ADVANCED ANIMATION - EXERCISES
16.04.20 - 20.06.20 (Week 1 - Week 10)
Helen Angelia (0336203)
Advanced Animation
Exercises - 2D animation and 3D animation
Module Information Booklet (MIB)
Week 1
Thursday Class and Friday Class
For this week, mostly we were briefed about the MIB with Mr. Kannan and have an introduction section with the new lecturer Mr. Faizal. We were told to familiarize ourselves with Maya for animating as we only learned how to model things in the previous semester. Mr. Kannan gave us an exercise to begin animating with Maya which is to make 3 animations of different balls. I then chose to do a rubber elastic ball, basketball, and beach ball.
Week 2
Thursday Class
We showed our progress for this week, but Mr. Kannan said most of our animation was still stiff and need to be more smooth. Therefore, he taught us how to make our animation better with the Graph Editor. It was really hard and confusing, to be honest, but it did make the animation smoother.
Fig 1.0
Beach Ball
Beach ball is more like an airball, where it could not fly too far and it could float on the water easily. The weight is more like a buoy (life vest).
Fig 1.1
Basketball
I looked up for tutorials from YouTube on how to model a basketball and pick the color myself. It was actually quite fun as I almost forgot how to model objects in Maya and this exercise helped me in remembering the things I have learned before.
For the rubber ball, I only made it with a simple circle and color it with plain red.
Friday Class
For the 2D animation class, Mr. Faizal instructed us to come up with 6 character designs made from basic shapes and we should show our progress in the next class.
Week 3
Thursday Class
After we were done with our animation, we were told to submit it in Microsoft Teams in the MP4 file, since my MOV file could not be open by the lecturer.
Here is my final outcome of the ball exercise:
I showed some rough sketches to Mr. Faizal.
Fig 1.2
Rough Sketches of Character Design
Mr. Faizal said the characters were too stiff. I need to make it more dynamic. The lecturer then gave me the drawings he did and told me to follow it.
Fig 1.3
Character Design Reference made by Mr. Faizal
- Dragon - China
- Lion (Chimera) - Greek
- Unicorn - India
- Griffin - Egypt
- Barong - Indonesia
- Nine-Tailed Fox (Kyuubi) - Japan
Fig 1.4
6 Beasts Sketches Character Design
However, when I showed this to Mr. Faizal, he asked me if I can animate those characters in every angle and every different frame? He told me that the concepts are fine and I have good drawing skills and in detailing but simplify the beasts more.
Fig 1.5
6 Beasts Refined and Simplified Version
I showed Mr. Faizal the more cartoonish version of the characters and he said that it was good enough to proceed and I should do it straight in Adobe Animate. However, he still wanted me to simplify the characters more.
I felt that I do not think I could simplify it more any further. If I do it, then the characters would lose their signature symbol. So, I asked Mr. Faizal for a solution on how to deal with this. He then said I might be able to proceed with the fox as it looks more simple than the others.
Fig 1.6
Fox Character Design Sketch
I came up with the fox character design above, but Mr. Faizal guided me more by posting a tutorial to draw a fox in Google Classroom to help me come up with inspiration and do the character design like he meant.
It was really hard for me to follow Mr. Faizal's style as I am not used to it. I then tried to find another reference and inspiration for my character design exercise.
Fig 1.7
Cute Cartoonish Character Design
I told Mr. Faizal I was going for a cute cartoonish kind of style for my character design and he said to try and go for it. However, the characters I made above was still to complex for me to make an animation in Adobe Animate as I have never tried it before. I tried to come up with another idea for my character design to show the lecturer in the next week.
Week 4
Thursday Class
This week, Mr. Kannan taught us again with the Graphic Editor and gave us another exercise which is to make an animation of a Pendulum. I have no idea how to animate the pendulum nicely, so I searched for a video tutorial on YouTube and make a work to show him next week.
Friday Class
I have come up with a character design for this week's class and I was quite positive that this may be what Mr. Faizal had meant for me to make. And he does approve the design of these characters.
Fig 1.8
Final Outcome of Character Design
After that, we were told to choose one character and make various poses and expressions.
Fig 1.9
Final Outcome Character Design
Poses and Expressions
Thursday Class
I have done my pendulum exercise and uploaded it to Microsoft Teams. Here is my final outcome:
After this, there were no more exercises for 3D animation as we proceed to our first project.
Friday Class
For this week, we needed to choose one character and make a character turn around in Adobe Animate. I chose the round yellow cartoon character as it looks more simple than other characters since this will be my first time animating using Animate.
