Assignment 7 : Animating One Emotion

Homework: One Emotion Exercise
A pantomime exercise! No dialog and no moving cameras.
Animate a character showing one emotion
Use the Magritte character rig, props are okay
4 seconds max in 24 fps... make it straight and to the point
Make sure you go through the steps. Pose to Pose.
Quicktimes due beginning of class.

"Remember what Ed Hooks said about adreneline moment... that character will remember that moment forever.
Think of an emotion and figure out how to express that emotion in a few poses well 4 seconds.
You can use minimal props if you have too. Remember the example I said last week? a biker wining a race and raising his hands with joy."

"He's gonna remember that race forever. Think of a very fond memory (emotion) that you can use for the animation." - Ruel

Assignment Week 6: Pantomime & Hip Turn

Had problems with my foot last week, so I'm behind in these assignments. Feeling much better this week...here we go.

Assignment 1:
Take Magritte (Ruel's rigged character), pose him expressing 6 different emotions, step it and publish it as a quicktime. Watch for exaggeration, silhouette clarity and expressiveness of emotion. Ruel's notes on this assignment are below and can be see by following this link




2.The Animation Process of Pose to Pose
The quickest and most efficient way to animate!
-Thumbnailing your ideas, scene, emotions, or shot
-Act it out... shoot video reference
-Block in Key Poses (storytelling poses) in Stepped Key Tangents
-Block in Breakdown Keys
-Check for Arcs, Timing, Beats, Phrasing
-Convert to Linear Keys
-Adjust Timing and Spacing
-Convert to Spline Keys
-Clean up animation from the Inside/Out...
-Start with the root, hips, spine, neck, head, shoulder, arms, hands, legs, feet.
-Lock down IKs, Timing, Ease In/Ease Outs, Moving Holds, Arcs, Overlap, Secondary Action,
Check for Twinning Poses
-Animate Facial Poses or Lip Sync Animation
-Start with Eyes, Eye Brows, Mouth, Tongue, Cheeks, Nose, Ears, Hair

Assignment 2:
Use the moon character rig, and animate the hip and legs doing a 180 degree turn. Things to watch out for modify the step poses/positioning used in the walk cycle, weight shift, foot placement, arcs and hip positioning (x and z). Ruel's notes on this assignment are below:

-Does it have weight?
-Moving Holds
-Anticipation
-Root/Center of mass action
-Contact Pose, Passing Pose, Push Off Pose
-Arcs
-Clean Silhouette

More information about weight shifts, moving holds and anticipation can be found here:
http://www.visualfulfillment.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=195&Itemid=34


Terms of the week:

-Timing
-Arcs
-Contact Pose
-Down Pose
-Passing Pose
-Push Off Pose
-Up Pose
-Twisting of Spine
-Overlap
-Slow in Slow Out
-Stride Length
-Beginning and End Pose
-Loop

Thesis Title : How to run off a cliff with style: Teaching emotion and empathy in character animation

After sending out the industry questions yesterday, I realized that I had to revisit my thesis title. The title as of today is:


How to run off a cliff with style: Teaching emotion and empathy in character animation


Wording is very important as it sets the tone for the project, and I realized that I was missing "empathy" in the title. Key definitions are below:


Empathy

1. Direct identification with, understanding of, and vicarious experience of another person's situation, feelings, and motives.
2. The projection of one's own feelings or emotional state onto an object or animal.

"empathy." The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. 02 Jun. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy>.


Emotion

1. A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling: the emotions of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, and love.

"emotion." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 03 Jun. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/emotion>.

The Birds Have Flown : Industry Questions Sent Out

I sent out industry questionnaires last night to about 10 animators. The questions are below. The participating animators thus far are noted in the links section with an asterisk...Thanks guys for sharing your work and for helping me with my project.

There are 26 questions total. Many are fast and all are geared for a general overview of professional practices in the industry regarding animation character emotion.


Background:

* Where did you study animation? And how long have you been animating?

* Where do you currently work as an animator?

