Project 2: walk cycles

Task: create a generic walk cycle and animating a person walking to a box and jumping off the box

This is the generic walk cycle i created. The head is rotated on the y-axis to make the head look like the person's head is bobbing when he walks. I also rotated the pelvis to make the body looked arched at the extreme pose which is the first pose of this walk cycle.

This is the animation of the person walking to a box and jumping off the box. I rotated the shoulders back when the man is preparing to jump. I also make the man squat down before jumping so that there is some kind of anticipation.

Reflection

For this assignment, I felt that i can do better for the part before the person got up the box because for this, it looks like the person slide a bit and struggling to get up the box. I also felt that 5s is a bit too short for this walk because at the end the person didnt look like he has landed on the ground before the video ended. From this assignment, i have learnt to apply some of the 12 priciples of animation to make the animation more realistic. I have applied the principle anticipation on this animation. Anticipation is the preparation of an action. It tells us what is about to happen. The part where anticipation is used is the part where by the person bend down before he jump. I have also applied a bit of overlapping action in this animation. Overlapping of action means having slight variations in the timing and speed of loose parts makes objects seem more natural.It also make objects and movement look more interesting. The part where by i applied this principle is the part where the person step on the box. I have made the left leg step up onto the box first and then keyframe the right leg a few keyframes away so that it does not look like both the legs go up the box concurrently.

This animation will be quite easy if you realised that you cannot set the keyframe at the same place for both the legs and for the bending down and moving the person up in order to achieve the effect that you one. For this, i tried a few times before i get this. The first few times were quite difficult for me as i have to trial and error to get the keyframes right. For the generic walk cycle, it is quite confusing as i cannot tell which leg is infront and which is at the back. 

week 3: Shift weight exercise 1

Task:Make spiderman shift weight from one foot to another

For this exercise, i have set keyframes at keyframe 1 and 24 for the legs, head and arms. As for the hips, i set the keyframes at keyframe 1, 12 and 24. At keyframe 1, the hip is rotated towards the right. At keyframe 12, the hip will move up slightly and at keyframe 24, the hips will be at the same position as keyframe 1 but rotated to the right as the weight is on the left leg.

Reflection:
When I was trying to do this exercise, it was difficult for me as I tried to make the spiderman stand on his right leg. It is also difficult for me as I have not really observe the movement of the hips when people put weight on one of their legs. It was easier after our lecturer showed us how he did it and asked us to stand up and stand on one leg and shift our weight to observe how our hips are rotated.

My second try at doing this has failed as i did something wrongly. As a result, the shoulders moved as well. My lecturer came and help me. After that, i went home and did one myself. The video below is done by him. I felt that he has over exaggerated the movement of the hips. In my opinion, he made it looks as if like spiderman is moving his butt.

For the one that i did, I felt that i did an OK job. For mine, i feel that the movement of the hips is just right.

Week 1/project 1 : Posing

Task: Put the spiderman in the upside down and two other poses.

Spiderman in the upside down pose

This is the front view of the spiderman hanging upside down on his web.  I used FK for both the arms and legs. To do this, i first rotate the whole spiderman around the x-axis by 180. Next, i rotate both the spiderman's shin by the z-axis. At this point, the legs look like it was being bent from the back.After rotating the shin, i rotated the left foot about the x, y and z-axis. I went on to rotate the thighs. I rotated both the thighs about the x, y and z-axis. on this rig there is an extra controller for the hips. So, i rotated that on its x-axis. There is a controller for the spine called spine root. i rotated it on its x-axis to make it look like the legs are bent from the front. There is also another controller for the hips. I rotated it around its x-axis. Then, i rotated the left and right shoulder around their x, y and z-axis to bring up the shoulders to make it more natural. Lastly, for the arms i rotated the upperarms on their x, y and z axis, the forearm on its y-axis. For the fingers, i used the attribute such as thumb 1 and index 1 to control how much i want the fingers to curl.


 Spiderman sitting on a rock pose

this is the reference picture for this pose.

This is the front view of the spiderman sitting on a rock. For this pose, i used IK for the left leg and FK for the right leg. For the left leg, i moved it around its x, y and z-axis and also rotated it on its x-axis. For the right leg, i rotated the shin on its z-axis and the foot on its x, y and z-axis. I also rotated the thigh on its x, y and z-axis. The right foot is placed outside a bit so that it is more obvious that spiderman is sitting. Next, i rotated the 2 hip controllers on their x, y and z-axis. The arms are done using FK. I rotated the shoulder on its x, y and z-axis to position the arms. Also, i rotated the right wrist on its x, y and z-axis. For the left wrist, i only rotated it on the z-axis.

This is the side view. The side view of spiderman in this pose looks more like he is in the air than sitting on a rock. For the back, there are three controllers to control the spine. I rotated all three on their x, y and z-axis to make spiderman look like he is leaning forward. As for the head, i rotated it on its x, y and z-axis.

This is the top view.


 Spiderman climbing a building pose

 This is the  reference pic for this pose.

Reflection
From this project, i have learnt about IK (inverse kinematics) and FK (Forward kinematics). In IK mode, we are moving one joint and the joints that are connected will also move together. In FK mode, we are rotating the joints one by one and from the back. For example moving the arm. We start by rotating the shoulder first, then the upperarm, the forearm and lastly the wrist. I have also learnt that when handling a rig, especially a rig like this, i cannot move the "binds" to get the poses. It will distort the rig.

When i first know that this is our project, i thought it was easy because all we have to do is just bending spiderman into various poses. But when i started doing it, i find that is not that easy to do it good the first time. It is not easy because the poses that we put spiderman into have to suit its character which is agile. Secondly, it is also not easy to incorporate line of action into the poses and make it look natural. Last but not least, when i am selecting the controllers, i often select some other things and when the spiderman is bent in certain poses, it is hard to find the controllers.

For this project, i believe i can do a better job if i have used some other poses.