Final Animation Project - Pixar parody video

For the final project, our task was to create our own version of the Pixar intro with our names/ nicknames and for the animation video to be around 10 seconds long. Since we learnt all the principles of animation throughout the semester, we were tasked with making this project with the knowledge we gained from those sessions.

I made this Pixar parody from the letters of my nickname ‘Nin’ and the basis of this animated story is on a football pitch. The two ‘N’ letters are on different teams (indicated with the different coloured textures) and as they go onto the field, they end up have a disagreement when introduced to each other. Then they bulk up and attempt to charge at each other, whilst the ‘I’ letter comes down between them to stop them from fighting (as a referee would) and makes them make up before the game starts. After that, a ball drops on the field as they all calm down and the ‘I’ letter jumps up and kicks the ball into the camera’s direction. So, then the ‘N’ letters are amazed by that trick and then they all jump up, aligning together to make the ‘NIN’ in the air. I thought of this little story because I enjoyed playing football with my friends in high school and sometimes there would be fights where a teacher would have to break it up, thus the animation being like an anecdote of my past.

The story seems to be quite simple and straight forward, with the textures and the football used to aid the appeal of the characters in the scenario appropriately. The movements are quite slow at first for the audience to realise what is happening and then they gradually get faster as they attempt to fight and when the other letter stops them. I used the motion tracker to help to make the jump flip look accurate from the camera’s perspective and I also made sure that the jumps were believable by making sure the letters squashed according to the distance of the jump.  I feel like I have considered the different principles to produce this short animation well and that I have spread out the key frames evenly through the 12 seconds of the clip. This animation could have been easily improved by making the letters rotate back and forth as they jumped to make it look more realistic and when the ‘N’ letters met, I could have made them bump into each other to make the altercation clearer. But, I believe that the work I have produced for this final project is very good because the animation is short and simple so I didn’t need to overcomplicate everything and I was able to use the knowledge I had gained to think of the things I knew were going to work when animating the scene.

Secondary Action - Dog

This dog animation includes some secondary action with the dog’s tail and the ears, which help to add to the scene than just the body moving around. This animation was straight forward to do and included some adjustments of different keyframes and editing in the graph editor so that the movements are more natural. Most of the movements that are in the animation are quick and snappy and there are some areas in-between that allow the audience to catch up to the action that’s taken place. I feel like the overall animation was accurate to the source video that aided me and I was able to add in my own movements, such as when the dog shakes its head after hitting the box and looks at it up and down. This type of thing helped to make this task enjoyable for me and for me to understand the need for secondary action and to then add in little movements to add to the scene. If I was to redo this task, I would go back and refine some of the pauses/ snappy actions and to make sure that each of them last for the right amount of time. Also, since I added some additional secondary action with the box, as the dog hits it, I would make sure that the box moves a little bit to the back to add to the realism of it.

Pose to Pose Blocking - Lamp jump

This is the blocking lamp jump for the principle of pose to pose, which required me to just key in the main poses of the jump along the timeline and to apply a step tangent on them to make it stay in the same position until the next frame. This form of animating allows the animator to get the main frames done first so that the spacing can be sorted out and then for the in-betweens to be done after that with accurate timing. I found this pose to pose jump a lot easier and quicker to do than the straight ahead jump I did earlier in the blog and this is because the straight ahead was working with each frame, which ended up taking up more time due to the timing being wrong. So, this pose to pose has accurate timing to the jump in the straight ahead one and I was able to change some of the poses to look more realistic. Therefore, this task allowed me to learn how to use the method of blocking with animation and to use my previous work as a guide to improve on the poses that I had made.

