Week 11 Lab 1: Animation - 3D

Exercise 1
Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor
Link: http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/index.html

Reflection
For the exercise, we are told to complete Lesson 1 from Maya Tutorials to learn about Keyframes and the Graph Editor in Maya. Overall, the exercise is simple and I managed to grasp the basics. I was introduced to the playback controls in Maya and I learned how to set keys for attributes and use the Graph Editor to edit the animation and remove unnecessary keys for the animation to run faster and more smoothly.

Exercise 2
For this exercise, we are told to animate a bouncing ball in Maya using what has been learned in Exercise 1.

Process

Bouncing ball with bounce distance issues

The distance between the ball should decrease after each bounce because the energy in the ball decreases after every bounce.

This is how it looks like after the changes are made:

Bouncing ball with bounce distance issues resolved

Reflection
When animating the bouncing ball for Exercise 2 in Maya, I found it challenging especially the process of editing the frames of the animation. I realized if I made some changes to one aspect of the animation, other aspects of the animation may also be altered especially those that are already done well. I learned that I need to be patient when doing animations because things will go haywire if I get frustrated.

Week 10 Lab 2: Moving Seaweed Using Pencil

During the 2nd lab lesson of Week 10, the class is asked to create an animation of a moving seaweed using 'Pencil'.

This is the video for the moving seaweed exercise I created:

I used vector layer for this exercise and used a green line to represent the seaweed.

Reflection
Again, I found it challenging to use the mouse to draw on 'Pencil' and that is why the lines look very jagged. Overall, the movement of the seaweed is there but I feel that it can be made to look more realistic if I just had more time.

Week 10 Lab 1: Bouncing Ball Using Pencil

During the 1st lab lesson for Week 10, the class is told to animate a bouncing ball using 'Pencil'.

I created 2 videos for the bouncing ball exercise:

The 1st video is the bouncing ball using bitmap layers while the 2nd one is using vector layers.

Reflection
I am using the software 'Pencil' for the first time and had a rough time using it. The software does not let you draw basic shapes such as a circle using a template and that is why the ball in the videos do not look circular and the motion of the ball is not smooth. It also auto-deletes a circle if you draw one with the starting point too close to the ending point especially when using vector layers and this has caused me plenty of frustrations.  After finishing the animations, I had problems exporting it as a video. However, I found an alternate solution to solve the problem.

References
I used this blog as a solution for the problem I faced:
http://pencilanimationhelp.blogspot.com/
The blog is about the software 'Pencil' and it offers the solution to export the animation file as a video. However, I only downloaded this software which is found on the blog to help solve the issue I faced: http://camstudio.org/ 

Week 10 Lab 1: Animation Visualisation

Exercise 1 & 2
The 12 principles of animation:

1. Squash and stretch
    
   The ball has weight and volume and when animated, it will have squash and stretch.
   
   
2. Anticipation
   Before the person is running, there is a preparation movement. That movement is anticipation.
   
   
3. Staging
4. Straight ahead action and pose to pose
5. Follow through and overlapping action
    
   When the person jumps up to the maximum height, his body has stopped moving. However, his hair continues to move upwards. This is follow through.
   When the person jumps up, his bag follows him behind. But when the person is coming down, his bag is still moving upwards for a while before it comes down. This is overlapping action.
   
6. Slow in and slow out
7. Arcs
    
   The swinging of the arm when doing an under-hand pass of the ball to the person opposite creates an arc.
   The swinging of the arm when tossing the ball into the air creates an arc.
   
8. Secondary action
9. Timing
10. Exaggeration
11. Solid drawing
12. Appeal

Exercise 3
This is the link to the video that demonstrates at least 6 of the 12 principles of animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lb_0laf77c&feature=related
1. Squash & stretch - The roll of tissue paper is bouncing down the hill. 
2. Staging - There is a scene where the driver is taking out a roll of tissue paper. This shows that he is having a stomachache.
3. Straight ahead action & pose to pose - The crying scene of the driver. 
4. Secondary action - While chasing the roll of tissue paper, he is running and swinging his arms back and forth.
5. Exaggeration - The moment when the driver is about to fall down the hill and the landing he makes on the other side of the hill. 
6. Appeal -  The expressions of the driver.