* What is your primary animation platform? And which software do you use most often?

* What props, toys or objects do you have around your work area to help with inspiration?

* Is there an animation that you have worked on that you are most proud of? Why?


Influence:

* Do you have a favorite animator that you continually draw inspiration from?

* In learning animation, do you have a favorite animation exercise that you consider invaluable? Please describe.

* What are your top 3 favorite animation DVD's? And what reasons do you have to make them the top of your list?

* Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny? If neither, who?


Industry Questions:

* Do you specialize in a particular type of animation (i.e. character, realistic, inanimate objects, animals, visual effects shots)?

* How much footage do you choose to work on at any one time (if you are able to choose), and how long do you give yourself to work on this footage?

* Animation is a complex process, what types of questions do you ask yourself in order to clarify what you are about to animate?

* After the above has been established, how do you go about animating?

* Which is your primary software, and is there a feature inherent in the software that you are using that you just love and that you cannot live without? What does it do?

* In what ways do you see the animation industry changing?

* What is the most difficult part of animation?

* What do you love most about what you do?


Animating Emotion:

* How important is emotion to your animations?

* Is there a technique or habit that you employ that helps ensure great emotion animation?

* Have you ever animated something, only to find that people felt something else other than what you had originally intended?

* Have you found a resource that has helped you in become better at animating character emotion?


Advice to Students:

* What is the biggest downfall students make when it comes to presenting their portfolio/demo reel?

* What is the biggest downfall students make when it comes to animating character emotion?

* What type of advice would you give students to improve their abilities in animating character emotion?

* The animation process is long and tedious, and its not unusual for the mind to wander. What do you do stay awake, sharp and focused on your work?

* In order to continue further study on the subject, would you recommend another animator who you know would be interested and available to answer these questions?

Interview with animators Bobby Beck, Shaun Kelly and Carlos Baena

A great interview conducted by Tim Fornica of some of the best animators in the industry. The interview took place at SIGGRAPH 2007. They talk about their website which helps promote and teaches character animation (Animationmentor.com) as well as their experiences in the industry.

If you are aspiring animator, its well worth your time. The interview can be watched by clicking the link below. Thanks Tim for posting!

http://one.revver.com/watch/369585/flv/affiliate/77944

Animator Link Update

Just updated the links you see to the right.

These animators have inspired this project. I just sent out general inquiries to all of them to see if they would be available to answer a few questions about their animations.

Lots of fantastic work to the right by artists and animators with "dope fresh" skills.

Enjoy!

Week 5 : Walk Cycle Animation Critique

Today, we critiqued our walk cycles. Looked as if I didn't follow directions. I appreciated the honesty in order to acquire the tough skin. Below were common mistakes regarding the assignment, critiques for my assignment, and the midterm assignment, where the students were to animate a character run cycle in class. I think my midterm walk cycle of Igor turned out much better.

Walk cycle Critique Part I

Class Dailies, things to watch out for:
Common pitfalls and things to watch out for in this exercise.

Hitches in the root. Linear keys for smoothing.
Contact Pose – Straighter leg in front, bend in back foot so heel can raise.
Weight pose – back leg should be lifted. Toe of the ground. Bend spine here. Lift head to compensate spine bend.
No rotation in shoulder except in passing pose. For the most part it stays straight.
Weight shift on to supporting leg in passing pose.
Take Off pose Push toes to kick character higher.
Richard Williams pgs. 166
Clean up root. Push it up during pass pose and move it down on the weight pose.
Pat attention to bend in the spine.
Remember Overlap. Root first, then torso follows, then head. Segmented Delay.
Watch Sliding in Z axis of heel.
Use Controls to relax the hands. Not spread.
Contact Pose = Gate : Be sure this is an equilateral triangle.

For my animation:
Contact Pose – Straight Leg – Bend Back Leg.
Arc Arms
Take off pose more height
Pass Pose watch pointed Toe
Angle of head
Weight Pose – bent back leg.