Follow Through and Overlapping Action - Cape on ball

This is an animation for follow through and overlapping action and the animation turned out well, since I had edited the different frames and checked that the motion trail worked accurately for the projection of the ball. I found this task a bit tedious to work with as first because of the number of attributes that I had to look into to get everything to start working the way I wanted them to, and due to the cape moving in the wrong way on different frames. But, I feel like I was able to get a grip on what attributes I needed to key on the frames and to make it look realistic according to the trajectory and distance of the ball jumping. This animation could have been improved by making the ball stay in the peak of its first jump a bit longer due to it dropping quite quickly and then slows down after bouncing, so this would have made it more natural. Also, the diving board seems to bounce back into place a bit too fast, which is something I would change by moving the keyframes. Although there are some small details that could be improved, this animation turned out better than I expected and therefore I was able to use the two-part principle efficiently to make the movements of the cape appear accurate.

Straight Ahead - Lamp jump

This week we were looking at the straight-ahead method of animating, which included planning how I wanted the lamp to jump and then animating every frame that the components moved on instead of just using key frames. This was sort of challenging at first due to me being used to setting key frames and then editing the timing/ easing between the frames within the graph editor, but then I was able to just follow the reference video we had and with the help of some other tools (motion trail and shadowing). By using these additional tools, I was able to see what path the objects were taking and I then used it to create a smoother arc for the transition between the frames, which allowed me to make this good animation. The animation might be smooth, but some areas seem a bit off especially with the jump itself and this could have been improved by making the anticipation last a little longer so that you can see the character prepare for the jump before doing it. Overall, I understand that straight ahead allows you to plan and think about the arcs of the animation a bit more and that it can help to make an animation better.

Arks - Lamp character

For the second exercise, we were tasked to animate the lamp character to push the ball and have some follow through as it goes back to its original position. To make the lamp have a characteristic feel, I thought I should make it look down at the ball and then to see where it wants to hit it towards, which it then does and then sees where it’s gone as it goes back to a resting position. I feel like the ark that was created was well done as the lamp hits the ball, but I could have made it more round so that it doesn’t feel like it’s moving to a certain point and then changing directions. Then, the string on top of the head was okay up to the part near the end and I think it snapped backwards too much or came back up too quickly and could have been improved on by using an ease in or out effect. One thing I wanted to do was to animate the lamp base to move, as the rest of the body does, so that it isn’t so static. But, I was happy with the final animation overall and this has also taught me more about how to use arks within an animation more effectively.

Arks - Ball jump

This exercise was mostly to do with arks and making sure the ball has a realistic ark as it travels to the other side, but there was also some squash required which touched upon some anticipation. This was a snappy bounce that slowed down as it got to the middle point of the jump and then eased back out as it landed. I feel like I was able to get the right timing within the animation, which included a believable projection of the ball jumping at an angle and had some form of the other principles. But, I could have improved on this animation by rotating the ball before/ after it jumps which would have made it into a character that prepared to jump and had some follow through as it landed and rolled forward a little. As I was doing this animation, I found that I projected the ball’s jump too low and then I was able to change it so that the ark was more realistic as it jumped and therefore I was able to understand the usefulness of arks within an animation like this one.

Secondary Action - Ball with tail

This week we were tasked with animating a ball with a tail jumping onto a platform and this included some secondary action. This was quite challenging due to me having to animate the different joints on the tail section and some of them had different keyframes on the timeline and so if I was to go back to change one at a certain point, it would look different when it got to the next keyframe. But, I was able to get there in the end to complete the ball animation as if it had a functioning tail, which I think turned out well overall and showed some fluidity with the movements. I like that I was able to give the ball some characteristics as it prepares to jump up and with the flowing motion of the tail as it snaps to the ground whilst the ball jumps. I could have given the ball some additional secondary action after it landed, because it sort of looks like it just stops and then I think the tail could have been improved by using the graph editor to make it vary in the speed of its movements.

