Kris's 3D Animation Blog

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Serra's Class Term 3

Week 2: Adv&Exp [Serra’s Class]

Class Content

This week we were experimenting with Virtual Production Cameras within UE5. A few of us had some technical issues setting up the app in class, so I tried it on my home PC where having access to my home wifi seemed to help. We used the ‘Unreal VCam‘ app on our phones and connected this to a virtual production scene in UE5. While I found the process very cool and useful for VFX style production, I am unsure how much I will use the process in my own work. I would like to research the use of it more to see how I might be able to make use of it, but for my current project ideas the cameras are either hand animated or physically held and then tracked for compositing purposes.

Project Progress

I started doing some visual research for ideas, and based on project ideas Serra mentioned last week I also considered window sets seen in store fronts.

My idea for my FMP is based in a futuristic cyberpunk version of London, so incorporating punk themes to this project feels suitable. Above are some cool window sets I found and liked the vibe of, including some punky ones and one of a runway show with punk/alternative themes.

I also did some visual research for cool unique digital media styles that I could potentially experiment with, both for animation and otherwise.

When I showed some of these things to Serra today, she suggested I could potentially have different window sets in different visual styles, which would allow for me to experiment with multiple styles in one project. I do really like this idea, but I later realised this might take a lot of time depending on how long the Marvelous Designer side of things takes me.

I think the next steps for me will be figuring out the scope of the project overall, and designing some clothes to make in Marvelous Designer.

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques George's Class Term 3

Week 2: Adv&Exp [George’s Class]

Class Content

Blocking:

Blocking is like the bones of the body, aka: the blocking is the foundation that everything else is laid on top of. The poses shouldn’t be the same as those from reference, be mindful of line of action and the other fundamentals to push the poses and make them and the movement more visually appealing.

Some tips for blocking:

  • Time can be saved while blocking be copying similar poses and making adjustments on top
  • Don’t forget hands and fingers in blocking. While the detailed finger movement can be left until polish, they should still be moving and posed nicely at this stage. Don’t just have open basic poses for the hands in every pose.
  • Establish your key poses that tell the story
  • Don’t worry TOO much about timing right now, get the poses down first. You can do retiming later if needed
  • Don’t forget to use FK/IK where needed
  • Finished, not perfect! Getting the base of the shot down at this stage is most important
  • Don’t key parts of body on different frames, everything should be keyed to same frame for blocking

George also showed us a cool video explaining how important the ‘finished, not perfect’ approach is when making progress in learning. I definitely struggle with this myself, and find it difficult to finish tasks due to focusing too much on the smaller details. It was good to hear and understand the idea that in a year what I consider perfect now won’t look great to me because I will have improved, so why should I waste time trying to be perfect now when I can spend more time on learning.

Blocking Plus:

Essentially a way of adding in more keys to get that feeling of polish within your blocking

Moving holds: when pose is holding, adding some movement in (breathing, dragging, settling into pose, etc).

Copied pairs: a technique where a keyframe (or pose) is duplicated and repeated for a specific duration, creating a hold or a static pose within an animation sequence.

Breakdowns and Arcs Breakdown: a pose somewhere between two key poses that better shows the movement

This week’s assignment:

  1. Apply blocking plus stuff to current shot blocking to take it to the next level

Should be in stepped still. Poses are important at this stage so make sure they are really strong.

Week 1 Assignment: Body Mech + Planning

Filmed reference:

I both filmed myself and one of my housemates for my reference. I was struggling a bit to do a natural fall/stumble myself, so I asked one housemate to push the other into view, and gave the one on camera directions on how to act out the rest of the shot.

Thumbnails:

Individual poses:

Week 1.5 Assignment:

As mentioned before we’re a little behind due to losing a day last week to the bank holiday, so this week I did the blocking on Thursday evening for review on Friday alongside my plan.

I didn’t add as many poses as I would have liked due to the time constraints, but I am happy with the poses overall. I do need to hide the skin under the clothing at some point as it clips through the clothes several times and is distracting.

Plan + Blocking Feedback:

  • The fall and skid along the floor is too simple, I should be pushing myself more. Either have the character fully stumble or completely face plant the floor
  • Could still do the turn and punch towards the hidden person who pushes them, but George recommends instead just having the character realise where they are after the fall, pause, and then go into the dance/wave
  • Poses in current blocking are nice, but overall idea needs pushing before I move more into animation progress

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Serra's Class Term 3

Week 1: Adv&Exp [Serra’s Class]

Class Content

Today we were introduced to the unit work we will be doing with Serra. For her side of the unit, we will be doing experimental work where it will be important to try new things and take some risks with the techniques we experiment with. The work we do for this project can contribute in some way to our FMP if we like (such as experimenting with visual styles we might want to explore and expand upon further for our FMP).

