Animation Test 001 - 4 days Workflow

The 1st Animation Test was for another company, a dialogue shot, which was not really done well because of my inexperience. I will post that one up when i have the time. So the one here is actually the 2nd Animation Test for me. For this one, its a Body Mechanics shot (which i really love!), with a fixed Set given and general guidelines on what to animate, while i can use any Rig or additional Props and there is no limit on the shot's length.

So without revealing too much on the details of the test (it may be confidential), this post will focus on the workflow process.

I was given 3 days to do a Splined shot and 1 day to do Polish.

Day 1 (8 hrs):

Since Planning is one of the most important, or The Most important for some, i gave 1 out of 3 days to do this. After reading the requirements, the best part of planning came. Watching lots and lots of videos from Youtube. Thought about the Theme while watching, and slowly streamlined the videos i watched.

Downloaded all the videos that may be used for reference later. Went through them again for more inspiration to generate ideas.

The Theme i chose was Parkour style.

After soaking the mind with tons of actions and ideas, i sat myself down on a cosy chair and started imagining the shot. And watched more videos when necessary. Somewhere in there i decided to use a sword.


Drew some Thumbnails of the rough idea of the shot.

Took my own Reference videos for the actions that were missing from the previously gathered videos.
*Sorry about the messy house*

Using Grease Pencil in Maya i quickly Blocked out the actions to get the feel and rough timing of the shot with the set prepared.

Now i can download any Props or Rigs needed for the shot or customise the Rig if really neccessary. In this case i used Jules Rig from Animation Mentor, and a free sword Rig that Carles Vallbona from FB recommended. The sword Rig was done by Carlos Contreras. 

Day 2 (9hrs):

Its Blocking time! Using the Reference videos and the Planning i did the 1st Blocking in Stepped Tangent. Added in breakdowns where neccessary especially on spins. Adjusted the timing. At the same time tried out different camera angles or movement. 

Due to time constrain, i shortened a part from the beginning. I took out the kicking of the sword into the air spinning before grabbing it to throw. Thinking about it now, it may actually be a good idea, if not there will be too much sword spinning. Also took out the run before the jump onto the wall.

Day 3 (11hrs):

Added in anticipations, overshoots, eases, holds, and more breakdowns for Blocking Plus. Adjusted the timing again. Splined it in Auto Tangent, and done final tweak to movements like kick-off or grip. 

Day 4 (12hrs):

Last day for Polish, based on some feedback from the company after submitting what's done by day 3. The critique, which included adding back the run, was brutal, but it made the shot alot better. Also added in the stuff that i did not have time to complete before, like the landing on the ground and the sword wobbling on contact. Since there is a run, i also created some camera movement.

Overall it was a great experience. What i would improve is the Planning or more Thumbnails, so that my Blocking can be faster. With the time saved i could have done hair movement, add more facial expressions and some squash and stretch to the limbs, have another Overlapping Action pass and Path of Action pass.

Maya tips 008 - Euler Filter

Sometimes in the middle of the splined animation the arm or legs just go haywire, rotating massively around before getting to the next key pose. Usually this occurs when there is a lot of action, having to key a wide range of poses.

So do a check on the Graph Editor.

I realised the graphs seems very extreme from one another. And if i manually adjust the curves, all my keys and poses will be off. And if i leave it alone, i may have to correct those weird frames by editing every frame. The Euler Filter will helps solve this problem. It can be found under Curves menu in Graph Editor.

Basically what it does is it shifts all keys highlighted to the closest value to 0, still maintaining the exact position in space. Its like magic! All poses are exactly the same, but the graph looks normal now! This is how much it has moved looking at buffer curves.

And the result is this.

Sometimes it may just be a few keys that go extreme. Just highlight the whole curve and click Euler Filter!

Lesson learnt 006 - Walk vs Run cycle

We all know walk cycle is. What about a run cycle? Is animating a run cycle the same way as a walk cycle but just different pose? Well i tried doing just that and it took so much more time to tweak it to look like a run. The problem here is the additional air time with both feet off the ground in run a cycle.

So this is a faster and easier way to start a walk and run cycle before going into polishing the foot and offset some of the timing.

Lets look at walk cycle 1st.
12 frames per step, 24 frames a cycle, Auto Tangents.
5 key frames, 5 poses.
Contact (2 feet), crossover (1 feet), contact (2 feet), crossover (1 feet), contact (2 feet).

Run cycle is a little different. I can't remember where i've seen this but i tried it and it works!
6 frames per step, 12 frames a cycle, Auto Tangents.
5 key frames, 5 poses.
Push-off (2 feet), crossover (1 feet), push-off (2 feet), crossover (1 feet), push-off (2 feet).

Note: Crossover pose must be exactly like this, with the front feet fully flat, rear feet at its highest TY. Push-off pose, front knee is at highest TY, rear leg is fully extent, rear feet slightly off the ground with toes straightened.

With just these 5 poses and auto tangent, the run almost looks complete. And there is a bonus air time created when splined.