Follow through and Overlapping action - Hammer

This week, we were looking at follow through and overlapping action within an animation and this exercise required me to animate a hammer swinging from one side to another. In this exercise, I started off with a good-looking animation for the hammer and the spring on the top of it, but I had to change a few things around for it to be looped and for the timing to look right. Once I got the right look I wanted, I just ended up tweaking the graph editor to allow the spring/ hammer to have the right follow through and for the overlapping action. I am proud of the work I have made due to the spring following the force of the hammer as it swings to the other side and the overlapping bounce that’s caused by the swing too. Overall, I think that I have successfully completed the task very well according to the animation principles we were looking at and if I was to do it again, I would probably increase the timing a little bit so that the viewer can catch the motion of the hammer as it swings.

Anticipation - Diving into pool

This diving pool animation challenged me to get the right sort of look and I wanted to characterise the ball so I made it bounce a couple of times before diving into the pool. The part that I think I got most accurate is the diving board as the ball bounces on/ off it and the ripple that’s caused by the ball character’s final jump. I feel like this gave it a more realistic look that feels right even though it’s exaggerated and I was also able to fit in some anticipation just before the ball bounces one last time. Also, the timing was good for the audience to see that the character is preparing to jump off the diving board and to then use up some of the frames to show anticipation before it jumps. Overall, I think that this animation is quite well done in the aspect that you can tell what’s happening in the scene and that you can see the subtle anticipation I added to it. If I was to do this again, I would animate the rotations of the ball so that it’s characteristics is more believable when it jumps forwards and when it’s falling into the pool.

Anticipation - bouncing balls

This week we were looking at anticipation within an animation and how important that can be for the viewers to recognise what the animators want them to prepare for in a scene. This exercise involved use animating two different balls that have some anticipation before they’re launched upwards. One ball has a short distance to jump to and so the squash and stretch isn’t that emphasised and the other one has a longer travel and so it has more squash and stretch included so that it seems believable for it to go that far. Since I’m quite used to animating bouncing balls in Maya, I completed this exercise more quickly than the others and I feel like I was able to capture the right look for the balls to have some anticipation before jumping up from the ground. Therefore, I used the graph editor quite effectively to get the result I wanted and I have understood the use of anticipation, which will be most useful when I animate characters in the future.

Ease in/out - Newton's Craddle animation

In this week’s exercise, we were tasked with replicating Newton’s cradle and to do this I had to research the motion of the balls at a slower pace so that I could get the right frames to key on my animation. As I followed the video, I tried to focus on each ball and to tweak any movements they make during the timeline of the animation and I made sure that the first and last key-frames were in the same position so that I could loop it. I think that my animation follows the right movements as Newton’s cradle does and it strongly replicates the motions of the balls in the video I used as a reference. But to improve, I could have animated the balls and string separately due to the strings vibrating on impact and the balls being swung by the string. Also, I could have even made three different cycles of the animated balls swinging so that the loop seems more realistic as they swing back and forth. Overall, I feel like this task helped me with using the graph editor to be able to use a slow ease in/out within an animation and I can use my self-reflected criticism to improve on this principle further.

Squash and Stretch - Bouncing ball and dinosaur

This week’s exercise involved us animating a ball, quite like the previous exercises, and dinosaur bouncing with the same timing. I first started with the ball, since I’ve done it before, which was quite hard to get the pause as it hits the bottom and this was required for me to add the exaggeration to it. So, I was able to get some help of how I could overcome this issue and then I found it easier to get the effect I wanted. I feel like after some tweaking of the key-frames within the graph editor, I was able to get a simple exaggerated bouncing ball that works well when looped and it is pretty accurate according to the video reference. After, I then worked on the dinosaur and this object was hard to animate due to there being separate components to animate from the dinosaur’s body. But, I changed different key-frames around and used the graph editor to make the motion of its more natural. I think that the poses and key-frames are correct, but there are some parts that don’t have enough ease for the movements to flow into each other and I could improve on this. For my first time animating a model with basic characteristics, I am happy with the result of my animation and this has taught me more about how to use key-frames and the graph editor to make a movement more realistic.

Bad timing example

The link to the video is here: Bad Timing.

