This week you will be animating a character to audio. You will choose from one of three provided audio clips (which cannot be modified in any way), from one of two rigs, and like in the sit assignment a fixed camera angle. Acting will be very important in this assignment. Be creative! Tell a story! However, keep the props and extra production elements minimal. We are focusing on the motion. Check out the 11 Second Club, a monthly competition where animators do exactly what you are doing for this assignment. It has several examples of the variety of animations you can get from a single clip. For your motion, use the video reference you took in class as a starting point. Pick and choose actions/poses from different takes that you think might read well and sketch them out in planning. After reviewing your reference and planning, you will begin layout.
In the layout stage you are communicating the overall staging of your animation with as few keyframes as possible. This is an important review stage because the director can still give input for timing without having to throw away a lot of work.
Finish the layout stage and no further before your review session with TAs. Save a copy of the scene called [your_animation_name]_LAYOUT.ma which you will also show during next Thursday's critique. The TAs will provide feedback on strengthening your staging and timing.
In the blocking
stage your animation should communicate all major keyframes,
in-betweens and breakdowns. All interpolation should be set to stepped so that
the viewer is not distracted by details in interpolation that have not been
refined yet. Your idea should come across clearly with no questions left in the
viewer's mind about what is happening. When presenting your animation you should
never be saying, "I'm going to add
Finish the blocking stage and no further before class Thursday.
After finishing the blocking stage your character's emotions should be clearly communicated through the body. The next step is to put the icing on the cake and add facial expressions. Turn on the face rig visibility and set face poses for each stepped keyframe where the rest of the body is posed. Do overall emotions and eye directions in a first pass and then add lipsync as a second pass.
Finish the facial stage before the TA review. Save a copy named named [your_animation_name]_FACIAL.ma to show in Thursday's critique.
As a final step, go through your whole animation and set keyframes to spline and then adjust the tangents to create the desired interpolation. You may choose to do this all at once or pose by pose depending on your preference. Keep scrolling through your animation and check to make sure poses don't accidentally overshoot their mark. Make sure that feet don't slide on the ground by setting interpolation type to flat where necessary. Avoid breaking tangents or using linear interpolation which can result in visible pops in the animation - instead you can set extra keyframes on individual channels or controls to create sharp movements.
Check out this example of splining.
Finish your animation for presentation to class on Thursday.
Now that we have learned about the six expressions from Gary Faigin, we will use the facial rig to create these six expressions. Remember all the different components of the face and how each part plays a role. A good place to start is to determine which aspect of the face is the most important to an expression and pose that first. If you are having trouble, sit in front of a mirror and try the poses yourself or review the video tapes on Gary Faigin's lecture. Put all the expressions in one maya file and render out two still frames for each - a front and perspective view (three quarters).
Pose the facial rig to reflect the six basic expressions: sadness, anger, disgust, joy, fear, and surprise. Use this naming scheme for your renders: expression_[front or persp].jpg
You will now focus on the face and expressions of your 11 Second Club animation assignment, as well adding further polish to your character motion.
For this part you will be adding expression and lip sync to match the face to the audio. The TA’s will hand out a packet describing lip sync and how to add it to your existing animation. Pose the facial expressions first and then add lip sync. If you have any questions concerning facial animation, don't be afraid to ask Barbara, David, or your TA’s.
Add expressions and lip synch to your 11 Second Club animation.