for this term i'm going to be looking at improving my animation skills for the benefit of our groups final film Fools Gold. in particular i will be looking at doing rough test animations for a small but integral bit of the film which involves the main character running like his life depended on it to grab a large lump of gold sitting at the edge of a cliff.

first thing I'm going to do before i start animating or even open maya is do a quick thumb nail as a template for me to work from so i have a reference point. i want to make the animation look quite exaggerated to keep that light humor were going for in the piece.

i've tried to keep the leg and arm movement very over the top and for a normal person moving this would look very odd but since were not going for a normal feel i think this will suit out animation well.

i'm also using others run cycles to help for reference though it seems to be hard to find ones which reflect the panicked run i'm going for though this one does have a lot movement which is kind of what i'm looking for  

since were not far enough along yet and we don't have our rigged character yet i'm going to use the free rig max which i've used on many occasion and i'm comfortable using so i can really focus on the animation rather then worrying about getting to grips with a new rig.

first play blast of just run with dive

from the first play blast  can see that its far to slow and would be more suited if the character was on the moon so i'll need to pic up the pace. i have also noticed that when trying to make the rig look more exaggerated that it does break the rig particularly between the crotch (ouch!). this will mean gonna have to make sure when we rig our character we can do our best to make sure when we paint our weights we pay close attention to this area to make it a natural as possible so the animation doesn't have to suffer on account of the rig.   

second playblast of run with dive

i've done a second play blast now and the pace is a lot better and i'm rather pleased though it still needs work. i up the pace in the graph editor and also added in a bit more twist in the shoulders and i think it works, i'm also happy with the weight of the run and the impact of his feet hitting the floor giving it a heavy and clumsy look which suits the character. 

third playblast with first attempt at dive

first attempt at the dive came out ok though still needs work as its a a bit glidey so gonna go back a tweak it and add some more in-betweens to help. as for speed i'm quite happy possibly could do with being a bit quicker i think but otherwise i think its not bad.

final run and dive

much happier with the dive now and a big improvement on the last. though this isn't the finished piece i'm happy with my first attempt and feel a lot more confident in doing the animation for our final film and this animation will serve as a good reference point as well when it comes to animating. i still see points for improvement notably the leap doesn't look natural enough and it has been said by more then just me so i'm going to take that into account when coming to the final animating.

second animation: Rock Lobster Lobber  

second animation i'm going to be working on is the scene where the dog brings over the rock for the first time and the prospector picks it and on inspection throws it away. since i have never looked at constraints i need to learn how to use them and as with the first animation just work out my timing for the final films animation.

these storyboards help show what i'm trying to achieve and are my reference points for my test animation and instead of having him take the rock from the siv he's going to pick it up from the floor more like what he would do when the dog puts the rock down except he will inspect the rock before he throws it.

i was initially looking at constraints for this animation and wow are they a head ache but on looking through tutorials i managed to stumble on the best little bit of script. its called zv parent master and what it does is stream lines the whole process of constraining objects to one and other.  

tutorial for zv parent master

    

  first piece of animation 

finding zv parent master has streamlined the whole process of constraints and will be a great tool for our whole animation as it will mean any part of the film where a character picks up or drops and object can be done in half the time and means simply choosing the frame where you want the object to be picked up of dropped and then simply connecting them or disconnecting and one your happy with the animation simply bake it and you have you scene.

as for the first attempt on picking up the object it is clear its far to rapid and needs to be a lot more relaxed in the movement but i think its a good starting point for myself.

second attempt and more animation

the animations getting better though still far too fast so will have to go back and work on the timing some more while adding in some more secondary hand movements and such.

3rd attempt

4th attempt 

the animation is looking much better now while i'll steel play with timing the speed and movement is much more appropriate and fitting for the scene. i've also been using myself as reference by observing myself and replicating the movements in the mirror much like i would do when drawing a pose that i can't find a good example of. also for these ones i decided to not bake the animation everytime just to save on time as it felt silly just for working out the timing.

5th attempt

finally have it at a pace that i'm happy with and ready to bake the animation up till the throw.

baked animation without throw

i'm going to move on to the cube next though i'm not going to do too much work to it because of the nature of the object being thrown, in this case a lump of gold and since it isn't round its not just going to bounce straight but much rather bounce more like a rugby ball. so i'm just going to do a test animation on it for the time being.

final test animation

 i'm pleased with my out come and as i said with the run and dive cycle i feel a lot more confident in animating for our final film now and the finding will vz parent master will not only help me but also harry with his animating of the dog as well. i will use both of these as reference material for the final animation and the confidence i've gained through this unit is great i will still improve this animation until i get the final rigged model so to improve more. i also think i'm much better with the graph editor now as well and i use it more efficiently and even use it to animated rather then simply keying an object.