This week I blocked animation for shot 0190. I also imported the alembic cache for shot 0180 (0170 and 0180 combined) and shot 0190 to UE5 and set them up in the sequencer.
Shot 0190 Blocking:
I also saw that the creator of the Artemis & Apollo rigs, Ramon Arango, is going to be releasing a new rig pack this week of 6 human character rigs. I want to buy them anyway for my personal use, but I realised I could use some of the rigs as the secondary characters for this project. I do wish I had them sooner as I would have liked to maybe use one of them as the main character also, purely for style matching sake as the new rigs look a little different to the Apollo rig. However I think since the Apollo rig is the only main character, I’m happy with the rig for him looking different.
This week we looked at planning and video references for animations.
For filming your own video references, getting as much footage of the same movement as ideal, as you can then pick the one that looks best. This could mean it fits better into the shot/scene idea, it’s the most visually satisfying, it conveys the desired information and mood, etc. You can also edit and cut together video footage, such as taking part of the movement and slowing it down to create more dynamic movements.
It’s also best to get multiple angles, and to always try and film from multiple angles simultaneously so the movement matches up. This is so you can see the different parts of the body clearly moving, as from just one angle some movements may not be as clear or visible to the camera. I’ve shot references in the past with multiple angles by borrowing a friend’s phone and using that and my own to get a front and side angle. I just had to match up both in video editing software.
We can also use preexisting video reference, since some movements we might not be able to do (such as professional athlete movements for example). We just need to keep in mind how easy or difficult the reference might be to use when looking for some. I found a parkour video on youtube where they often capture movements from multiple angles, so I think I would like to find a quick jump from one of these videos to use as my reference.
Walk Cycle Spline Feedback 2:
Feedback from George:
Have the feet planting done in 3 frames. Frame 1, heel of foot touch down. Frame 2, foot touches down but toes still lifted. Frame 3, toes touch down and foot fully planted.
On frame 15-16, the back knee gets stuck. Move the foot control a tad so the knee moves between those frames
Around frame 33 the ball movement feels shaky for some reason, double check the animation editor arcs are smooth
This week I’ve been focusing on animation. I’ve been finding it difficult to get myself working lately, so I wanted to start with a shorter shot first before jumping into anything too big. I picked shots 0170 and 0180 (I decided to merge those two shots together as the cameras were too similar for a shot change to not feel weird).
I also decided to block all active shots for now so I can import them to UE5 and render the full film with blocked anim to test how it all looks, before going back and splining/cleaning up animation later. This way even if everything goes wrong after blocking and for some reason I can’t do more animation work, I at least still have a full film with blocked animation for submission.
