Artefact 3 Sketches

Updated new and improved Artefacts 2 and 3

Client project - Storyboard

Client Project - key poses of the animation so far

Artefact 3 - Test 1 Complete

Artefact 2 Evaluation - Creating believable characters through the key principles of animation : Secondary Action

My second artefact concentrated on secondary action. The aim of secondary action is to add an action that would create more life to the scene, without overpowering the primary action. I thought the best way to do this was with a simple walk cycle, with the secondary action being a few head turns, as though curious where he is or what is around him (even though I used a plain background - the focus is the actual animation!), with the addition of a hand wave towards the end - as though he has spotted someone he knew or someone called his name. To enhance this artefact, I think more facial animation could have been added, especially when he waves. However, due to this being an already rigged character, there was no animation available for his mouth.
The general outcome of the test edits for this artefact included pausing the hand wave for just a second or so longer, as it was a very vague wave. For my final edit I added in just a normal walk cycle at the beginning so it was clear to define the difference between what the secondary does to the scene.
For this artefact to become more successful, different passes could be created, so the secondary action is bought in slowly, and the action is noticed. Each pass could be a different action, such as a whistle, looking at the time or a scratch for example, to see how much this adds more life to the scene.
From feedback, it might be an idea to possibly add sound, so his actions are more readable. As I have been keeping the background plain so the concentration is purely focused on the animation, it was questionable as to why the character is waving as he is walking, as of course there is no other character in the scene. The sound could just quite simply be his name being yelled. However for the purpose of this project I feel it worked quite well and was a definite improvement from my previous artefact.

Artefact 2 Final - Secondary Action

Client Project progress

So I've been very indecisive on what character to use for this. Ideally I wanted to use a female character in 3ds max, but there wasn't much of a variety, that had both body and facial rig. I've always been keen to learn maya so have been with a few rigs on there. It is quite similar to 3ds max so have been getting on with the morpheus rig quite well. I have modified the character a bit so it looks more like the red haird character from the scene 'bad teacher'.
I did consider modelling my own character at one point but then figured it was just taking too much time up when I am only interested in focusing on the animation.
Here are some images of what I had modelled:

I think after I modelled the head I knew I should give up!
Here are some stills from my actual animation..theres not many as im doing a section at a time where the full lip sync etc is near enough finished :)

Artefact 1 Evaluation - creating believable characters through the key principle of animation:Anticipation

For my first artefact I chose to focus on Anticipation as the first principle. I tried to decide on an action to animate that clearly shows an anticipatory action. I needed an action that allowed a backwards movement before the forward movement. I decided on an enthusiastic fist punch in the air, almost like a victory action. To emphasise the principle, I created the animation showing the before and after the anticipatory move. For my final version of this artefact, i edited together several camera angles so the small difference between each movement could be slightly more noticeable.
I focused on animating the full body and also some facial animation in order to develop a more convincing and believable character. As I wanted to focus on just one specific principle for this artefact, no narrative was used. I think for this artefact to be more successful, the action would have to be longer, or include some sort of narrative so the principle of animation being focused on would just be a small part within the animation. I have realised that it is relatively difficult to create an animation with only one principle, as generally there would be a few within a short piece. The response I got for the previous tests of my first animation included slowing down the action so the difference between the 'with' and 'without' anticipation was more noticeable. I therefore did this for my final edit of this artefact.
From doing this artefact I did however learn a lot from adding such a small anticipatory action, and the difference it makes for making a more believable character.

Secondary Action Presentation

Secondary Action is a supporting action that gives a scene more life. It also emphasises an action - adding an action to the main action.

For example:
A character walking can simultaneously swing his arms, or keep them in his pockets, The secondary action could be speaking or whistling or expressing emotion through facial animation.

For my artefact, I animated a simple walk cycle, with the secondary action being head turns and a wave.

Artefact 3 - Test 1

I've made a start on Artefact 3 already as I planned on doing a longer animation, to a clip from the 11second club. The principle focused on here is Exaggeration. I'm aware there is not much exaggeration in the clip so far, but it comes in a bit later. I rendered it out as a half way clip to see what it was looking like and to gain any feedback on how it looks at the moment also.

Sketches

A few sketches of different emotions, for both client project and artefacts. I will need to think about these when animating characters.

Sketches for Artefact 1