WEEK 6: Modeling and Animation II: Action analysis

"Action analysis" in animation often means working from live action reference

The next level of applying the Principles of Animation is the most elusive: adding personality to our characters. Staging, solid posing and appeal will come into play even more in this last 3D animation assignment for this course.

student examples of action analysis

You'll be taking a few weeks to find, analyze and animate a short live action clip of your choice or creation.


Assignment 3
Luxo Lamp: Action Analysis
Assigned: 15/02/12
Due: 05/03/12

Find a live action clip no longer than 10 seconds. Download it using 'Save Vid' or another downloading tool (see sidebar links).  Analyze it frame by frame looking for keys, breakdowns, arcs, timing, and any other noteworthy details that make the clip interesting to you.  Take notes on paper or draw over stills. You can also import the clip into Maya to rotoscope parts of the action.

Animating  Luxo doing the same action using any other primitives you need to sell this piece. Zero marks are given for modeling, lighting, or texturing. This is entirely an animation assignment. The camera angles do not have to match the live action reference but make sure they're flattering to your action.

As with the jump, be sure to make the lamp look heavy by showing the effort required to move that weight. Now's your chance to add a little character and personality to your lamp.

The final output should be 3 files: your reference, your playblast, and your maya file.
Try to optimize your videos so they are as small as possible while maintaining image quality.
I will accept .avi's, .mov's, .mp4's.  Please no .wmv's.

Files should be named as follows:
tdonovan_luxo_vid_ref.avi
tdonovan_luxo_action_000.avi
tdonovan_luxo_action_000.ma

The file number (000) should be whatever version of the file you hand in. You can hand in any version up to 999. This could come in handy if you need to resubmit. You can simply send me the new file with the new version number. Careful with your file naming. No caps. No extra spaces. No extra descriptors.

Rubric:
Exemplary: Advanced grasp of animation principles evident. Luxo has unmistakable weight, clear, snappy timing, convincing overlapping action.  Camera angles should frame action so that it is clearly staged for maximum readability with strong sillhouettes. Luxo has a clear personality and appeal.
Excellent: Strong grasp of most of the animation principles with few mistakes. Luxo has consistent weight, good timing, and good use of overlapping action. Camera angles frame the action well. Luxo has some personality and appeal.
Acceptable: Reasonably executed animation utilizing most of the animation principles with some minor mistakes. Luxo has mostly consistent weight, timing and overlapping action. Action is staged reasonably well. Luxo has a somewhat clear personality.
Not Acceptable: Lack of evident understanding of the animation principles with several mistakes. Luxo not heavy or smoothly-timed with little to no overlapping action. Camera doesn't frame the action well. Luxo doesn't appear to have any personality.

Assignments to be handed in via FTP.