Animation Fundamentals/Project 2

 SPETEMBER 24, 2024

03/11/2024 - 17/11/2024 (Week 7 – Week 8)

Wang Yifan / 0368363

Animation Fundamentals / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylors University

Project 2

INSTRUCTIONS

 

LECTURES

Week 7

Apply Animation Technique

Fig1.1 Class note,Week 7(03/11/2024)

• Key Pose

What is Key Pose?
The Storytelling drawing or the main idea.

Fig1.2 Class note,Week 7(03/11/2024)

• Extreme Pose

What is Extreme Pose?
Poses that connecting the key poses to complete the action.

Fig1.3 Class note,Week 7(03/11/2024)

• Breakdown Pose

What is Breakdown Pose?
- The middle pose that sit in between those extreme poses.
- Breakdown pose is used for:
- getting the Flexibility
- creating arc, and
- dividing between slow in and slow out.

Fig1.4 Class note,Week 7(03/11/2024)

• In between Pose

What is In Between Pose?
- The poses that show Slow in and Slow out

Fig1.5 Class note,Week 7(03/11/2024)

Fig1.6 Mr. Kamal's blackboard writing in class,Week 7(03/11/2024)

Week 9

Key Stages of Animated Jumps

1. Anticipation
   Before the character jumps, the body moves downward or backward to accumulate power, signaling to the audience that "the character is about to jump."

2. Takeoff
   The moment when the character leaves the ground, typically achieved through a strong push from the legs.

3. Flight
   While in the air, the character follows a certain arc movement, usually in the form of a parabola.

4. Landing
   When the character touches the ground, there is an action to absorb the impact, usually involving bending the knees and lowering the center of gravity.

Fig1.7 Jumpig movement,Week 9(15/11/2024)

Animation Rhythm and Timing Control

• The rhythm of jump animation should be adjusted according to the character's personality. Time allocation can refer to the principle of Ease In and Ease Out, making the movement smoother and more natural.

Details for Improvement

Add Follow Through and Secondary Actions: For example, delayed reactions of hair and clothing during the jump.

Use Arc: Ensure the character's motion follows a natural trajectory, avoiding mechanical straight-line movement.

Fig1.8 Class note,Week 9(15/11/2024)

Secondary actions are supplementary movements added to the primary action in animations. Their purpose is to enhance expressiveness, highlight the character’s personality, and make the scene more dynamic. While these actions are not essential for advancing the plot, they play a crucial role in amplifying the impact of the main action.

Week 10

Characteristics and Functions of Secondary Actions

1. Support the Main Action
   Secondary actions are designed to complement rather than overshadow the primary action, ensuring they work in harmony.

2. Enrich Character Performance
   By incorporating subtle details, secondary actions help to convey the character’s emotions and personality more vividly.

3. Increase Realism
   In the real world, actions are rarely isolated. Adding secondary actions brings animations closer to the natural flow of movements, enhancing their believability.

Project 2A - Walk Cycle Animation

In this project, we are to use the same character that we did in Project 1, animate the rough animation of that character, walking in the same spot at the side view. The rough animation process should be using basic form and sketchy stroke. We should study the vanilla walk cycle that includes poses and timing from the book of Animator’s Survival Kit as a reference. The animation should show the quality of being appealing, fluid and flexible.

Specific requirements

1. Study vanilla walk cycle that includes poses and timing from the book of Animator’s Survival Kit as a reference as these:

1. Contact pose (3 frames)

2. Down pose (3 frames)

3. Pass pose (3 frames)

4. Up pose (3 frames)
   

References

From Animator's Survival Kit 

 Fig 2.1 References (Animator's Survival Kit)

Online References

 Fig 2.2 Online References 

Rough Animation

At first, I searched for the reference from Animator's Survival Kit and study the poses and timeframes. Then, I started to draw the rough poses of walking animation starting with the key poses like what we did in week 7's class. 

                                                             Fig 2.3 Rough,Week 7(04/11/2024)    

After drawing the rough, I inserted the side profile of the character into Adobe Animate as guide to draw the walk cycle of the character following the rough drawing. 

   Fig 2.4 Tracing Character，Week 7(04/11/2024) 

                                      Fig 2.5 Rough-Character，Week 7(04/11/2024) 

Tie Down Animation

After completing the character rough using brush tool in Adobe Animate, I used pen tool to draw the tie up version of the walk cycle of the character following the character rough. 

Fig 2.6 Rough-Character Tie down，Week 7(04/11/2024) 

Fig 2.7 Character Tie Down，Week 7(04/11/2024) 

Fig 2.8 Tie down，Week 7(04/11/2024) 

Final Project 2A: Walk Cycle

  Rough

                                                                         

Tie down

                                                                       

Walk Cycle

                                                                            

Google link：

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1acFLtORf98MaEVVUcmwdRbYNpj3BLccH?usp=drive_link     

Project 2B: Jump Animation

In Project 2B, we are required to study jump animation that includes anticipation and follow through poses, timing with hold from the book of Animator’s Survival Kit as a reference as these normal pose, anticipation pose, jump action pose (push off, on air, landing) and follow through pose. Then, we have to use the same character that we did in Project 1, and animate the rough animation of that character’s jump animation. Lastly, we should create tie down drawing using a cleaner stroke of the jump animation. 

Requirements:

• Rough + Tie down animation
• .mp4 or .mov
• 24fps, 16:9 aspect ratio 
• 1280 x 720 (HD720p) 

Production process：

I draw the character squatting on frame 1 of the timeline, with the body weight down, knees bent, and arms swinging back to build up momentum.

Fig 3.1 Preparatory actions,Week 10(19/11/2024)

I draw the character pushing off the ground in frame 6, with the legs fully extended and the arms swinging forward with force. I draw the character's body in an arc as he jumps, making sure to move his center of gravity upward.

Fig 3.2 Take-off action,Week 10(19/11/2024)

At frame 10, I move the character to the top of the jump, bending the body slightly to make the movement appear lighter.

Fig 3.3 airborne action,Week 10(19/11/2024)

At frame 18, the character begins to fall, his weight returns to the ground, and his knees bend to absorb the impact.

At frame 22, the character lands completely.

I extend the timeline by a few frames to emphasize the stability of the final action.

Fig 3.4 Falling and cushioning,Week 10(19/11/2024)

Final Project 2B: Jump Animation

  Rough

Tie down

Jump Animation

REFLECTION

Project 2A: Walk Cycle

We animated a walk cycle for a character using a pose-to-pose technique. First, we studied the walk cycle principles in "The Animator's Survival Kit," which helped me understand key positions like contact, down, passing, and up.Initially, the animation looked rigid, so I made modifications and refinements. The main challenge was ensuring the walk cycle looped seamlessly, which required iterating between rough sketches and the cleaned-up version.Though not perfect, the final walk cycle showed significant improvement compared to my first attempts. It was rewarding to see the impact of these principles and techniques.

Project 2B: Jump Animation

In Project 2B, I felt more confident transitioning rough animations into tied-down characters, building on what I learned in Project 2A - Walk Cycle. By working step by step—from key poses to in-betweens—I improved my understanding of animating actions like anticipation, push-off, airborne, landing, and follow-through.

The biggest challenges were the anticipation and recovery poses, as the skirt partially obscured the bent legs, making them look odd at first. Adjusting the arms in the tie-down phase was also tricky, but after refining them repeatedly, they became more natural.