{"id":1218,"date":"2025-04-13T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AshD\/?page_id=1218"},"modified":"2025-05-12T17:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T17:42:22","slug":"narrative-visual-perspective-in-animation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~AshD\/narrative-2\/narrative-visual-perspective-in-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"Narrative Visual Perspective in Animation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For our Senior Narrative unit in animation, students were tasked with creating an original 3D animated short film in groups of 3 or more. In our pervious unit, we had learned how to use 3D modeling and animation applications like Maya, Z-Brush, Adobe Substances painter, and more to create and move 3D characters and environments. The Narrative project allowed students to put all of their newly acquired 3D animation knowledge together with previous knowledge of video and sound editing to create entertaining minute-long short films. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3D Character Model and Bio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, before we were split into groups, students began our animation projects by creating original 3D characters. We modeled them roughly using geometric shapes in Maya, added finer details in Z-Brush, and gave them color and textures in Maya. Finally, we created backstories for our characters and added them to images rendered from Adobe Substance Painter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can view my character and read a bit about her by clicking on the image below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walk, Run, and Jump Cycles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After creating our 3D character models, it was time to animate them in Maya. After importing the characters into maya, we learned how to use keyframes to cut down on our animating workload. In maya, you don’t have to create every single frame of animation the way you would if you were animating a 2D animation by hand. If you set 2 different keyframes a couple frames apart, the computer will fill in the gaps between those 2 poses, making the animation between them almost instantly. For the most part this process results in a pretty smooth animation for very little effort, making it extremely useful in terms of saving time while animating. Another way 3D animation is different from 2D is that for 3D animation, the computer needs to “render” each frame. That means, if you want to eventually export your animation into a video, the computer first needs create and export an image (like a jpg or png) of each individual frame, which can take literal hours. That’s part of why time management was so important during our Narrative project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, below is a video of some basic animations I created of my character using keyframes. I like the way my character, pip, looks in these movements, although I dislike that some of them are so jittery. I found it difficult to create smooth animation at times, for a couple reasons. The main reason being that, in Maya, you move character models using a skeleton rig that the 3D mesh is attached too. This rig has joints that can rotate in 3 directions, move in 3 directions, and theoretically scale in 3 directions. I only rotated or moved my joints on the X, Y, and Z, axes, but it was still a lot to keep track of. I think that some keyframes had the coordinates for these elements in the wrong places, leading to jittery animation. However, this taught me a valuable lesson for the future. The simpler the better! I now understood that adding to many keyframes and overcomplicating my animations can cause them to lose their smoothness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n