ADVANCED ANIMATION - EXERCISES

 27/8/2021 - 08/10/2021 (Week 1 - Week 7)

Farissa Eryna (0336814)

Advanced Animation

Exercises 

INSTRUCTIONS

EXERCISES

Week 1 - Week 2 ( Ex 1: Bouncing Ball Series )

For our first class, Mr Kannan briefed us on the module information booklet and roughly explained to us regarding the projects for this module. He also told us to reflect on our blog and always include screenshots of our work process. Afterwards, he gave us a basic tutorial on how to animate in Maya. We recapped on how to use the basic tools in Maya as well as the 12 animation principles. Next, he showed us how to animate a bouncing ball and how to use the graph editor to manipulate the speed as well as to add in the slow in and slow out effect. For our first exercise, we were required to animate 3 different balls to show the difference in weight when it bounces. I chose to animate a ping pong ball, basketball and a soccer ball. 

To begin with, I started to animate the basketball first. I position the ball at a higher level as the ball will drop afterwards and bounce.

Fig 1.1 Positioning the ball

Then, I add in the stretch and squash principle when the ball drops. At first, it was a little bit challenging to do so because it was my very first time animating in 3D, but I played around with the scale Y and Z value to add in the squash and stretch effect and it turned out alright I guess for my first attempt. 

Fig 1.2 Squash and stretch principle added

Moving on, I used the graph editor to manipulate the speed when the ball drops and when it bounces. For this part, it was quite tricky because I was confused on what to do to make the speed slower or faster so I took some time to play with it and figure it out. However, I think I did not get the speed I actually want because I am still unfamiliar with it. 

Fig 1.3 Graph editor

After I am done with the animation, I added texture to the ball. 

Fig 1.4 Adding texture

Here is my first attempt on animating a bouncing basketball:

Afterwards, I moved on to animate the ping pong ball as well as the soccer ball. For the ping pong ball, since it is a smaller and lighter ball, I resized it to make it smaller and made the bounces higher. 

Fig 1.5 Ping pong ball

For this ball, I did not add any stretch and squash effect. Then I added a light yellow colour.

Fig 1.6 Adding colour

Here is my attempt in animating the ping pong ball:

For the soccer ball, I made changes to the speed because it is lighter compared to basketball as well as the texture. 

Fig 1.7 Soccer ball (Graph editor & texture changed )

I struggled a little bit to animate the soccer ball as it is lighter compared to basketball so I had to make sure there's a difference when it bounces. Here is my attempt:

After completing all the bouncing ball animations of three different types of balls, I wanted to try animating a linear bouncing ball. I added the stretch and squash effect. Here is my attempt:

Reflection: After animating 2 types of bouncing ball for the first time in Maya, I had fun but at the same time quite challenging as this is my first time trying to animate in 3D. In my opinion, the tools are much easier to use compared to animating in 2D (Adobe Animate) especially when adding the stretch and squash principle. From this exercise, I am looking forward to animate different types of movement and objects. 

Week 3 - Week 5 ( Ex 2: Acting Series )

For our next exercise, we are told to create a walk cycle with a rigged character that was provided by Mr Kannan. He also showed us an example on how to animate it on Maya. He told us we can give the character a persona.

 

Below is my work process and the final outcome with different angles:

Fig 2.1 Different perspectives

Fig 2.2 Animating feet

Fig 2.3 Work process

Walk cycle: Front view

Walk cycle: Side View

Walk cycle: 3 quarter view

Walk cycle

Feedback: It looks okay but there are some jerking at the knee area. Try to fix the jerking.

 Week 5 - Week 6 ( Ex 4: Car Rig - Set Driven Key) 

For this week's exercise, we were told to model a very basic or simple toy car and rig it. We were told to focus on learning how to connect the curve and model together. Mr Kannan showed us an example during class. I had to refer to the class recording and here is my attempt for this exercise:

Fig 3.1 Modeling a simple toy car

Fig 3.2 Curves

Fig 3.3 Testing the rig

Car rig: Side view

Car rig: Top view

Feedback: Looks good and okay but I should try animating it with different directions not just straight. 

Week 7:  Expression & Lip sync Acting 

For this exercise, we were told to animate a face expression using a rigged character provided by Mr Kannan in Teams. We were also told that we could use any audio clip for this exercise. I used a free downloadable audio clip I found on a website. 

Fig 4.1 Setting keyframes for facial expression

Fig 4.2 Lip sync

Fig 4.3 Audio Clip

Here are the outcomes: