In Animation, we began animating movements onto our 3D characters! We used Mocap technology and Maya to convert our real gestures into digital movements, that were then animated onto our 3D models. Mocap data is essentially a collection of pre-animated movements that can be applied to any character model, as long as they have a rigged skeleton. The data contains information for how each joint is rotated and moved, and moves the skeleton of your character accordingly! However, we also learned how to do basic manual keyframing animations in Maya. With these new resources and skills, we created lip sync animation of our characters as well as run, jump, and walk compositions.
Character Animations
I continued to use Celeste, the 3D character model I created during the Reflections unit, as the model I animated and created lip syncs with. Although I found my character incredibly cute in the initial modeling process, she turned out to be really difficult to animate, especially with her cape. It was difficult getting her arms to bend properly, as whenever I used Mocap data or preset movements on her, the cape would fold in on itself when her arms bent and it looked extremely out of shape. You can sort of tell how my model was restricted in its upper body movements in the above videos. I definitely learned a lesson to avoid loose/flowy clothing items in animating 3D models!
Click on the videos to see each animation!
3D Group Narrative Animation
However, our biggest and most daunting project of the Narrative 2 unit in Animation was our 3D Group Narrative Animation. I worked in a group with Lillian, Quinn, and Thomas. During the brainstorming process, we all agreed that we wanted to prioritize building a nice environment setting and using aesthetic lighting. We didn’t so much focus on an intricate and complex story. We all contributed each of our strongest skills to the project, such as 2D animation, texturing, or rigging.
Our Narrative Animation, titled “Lost in Japan“, follows a thief at a Japanese festival during the night who embarks on a high-chase run to escape a samurai soldier statue. After stealing a valuable and coveted sword, he is pursued by a stone samurai statue that comes to life and climbs up on buildings in order to escape him. He ends up escaping the samurai by jumping off a dock into the ocean with the sword.
Throughout the production process, we ran into many obstacles along the way. We had lost a week of worktime due to us scrapping a previous story idea and having to start over. Additionally, I was the only one in our group who was able to get an Adobe Substance Painter license, meaning that only two people could work on texturing buildings and characters at a time. Because many of our scenes were action-packed, we also spent a lot of time animating and troubleshooting both the stone samurai and our main character with Mocap movements (the amount of issues we ran into while working in Maya made us all lose a bit of our sanity during this project!). Furthermore, due to the recent power outages in our area, we also lost unsaved work at times and were forced to restart certain scenes.
If we had more time to do this project, I certainly would’ve gone back and changed a lot. We were incredibly rushed throughout the entire process, and so some of our work was sloppy. For example, I would’ve changed some of the texturing on the buildings in the festival to blend better and look more realistic. Additionally, we were pressed for time during the final editing phase of our project, so I would’ve gone back and made smoother transitions and fixed small editing mistakes in Adobe After Effects(for example, lining sound effects up with their corresponding actions, and trimming the end). However, despite all that, I’m proud of our end result and the experience I gained from collaborating on this large project. For example, I really valued being able to experience using a Mocap suit for the first time, and it was amazing seeing my in-person movements being translated into our animation! Despite how much the Maya interface frustrated me, I left the project with a better sense of understanding of how to use it to my advantage. I also really like the dim-lit lighting that we created in our animation, as well as the action-style camera movements we were able to incorporate.
With all that being said, I present to you our 3D Narrative Animation, “Lost in Japan“! I hope you enjoy!