This week, I need to modify my arm poses based on the teacher’s feedback to ensure they are not obscured by the body. I will also convert the blocking into spline and adjust the animation curves to make the movement smoother.
This week, I continued working on my animation. Teacher taught us a great method for gaining overall control of the movement. It involves stacking two cubes, with one representing the shoulders and chest and the other representing the main torso. Then, based on the reference, you keyframe the cubes. Just like sketching a draft in drawing, these cubes serve as the first step in summarizing the body’s motion patterns.
cube method
My blocking:
I believe the order of production is very important. For example, the body, as the first-level object of movement, should have its position determined first, followed by the feet.
I start by focusing on the details of the body’s rise, fall, and rotation, then move on to establish the relationship and positioning of the feet in relation to the ground.
Finally, I keyframe the arms and hands. For the last part, I make slight exaggerations — I want to extend the anticipation phase, allowing the character to build up more force in the opposite direction. Therefore, I enhance the actions based on the reference.
My feedback of this week
The issue is similar to the one I encountered with the silhouette poses earlier. In the reference, the arm movement is not very clear; for example, when jumping, the right arm is obscured by the body, which results in a lack of information.
This is something that needs to be considered in animation — how to re-design and modify the motion based on the reference to make the entire process more “animated.” Fortunately, the instructor gave me some great suggestions for arm poses.
I referred to a reference video from professional motion capture actor Xixiyu and decided to create a jumping-down pose. I realized that the preparation phase for this pose is crucial because when a character jumps down from a high place or between platforms, there is usually a preparatory action before the jump. Below is my reference clip:
The reason I chose this reference video is that it is very comprehensive, covering the whole process from the initial position to the preparation position, to the jump, fall and return to the standing position. The recording is complete and clear. I need consistency and integrity in these poses so that I can better analyze the changes in his movements.
This is the preparation phase before the jump. According to the reference, she first takes a deep breath as the initial preparatory action. Then, she crosses her arms and shifts her weight backward, storing force in one direction. After that, her center of gravity moves upward and forward, and her body transitions from a side-back position to facing forward.
This is the takeoff phase. She spreads her arms, possibly to maintain balance, and then descends. The overall motion curve should resemble that of a bouncing ball.
This is the landing phase. You can see her center of gravity shifting from right to left, followed by her standing up and taking a few steps forward.
This is the entire dynamic process：
The entire line change in the center of gravity, but I won’t make it exactly the same because the animation needs to be smoother, like a bouncing ball.
This week, I submitted a re-done walking loop and got feedback:
There are still some problems with animation, for example, my cog is not low enough when the center of gravity should be the lowest. In order to solve the problem of knee jumping, it is necessary to disassemble the key frame of the foot touching the ground, so that the whole heel touches the ground, and then the front foot is tilted up, and then the next key frame is the whole foot touching the ground.
Front view:
There are no major issues with my front view, and no modifications are needed.
During the week, I had some difficulty converting blocking to spline. For example, I didn’t get the Settings right and the whole animation looked very strange after the conversion.
Settings for blocking:
Settings for spline:
In addition, I had another problem, when I wanted to pace the animation, I selected all the controllers and they were all keyframed, but when I moved the animation was broken. I don’t know why it happened, but the whole body looked twitching and it seemed like some keyframes got mixed up as they moved.
This week is more about reflection and polishing, because my homework needs to be redone. But for the sake of documenting the process, I’ll put it down below
Side view:
As you can see in the video below, the whole movement is stiff and looks like a robot just learning to walk, and this week I still don’t know how to deal with the wobbling of my knees. That’s why the knees are shaking up and down.
Front view:
When I reflected on it, I realized that it was a strange walk, because the knees were turned inward, and ordinary people don’t walk so strangely.
My reference is from the learning materials in this week’s powerpoint. This picture clearly shows the decomposition of walking posture.
What needs attention is the key frame of each foot’s contact with the ground and departure, as well as the position of the legs and the distortion of the knees. And pay attention to the movements of the ball of the foot and the heel at different times.
In addition, the movement of the center of gravity of cog is also very important. Similar to the principle of the movement of a small ball, the motion tail of cog should be undulating from the side, and the shape of an infinity sign from the front.
Blocking of walk cycle:
Side view
Front view
Feedback from teacher:
For side view: Be careful not to step under the ground when the foot touches the ground, and the knee needs to be more bent, for example, when the center of gravity is lowest, the knee should be more bent. Notice how the ball of the foot connects between each pose.
For front view: Notice that the shape of the changing center of gravity is not the shape of a heart, but the shape of infinity.
Task 2: Polishing of Weight Shift and Pose
Feedback from teacher: Make the cog movement curve smooth and adjust the pose when foot contact floor.
POSES in Maya showing Silhouette and line of action
Plan and animate a weight shift
Task 1. POSES in Maya showing Silhouette:
Draft and pose in Maya showing silhouette and line of action:
Feedback of sihouette:
My refelction: The whole dynamic posture needs to consider the expression of the animation, for example, the movements of the hand cannot be blocked by the body, otherwise the silhouette will lose information, so the posture of the hand should be adjusted appropriately. The Angle of view of the entire camera is a bit too lateral, requiring 3/4 of the side to correspond to the Angle of reference. On the left foot, consider standing on your heels for better balance.
So I adjust the pose according to the feedback:
Task 2. Blocking of weight shift:
My plan and draft:
animation plan
For example, when a person takes a step to the side, the weight will remain on the foot in contact with the ground, and until the other foot contacts the ground, the weight will begin to shift. The curve of the whole cog is a radian, not a straight line. For example, in my sketch, the center of gravity will first shift to the bottom left, and then after reaching the lowest point, the center of gravity will slowly rise. translate
1. Takeoff Phase – Anticipation: When the squirrel prepares to jump, its tail slightly swings downward or backward while the body crouches to gather strength, helping generate forward or upward thrust.
2. Aerial Phase: At the highest point of the jump or during the aerial phase, the tail remains extended and slightly tilts upward or downward to maintain balance.
3. Landing Phase: The tail quickly swings downward or backward to stabilize the centre of gravity.
The tail is a secondary motion part of the body. Its movements follow the primary actions of the body (such as jumping, turning, or running) and are expressed through inertia and delayed effects, which can be achieved through offsetting.
The tail’s motion should lag behind the primary actions of the body. When the body makes a quick turn, the tail will initially remain in its original direction and then follow with delayed movement due to inertia. When the character stops moving, the tail will exhibit slight oscillations (overshoot or settling) to reflect inertia.
Therefore, on the animation timeline, the keyframes for the tail should be offset slightly behind the keyframes for the body’s actions.
Moreover, the segmentation of the tail shares similarities with a pendulum. The tail’s root, middle section, and tip have different levels of movement. The root moves slightly earlier, the middle section follows later, and the tip moves last.