MIDTERM
Animate a character walk in class. The students have a choice of a rigged character. They are to animate the character utilizing Rodri Torres’ website as a guide and they have two hours to complete it. The site can be found here:

here:http://rodri.aniguild.com/tuto_run/run_en.php

Blue Guy "Generi Rig" : by Andrew Silke

If you'd like to give animating emotion a shot, there are numerous free character rigs on the Highend 3D site. A very nice rig is the one by Andrew Silke and it features a pretty cool control system that is both visual and intuititve. Thanks guys for posting this online.

You can check the site by clicking the link below.

http://www.andrewsilke.com/generi_rig/generi_rig.html

Facial Features and Expression : by David Kalwick

This week I conducted research on techniques and methods for a properly rigged face. This is important as it enables the animator to achieve emotion. The focus of my thesis however (and its something I still debate about), is not technical. Studying the nuances of a rig in order to manipulate the mesh could be an entire thesis on its own, we really don't have much time to cover the major platforms and therefore will only focus on the nontechnical, but practical aspects of generating emotion in characters, that can be used across all platforms including 2D animation.

i came across David Kalwick's book, "Animating Facial Features and Expressions". I thought it would be a nice place to start. I wanted to see how an expert who models and animates in CG and also, how he presents and executes the process for animating emotion. It is written for the intermediate to advanced level student, the same group that my thesis is targeted towards. The information is helpful and after reading it, I thought about perhaps putting together a class where this book would be the central text. I originally picked up the book in order to conduct research on properly rigged face and found other things that were quite helpful.

The book is divided logically, into three parts.

Part I:
Describes facial anatomy, muscles, the skull and most importantly, general proportions. Now I teach life drawing on a regular basis at the school and some of the tips he shares in order to remember facial proportion is quite clever. I also learned new terminology about the skull that I had not learned. These were:

• Nasion : The area between the eyes, above the nasal bone.
• Supraorbital Margin : I usually called these the orbitals, but now I have a name for the top brow ridge.
• Infraorbital Margin : The bottom ridge of the eye socket.
• Mental Protuberance : The part of the chin that sticks forward.

(I'm writing these down because we will be identify these in lifedrawing class on Monday.)

He also discussed the use of forensics' use of 3D to solve crimes, and talked about he difference between the male and female skull. The female skull is narrower, rounder at the top, its shorter, the chin and mandible is rounded, the supraorbital margin is not as large, and the cheek bones are not as large as a male's (zygomatic process).

The section continues with the nuances of the each facial feature, and describes how the muscles are manipulated. In conclusion, its important to know the muscles of the face so that an animator will know what point in the mesh to manipulate in order to achieve a realistic emotion.

This section has potential to be extremely technical, but its written in way that is easy to scan and understand, again its well written for his target audience.

Part II :
Talks about emotion and expression. More specifically, he talks about features such as the mouth (the foundation of the expression), the eyes and brows (used as modifiers) are used to create emotion. This section is filled with snapshots and illustrations that help to convey his idea.

Part III:
Is the the most technical part of the book. Here he discusses lip syncing, phonemes, recording dialogue, morphing, blendshapes (in both 3D Studio and Maya - Oh yeah, he's brave here, but he did it), animating spines, bones, correct pivot points, lattices, clusters, lots of stuff.

The best part about this section is that it includes appendices for 36 common emotions. These illustrations are charted out so they are easy to scan, and included with this is a basic shape breakdown and feature position suggestion in order to achieve that particular emotion, and covers a wide range from realistic to cartoon styles. I can see this being a really nice comprehensive guide on animating facial anatomy.

The book comes with also comes with a CD ROM that includes templates, movies about facial anatomy and animating the face.

Now, should I include information like this in my thesis? He's basically broken down the process from the structural aspects of emotion (skeletal and muscles) and demonstrates how these are formed and animated in CG. He's also created it so that it is a form of reference. Mine is similar but focuses more on acting methods.

