Critique body mechanics spline.

Refining animation in blocking

Animating of legs and hands

In accordance with the given feedback, I further refined the blocking and added new poses for the leg movement, as they were rolling up while being dragged toward the chair prior to the standing pose, as per the reference.

The hand animation was performed solely in spline, switching between FK and IK as discussed in the previous post.

I was unable to receive initial feedback on this work due to my enrollment in Adobe Creative courses and subsequently falling ill prior to the Christmas break. However, I do hope that this implementation meets the required standard.

Critique body mechanics in blocking.

The initial pose must be exaggerated, to depict that the character is relaxed, and sitting in a laid-back pose, leaning backwards in a way that the head is left behind. This is actually crucial in delivering that dragging of the head movement, as the body shifts towards the front, provided with the pelvis rotation translation X. Taking this into comparison with my initial blocking, the character in this pose looks rather stiff, and there is no much of distance allocated for that dragging of the head movement.

As per the pendulum exercise, the upper part of the body leads the movement, and the head follows. In order to deliver this dragging of the head, crucial to ensure that the head is kept more-less at the same coordinate space, as body moves forward.

As the dragging continues, the head is catching up. The upper body of the character takes an “S” shape. This describes the mid-way point, just seconds before, the tail here body is going to snap in the opposite direction, consequently transitioning from a “C” shape through an “S” shape toa reverse “C” shape.

The body snapped in the opposite direction, taking the shape of reverse “C” (flipped horizontally). Consequently, the head is now, ahead of the body, within the coordinate space and from now on forward the head will be leading this part of the motion, of the character standing up.

The sitting to standing, body mechanics animation, can be breakdown into 2 main parts:

1. LEAN TORSO FORWARD & BODY SHIFT ONTO THE FEET

Anticipation part, which gives a viewer a visual queue that the character is preparing to stand up, as the body moves towards the end of the chair, away from its back, while the character remains sitted.

The analogy of pendulum animation, where the body moves and the head follows, snapping from C, through S to reverse C shape.

2. LIFITING BODY UPWARDS

The actual action is of the character getting up of the chair.

The shift in body weight from the bottom onto the knees occurs while the head stays ahead of the body. In this movement, the body actually leads, and the head follows. This is because the centre of gravity is located in the pelvis. The head, being at the top of the body, essentially functions as the “end” of the pelvis. If we imagine this as a ball with a tail, the body represents the ball, and the head serves as the tail.

3. Reaction, stabilize the body after reaching the full upright position.

As the bottom moves up, the head tilts down to shift the weight from the lower body onto the legs for sitting and standing positions, respectively. Although the position in my blocking is technically possible, it is not typical for human posture. An average person would likely bend their body more naturally, as outlined in red (as critiqued by George).

Once again, I ended up with this position because I blindly followed the reference. I’m not saying referencing is bad—far from it. However, referencing can be counterproductive if it is recorded incorrectly. In this case, my issue stems from not being natural in front of the camera. Acting, itself, is a skill and an art that I don’t possess. I became so self-conscious about the camera that I often stared directly at it, which caused my head movements to differ from how I would naturally perform the same motion without thinking about it.

Taking good reference footage is a skill in itself. It takes experience to understand why there is such an emphasis on the importance of good references. This is also why we had a designated week to cover this topic and practice it thoroughly. I get it now!

Body weight is transferred onto the knees, character is standing up. The movement is provided with an extension of knees and hips (there are groups of human muscles working in a coordinated fashion that allow for that).

Reaches a full upright body position, the head follows the body and catches up to calling with the line of the action.

Time for the reaction, which is that the upper part of the torso, chest and head are ever so slightly offset towards the over direction, while the pelvis remains in the same coordinate space.

Next: Body mechanics in spline exercise.

Critique body mechanics planning & body mechanics in blocking exercise

My first reference was created in the Motion Capture room, where I set up two cameras to capture my movement. However, I had to redo the process with an amateur home setup because I made the mistake of walking away after standing, instead of staying still in one place. This change altered the dynamics, turning it into a guessing game to figure out how the body would react. To avoid this, I redid the action, ensuring I had a tangible reference that accurately captured how the body came to a stop after standing up.

