3D Animation Project

      Having finished skinning the bottom part of the model, I have moved up towards the top side, starting with the lower spine bone (or the lower back). Looking back on it, the lowest back area must’ve been the hardest to deal with out of all three back sections, as that’s where the pelvis vertices need to be blended in with the spine vertices. That means that the character’s back needs to bend in a natural way, slowly crossing from the pelvis section to the back section. If the vertices are not carefully blended and the jump is too abrupt between the two cross sections, then the character’s back will ‘break’ instead of bending as one would normally expect. This I found out by myself within minutes, having initially set the absolute effect value of the lower back section to 1.0 (or 100%), making the model look as if he’d snapped his spine each time I would try to bend him into a position. After multiple attempts I managed to get the hang of it and made a decently smo...

                 As I have finished building the custom rig (skeleton) for the model several weeks ago, I’ve now moved on to the skinning phase of the project. However, before starting I have watched several tutorial videos I’ve found on the internet to accustom myself with the controls and various options first.             I have started the process by selecting all the bones but the IK and FK ones, nubs excluded. To make it easier, I have saved the selection so that I can select all the bones quicker next time. I have then added a ‘Skin’ modifier to the model that bound the mesh to the bones. Now if I moved the forearm bone, the model’s arm would have followed.             After binding the mesh to the bones, I have then started the actual ‘skinning’ process. Now, there are several different ways in which a model c...

The heel (page 136) ‘The heel is the lead part. The foot is secondary and follows along. The heel leads and the actual foot drags behind and flops forward – but the heel controls it.’ For walks and runs one should keep the heel flat on the ground until the last possible moment before lifting it. That will give the feeling of weight to the animation. There is an illustration that demonstrates this also: The following drawing serves as a guide for a correct heels motion during a ‘normal’ walk: Also setting a tempo:             Weight shift (page 146) ‘The weight shifts from one foot to another in a normal stride. Each time we raise a foot it thrusts the weight of our body forward and to the side over the other foot. And the shoulders mostly oppose the hips and the buttocks.’ As discussed in a previous post, walking represents a series of controlled falls. As a result, the...

                In this blog post I will continue the research I’ve started last time on ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams.             On page 102 of the book there is a chapter called ‘Walks’ that offers an in-depth look on walking animations and various principles, as the name suggests. The opening paragraph contains a few lines that I found to be quite interesting and particularly useful since I will also be creating walking and running animations. For future reference, I will copy the lines here:              ‘Walks’ (page 102) – ‘Advice from Ken Harris ’ ‘A walk is the first thing to learn. Learn walks of all kinds, ‘cause walks are about the toughest thing to do right.’ ‘A walk is a process of falling over and catching yourself just in time.’ ‘All walks a...

                               Having discussed about the animation principles in the last blog post, I have done some more research and stumbled upon a book called ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ by Richard Williams. I have spent some time reading the book throughout the week and found several interesting topics that I will be taking notes on today. Although the book is aimed mostly at 2D animation and hand-drawn animation in general, some of the topics presented techniques that are still used to this day. Greek pot illustration found in the book                                 In the first several chapters of the book up to page 41, Williams talks about his career as an animator and his experiences. He also takes on the history of animation and how animation progressed since ancient...

             As I have mentioned in the last blog post, I will be discussing about the set of animations I intend to realise by the end of this project and the main principles that I will have to focus on. The principles will be used to determine to what extent were the animation sets done well, or poorly. The set of animations             When I was still deciding on what type of animations I should go for, I kept in mind the fact that I have no experience animating a 3D model yet. That in turn led me to think about how I should start with the core animation cycles rather than go straight into, for example, a fast paced Kung Foo fight type of animation. So I have decided to learn how to animate by starting with an indispensable animation for game characters – and that’s the walking and/or running animation cycle. Essentially, an animation cycle is ‘used to create a sequence that can be rep...