Project Progress

Over the break between Term 2 and 3, I was looking into Marvelous Designer. While I want to focus on 3D Animation primarily for my FMP, I do want to still include my own aspects to the visuals outside of animation. My current plan is to use the M-Rigs by Ramon Arango to save time on making my own rigs, but to modify them to personalise the characters to my own designs. This could include altering the textures, the hair models, and the clothing. Hence my interest in Marvelous Designer, as I am hoping to make my own clothes for the M-Rigs using this program. From some research into the process over the break, I found that I could animate the rigs and then import the animation to Marvelous where I can simulate the clothing over the top.

Therefore, for the project I would like to learn Marvelous Designer and make some clothing for at least one of the rigs. I have never used the program before, so I am hopeful this will be a great opportunity to do so. I do also want the project to be more than me learning to program, so I had the idea to create a catwalk scene with interesting visuals to match the design of the clothing.

However I do still want to focus more on the animation side of things, and Serra mentioned that (like in Term 1) we can choose whether to spend more time on George’s project or this one, so I will most likely be spending more of my time on the animation work. I do still want to use this project to develop aspects of my FMP as much as possible though, and I am excited to explore Marvelous Designer and some cool visual techniques with this work.

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques George's Class Term 3

Week 1: Adv&Exp [George’s Class]

Class Content

George went over the work we will be doing with him this term, including how it can be incorporated in our FMP and with Serra’s side of the Adv&Exp unit.

We will be doing two animations with George, an advanced body mechanics shot and an acting shot. For the advanced body mechanics, we will be also covering some acting on top.

What is pantomime?

  • Dramatic or dancing performances with expressive body or face movements to convey the story.

Acting with the body: Creating clear, full body expressions. To fully convey this, staging needs to be set up first for the shot which includes:

  • Elements: Characters/Props/Sets
  • Camera: Placement/Angles
  • Action: What is happening in this shot?
  • Idea: Keep it to one idea at a time to not overwhelm the viewer
  • Point of the shot: What purpose does this shot have? Why include it? Make sure that is clear

Workflow Checklists:

George showed us some workflow checklist examples, aka ways to approach working on an animated shot. Workflow checklists are especially useful when starting out, later they become second nature but shouldn’t be forgotten. These checklists should include:

  • Planning: Thumbnails/Reference/Layout/Staging/Composition
  • Blocking: Stepped keyposes/Fundamentals /Timing/Arcs/Weight
  • Splining: Inbetweens/Arcs/Timing
  • Polish: Details

Additionally, it is important to consider the order of working with different parts of the character’s body. The example given to us was: hips > spine > head > arms > fingers > legs > feet

You don’t want to do clean up work on the arms and legs only to then change the hip placement and have to go back again to adjust the arms and legs. Work on the core first, then work outwards. This will change slightly if you have a specific shot where a different part of the body is leading everything else in place of the hips, so adjust accordingly.

This week’s assignment:

  1. Rough planning drawing
  2. Reference (video/filmed reference)
  3. Shot thumbnails
  4. Maya layout would be good, but not a requirement

Keep the shot to 5-10 seconds AT MOST (aim for 5 second range though, George would rather us have a nicer, more polished shot that is shorter than an unfinished longer shot)

Try to add a bit of humour in the shot

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Submission Post: Adv&Exp – Previs

Previs Development:

Same as last week, mostly small fixes. I did swap out the tall guy with the main character in Shot 0110/0120/0125, and adjusted the animation accordingly. While there’s a lot of things I want to fix/improve on/add to my previs, I did really enjoy this project and it feels good to already have a good visual plan for my FMP. I do wish I had delved more into previsualising transitions between shots and such, but I’m planning to do this once I am able to come back to the development of the previs along with adding additional shots I didn’t have time for.