First, I made the character turn around sketches to make it easier for me in making the character in Adobe Animate and animating it.
Fig 2.0
Character Turn Around Sketches
For our next exercise, we were told to make an animation of the walk cycle, run cycle, and jump cycle + background design with our final outcome of character design. For my first attempt of the walk cycle, Mr. Faizal said that the left hand moved too fast and it looks like a moonwalk in reverse. So, I fixed it, and here is the final outcome of the character design cycle exercises.
Also, we needed to sketch out 5 different backgrounds. And here are my 5 sketches for each character:
Fig 2.1
Gym Background Sketch
For the first background, I made it for the first character which is a gym freak. From the way he dressed and his stern expression, the background is made for a huge, stern, and strong guy like him.
Fig 2.2
Library Background Sketch
The second background goes to the creamy color square character which holds paper and pencil in his hand. With his big glasses and quiet personality, a library is suited for a bookworm like him.
Fig 2.3
Amusement Park
The third background looks like a fun place to hang out to and the balloon held by one of the characters is the one he bought at the balloon store. The place suited for the half-circle pink character who likes an amusement park and has the energy of a child.
Fig 2.4
Night Forest
The fourth background is a forest and has a moonlight shining from behind. As the job of one of the characters is to spy and assassinate people for his mission, he could only move at night so this background is suited for the black ninja character holding a nunchaku.
Fig 2.5
English Garden
The last background would be given to the flirty character holding a flower to be given to a lady he would meet. As he has English blood, it is only natural if he likes to hold an afternoon tea party in his own home private garden.
Week 7 - Week 8
There was no class in week 7 as Mr. Faizal had some urgent problems.
On week 8, Mr. Faizal gave us a task to do a lip-sync exercise with the audios he had provided. However, I could not find the audio and record my own voice. When I was done with the exercise, I just noticed that Mr. Faizal uploaded it in Google Classroom a few days later. I explained to Mr. Faizal that I did not see it and showed him my recorded audio.
Mr. Faizal said it might be better if I add more action like greetings to the audience, but other than that the animation looks synchronized.
REFLECTIONS
EXPERIENCES
At the beginning of the semester, I kind of knew that advanced animation would be hard, but I didn't imagine that there will be 2D and 3D animations going on at the same time. I thought that Mr. Kannan will teach us 3D with his assistant lecturer, Mr. Faizal. However, 2D and 3D combined together are pretty hard.
For 3D animation, I think there was no problem. The lessons were quite tough as I was still not familiar with animating in Maya, but Mr. Kannan taught the students slowly and thoroughly so that we can catch up to the materials given. And even though it was different than the previous semester, where Mr. Kannan can give us tutorials directly, this time wasn't so bad either.
For 2D animation, I would have to say it's kind of pressuring me. I know that Mr. Faizal is very flexible on time, but since the lecturer wants us to work with Adobe Animate only and when this is also my first time, I found it quite heavy. Not to mention the software used by the lecturer and the students were different.
Mr. Faizal was using Flash and we used Adobe Animate. Even though there are some similar features, with different apps and controls, I felt that it's still different. The workloads for 2D animation were also many (for someone like me that's not used to new software and I was not allowed to use other software). I felt like I have taken 6 modules in 1 semester instead of 5 modules.
Mr. Faizal was really nice, he guided me so many times at the beginning of the semester. But, since most of the students could not keep up with all the projects and assignments held at the same time, we cannot produce excellent works. We could see that Mr. Faizal was disappointed, but I'm not sure if I can keep up with his pace, at least this is my first time for me.
So after the lip-sync exercise, there was no more classes for 2D animation. I'll have to say, I might not be that clicked with Mr. Faizal's way of teaching, though I am very grateful for all the lessons he has given.
OBSERVATIONS
When I was looking at video tutorials on YouTube on how to make 3D animation bouncing ball, modeling objects myself, making and moving a pendulum, learning and familiarizing myself with Adobe Animate, this semester has indeed given me a lot of learnings. I started to observe more on animation movement and I noticed some of my works are still very stiff and not really fun to watch, but because of these exercises, I am more aware of my mistakes.
FINDINGS
I found out that by observing carefully and maybe with instinct(?), we can produce a good work. I found out that I still lack of fundamentals on my skills and abilities, I may be too rushing for a perfect and excellent creation. I am really fortunate that Mr. Kannan and Mr. Faizal pointed that out for me, though it might be difficult for me to be less perfectionist.
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