Introduction

We also carried the Narrative 2 unit over to Animation, where we learned how to animate our 3D modeled characters properly. Throughout the unit, we also learned how to do keyframe animation on Maya, Mocap technology to move our models, and use blended shapes so we could animate expressions on our characters. After that, we were taught to lip-sync our characters and do different lip movements.

3D Character & Animation

Prior to animating our characters, we were required to make a character bio on Photoshop by using a rendered photo of our model on Maya, just like what we did with our 2D characters during the previous unit. Down below is my 3D model – An anthropomorphic husky named Donnie that wears a suit of scaled armor and two golden emblems on his armor and belt, each with a flame on it.

Artist Statement

For my 3D character poses, I selected my character Donnie to explore different animations using Autodesk Maya. Our process involved three specific animation tests for our models – walking, running, and jumping. A few weeks prior, we’ve done a series of animated tests using various objects.

Doing the running and walking animations were the difficult part for me to do, especially with being careful of stretching my model. It was pretty difficult getting to know the software of Maya. Once I’ve gotten pretty careful with them and took my time, I got used to working with the timeline so that the frames are consistent and the movements are smooth.

Walking Cycles

The first practice we had to do was make our characters move using Maya and render the frames – walking, running, and jumping in one video. The process took me about 2 weeks to get done, since I was still new at keyframing at that time. Overall, doing this was quite easy.

Mocap Video

Lip-Sync

The next practice assignment was to learn how to blend shapes so we can create lip-sync animations. We were required to cut a hole in the character’s mouth via the cutting tool and then we had to make various different lip movements and then merge the blended shapes together with the lip sync. Lip-syncing also helped make the characters express more clearly.

Here’s my lip-sync video right here. The recording heard is from an iconic moment of Toy Story. I wanted to use it so I can make the animation as expressive as possible.

Narrative Animation

This is the biggest project we did for the unit – the Narrative Animation. We were divided into groups of 3-4 people and we had to work together with a narrative storyline to make it into a 3D-animated short on Maya. I was grouped with Kailie, Cade, and Kane.

We came up with a story called “Surprise!”, starring our characters: Donnie (by me), Cranberry (by Kane), and Aster (by Kailie), planning a birthday party for Dragon (by Cade), but things go awry when the cake gets pushed off the table accidentally by Aster when she was stopping Cranberry from sneaking up on it. The three characters get worried when someone enters the door, but they become relieved when it was Dragon with an extra cake. The story ends with everyone partying, except that Aster pushes down the cake accidentally again.

Watch the full animation here:

Over here is the animatic. Some of the frames are a little different from the final version, which we had to discard in order to process with the project altogether.

Reflection

Based on doing everything throughout the unit, I valued that I was able to open a whole new world that caught my eye. At first, it was quite difficult for me to work with 3D animation, especially working with Autodesk Maya. As time flew by, I got better with using the software, though certain tools rather (object mode, cutting tool, resize, etc.). Even though it was complicated at getting the tools on Maya, I was still able to adapt working with 3D, and it made me appreciate that 3D animation isn’t “lazy” and I understood more about the industry that I want to work for.