Evaluation
In Unit 74, I aimed to develop skills in animation, learning timeline animation, bone animation and lip sync. I set out to learn about animating in maya - rigging, joint and bone, keyframing and everything else that goes into creating game animations in maya. To demonstrate this, I was to create 8 animated assets, 1 lip sync and 5 body animations. This project was useful as I learnt a lot about animation - I leant about disneys 12 principals of animation and the steps that I needed to take to create my own animations. I have always really been interested in animation and have made some very amateur stop motion animations before. This was my first time creating 3D animations. What I have created are some very beginner animations, but I am excited to work on what I have learnt in this unit and improve my skills and experiment with what I can do with animation.
I really like animation as I feel like it is a very expressive art form - you can create subtle expressions or you can go very over the top and have huge movements - both are acceptable in animation, and when subtlety and exaggeration are used together in animation they create something special and heartfelt. Animation breathes life into still images or objects, so I have always felt like there is a kind of magic in animation that is difficult to find anywhere else.
I have very much enjoyed working on this unit and learning about creating animations in maya. My animated assets started out very simple with the ball and the crate opening, but I tried to add more to each asset, with the shop door with the bell and the lift with the button and doors being a little bit more complex. I found joint and bone animation an easy idea to grasp but found a bit more difficult to implement. When I started making my crate to open and close, I placed the joints in the wrong place and the movement went the wrong direction, however after a few tries I understood where to place the joints and what they needed to parent to. The other asset animations were easier after that. I really enjoyed creating the lip sync, and found I could competently keyframe the animations with the audio. I am happy with how it turned out as my first lip sync, but it still looks a bit unnatural - especially the 'shocked' expression. I think how I did it looks very exaggerated and over the top, which works well for the audio I was syncing with which was a comedy sketch. However, I do need to practice creating more realistic animations. For the body animations, I was a little bit rushed as I was hoping to use the motion capture suit, so was waiting for an opportunity to use that. But for the time that I had to work on them, I am pleased with how they turned out. I learnt a lot from making them, and I realised how many small details there are in every movement that need to be paid attention to.
Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment and creating my animations. I liked having the freedom to choose what animations I made and liked being able to create something comedic. I am happy with my work for this unit - I still think there are some things I can improve on, such as making more realistic expressions and more fluid movements. My favourite parts were the lip sync and body animations, I think I will try making some small videos of animated characters for youtube for more practice. I did come across a couple of issues - animating the movements too slow was something I keep seem to be doing, but I feel like it is improving with every try. I need to learn how to anchor a particular body part when doing body animations, as I feel like a couple of my animations would have improved if I had anchored the feet to make sure they don't slide or move when I didn't want them to. I am looking forward to working on more animations in the future and expanding my knowledge and skills in this area.