The sketch below reflects the changes made to the initial planning after the revision, forming a new reference. Attempting to capture the shapes of the spine, as per analogy to pendulum movement.

Video Reference Tips for Animation

When creating a video reference for your animation, it’s important to consider several key factors that will make your reference more effective and your animation process smoother.

Don’t:

• Wear black clothes: Avoid wearing dark-coloured clothes, as they can blend into the background or make it difficult to see your body movements clearly.
• Look at the camera: If you constantly look at the camera, your head will always be facing it. This can limit the variety of movement and be distracting. However, if you’re aiming for a particular effect (e.g., a dancer constantly eyeing the camera to track their body movement), then it could be intentional.

Do:

• Keep your room uncluttered: A cluttered space can distract from your movements. Make sure there’s nothing in the background that could divert attention away from the reference video.
• Wear clothes with visual guides: Opt for clothing that shows the body’s key parts (e.g., tight-fitting clothes, or clothes with visible markers) to clearly define the silhouette and the key areas of movement.
• Ensure you’re entirely in the frame: Make sure you’re fully visible within the camera frame throughout the entire shot. This ensures that all your body movements are captured for reference.

Key Principles to Keep in Mind:

Your video reference should serve as a guideline for building body movement, especially when you’re dealing with complex body mechanics. Your animation skills will then take that reference to the next level, exaggerating and enhancing the movement for a more dynamic result.

1. Confirm Your Extremes:

Identifying and confirming the extremes in your movement is essential because they define the key poses of your animation. These extreme positions will guide you when you start creating your in-between poses.

2. Decide on the In-Betweens:

When filling in the in-betweens, avoid favouring one key pose over the other. A common rule of thumb is that animators avoid even poses—they prefer asymmetry to make movements feel more natural and dynamic.

3. Focus on the Head:

The head often leads the movement in animation. For example, if the character is about to dive into water, the head will move forward first, guiding the rest of the body. This movement can be exaggerated for effect, like a “Mexican wave” effect. When animating, focus on making the head’s movement stronger to emphasize the action and add more character. This approach helps convey personality and adds weight to the movement

Critique walk cycle in spline & video making for animation reference exercise.


Using reference plane video in Maya (Class notes)

Introduction to Animation Workflow

When animating in Maya, it’s essential to understand how to manipulate reference planes and frame rates to achieve the desired animation effects. You can adjust the frame rate within the Graph Editor to make movements appear more abrupt or snappy. However, slowing down the animation may not work if there are no additional PNG frames available.

Blocking the Animation with Primitives

The initial step in character animation is blocking using basic primitives that represent the main parts of the character: the root, head, pelvis, and torso. Match the movement of these blocks with the reference footage to establish the general motion.

Constrain Blocks to the Rig

Once the blocking is complete, constrain these blocks to the character’s bony rig. This step transfers the movement data from the blocks to the rig, allowing the final animation to be created.

Maintaining Proper Foot Contact

It’s crucial to ensure that both of the character’s legs remain in contact with the ground, even if the reference footage suggests otherwise due to the angle it was shot from. Proper foot contact prevents floating or unrealistic poses.

Animation reference and planning: first attempt

FK and IK: Understanding the Two-Rig Systems

What is FK (Forward Kinematics)?
Forward Kinematics (FK) is a rigging system where the movement of one joint affects the others in a chain, moving “forward.” The higher joints influence the lower ones, but the last joint in the chain only influences itself.

For example, think of the FK system as a chain, where moving the root joint will move the whole chain, with each joint following the next.

What is IK (Inverse Kinematics)?
Inverse Kinematics (IK) works in the opposite way: the last joint in the chain has the most influence. When you move the end joint, the system automatically adjusts the rest of the joints in the hierarchy.

