Animation Fundamentals: Project II - Walking and Jumping Animations

 MODULE GCD61104: Animation Fundamentals Project II

Tristan Vaughan Sleep - 0365120

Animation Fundamentals / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Project II: Animated Production of Walking and Jumping Characters

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MODULE INSTRUCTIONS:

“SEPT 2024 - JAN 2025: GCD 61104 / ANIM. FUNDAMENTALS MODULE INFORMATION BOOKLET”

Project I: Animated Production of Walking and Jumping Characters

Project II a - Walking Animation: Students of the cohort are expected to utilise their previous character design as well their animation skills to produce a short animation of the students’ character walking. Using the skills mentioned within the lectures, students are expected to go through the gradual process of creating an animation with basic forms and sketchy strokes. A more refined image can be produced should the students wish. The animation should be in the recommended dimension and should be shot on ‘twos’ or 2 held frames/ 24fps. The final animation should then be posted to the necessary locations as outlined by the lecturer.

Project II b - Walking Animation: Students of the cohort are expected to eir previous character design as well their animation skills to produce a short animation of the students’ character jumping and structure of advanced movement. Using the skills mentioned within the lectures, students are expected to go through the gradual process of creating an animation with basic forms and sketchy strokes. A more refined image can be produced should the students wish. The animation should be in the recommended dimension and should be shot on ‘twos’ or 2 held frames/ 24fps. The final animation should then be posted to the necessary locations as outlined by the lecturer.

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PARTICIPATED LECTURES:

WEEK VII - IX: Walking and Jumping Character Animations

Basics: For this second major project required by the module, students are expected to begin adapting their models to create a series of short animations: One animation is used to demonstrate the characters walking behaviour while the Second animation shows the students character performing a jump or leap. While this can be difficult to learn on its own, students were provided with ‘The Animator's Survival Kit’ written by ‘Richard Williams’ which outlined the creative process used to map out (and eventually create) both a walking and jumping animation. Should further support be needed, students were free to look online for existing examples and see how it could be adapted into their designs.

Building a Rig: With the general tasks established, I originally began by looking at my character and the way I wanted them to be animated. Starting with the idea of how the character would move, I felt it reasonable to suggest the character's base stance should be tied into both animations, allowing for seamless blending if needed. In addition, the base pose had captured the characters' more ‘focused-approach mindset’ with slightly crouched frame and their hands in an active pose (being able to break out easily into running or attacking.) However, it is in recognising the pose that I ran into a minor issue previously overlooked; the original design of the character features a digitigrade foot-structure compared to the human plantigrade foot-structure. This presented a unique challenge as the range of motion of the character was unable to be achieved by humans which would make it a lot harder to reference when working. 

“Body parts which makes up the rig - 26 Total Components”

When trying to find a work-around to this solution, I became inspired by older methods of animation such as puppets (like wayang-kulits) which essentially is 2D animation done by separating the limbs of the character and animating them with FK and IK animation. More specifically, I could keep the volume of each limb uniform in motion plus, I could make animations by finding the farthest reaching point and where it connects with the body. For example, when a character steps, I can place where the foot needs to land and can then work backwards and see where the leg connects back to the hips etc.

Walking Animation: After finding a reasonable work around, I now needed to find a reference point for my character's specific body structure. I originally considered looking at a real-world motion such as dogs or other animals with the same leg structure, however I found a way which may have been more useful. Referencing back to my model being inspired by specific pokemon, I was able to locate the walking animation of the pokemon ‘Zoroark’ and could use their walking style to inspire my character's movement. To do this, I looked at the original animation and located the key-frames in its motion (as referenced in the Animator’s Survival Kit.) From here, I would then be able to begin creating in-between frames to show the characters' gradual steps. It is important to remember the notes from the novel on how the character’s head height can dictate the flow of the body. Furthermore, spacing and timing is still important as it highlights the power needed for the character to take a step.

“Referenced walking animation + Novel Notes”

With the first half of the animation completed, the planting of the leading foot; I would be able to copy the frames up until this point and reverse which foot was being used. This was a unique process outlined by the lecturer which is due to characters often having a uniform walk where both legs are raised for the same amount of time. This technique is also useful as it saves time on creating unique frames which tend to look similar anyways.

“Finalised animation for Walking”

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“Finalised animation for Walking With Background TEST”

Overall, I’m happy with how this animation turned, however, there is something a bit more confusing with its appearance. While not entirely sure, I can only describe the animation as feeling a bit off due to it being able to be played both backwards and forwards with it only changing the motion of the character. It's unique in a way because it can demonstrate the characters ability to remain focused while trying to withdraw from an encounter - remaining locked on the target but moving to make distance.

Jumping Animation: Continuing with the information gathered from the previous activity, I continued to work with the custom rig design for my character and work to adapt it for a jumping animation. However, to make this project a bit more unique, I wanted to experiment with creating my own animation from scratch with only minor suggestions gathered from the lecturer and the novel. For this, I started the process by animating the character as if they were to jump vertically; finding the key frames needed to suggest upward and falling motion. In this phase, it is important to consider where the key frames are as this may also determine the timing of the animation in terms of the already discussed ‘speed ramping.’ Another feature I wanted to add more into this animation was the squash and stretch to make the character feel more animated in their movement and in-line with the simple art style.

“Referenced Jumping animation”

When it came to designing key frames, I kept the idea of the squash and stretch in mind. During the charge phase, apex and compression of the jump; I wanted the character to shrink into themselves and into their smallest shape possible as seen with the knees being tucked closer to the chest and the arms hovering over the knee. This motion could then be exaggerated further with squash and stretch to make the character feel more ‘bouncy.’ The opposite can also be achieved once the character hits terminal velocity upwards and downwards, with the character spreading themselves out vertically and covering more distance. When combined with squash and stretch, this helps the speed ramping as it makes the character look like they carry more distance in a small amount of time.

After designing the key frames and making the necessary in-betweens, I was now able to begin mapping the character’s motion to an arch to show a horizontal jump. This would also be useful as I could then go back through the frames and add secondary animation in the form of the cravat and mane of the character, following the momentum of the character and creating a sensation of abrupt movement. In addition, I would also need to make further alterations in the form of the characters poses as they were originally designed for a vertical jump. This meant slightly changing the character’s angle to fit the curve and introducing a slight warp which highlighted the squash and stretch.

“Finalised animation for jumping”

Once again, I’m satisfied with how this final animation turned out and feel that it is a lot better than the walking animation. This could be due to the character having a clearly defined motion or me being more confident with the animation software and the process to create an animation. With this completed, I would be able to move on to the final animation project.