Animation Fundamentals // Project 2

09.05.23 - 09.07.23 (Week 6 - Week 14) 

Emelyne How Sok Hing (0352938) 

Bachelor of Design (Hons) Creative Media 

Animation Fundamentals // Project 2

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LECTURES

Week 6: 

Pose to Pose Animation

We learned about straight ahead and pose to pose animation. 

Figure 1.0 Lecture note, 9th May 2023

Vanilla walk

We learned about doing a simple animated walk cycle. Our lecturer mentioned that it is important to keep the distance between the feet equal. 

Figure 1.1 Lecture note, 9th May 2023

Week 7: 

This lecture session was about learning the basics of a jump cycle. 

Figure 1.2 Lecture note, 16th May 2023

Week 9: 

We were briefed on our project 2 progression 3 which is the last one before our final project. We were shown how to use an app to analyse a video and break it down frame by frame

Figure 1.3 Lecture Note, 30th May 2023

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INSTRUCTIONS

Week 8: 

Project 2 Progression 1: Vanilla Walk Cycle (Side View)

For this first part of the project, we are to create a short animation of a walk cycle from the side view. We need to include contact pose, down pose, pass pose and up pose. We also need to do a rough and tie down version of the walk cycle and compile both videos side by side. 

Progress

I decided to use Adobe Photoshop to draw my frames as I think that Photoshop is way easier to use when it comes to drawing. After that I imported every drawings as PNG and animated them into Adobe Animate. 

Figure 1.4 Walking cycle rough draft, 29th May 2023

Figure 1.5 Walking cycle rough draft, 29th May 2023

Here's the rough draft video of my walk cycle. 

Figure 1.6 Rough walk cycle, 29th May 2023

Here's the tie down version of my walk cycle. I cleaned up my stroked and tried to keep the size of her feet consistent. I had a bit of struggle to keep everything consistent when it concerned her legs. 

Figure 1.7 Tie down walk cycle, 29th May 2023

After that I compiled both videos using Adobe After effects to compile both videos. 

Figure 1.8 Walk cycle compilation, 29th May 2023

Week 14: 

Final Project 2 Progression 1: Vanilla Walk Cycle (Side View)

Considering the feedbacks that I got, I decided to start again from scratch. I realised after looking for some references, that the body of Jinx looked a bit off. Her shoulder and the position of her hands weren't facing the right side. 

Here's the rough version of my walk cycle. 

Figure 1.9 Rough compilation, 9th July 2023

Here's the tie down version. 

Figure 2.0 Tie Down compilation, 9th July 2023

Here's the final walk cycle compilation. 

Figure 2.1 Walk cycle compilation, 9th July 2023

Week 12: 

Project 2 Progression 2: Jump Animation

Next part of project 2 was to create  a jump animation. These are the poses that should be included: 

- Normal pose

- Anticipation pose 

- Jump action pose (Push off, On air, Landing)

- Follow through pose

- Normal pose

We are to animate it using Adobe Animate and the final output should be a compilation of our rough and tie down animation. 

After sketching out my frames in Photoshop, I animated the rough version of my animation.

Figure 2.3 Jump animation (Rough), 20th June 2023

After that, I went to sketch out a clean up version of my frames to do the tie down animation. 

Here's a compilation of my tie down sketches. 

Figure 2.4 Tie down sketches, 20th June 2023

My next step was to start animating each frames. I animated them on 2's and for the anticipation pose, I animated it on 4's.

Figure 2.5 Tie down animation, 20th June 2023

This is the compiled version of both videos. 

Figure 2.6 Compiled version of rough and tie down animation, 20th June 2023

Week 13: 

Based on my lecturer's feedbacks, I hopped back into Photoshop to add some more frames. I put more frames for the jump and when she lands to create a smoother slow out motion. 

Figure 2.7 Final Rough animation sketches, 26th June 2023

Then, I just went straight on to animate my new frames to see if what I added worked out or not. 

Figure 2.8 Final Rough animation, 26th June 2023

I cleaned up the strokes to create the tie down version. 

Figure 2.9  Final Tie down sketches compilation, 27th June 2023

Figure 3.0 Final Tie down animation, 27th June 2023

Final Project 2 Progression 2: Jump Cycle

This is the final compilation video of my project 2 progression 2: jump animation.

Youtube video link: https://youtu.be/zc1t03HwLpU

Figure 3.1 Final Tie down & Rough Compilation video, 27th June 2023

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FEEDBACKS

Week 10 (Project 2 Progression 1: Vanilla Walk Cycle ): 

- Legs movement looks okay

- Just the arms swing are a bit too far. The furthest swing should be at contact pose. Her arm should be straight during pass pose. 

Week 12  (Project 2 Progression 2: Jump Animation): 

Figure Feedback demonstration, 20th June 2023

Good quality drawing. Just add some more couple of drawings to add into the slow out and slow in effect. 

Week 13 (Project 2 Progression 2: Jump Animation): 

Hold the anticipation part a bit longer but the rest is good. 

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REFLECTIONS

Week 6 -13 (Project 2 Progression 1& 2):

I spent a very long time finishing this task. My character's anatomy was initially difficult for me to understand because it took me some time to figure out how her arms, shoulders, legs, and other body parts should move in this particular position. To understand how it works, I had to search up a lot of references and study them. The fundamental ideas of animation, such as contact poses or landing poses, were not too difficult for me to grasp. Understanding them was actually fairly simple. Since I don't draw the human body all that often, I had the most difficulty with the drawing portion of this job. Considering that project 2 progression 1 gave me a much deeper understanding than project 2 progression 2, I would say that I struggled more with the walk cycle than the jumping one. Because I had to draw more frames, the jump animation was only a little bit more tiresome. After doing this project, I would say that I learned a lot of new things and will definitely keep them in mind for future projects!