Previs Feedback:

  • In opening shots, the main character’s pose is too visually boring. Have hips and shoulders angled, head tilted, elbow more out, etc
  • Consider cutting Shot 0060, and have previous and next shot meld together instead (camera just getting closer). Something to play around with
  • Lots of character in Shot 0120. If buff guy was more stoic it would feel like a power struggle between him and the main character, with hyper kid just on the side doing his own thing. Instead there’s a nice contrast between stoic main character and hyper kid, with the buff guy acting as the big friendly giant trope bringing everyone together. These character’s feel like a team
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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 9: Previs

Previs Development:

This week was mainly small adjustments and fixes, with the bulk of the work going into adding another character to Shot 0120 and replacing the wolf with the wolfdog in Shot 0130. I do like how the previs is coming together, but I would have liked a few more shots in there. I don’t think I’ll have time to add the additional shots for this submission next week, but hopefully I will be able to do so next term. If not, I can always add them at the beginning of summer before I start doing full animation work.

Previs Feedback:

  • With Shot 0020/0040/0060, instead of changing the camera angle try instead having the camera zoom in more and more on the wolf with each shot, mirroring the zoom in on the main character. Could even add a reflection of the main character in the eye of the wolf, and have Shot 0060 be a super close up on the eye
  • The main character’s body and head should be turned a lot more towards the camera in Shot 0070
  • In Shot 0120, the main character (smaller female rig) should be in the middle. This might make the tall guy coming out from behind her a little difficult due to his height, but try it anyway and see if there’s a way around that issue
  • In the following shot (0125) have the characters spaced out in a more visually appealing way
  • For Shot 0130, don’t have the camera go quite completely side on, have a big of an angle on the wolf instead
  • Have the wolf pounce at the camera just before the cut in Shot 0170
  • Add more personality to the slouched guy front left and the muscly guy back right in Shot 0090 (table scene, now towards end). Can have the slouched guy’s head leaning back more as if he’s bored/tired. Muscly guy can be curled over eating, less focused on surroundings (if for example I want him to be the foodie guy, can be something else, just add more to his vibe)
  • Instead of barking, could try having the wolf tilt head back and howl in Shot 0200
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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 8: Previs

Previs Development:

While working on my previs this week, I was considering what sort of things I could fill the empty space with in the opening shots of the main character (Shot 0010/0030/0050/0070), and I remembered the striking visuals in the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners opening. I wanted to attempt recreating this in 3D to see if I could potentially develop my own version of it later for my FMP.

I started by roughly copying the pose of the main character, David, from the Edgerunners opening using the Minerva rig by Ramon Arango. I then used toon shaders and toon outlines to essentially create masks I could later use for the photography montages. If I do develop this technique for my FMP, it would be much simpler to use Nuke, but for this experiment I wanted to use the tools I already had access to for a quick test.

Next, I took a playblast PNG and brought that into DaVinci Resolve, where I used the separate colours as masks combined with various photo montages (with each image at 2 frames, again to match the Edgerunners opening as closely as possible for now).

For the photos themselves, I used stock images that I then took into Photoshop and edited to have the same posterised, comic look to them, along with the same colour scheme. I chose nature photos to go within the character, signifying her home and her culture, and then city photos for the background to represent the city she is in during the show and how much this contrasts against her core values.

I wanted to add in some of the bold yellow seen in the original opening, so I used a Paper Effect keyed to expand outwards as a replacement for this.

I really like the results, and I’m looking forward to developing the technique to be more personalised for my FMP. I also made sure throughout the process that everything I was doing would be the same if the character was animated, so if I have time in the coming weeks I would like to try the same technique on an animated character. While the character isn’t animated, I still used an image sequence playblast to ensure I was testing that it would work the same.

As for the main previs itself, the updates were mostly to Shot 0020, 0060, and 0180. I added backgrounds to Shot 0020 and 0060, and also adjusted the pose for Shot 0060. I really like the idea of the wolf slowly pacing through a city, with the city being miniature compared to the wolf. I would want to make sure there are enough visual elements to avoid the city looking like a miniature set with a normal sized wolf verses a to scale city with a giant wolf. I also adjusted the poses on shot 0180 and added in the viewport FX slash to the weapon. I think the arm should be lagging behind even more than it already is, so I want to push that more next time.

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Literature Review Term 2

Week 6: Literature Review

Class Content

The focus this week was on developing an argument.

Guide reader through argument in logical way. Think about what questions your reader might have. If you can answer these questions through your argument, it will seem more convincing.

Key elements of an argument:

  • Statement of problem
  • Literature review
  • Procice focus of your research as stated by hypothesis, question, aim, or objective
  • Method of methodology (can also state parameters here)
  • Results/evidence
  • Discussion and conclusion (including implications for future research)

The BBC site that has lots of documentaries, interviews, etc, that BBC have produced. Could be good for the methodology and for analysing

Including your voice: your voice will emerge through your discussion, interpretation, and evaluation of the sources. Good to open chapter with citation, but equally good to make own statement and back it up with citation.