An example of this is when grabbing a mug. In IK, the hand will take priority, allowing for the accurate movement of the fingers, while the rest of the arm follows the hand’s movement.

Switching Between FK and IK
Most rigs come with a switch between FK and IK systems, which makes animating characters easier and more intuitive. For instance, if you’re animating a character grabbing an object, you’ll use IK to control the hand. Once the object is released, you can switch to FK to animate the arm’s movement more naturally.

Using IK for Sitting Positions
For actions like sitting where the hands touch the knees, it’s best to use IK. This ensures that the hands stay properly placed on the knees, while the rest of the body adjusts accordingly.

Critique walk cycle & ideas for body mechanics exercise.

Walk Cyckle Spline critique

The main objective of a walk cycle is to ensure that the body moves forward naturally. This means the body must lean forward during the consecutive stages of each step. Below are the key adjustments and considerations for refining the walk cycle:

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1. Translation Z (Forward Movement)

• Ensure that Translation Z is represented by linear interpolation to maintain a constant speed as the character moves forward.
• Delete any unnecessary in-between frames. Move the graph (up or down) to approximate the correct forward movement. Add new keys where necessary to refine the body’s shifting forward.
• After readjusting (e.g., by adding new keys at poses where the forward lean should be exaggerated), select all the keys and apply linear interpolation to maintain a smooth and consistent speed between frames.

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2. Translation X (Side-to-Side Movement of the Body)

• For Translation X, aim for a sine wave-like pattern in the graph editor to simulate the natural side-to-side motion of the body.
• Adjust the amplitude of the sine wave to exaggerate the figure-eight motion of the body.
• Use the motion trail as a reference to ensure smooth and accurate movement.

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3. Adjusting Leg Pivoting

• Focus on the leg that is pivoting off the ground.
• Apply foot roll to the other foot as it makes contact with the ground after the step.
• In the graph editor, check the foot roll curve to ensure there is continuous motion without flat lines. Flat lines indicate unnatural pauses in the foot’s roll motion.

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4. Refining Knee Movement and Body Translation

• Adjust the knee in coordination with:
  • Foot roll
  • Translation Y (up-and-down movement of the body)
  • Rotation Y (rotation of the body for balance)

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5. Pivoting the Foot Between Poses

• The pivoting of the foot from the ground should occur between the down pose and the passing pose.
• Allocate additional frames if needed to ensure the pivoting is smooth and realistic. This will enhance the overall quality of the walk cycle.
  
  
  

Body mechanics

Planning

Planning is essential not only for the upcoming assessment next week but also for work in the industry. It is important to present the general idea in a way that others can easily grasp what you are doing, including references, storyboarding, notes, and other planning materials.

Overview

Body mechanics focuses on the functionality of body movement, such as body weight shifts, foot placement, and overall physicality. Only after the functional part is well executed can acting and emotional expression be effectively added to the animation.

Shooting your own reference

• Maintain the same angle you’re animating to. Record at eye level for consistency.
• If using a single camera, record in a 3/4 perspective view. Alternatively, use multiple cameras to capture movement from several orthographic views.
• Lock the camera to prevent unintended movement.
• Use mirror reflections if working with a single camera setup.
• Test movements in 2D first, using drawn blocking before animating.

Planning Details

• Animation duration: 5 seconds.
• Include references, sketches, planning materials, and video footage.
• Use the bony rig, focusing on body movement and avoiding hand details at this stage.
  
  

List of Activities:

Easiest:

• Jumping on the spot.
• Getting up from a chair to standing.

Advanced:

• Going downstairs.
• Walking upstairs.
• Jumping down from a ledge.
  
  

Getting Up from a Chair to a Standing Position

When sitting, the center of gravity (COG) is distributed across the spine and buttocks, with the body weight resting on the chair. To stand up, the body weight must shift forward and upward.

