Between weeks 4 and 5, I received some feedback on the splining of my animation, and here are my notes on progressing it into the polishing stage.
Firstly, I have reviewed the walking cycle and the running cycle by reviewing my old work and the animator’s survival kit:
Secondly I have reviewed the bouncing ball principle for the mushroom:
Here are some of my other tweaks:
- character should toward the camera more
- the head controller controls more of rotating left and right, both neck and head go up and down together
- when the character runs away, keeping her in a line, run to the left
- She stays less time in her jump
- Remember to keep the waving of characters arms
I have also watched some videos talking about polishing an animation:
1.
- ‘Get all those details in’.
- Considering taking out and adding frame in
- Last time to do the timing
- Write done checklist, starting from the most important part
- Making sure the camera is working
- Be careful with the curve & nodes in the graph editor, do not water my animation down. Always checking the arc in my animation.
- The face animation polishing should start from the jaw.
2.
- A final touch to make things organic
- ‘Adding a little bit extra on top’
- Maya grid helps to check the spacing and arcs, it is a way of reference and tells which part of my character stops moving
- The wireframe mode of the character could also point out the ‘died’ part of my character, especially on their face.
- To double check things:
- Line of action
- asymmetry
- silhouette
- energy
- Avoid over polishing, keep our character simple
3.
- Polishing is the last 10% of the animation
- Helping strengthen the acting ideas
- Making the physical movement become more believable to the audience
- About adding and selling details—>
- breaking my shot into frames
- breaking my shot into phrases
- Making things more organic
- Adjusting frames to adjust the timing to make poses more relaxing
4.
- Splitting the pressure through joints
- Polishing is about pushing the pose
- One part of the body movement can influence the other parts
- Adding geometry to show the interaction between the character and the environment