Establishing your voice in writing:

A good exercise to put your chosen topic through the following questions:

Nigel also asked us to post our current considerations for topic titles to a Padlet for him to give feedback on. This was the feedback for my topic title, ‘How do chosen visual styles reflect and comment on the socio-political themes explored within their respective narratives?‘:

  • Very broad topic, needs narrowing down
  • Two questions: What social political themes? What respective narratives?
  • Alternate question: How do animators influence social political elements?
  • Need to be a lot more specific
  • Find that visual style, format, (eg children’s tv) to make topic more concise

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Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 7: Previs

Previs Development:

While I struggled a bit to get all of the remaining shots blocked out in 3D, I managed to do so and I was also able to get 2 shots to blocked animation, which I’m happy with. With Shot 0120, I like how much personality the smaller male character has, but it does mean the lack of which in the middle character is more distracting. I really like how Shot 0180 came out, but I do want to improve on the posing and pacing a lot more when it comes to fully animating that shot.

Previs Feedback:

  • For Shot 0020, the background needs to be more populated, even if its just boxes for now
  • Shot 0010/0030/0050/0070 have the same problem where the background is too plain. Something needs to be going on around the character, otherwise it feels too dull (especially with the earlier shots where the camera is so far back most of the screen is empty space)
  • These Shots also should be of the main character stand in rig (the smaller female one)
  • In Shot 0120, add in the main character or someone else walking on other side of sword guy. Have their movement/personality contrast with hyperactive guy on the right
  • For the same shot and for the following shot [this isn’t in the storyboard, but file for this shot names it as Shot 0125] have the middle guy turn his head and react to the hyperactive guy coming into his view, as currently its weird that he doesn’t react at all
  • As the hammer impacts with the ground in Shot 0130, have the camera shake and pan downwards a little bit as if the viewer is feeling the impact. This will also allow for nicer framing at the wolf runs out of the smoke
  • For Shot 0170, have the wolf do much more of a dramatic turn as it enters, as if it can barely control itself with how fast it is moving. Follow this with more of a body swing as it impacts the wall rather than all of the body hitting at once
  • Work on the posing in Shot 0180. The body should be a lot more tilted back before the character swings her weapon, and the arm should lag behind more as her body twists into the swinging motion. Again, try experimenting with the Maya viewport FX pack to add some nice motion lines to the weapon swing
  • In Shot 0200, have the wolf’s head/body turned a little so it isn’t completely side on. It will feel more dynamic

Categories
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques Previs Term 2

Week 6: Previs

Previs Development:

I wasn’t in classes this week, but George still gave me some feedback through syncsketch which was super helpful. I also made extra use of something I try to do a bit usually, where I write my own feedback after not looking at the work for a day or two so I have a fresher take on it. This also proved helpful, since even though I will think these things to myself having them written down allows me to remember and consider my own reflections more.

Some of my own feedback I noted down:

  • I tried moving table scene (Shot 0090 and 0100) right the the end, but feels a bit too slice of life-ish compared to the gritty/janky/punk vibe I was going for. Character animation could help with this though. For now I have instead placed it just before Shot 0190, as I feel this retains the fast paced janky vibe I prefer.
  • Shot 0120 feels a bit dull, so I would like to add something more to that.
  • I also decided that I’ll remove Shot 0150 + 0160 as these shots feel out of place and for me they break the immersion due to that.
  • For Shot 0180, the punch action feels a bit dull also, but I would still like a hype action shot in its place. I’m considering a shot of the main character swinging their weapon (a Falx, a traditional Dacian weapon) towards the camera instead.
  • Finally, the dance at the end feels too slow compared to the fast paced, hype vibe to the rest of the opening, so I would like to change the dance at some point. The shot still works for timing and transition concept purposes, so changing the dance is something I’m considering lower priority for now.

Previs Feedback:

  • For Shot 0120, maybe instead of just walking his friends run past him and then he starts running?
  • Currently, the camera in Shot 0130 rotates as the wolf runs out of the smoke to be above the wolf, then it rotates again to be a side shot of the wolf. The amount of rotation in one shot feels weird, so try going straight from the first camera angle into the side shot instead
  • For Shot 0180, it could be good to experiment with some Maya viewport FX to make the shot more interesting
  • All shots should be at least blocked out in 3D by now, so have that done for next week