1. Initial Movement:
   • The pelvis rotates on the X-axis, allowing the upper body to move forward.
   • The chest also rotates on the X-axis, bending the character forward into position.
   • This movement is pelvis-driven, although the head moves first due to the shift initiated by the pelvis. Avoid misunderstanding this as head-driven movement.
2. Weight Transition:
   • The body weight shifts forward onto the legs before moving upward.
   • The movement transitions from a “C” shape (sitting) to an inverted C shape (standing), with an intermediate S shape to ensure smooth, natural movement.
3. Spine Action:
   • The spine stretches and then compresses slightly as the character stands, creating a dynamic squash-and-stretch effect.

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Approach:

• Use a pose-to-pose animation method, beginning with key poses and refining them with in-betweens.
• Blocking should focus on capturing major transitions first, then addressing smaller details.

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Timing and Spacing:

• Allocate sufficient time to the initial sitting position so the audience clearly understands the character’s action.
• Ensure smooth and believable transitions between key poses with appropriate spacing.

Critique walk cycle in blocking & walk cycle in spline exercise.

Walk Cycle Animation in Spline

Delivering process

Rotation X. Sinusoidal.

Translation Z. The character moves with a constant speed, and therefore translation Z is described as a linear interpolation. Because the rig is reversed right to left, the graph editor defines linear interpolation that’s decreasing.

Translation Y. The body shifts up and down, in the cycles, so the approximation should be similar to each of wave.

Rotation X. All the poses, in green, refer to down pos. All the oranges highlights to passing pose. Rotation X, is higher in value for the passing poses, as the body shifts towards the front, and leans forward, significantly more than the down pose. For the down pose, the lean forward is minor, so it’s only slightly moving forward.

Rotation Y, foot.

Translation Z FOOT
As the foot is moving, shaping the arc in Y axis, it moves from place A to B, easing in at the beginning of the movement (start of the making a step) and easing out (stop of making a step).

Critique weight shift & Planning and blocking for walk cycle animation.

Philosophy of Walking

“Walking is the process of falling over and catching oneself just in time.”
This simple yet profound observation highlights the forward-leaning posture inherent in walking—a controlled imbalance that propels us forward.

“Walking is the process of being stuck in place for a moment before moving ahead.”
This personal reflection adds a philosophical layer to the act of walking, emphasizing the interplay of stillness and motion that defines each step.

Here’s a revised and polished version of your text, broken into sections for clarity and flow:

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Philosophy of Walking

“Walking is the process of falling over and catching oneself just in time.”
This simple yet profound observation highlights the forward-leaning posture inherent in walking—a controlled imbalance that propels us forward.

“Walking is the process of being stuck in place for a moment before moving ahead.”
This personal reflection adds a philosophical layer to the act of walking, emphasizing the interplay of stillness and motion that defines each step.

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Walking Styles: Personality Through Motion

Each character has a unique way of walking, which can be crafted to reflect their personality and mood. By manipulating timing, position, and offset, animators can develop distinct characteristics that make every walk cycle feel alive and meaningful.

Inspiration: Ryan Larkin’s Walking

Shows how tiny changes in posture, rhythm, and style can portray various personalities and moods through the simple act of walking.

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Body weight shift critique

Overall, this is a good attempt; however, more focus needs to be placed on the centre of gravity (COG) and physical accuracy. Some of the proposed poses in the blocking phase are unrealistic and impossible to recreate with the human body in real life. Therefore, it is advisable to always cross-check the poses against your own body movements to ensure they are achievable and grounded in reality.

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Vanilla walk cycle blocking exercise

The purpose of this exercise was to understand how the walk cycle works. Due to the complexity of the movement, where all body parts are in motion—and each can be broken down into principles like the bouncing ball—it is particularly challenging for beginner animators to animate a walk solely based on reference. To address this, George provided full guidance through the animation process, demonstrating how to block a walk cycle in 24 frames per cycle.


My submission on Syncsketch: Walk Cycle -> Walk_cycle_front

Critique ball with tail in spline & planning the weight shift exercise.

The Center of Gravity COG

For Humans:
The centre of gravity (COG) for humans is typically located around the hips or pelvis. This is where the main control resides in character rigs, serving as the foundation for natural movement.

