Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Chapter 4 - Noodle Time

It was half blocking+++++ and half first pass splining. There were some changes that needed to be done after i received my critique. I think this time around i spent a lot of my time on my blocking and i did not bother to try out splining the shot just to figure out how does it look like. This was something that I did during my third shot last term. I got carried away and continue to work on spline and it was really really hard!

Back to present time. There are some changes on some poses at the beginning of the shot. I did not realize that the previous pose that i had was not appealing enough :O ! and this is a really great point that my mentor told me on the critique!! I completely forgot about the principle of Appeal! i will keep this in my mind for my next shot in the future (omg we're going to use bishop!!! :D).

My first pass splining felt wrong in so many ways. This time i tried out non-weighted tangent. Honestly, it was really easy to make the curves look all neat. One thing that i learnt from my progress on week 4 is, i know that maybe a lot of people have mentioned this, we should not make our curves look all neat and tidy bluntly. I did this last week :( .

This is what happened last week. I used non-weighted tangent in graph editor. As i refined the curves, i felt pretty unease because i can't adjust the tangent handles like i normally do if i used weighted tangent. I remember it was mentioned in one of the lectures, that we should not adjust the spacing in our shot using the curves. I sticked to that line and told myself that i'm gonna try this new method and see what happened. So i refined the curve and pretty impressed because it was really easy to clean up the curves. This my friend, was the evil in disguise. I somehow did not realize this at all. I noticed all the wrong stuff in my shot when i was on the plane, hours after I submit the assignment +_+ . My shot fell flat and lifeless, there was no moving hold, stewie stops abruptly when he hits the poses, and many more :( . I was probably 36000 feet above the ground and i was so devastated inside the plane -o-! I came into one realisation that if the non-weighted tangent gave an easier way to clean up the curves, this could mean that everything that we put during the blocking (timing and spacing, etc) is most likely near perfect.

This perhaps is a very logical thing and maybe i should have understand this earlier. I heard a lot of people say that we should look at the action that is happening on the screen, not the curves on graph editor (Having said this, i do respect the people that use a lot of graphic editor on their workflow). Ironically i have mentioned this to a lot of people because i thought this is the right thing to do. I guess the reality really hits me this time around and i'm really glad that i experienced this, now i really know that we can not abuse graph editor like what i did and our priority should be on the action that is happening on the screen. I really feel that we should monitor both of the screen and the graph editor. The best way to put this and like what my mentor told us, use graph editor as an assistant.

One last thing that i learnt from my long blocking stage is time and spacing. I think i sort of find a new side of these two principles. I can't really explain about it cause i'm still unsure. I'm really looking forward to test this on my next shot.. o_O..

Here are the playblasts from week 4:

one part that i like on this blocking ^^



not too sure if i used this one for splining.. it has huge pop..

Spline! O_O!


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In honour of splining week, 
let's keep moving forward, have fun, and don't forget to eat! :d
Happy animating! :)


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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Chapter 4 - Experiment part 3

Week 4.
On my last post, I mentioned that i would changed my shot to Spline a week early. I really wish that i really did it. I can't changed what has happened though. So i would talk about my experience with plateau tangent. Before I start.. maybe this only occurs to me, not to anybody else.. and if you are a plateau tangent fan.. im sorry if i against you.

I have mentioned on my first post that at first, it seems that plateau tangent gave me a nice timing. However, i found out that the slow in-out and the even spacing in the middle really distract me. It was all right at first, but right after I playblast the shot, the shot would look very mechanical due to the constant slow in-out. The other problem happened when I refine my curve. The timing right after I refined the curve sometimes felt a little bit off. It probably because I really got used to see the animation played on plateau tangent and since it already has given me the in-between poses, i felt that the work is done. 
Again, i was Wrong! I think the slow in-out and the even spacing has really manipulated my eyes and i did not realize this until this week. So in this case, i would say that stepped mode is a better option. I feel that in stepped mode, I could really think about the approximate timing between one pose to the next ones without (obviously) looking at or worrying the in-between poses. I also miss one important part that i always do in stepped mode. Every time i use this approach, I put the in-between pose at the right timing. In plateau mode, I did not put my in-between poses at the right timing. - I hope this make sense - I was simply enjoy the in between poses that was given by the computer and i did not even think to place them at the right timing. So, the lesson from this are; do not be lazy, pose that in-between poses, and watch your timing.

