Unit 2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques – Project 2, week 8.
Animation Improvements
Tail Animation
Side to side motion. Holds at the side, then move quickly. Timing – starts to move when the leg is in the passing position, at the peak of the step. As though the leg is pulling the tail along. Or, more accurately, the tail is a follow-through action of the hip rotation.
Play Blast of Tail Animation
Ear Animation
No matter how I changed the animation, the ear animation always did this weird twist instead of moving straight into the appropriate position. I noticed that when the dog shrinks down to act alarmed the ears look fine, even though they are doing the reverse action. This is because that action only takes one frame. So, in the interest of fixing this problem, I added this same timing for this part. I made a play blast to show the difference, see figure 2.
Play Blasts of Ear Animation
Breathing Animation
Quick breaths were added after the ‘shocked’ part of the narrative. Slight z-axis rotation of the chest controls, and y-axis translation were implemented to complete a inhaling appearance of the body. I also added slight movements to the mid-spine control, to add more rotation to the abdomen, to improve realism in movement (see figure 3).
Both the chest and mid-spine animation match in terms of timing. They are both minimal, the mid-spine animation even more so.
In terms of speed and timing of the breaths, I made a few renditions. Figure 1’s version contained 4 breaths within about 4 four seconds. 4 seconds is the length of time that the breathing will occur, within which the dog will have clamed down and the breathing will slow. 4 breaths within 4 seconds is much too long for the quick breathing movements I intend on. The best timing result, through experimentation, included 2-3 quick breaths after the initial shock, then gradually slower breathing afterwards until the dog rises from the tense, shocked pose.
Play Blasts of Breathing Tests
Eye Animation
By alternating between spline tangents, clamped tangents and step tangents, I was able to closely manipulate the eye movements (see figure 6).
Eyelid Animation
By changing the horizontal rotation of the eyelid control, I was able to make the character express more emotion then before. Like so: see figs 8 and 9.
Blink Animation
Currently, my intention is to keep the eye blink animations very short. Due to my eyelid rig lacking in quality, complexity and anticipation for the outcome, the result of the blink is not very aesthetically pleasing. The way I rigged the eyelid was with a base joint that connected to the head joint, and an end joint that was placed at the edge of the eyelids. While this rig is sufficient for what I need to do in this project, it lacks in quality compared to the potential a more advanced rig could produce.
I intended to slow some of the blinks when the dog is dejected in the narrative, even have the eyes closed at the end. I will still consider the slower blinks, however the closed eye are not an option. This is due to how the eyelids look when closed, see figure 10 (using rotation only). The ends of the eyelids were not close enough to the lower eye lid, and if I rotated the control too far, the eyes could be see below.
During recent rigging lectures, I found an advanced alternative rigging method which will solve this issue. Using AdvancedSkeleton5, I will gain better geometry manipulation. I can use it in my final major project, I have made too much progress to restart the rig this project’s character.
Through careful manipulations of the rotation and translation tools, I made an improved blink position (see figure 12).
Blink Tests:
I made many tests to see how the blink would look (see figure 13). In all honesty, while I noticed the incorrection of the eyelid, the audience would only notice it if they paused the animation and looked closely. This is the case even with the 6 frame blink test. Though, this may not be the same in the render, since the speed may feel slightly different. Therefore I want to keep the blink under 6 frames if possible. Figure 12, these will be my blink animation timing options:
| Type of Blink | Total number of frames | Frame breakdown |
| Fast blink | 2 | Open= 1 frame, closed= 1 frame |
| Normal blink | 3 | Open= 1 frame, closed= 2 frames |
| Slow blink | 5 | Open= 2 frames, closed= 3 frames |
Play Blasts of Blink Timing Tests