For Hero Characters:
For hero characters, the COG shifts to the chest, reflecting their predominant movements, such as flying or leaping through the air. This adjustment enhances the believability of their superhuman abilities.

Maintaining Balance:
To ensure proper balance in animation, it’s essential to apply correct weight distribution within the positive space of the character’s body mass. This helps achieve a sense of realism and stability in movement.

COG exercise

The following images present the outcome of the exercise, practicing the COG by aligning the bony rig with poses corresponding to the reference images. Where the red marking is Gerorge’s feedback.

Forward jump

Posing with the use of the live-action snapshot reference, is to ensure the accuracy of the physical logic, and distribution of the weight in consideration of the COG, however, the animator role is to go one step beyond, to make it visually appealing with use of exaggeration and assymetry.

Kneeling jump

Kneeling jump breakdown of action, video source: 3 Exercises To INCREASE YOUR VERTICAL Pt.2 | JUMP HIGHER | The Lost Breed used as the reference. Breakdown including the anticipation: hand movement that implies the preparation for the jump, stretch and squash of the spine, marked with the ball reference under each pose, pendulum consideration where the hands follow the chest and pelvis moving up front.

This example was broken down correctly; however, it is visually uninteresting because the posing throughout the action is symmetrical. Animation should aim for asymmetrical posing, as this allows for more variation in the line of action, making the movement appear more dynamic. Animation has the advantage over real-life action in that movements can be exaggerated. Considering this, the current example is far too dull to justify the time spent animating it.

A ball with tail spline animation feedback

• Managed to make progress, and achieve fluid motion of the tail.
• Need to pay more attention to the timing and spacing. The allocation of frames is incorrect, which results it the undesired movement. More specifically, instead of jumping to falling, jumping to flying and coming down was delivered. Rule of the thumb is that more frames are allocated for the ease in and ease out, as the character accelerates upward or downwards, to show the gradual movement.

Body weight shift planning > blocking > spline exercise

Instructions & Guidance (notes from in-class talk)

1. Setting Up the Basics

1.0 Change Default Tangents to Stepped

Switch the default tangent to “stepped” mode to make it easier to block out key poses and focus on timing.

1.1 Create a Default Pose

Start with a neutral default pose. Use both the front and left views to ensure accuracy and alignment.

1.2 Set Up a Quick Selection Tool

Create a quick selection tool for all the controllers, excluding the root controller. This will streamline the animation process and save time during adjustments.

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2. Anticipation: Adding Realism to Movement

2.1 Offset for Anticipation

Introduce anticipation by slightly offsetting the pose in the opposite direction of the intended movement. This creates a sense of tension and preparation before the action begins.

2.2 Incremental Adjustments

Use the “+” or “−” keys to control the gizmo for incremental adjustments. Remember:

• A larger gizmo results in smaller, more precise movements.
• Set the foot roll to 100 and adjust it in the graph editor across the entire animation timeline for consistency.

2.3 Create Multiple Anticipation Poses

Develop around 4 anticipation poses to build a dynamic and fluid movement.

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3. Weight Shift: Crafting the Contact Pose

3.1 Clean Up Between Poses

Reset all values to 0 before moving on to the next pose. This ensures clarity and reduces errors.

3.2 Define the Contact Pose

The contact pose is critical for establishing the weight shift. When the hips take the weight, the body naturally leans toward the supporting side. Add subtle rotation in the direction of the hip movement to enhance realism.

Shooting reference

Creating a video reference in front and side views for the body weight shift involved ensuring the camera was stable. Both perspectives needed to match precisely in timing, as two different cameras were used to capture the reference. The footage was then aligned in Premiere Pro, and consecutive frames were screenshotted for breakdown purposes, making it clear how to perform blocking for the action.

The image below shows the collection of screenshots, presenting consecutive frames of the action, which served as a reference for my blocking process.

Body weight shift study: breaking down in class demo

The image below shows my investigation of the class demo on the body weight shift, as explained to us with consideration of both the front and side views.

