This week, based on George’s feedback, I made more detailed adjustments to my animation, including using geometric shapes to simulate special effects. By using circular geometry that grows and shrinks at different times, and adjusting its transparency, I was able to create the effect of a boiling potion in the crucible. It’s important to know that creating fluid animations can be very time-consuming, so presenting the animation samples in this way is a great approach. This also makes it easier for animators to observe the animation and avoid unnecessary time expenditure. Additionally, I made some changes to the protagonist’s actions, including more diverse facial expressions and movements.
Jiawei's Blog
MA 3D Computer Animation
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Week 09 – Collaboration Unit
This week, I began keyframing our rabbit character’s animations. I created camera animation in Maya, even though it is not compatible with the UE4 engine. However, having a basic camera allowed me to check whether the character’s movements are aesthetically pleasing and follow the laws of motion.
I set up a basic scene layout in Maya, which helped me to have a rough understanding of the character’s orientation and the overall scene layout. After completing all of the character’s animations, we importted the animated character into UE4. Then, we set up the camera and match the character’s position with the scene in UE4, and finally complete the rendering process
Shot 01 (Work in Progress)
Shot 02 (Work in Progress)
Shot 03 (Work in Progress)
Shot 04 (Work in Progress)
Shot 05 (Work in Progress)
During week nine, I began producing the mechanical arm animation. I used pre-existing green-screen footage provided by Nick as a reference to set keyframes for my own mechanical arm animation. Once the animation was complete, I composited it with the background footage in After Effects and exported the final animation.
This process required careful attention to detail and precision, as the mechanical arm had to be seamlessly integrated with the background footage to create a convincing final product.
This week, I completed the remaining ending scenes of the whole animation. In the end, the little cat helps the protagonist successfully brew the potion in a mischievous and unintentional way. However, I added an explosion in the final scene, creating an open-ended conclusion that leaves room for the audience’s imagination.
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Week 08 – Collaboration Unit
This week, I began preparing for character animation and needed to consider which movements would effectively convey the emotions of the characters. Using the storyboard provided by Jixuan Chen, I analyzed each movement in detail, noting the duration of each motion as well as the intended emotion that the character should express. This information will guide me as I proceed with the animation process.
Upon completion of the analysis of the characters’ intended emotions and movements, I created a 2D layout for each shot that identified the key poses for the actions. With this information in mind, I began animating the characters using Maya.
Storyboard by Jixuan Chen
Animation Test
Additionally, I created a simple walking and running cycle animation test using the functions of the advanced skeleton plugin. The purpose of this is to import the animations into UE4 for testing, ensuring that the completed animations can be efficiently and seamlessly integrated into the engine, thus avoiding any unnecessary problems.
2D Layouts
Shot 01
Action: The rabbit pushes open the door and joyfully hops down the steps.
Shot 02
Action: The rabbit stares at the small sapling, with a look of confusion on its face. It blinks a few times and shakes its head.
Shot 03
Action: This is a continuous sequence of shots. The rabbit looks at the small sapling with confusion, looks around to its left and right, and then shrugs with an open palm gesture.
Shot 04
Action: As time passed, day and night came and went, the little rabbit watched as the seedling grew taller and taller. he walked into the frame, looked up at the growing seedling with a mixture of confusion and joy, and then walked out of the frame.
Shot 05
Action: The small seedling grew into a massive tree, adorned with twinkling stars that made it look breathtakingly beautiful. The rabbit looked up at the enormous starry tree and felt a great sense of joy.
In week eight, I created a skeleton rigging on the textured mechanical arm. To facilitate future animation production, I opted not to use hierarchy and clusters for rigging, but instead used a more complex skeleton rigging with blend shapes to drive the mechanical arm.
This week, based on George’s feedback, I made some changes and additions to my animation. I completed the entire animation, adjusted some character actions, such as when the protagonist throws the potion bottle into the pot, the pot emits gas and the protagonist takes a step back. I also extended the overall duration of the animation a bit to make the story more complete.
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Week 07 – Collaborative Unit
The character models are pretty much done this week. My next step is to set up the character’s textures and character riggings.
Texture and Material
We had a group discussion this week, as the final characters and scenes need to be rendered in UE4, so if the materials maded within maya are most likely not available. And therefore my main job for the textures was to draw the color tuexture without adding extra nodes in the maya renderer, as this is not needed to be used.
Character Turntable Animation
Character Rigging
The character rigging comes next, and I am confident in its production because I have done a lot of rigging work, including two-legged characters, four-legged animals, and some cartoon creatures rigging.
It is worth noting that I was rigging with the advanced skeleton plugin. It is really convenient for me to rig this rabbit since I don’t have to rig its face separately; instead, I can use the advanced skeleton plugin for some accurate and quick rigging. This capability was included to the most recent update of the plugin.
In week seven, I completed the full model creation of my mechanical arm, adding many internal components, some of which are hidden within the forearm and upper arm. This increased the complexity and intricacy of the mechanical arm model.
Additionally, I created material textures for my mechanical arm, using the aiStandardSurface material in Arnold. I found it suitable to use metal as the primary material for the arm, and while adjusting the material values, I increased the roughness of the material to tone down its reflectiveness, giving it a more fitting appearance and feel. And the overall color scheme is blue, which is a color that I enjoy.
In this week, I continued to create my shots and character animations, and I rigged all the characters except the
main character (existing model), and here are the on going animation to show.
Idea02 (ghosts)
For the second story, I created a dynamic storyboard (animatic) for the second story to help myself understand and visualize the timing and effects of the animation.