Straight away from this animation you can see that the release of the ball is a bit too fast and the creator could have been slowed down a little bit to fit in with the slope it’s sliding down on. Then, the timing is wrong as the ball ‘bounces’ on the floor and is too linear/ similar as it gets lower to the ground. Also, the arc of the ball, supposedly bouncing, is in the wrong direction and so the result of this animation looks like the ball is bouncing in mid-air or has fallen into a tank of water. 

Exercise 2 - Demonstrating weight (heavy vs light)

After doing the first exercise, I started working on the other task that was there and it shows two balls (heavy and light ball) that are pushed off their platforms. I used the control curves within the scene to key-frame the different movements that I wanted for them and then I used the graph editor again to refine the ease in/out for the bounces. Since I used the graph editor before, I was able to complete this exercise much faster than the previous one and this helped me to familiarize myself with the tools that were needed for me to complete it. Looking back at the animation, I can spot only one thing that doesn’t seem to fit in with the timing and that is just before the ball on the left falls, it looks like to stops and then moves to fall off the edge. Other than that, the animation looks pretty accurate and therefore it shows my understanding of the use of graph editor.

Exercise 1 - Two dropping balls (physics vs cartoon)

For this task, we were required to use the graph editor to help aid in the animation of these two balls bouncing. Like the 2D flipbook version, I created an animation of two ball bouncing (realistic and cartoon-ish) and I was able to practise what I gained from the graph editor tutorial. The animation turned out very well, with some good use of timing with the two types of balls and the spacing between them that differentiate their types. I can’t help but feel like the realistic ball, on the left, lands a bit quick and is as if it’s being pulled down towards the end. Although this is a minor thing, I will certainly use what I’ve learnt in this exercise to aid me in future animation work and to improve a little on the timing. So, this task gave me the opportunity to develop the animation I made on the flipbook into a 3D animation in Maya and it allowed me the chance to learn how to use the graph editor to help with my animations.

Graph Editor Tutorial

Graph editor tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAtflgHUMY

This tutorial goes through the uses of the graph editor and what some of the main buttons do to the animation you have made. The reason why I think this is a good tutorial is because it is easy to follow the instructor through the video and he explains each command he does in order for viewers to understand what’s going on. For example, he commented on the use of the tangents that are on the key frame points and these can help you to ease in/out from one point to another (this would be an auto tangent, others include linear and step tangents). This is very useful for how fast or slow you might want an object to reach the next translated point and for also how fast or slow you want the object to move from the previous keyframe.

To put this into practice, I thought I would make a simple ball bouncing animation within Maya and for this I used a different tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfzQMv8naYk. This follows the basic guide to the graph editor like the other tutorial and I used both to help me to get a better understanding of how to animate a ball bouncing using the graph editor. With this, I was able to make a simple animation video (with the help of Adobe After Effects to compile it together) and a better understanding of the graph editor.

Flipbook Animation

Flipbook Animation here: http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/player.php?id=540786

My flipbook animation included two different types of balls bouncing on the floor, where the cartoon ball is on the left and the realistic ball is on the right. I tried my best to capture these two bouncing balls in a simple way and I also touched upon the ‘squash and stretch’ technique with some use of exaggeration for the cartoon version. Trying to use my mouse to draw everything on the different frames was a bit of a challenge, but I just kept it simple enough for the viewer to see what was happening and used the basic tools that were available. Looking back at the animation, both balls bounce quite accurately to how they would n a cartoon/ real life; but, the speed of the bounce could have been more precise by increasing when it bounced back and slowing down as it reached the top. Although this was just a simple task, changing the timing with the balls would have made the animation better. Therefore, this activity has helped me to understand the techniques to use when animating a ball bouncing, whether it includes cartoon-ish or realistic physics, and I have knowledge of what I can do to make it better in the future.

My 5 Learning Contract Statements

[1] I will strive be on time to every session we have.
[2] I will complete all of the work I receive by the deadlines.
[3] Any work I haven't finished, I will do during my own time.
[4] I will not procrastinate during the module.
[5] I will make sure that I apply my best efforts to all of the tasks I get.