Observations/Notes:

• The body moves slightly in the opposite direction before the action is undertaken, providing a visual clue for anticipation.
• This is followed by a significant movement toward the intended direction to build up anticipation.
• It is crucial to consider the COG (centre of gravity) as a reference point when performing blocking to ensure that the poses in the blocking are accurate and physically make sense.
• As the weight of the body shifts, the COG shifts, requiring adjustments to the character’s poses.
• The feet move in such a way that, in the side view, the trajectory forms an arc, ensuring organic movement.
• The step to the side starts from the heel unless the animation is intentionally depicting a tiptoeing character (like a Pink Panther, for example).
• The passing pose is an approximation of symmetry, with the centre of gravity positioned in the middle due to even weight distribution across both legs.
• The contact pose, following the passing pose, involves dragging the foot. By analogy to the pendulum exercise, as the body shifts to the side after the step, the other foot follows by being dragged. This must be accentuated in the animation.
• As the foot is dragged, it moves upwards with the heel, while the toes remain in contact with the ground. This creates a distinction between local dragging (toes) and global dragging (leg). Both must be carefully implemented to ensure accurate movement.

My submission on SyncSketch: Body weight shift -> front_weight shift_01

Critiquing Ball with Tail planning and blocking & Ball with Tail animation in spline exercise



Tailed ball animation in blocking feedback

Blocking animation submission on SyncSketch: Tailed ball -> fox jumping01

First of all, I overthought things and got it completely wrong by ignoring everything I had learned about animating the bouncing ball. Keep it simple, stupid!

Regarding the Bouncing Ball

I came across a blog, a tutorial, and other people’s animations, and I learned that when you jump (like an athlete), the path you’re creating in the Y-coordinate space—which describes your height—is not a perfect parabola. This is because of the friction that affects your body as it moves through the air. While this is true, I exaggerated it too much.

In reality, the path still follows a parabola, representing an organic movement with ease-in and ease-out. It may slightly deviate, becoming more pronounced on the left side of the curve, but it still represents the pathway from the floor to the highest point of the jump, where the body momentarily stays in the air before it begins to fall.

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Regarding the Blocking

The blocking confused me when I initially planned the animation. I sketched out triangular motion trails for the jumps, but it should have been a parabola!
Fair enough—when Maya is set to linear tangent interpolation and the trail option is displayed, it shows these triangular shapes. However, this isn’t mechanical; it’s an organic motion, so the path should still resemble a parabola.

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Regarding the Tail

The tail should follow a similar trajectory to the ball, much like the roller coaster example where the ball is the front carriage and the subsequent parts of the tail are the carriages that follow. My first attempt resulted in a stiff tail, which is the opposite of the desired fluid appearance.

Tailed ball animation in spline exercise

Redoing blocking

To achieve fluidity in the movement of the tail and eliminate stiffness, I began to redo the blocking stage, in reference to the feedback given. I drew the table that depicted the breakdown of 1 jump into 10 keyframes, to better navigate the following movement of the tail. I used that as the reference point, to check against while animating.

This is a screenshot of the work-in-progress during the blocking stage. The motion trail in the viewport currently has a triangular shape, which is typical for this stage. Moving forward to the spline animation phase, my role will be to refine the pathways to better approximate organic movement by reshaping them into parabolas. To achieve this, I will add more keyframes, providing Maya with additional data to create smoother parabolic interpolations. This approach addresses the default linear interpolation caused by the limited coordinate space data provided during the blocking stage.

Delivering spline animation

Delivering an animation in spline requires working within the graph editor and the viewport to adjust the interpolation curves, ensuring they approximate organic movement while checking the outcome for both appearance and feel.

The automated spline interpolation function facilitates the transition from linear tangents to spline curves. However, due to the limited sample data provided, this often results in visual artifacts. Therefore, manual corrections are necessary to refine the animation.