I also thought that it was not necessary to change the tangents type when you refine your curve. It seems like i got this one wrong too. It probably better to change the whole tangent type beforehand. I encountered this weird behavior of this tangent type. It probably because i did not change the entire curve tangents type. So this is what happened, when i refined the curve, i always have them on weighted tangent, break them, and free the tangent weight. Normally, after I break the tangent, if I adjust one of the handle it wont effect any other curve shape beside the one at the side of the handle that I'm adjusting. Let's say i have an A key frame and a B key frame on A's right, and i would like to adjust B's curve using B's left tangent handle. Here I have all curve tangents broken down and they are all set to free tangent weight mode, and when I adjust the curve tangent, it seems that any movement that i do affects the shape of the curve shape on the Left side of the A key frame. I hope this make sense.. I'm not sure why this happened and i have not done any research to fix this. My suspicion says that this is because i just partly changed the curve tangent type on the one that i felt it need to be changed into spline. So I would say that next time around, it would be better to have everything on the same mode.. or in any mode but plateau (sorry plateau fan ^^'). The other thing that i found is, no matter i tried to refine the curve, it led me to a sort of plateau shape, uh well maybe that's why it is called plateau mode.

So this would be what i experienced this week and also the last couple weeks. The term is getting even more challenging and there is really no time to slack. I always treat my shot as one part of experiments and i regret nothing from this. I definitely learn and find new stuff even though my grade this week is going down drastically hehe.. It is sad but i feel that that's the mark that i should get. I'm honestly not too proud on how my shot turn out.. it obviously has tons of stuff that need to be fixed. But yeah, i think i will give myself a break from this shot and carry on with the next one, which would be Ballerina Stewie! :) Below is the latest playblast of my shot:


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Monday, October 24, 2011

Chapter 4.3 - Polishing

Finally done with my Polishing.. however, i feel that this could be done better and it could be polished even farther. I added slight squashes and stretches on the body.. i didn't want to go too far with it because there are too many things going on on the screen already.. with all the hops and honestly the hips are moving a bit crazy.. and i''m very unsure about the hips, i like the overlap that is happening on it.. so i choose not to modify it.. i did tone down one part of the rotation because it feels too much.. I should ask other people and my mentor about this...Refining the knee pops were tricky too.. i pretty much messed up some of the poses and somehow following the knee's path of action make it looks even weirder. At this stage, i decided to just polished according to my render camera. The reason is simply because it should look right on that view. I'm a bit worried with how the knee angles correspond with the feet and i think I found the solution just now o_o...
Here is the final playblast for my Hopscotch :) :


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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Chapter 4.2 - The Progress

Tracking down my own progress for the last 2 days .. Super slow progress -o-! I aim to finish the shot by today so I could start my planning for next assignment :) Anyway, here are the refining progress :

f 1-60

f 1-95

f 1-122

f 1-200

moving on to polishing stage now :)

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Chapter 4.1 - The Second Pick List

Narrowing down the choices! i have 4 candidates : simple dance move, giant hamster wheel, the epic walk in Heavy windstorm, and the sticky gum. I'm going to YouTube some video references now.. will be back with bunch of links! :)

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hello~ i'm back!
Below are Pick List 2 reference links, i hope this would help :)
*please check out the pick list updates right after this list as well, i have added some new links.

Moonwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKSGzpJD0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XERwHkH_Zzk&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL4C1708B0ECD443CA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_FzgtLVzbI&feature=BFa&list=PL4C1708B0ECD443CA&lf=results_video

Canonball Jump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV55-P8tK1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V62tkUSypzQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pYqSfXyqI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUggV_15oo&feature=related

Swan dive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW2ez_CP3eg&feature=fvsr (start at 0:55)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAncJ80dUas&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Idj_j469u0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu95pgSgOJk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmVaArpQgLA&feature=related

Run and lose balance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mdiUsK_Xhc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqWR_ZiVPqY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-4gGhSS5HA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5xOCwRgLE&feature=related

Simple dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx2rmlAEqfQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxRFqhKlo6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34z5DGZMf_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEFvnrmVjoM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1i68Xic1Yk (5:38)

Climbing/descending steep stairs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02_kfNDLrmk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0tO9l195Tg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjH0D6Ef2f4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDb044P_qUk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfDGmQizsaQ&feature=related

Lifesize Hamster Wheel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjZ4cBqJLGk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOO46-atzuo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfyefoiLT28&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuyT6R8jWs

Stalking Walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mypTJ7p5L8w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUSYNZqQfI

Fast run and quickly reverse (couldn't find a good one for this one :( )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8QZELFbBQQ

Walk in heavy windstorm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_RzGtEA_FI&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEUYzOBdq1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3qz6wQiZEE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTRuKTWRAic&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GuFLrb-vL4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2XN-Az-vYc&feature=related

Step on gum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg50KJbQ-BU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPaUUs-URqs (6:44)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65RqjraEYw&feature=related

Parkour
http://www.youtube.com/user/americanparkour?blend=6&ob=4

Jump and land on non-squishy ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PR0586HA5o

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hmm it seems i lean towards to lifesize hamster wheel and walk in heavy storm... both topics really interest me and either one of them could be a really great exercise for weight shift and posing .. i hope some inspirations will appear on my dream tonight :D

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i think i have the winner.. it's walking in heavy rainstorms.. my mentor suggested on q&a today to pick the one that you could visualize the most.. and for the past few days, i feel that i have a good theme or story going for this one.. so this would be my final pick.. the choice is locked in! :)

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Pick List UPDATE


I got the newest syllabus i thought i'm going to update the list since i found some changes on it, here are the newest addition:

Walk on balance beam/log
Balance beam:

Log

Jump on high dive and then off (dive, leap, fall)

Run into a high jump and land/recover

Breakdancing

Push a heavy object (no arms)
- i could not find this one :( im afraid we have to shot our own reference, which i encourage you to do it! :)

Change of speed and direction while in motion

External force effecting a walk/run (see the wind walk links above too)

Jumping on stones

Walking and suddenly frightened into jump and recovery/knocked over

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Monday, August 1, 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Chapter 4 - More Bouncy Balls! part 3

Bouncy ball is not as simple as it sounds after all. It is really tricky to get the right timing for me. I mentioned that I used animation snapshot to refine my spacing. However, this is not a really good idea. I happened to become too attach with the tool that I forgot to check how the animation looks like without the snapshot. So the lesson is, the snapshot is good to check the timing and the distance of the balls, however it is not a tool to determine the entire movement of the ball. I also find it tricky to determine when the ball start losing its momentum..(i hope i got this right..) so the bounce starts to die out..I also did my revision for last week, i hope they are going to be all right.

My Revisions:


This week assignment:


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I forgot to post my planning. Planning was a lot of fun! It is almost like evoking the uni student inside me hehe :) So here I go:


... i have tiny hand writing, click the image to view the larger version :)

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Friday, July 22, 2011

Chapter 4 - More Bouncy Balls! part 2

My problem last week was timing and spacing. During q&a i consulted my biggest problem with my mentor :) He offered some tips and at the moment i'm trying to apply it on my animation!
Happy animating everyone!

These are the progress so far:

Planning:


Blocking:


Enable the snapshot to check my spacing! This helps me to reduce the snappy contact as well :)


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Re-Blocking:



Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Chapter 4 - More Bouncy Balls!

We're going to animate two balls that have different weight this week! I also took my own reference video and i'm going to post it here.. hopefully this video reference could help you all :) . Okay, here we go :



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