At this point, including technical information about a properly rigged face, may be too much. I'll definitely point to this book as a main reference for setting up a facial rig in Maya and or Studio, or perhaps we just highlight the most common techniques in animating expression, like for example, sticking to diagrams of common expressions that animators can use as an online guide.

In conclusion, I was impressed with how the book was laid out, organized and how it presented the entire process of animating the face from anatomy to CG in a simple to understand reference.

Kalwick, David. "Animating Facial Features & Expressions". Boston, Massachusetts. Charles River Media. 2006

Jason Ryan Flip Book LInk

In this demo, you'll see Jason Ryan, animation director for Disney, use a program called Flipbook to create a simple 2D animation. This is much faster and he'll use it for approval. In this video, he demonstrates how he takes the footage generated in Flipbook and Maps it as an image sequence in Maya. Here, he uses the 2D Flipbook footage as reference for a more refined model.

I thought I'd post it as it shows the importance of drawing and 2D animation fundamentals during the creation of a CG animated sequence. Click the link below to see the demo.

Fire it up!

http://www.flipbookpro.com/movies/mayabowlingdemoSTRMED.mov

Assignment 4 : Walk Cycle

In this next assignment, we will be animating a simple character walk cycle.
Don't get too crazy, just animate the walk for now. Frame Count 24. The
notes below will guide you.

• 12 frames per step. We will have 12
• frames per
• step. Each of the
• poses below will be using three frames. 1
• keyframe and 2
• keyframes
• generated by the computer.

Below are the three main poses to help you animate a walk cycle.

• Contact pose - The point at which the feet touch the ground. Front toe up, back heel up.
  
• Weight Pose - The point at which the leg is holding the entire body's weight after the step.
  
• Pass Pose - Point at which the leg passes the other leg.
  
• Take Off - Point after Weight Pose, where the leg takes off from contact pose.
  

Contact Pose

• Heel to toe. 1 or two frames.
• Leg is straight

Take Off

• Back leg is straight.
• Highest Point of the pose.

Weight Pose

• Lowest point of the pose.

Additional Notes:

• Use 3 frames for each pose to create the 12 frame step.
• Watch Arcs for smoothness.
• Hand makes a figure 8 from top view.
• Head stays in place, but bobs.
• Foot makes and arc (reverse nike).

FORMAT:
Render out a front, side and perspective
views.

PROCESS:

Start with contact pose
Establish center of weight.
Move body
forward
Rotate Hip
Move weight (shift weight of figure) over support leg.
Rotate Shoulder
Position arms and hands.
Keyframe this pose
Set your frames to step. (RC timeline, tangent > step
Set your frame count to every third frame.

Repeat for the three remaining poses each is three frames apart.

For smoothness in Z. In Graph Editor, Select the middle points in Z
and delete for smoothness in the Z.

Locking Down legs.

Breaking
Joints to exaggerate. Check out Richard Williams Book on
breaking joints.

Drink Box Animation Notes:

I'm thinking about posting my animation on youtube so that I can post the examples on this blog. Animating the drink box was tough, primarily because my ideas seemed too complex. I realized that after realizing that it takes about 3 hours to properly animate the drink box fearfully jumping around. I found the assignment easier to tackle once I started simplifying.

Common mistakes students had with this assignment:

:: Keeping actions of the character intentional.
:: Being aware of the character's senses. He may see or hear something that might lead to an action.
:: Set up emotion from the very beginning of the scene.
:: Exaggerate the contrast of the emotions so that the ideas are clear.
:: Have strong posing to avoid "floaty" or "swimmy" movement.
:: Reverse pose C curves in animation add to contrast.
:: Remember contrast in timing. Add pauses to break up the timing of the animation, this gives the illusion the character is thinking, it also gives us the viewer a chance to understand what's happening.
:: Drag = approximately 6 frames.

Notes for my drink box animation.
:: People understood the march. This was tough. I made it so that it was clear that the movement was intentional and controlled as a soldier would move.
:: Have the box look slow to notice what's happening.
:: Hop to have body follow.
:: Have him look around.
:: Pepper the box with bullets and impact.