Spline animation submission on SyncSketch: Tailed ball spline -> fox_jumps_spline_1

Pendulum critique & Planning for the tailed ball exercise

What is Anticipation?

Anticipation is an action that provides visual clues about the main action that is about to occur, often building up internal force leading to the main event.

Anticipation visually conveys the amount of strength and force that goes into a movement. The use of squash and stretch not only enhances the expression of movement but also makes it more convincing to the viewer.

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Framework: Anticipation > Action > Reaction

This principle, as described by Bill Tytla, references Newton’s laws of motion.

1. Anticipation: Prepares the audience for the action by showing the buildup of strength or force. For example, the ball stretches and squashes in anticipation of a bounce.
2. Action: The main event, such as the ball bouncing.
3. Reaction: The follow-through movement, like the tail following the ball’s motion.
   
   (Reference: Rollercoaster principle)

Tail movement

The tail follows the same curve as the front part of the movement (e.g., a bouncing ball).

The natural pose for the tail is often an S-shape, which reflects the dynamics of motion.

Tailed ball animation exercise

Key guidelines:

• Begin with the ball animation.
• Once the ball’s motion is finalized, move to animating the tail.
• Deliver the animation in blocking mode, not in spline.
  
  

What is blocking?

Blocking is the foundation of the animation process. It involves setting the main keys, breakdowns, and using stepped tangents to sketch the motion.

• Purpose:
  Blocking allows you to test and refine your idea quickly without worrying about transitions or splines. It’s a time-efficient way to sketch the animation’s key movements.
• Delivery Details:
  Use stepped tangents (flat or linear tangents) that create a strobe-light effect. This is similar to a Boolean system—either “on” or “off.”
  
  

Breakdowns: Adding Life to Motion

Breakdowns are essential to filling the space between keyframes. They define how the motion transitions, playing a crucial role in creating the illusion of life.

• Core Idea:
  It’s all about time and space—integrating principles like stretch and squash to make the motion believable and dynamic.
  
  

The Four Stages of Animation:

1. Planning: Laying out your ideas and structure.
2. Blocking: Establishing the foundation with keys, breakdowns, and stepped tangents.
3. Splining: Refining the transitions and smoothing out the motion.
4. Polishing: Adding the final touches to perfect the animation.

What is ghosting?

Ghosting mode can be switched on for the controllers or object, to visualise tracking of the movement.

Planning for an assignment

To create an iconograph, I took screenshots of George’s demo in class, which showed the simple up-and-down motion of the ball with the tail. I used these as the guide, while working on delivering of my animation, so I could always go back to it an reference the key frames, and try to approximate my blocking against George’s.

I opted for a simple animation while applying the theory I’ve learned so far. My animation consists of a small jump, which serves as the anticipation for the bigger jump. This is followed by three smaller jumps, indicating that the initial jump was high in energy. To balance the energy accumulated from the jump, the ball requires several smaller jumps to come to a stop.

The sequence follows the pattern of anticipation > action > reaction:

• Anticipation: Preparing for the big jump.
• Action: The big jump itself.
• Reaction: The consecutive smaller jumps that help balance the accumulated energy.

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Pendulum Feedback

My submission on SyncSketch: Pendulum -> Pendulum

The pendulum movement is effective, but the achieved velocity is not proportionate or justified relative to the velocity of the base moving from point A to point B before it stops. To address this, the number of frames allocated for the base movement should be reduced to around 23 frames to create a shorter, more rapid motion. (Refer to the graph editor highlighted in the red box.)

I have grasped the concept of C and S shapes well, but I now need to ensure they are accurately approximated so that these shapes do not appear exaggerated. (See the comparison above: an over-the-top S versus a correctly approximated S below.)

Consistency is key when mapping the movement. The S and C shapes should be spaced evenly around a middle line, which could be drawn as a reference through the anchor point of the pendulum at its base.

When the pendulum comes to a stop, the movement must account for both the middle section and the outer part of the pendulum (corresponding to the rotation of the respective joints). The final part to stop should always be the outermost section of the pendulum.