Week 1 –Introduction to 3D Animation, the bouncing ball:

What was covered in the lecture:
– Overview of the assignments
– Maya animation overview
Animation Principles:

The Workshop Activity:
1. Bouncing Ball Task:
s = set key
Adjust the location of the balls and set a key hitting S. Every time a key was set there will be a red indication next to the parameters and on the timeline.

On this exercise I moved the pivot point to the bottom of the shape (D to adjust and V to snip), Changed the “Translate Y” and “Scale Y” parameters.

2. Ball Bounce Arc:

3. Pendulum
To adjust the handles I right clicked and chose non-weight

4. Bouncy Ball

The Weekly Activity:
A ball hitting a wall:

Render (too much motion blur):

Domino Reference:

Week 2 – The Obstacle Course

What was covered in the lecture:
Rigging:
– The big yellow circle surrounding the entire rig is the placement for the first key.
– Start by setting a key for each of the RIG parts.
– Setting to auto keying might be easier.
– Always use the animation graph.
– To visualise the path:

– Shift+Drag to move a keyframe. We could also cut and paste.
Its important to turn on Auto Snap Keys

The Workshop Activity:
Bouncing Ball

The Weekly Activity:
Bouncing Cube:

Obstacle Course Layout:

Week 3 – Posing an IK Arm and Leg Rig, Disney ‘Sack of flour’ animator training

What was covered in the lecture:
How to parent
P to parent. shift+P to break the link

How to limit transformation
Go to Att Editor -> limit info -> Rotate/Translate

The Workshop Activity:
Hand Posing:
I arranged the pivot points to where the joints should be. Parented from bottom (finger tip) to top (shoulder). I limited the transformation of each joint.

Leg Rigging Posing:
Adjust the pivot points. Then parent each part from bottom to top (feet to pelvis).

Create Joints. Create to one side of the leg. Place it correctly. Mirror Joints. Then add 2 joints for the pelvis and link them to both legs.

Create IK Handle. Select the hip joint and the leg joint. Create one more IK handle and select the leg joint then the feet joint. Do the same the other leg.

Create a circle curve, select first the feet IK then the circle and parent. Do the same with the other IK of this leg. Then do the same for the other leg.

Create one more circle curve for the pelvis. parent it to the top joint.

Parent each geometry to its bone. First select the geo then the bone + P.

Week 4 – Creating Poses and Working on Human Rig.

What was covered in the lecture:
Dynamic Posing
A dynamically posed drawing will portray a body in motion: leaping, dancing, running. An important thing is to have an interesting silhouette. The silhouette should be clear and readable.

– We need to take into consideration the line of action – which gives a sense of energy to the rig

– Asymmetry – Asymmetrical poses are more natural and dynamic, conveying a sense of movement and life
– Exaggerate the Pose – It help emphasise the character’s actions and emotions, making the pose more impactful
– Weight is distributed – Think about how gravity affects the character’s body and adjust the pose accordingly.

Examples of drawings that I made in the past while taking into consideration the principles above:

The Workshop Activity:
Flour-sack
A dynamically posed drawing will portray a body in motion: leaping, dancing, running. An important thing is to have an interesting silhouette. The silhouette should be clear and readable.
First we investigated the model sheet and expression:

Then we created our own poses:
Casual –

Aware of the environment:

Looks Back –

Eleven Rig:
To change how the arms behaves when moving the pelvis control, select the main control and adjust “R/L Arm Ik Space”. We could also change the gender of the character on the same location.

We can animate everything. For example:
– Fingers posture
– Blink by selecting the eyeball
– Mouth and tongue

Reference of a sketch I made showcasing “Exaggerate the Pose” and “Weight is distributed” principles:

For this exercise I tried to replicate “Water bending” postures: