr. Kamal gave some feedback to further improve my blocking postures before going into the in-between method.
Mr. Kamal's feedback:
Poses for blocking are as accurate as they can be, although the timing had to adjust. Tips like interpolation selection when blocking the poses are helpful for the blocking method.
- Select all keyframes in the timeline > Press "T" > Select "Constant"
Other than that, motion paths help with the arcs of motion when animating the actions. To identify the motions paths in the properties tab underneath;
- Object Data properties > Motion paths > set End frame ranges to "keyframe end duration" > calculate
So with the feedback received, I further improved my blocking poses, keeping in mind of the arcs when the animation is in motion.
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| Figure 1.9 - Backflip key poses, motion path |
As seen in the figure above, the arcs of the motion of the backflip are visible and can be identified.
Progress #3 - In-between method (polishing stage):
Now, we'll be working into the in-between method, after the whole process of blocking is done, where we capture major key poses of the action animation, we add in keyframes in between those major poses keyframes. This allows the blocking method to appear much smoother and filled in as an animation.
Mr. Kamal mentioned as well, once blocking out the major poses switching the interpolation of the keyframes from constant > to linear can help in identifying the in-between poses.
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| Figure 1.10 - Backflip in between poses, keyframing |
As seen in the figure above and below, transitioning from the major keyframes the in-between keyframes poses are continuation keyframes that complete the action of the animation.
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Next on the list was looking into the graph editor to further polish the animation, adding arcs, and so on.
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| Figure 1.12 - Backflip in between poses, graph editing |
Once I polished up the animation to the best that I can, I animated the movement of the camera to capture the action animation entirely, preparing to render it.
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| Figure 1.13 - keyframing camera |
The next step was adding a plane to set up a simple stage to render the following action animation, by adding in a few lights all I had to do next was render a side view and a front view of the action animation.
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| Figure 1.14 - setting staging for render |
All that was left to do next once each frame was rendered, by accessing the video editing software integrated into Blender I added the image sequence of the renders into the timeline finalizing the animation render. The final outcome of the action animation can be seen below.
Final outcome - Backflip - action animation:
REFLECTION
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Nov 11th, 2022
The 2nd project into advanced animation has built up in its difficulty, there were many obstacles that I faced and had to overcome all on my own. Even through countless tutorials and tips given by Mr. Kamal and through videos that I'd find on youtube it was still not enough to be able to instantly master.
Although there was an ounce of fun when carrying out the project, I think I had the most fun when carrying out the blocking method, adjusting the limbs of the 3d model according to the poses but as I started to animate it, that's where the fun turned into frustration. But I did manage to work out through the challenge and had a few alternative ways of learning how Blender's keyframing worked.
I understand that I still need more practice on the graph editor, that was the challenging part of it all. But then again I'm grateful to be able to learn and identify the mistakes improving from then on. The outcome of the backflip can definitely be much more improved but as it is now, the makeup of the action is seen.
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