Category: Maya with George/Ting

This week I put the final touches in the body mechanic’s shot. Ting had previously told me that the shot was almost perfect, I just needed to give the arms better overlapping action and follow through. She gave me pointers on how to do it, and when I added it, it made a world of difference

This week i showed Ting an updated version of by body mechanics blocking note. She said it looked better but she had a few notes:

• She mentioned that the shape of my character did not change at all after the collision with the wall, and it should have.
• She noticed that the motion path of my characters hips were off at the end. The hips eased out on the z-axis but abruptly stopped moving on the y-axis. So i need to make the character bounce back upwards not just to the side
• She pointed out that my arms did not change shape during the walk cycle, which made it look unnatural.
• She noticed that there was no overlapping action and follow through with the various joints in the arm.
• She pointed out that the arm should have recoiled and bounced back when it hit the wall.

On Tuesday I showed George my body mechanics shot planning. He said he liked the idea because it is straight forward and easy to do. He did advice me to make sure to offset the different parts of the character, meaning the hips should touch the wall first then the back then the head, creating a smooth ripple effect. He also said we should have blocking ready for Ting on Friday

On Friday I showed Ting my body mechanics blocking. She said it was a very good first attempt, but she had a few notes:

• The backwards walk cycle looked unnatural. I later figured out that happened because the poses for forward walk cycle are not the same for backwards
• She also pointed down that the hips were too low during walk cycle, and it would be impossible for anyone to maintain balance in that position
• She also mentioned that i bent the spine too much.
• She said the collision was perfect but it was natural, so i have to exaggerate it because it is animation.
• She said the hips stopped moving too soon at the end of the animation. It should ease out and come to a slow and complete stop

First blocking attempt

On Tuesday, George took another look at my walk cycle. He said it was really good but the knees kept over extending, so he suggested way to stop that from happening, like rotating the hips

On Friday, Ting gave us a quick look into what the 3D animation she industry is like. We discussed various career opportunities, roles and organization structure. She also told us about what the culture is like in animation studios and what it is like to work in animation studio. I really enjoyed this lecture because it cleared a lot of my questions and let me know what to expect after I complete this program.

I was advised to rotate the ball backwards and forwards on the x-axis to create a head bobbing effect

On Friday with Ting, we looked into hand poses. We discussed the importance and hand poses, and the stories the poses can tell. Just like the body, it is important to have golden poses for the hands as well. She mentioned that having bad hand poses is the easiest way to identify a junior animator. We also went through different rule of thumb for hand posing, such as grouping, cupping and leading finger

George gave us feedback on the bouncing ball animation. He pointed out that the ball rotated too many times after it bounced a few times, which should not be happening as the ball is losing momentum.

On tuesday, we looked anticipation as a principle of animation. We discussed out how important anticipation is in making an action look believable, as it prepares the viewer for an action about to come. George also gave us feedback on the pendulum animation. He told me that joints are moving forwards to quickly and I should offset the further

On Friday, Ting gave us feedback on our bouncing ball falling animation. She pointed out that the spacing in my fall was off and the empty juice carton should not have enough momentum to bounce as many times as it did.

George gave us feedback on our ball with tail animation. He described mine as a good start, but I needed the tail to bounce off the ground.

On Friday, Ting gave us feedback on the blocking on our juicebox acting as well as the golden poses. For the juicebox acting she suggested I add more range to the motion, as my character looked back the exact same way three time. She did not have any notes for the golden poses, she said she liked the arcs and the fact that there was clear difference between the left and right side