| 3d Character Animation: The Animation Process |
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| Written by Ruel Pascual | |
| Wednesday, 13 June 2007 | |
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This a personal animation I did while when I was working at blur. Sometimes we are on a project that requires cleaning up mocap for a game cinematic. So, I worked on my on animation test at home to keep from getting rusty at the keyframed stuff. I created my own character Psymon Pulp. I bound it to an existing rig, and created facial blends and controls. Enough about the technical stuff. Let's get to the art. This is an animation tutorial for a monologue scene with lip sync. 1. Pick out a audio file that sounds appealing to you and are willing to invest the time to finish it. Remember! You are gonna hear this thing over a 100 times. So make sure you are commited to the one you choose. 2. Listen to it with your eyes closed until you can memorize the line. Listen to the beats, inflictions, and quite parts. This is were you are gonna start to pace the animation. Think of emotions you want to convey. What is your character thinking? What is the motivation? What is the subtext? 3. Thumbnail out your ideas and poses. It's okay to do rough drawings, just make sure to draw the correct emotions. Write the lines of the audio to each of your thumbnails to make sure you are hitting those beats and inflictions. Remember, animation is 75% planning out the scene and 25% animating in the computer. Beginners make the mistake of going directly to the computer and start noodling with the rig and posing out the character. The more flushed out you get your scene on paper the better. Then it's all about translating what you have on paper to the Maya or whatever.  4. Act it out. You are now the actor! Shoot video of yourself acting out the scene. You would be surprise to see little details you can use for your animation. Also to figure out the gestures, weight shifts of the body. Re-work those thumbnails if you find something you like in the video. Acting: Animate Emotions -Thinking Leads to Emotions -Emotions Lead to Actions -Actions Leads to Conflict or Resolution Three Types of Conflict -Conflict with Self -Conflict with the Situation -Conflict with another character 5. Translate your thumbnails in the computer using Pose to Pose or Pop Thru Techinque. This is quickest and most efficient way to animate! First set up a camera that you are going to animate to. Remember to use good Staging and Composition. Don't move this camera, cuz if you do your animation might not look the same in another angle. Stepped Keys -Block in Key Poses (storytelling poses) in Stepped Key Tangents -Check for Arcs, Timing, Beats, Phrasing -Even though if your character is staged without the legs and feet showing. Make sure to animate those as well to get the body to working right. Linear Keys -Convert to Linear Keys -Adjust Timing and Spacing -The animation will look robotic. Point A to point B -Its up to you to create good arcs and good add breakdown keys -Lock down those IKs Spline Keys -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 Facial Animation -Animate Facial Poses or Lip Sync Animation -Start with Eyes, Eye Brows, Mouth, Tongue, Cheeks, Nose, Ears, Hair -Always create asymmetry with the facial features -Create a nice continuous curve on the brow line -Eyes always lead the action, Eye Brows lead the eyes -Eye darts happen in 1-2 frames linearly -The Nose squashes and stretches -Animate the Cheeks if you have controls for them, gives your character more elasticity -Animate the Jaw first -Divide up the mouth by - corners, top middle, and bottom middle -Look the inside/outside shape of the lips for exact phonemes for dialog -Don't forget the ears and tongue Animation Clean Up -Fix Arcs -Animation Pops -Overlap & Follow Through -Secondary Action -Eyes Darts & Blinks -Lipsync Final Render Render with motion blur, 3 point lighting and fake G.I. Feedback This is a big one! Show your work in progress to people. Does your animation communicate? Are your ideas and emotions clear? Acting too cliche? Having someone critique your work is the only way to grow and prosper as an animator. The best animators in the business are still learning new ways to better their skills. So check your egos at the door please and thank you, and hit your deadlines! Here's a link to the quicktime video of Psymon Pulp. Once you get the hang of this workflow and able to wrap your head around the 12 Principles of Animation, then all you have to perfect is your acting choices. Email me if you have any questions. Thanks for reading! -Ruel www.ruelpascual.com             |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 15 June 2007 ) |
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