WEEK 6: Animation Direction 2 -- Work period for sets and armatures

Milestone 2: Puppet armature, basic set started
Assigned: 09/02/12
Due: 23/02/12 In class
% of final grade: 10%

Rubric:
Exemplary: Progress made on both puppet(s) and set ahead of schedule and represents more than half the work involved including r&d and sourcing supplies.
Excellent:  Puppet(s) and sets about half complete and on schedule
Acceptable: Puppet(s) and sets started, most materials sourced, not too far behind schedule.
Not Acceptable: Puppet(s) and sets behind schedule. Materials not fully sourced.

WEEK 6: Character Acting 2: Attack, continued!!

that's some anticipation right there!

Assignment 3: Attack
Assigned: 08/02/12
Due: 05/03/12
% of final grade: 20%

Tranisition from the walk and run cycles into an 'attack'. Your file should include the walk cycle and the transition to the run. Include a transition into the attack that shows anticipation, and be sure to complete the action with a believeable follow through.  If possibly, the attack should also transition back into the run or the walk.

Use the pre-built humanoid skeleton or your own rig.

Rubric:
Exemplary: Clear personality and attitude, strong apparent weight, fluid motion with a strong grasp of all animation principles. Action transitions flawlessly from the walk or run and includes a clear anticipation and follow through.
Excellent: Apparent personality, weight and almost entirely fluid motion with a good grasp of nearly all animation principles. Action transitions smoothly from the walk or run and includes an anticipation and follow through.
Acceptable: Some personality and weight. Motion is mostly fluid with minor errors or missing animation principles. Action transitions reasonably smoothly from walk or run with some attempt at anticipation and follow through.
Not Acceptable: Attack not convincingly heavy or not fluid with quite a few glitches or missing animation principles. Transition not smooth or with errors such as missing anticipation or follow through.

Equal weight will be given to:
Attitude/Personality, Weight, Pacing/Timing, Overlapping Actions/Secondary Motion

Please submit files by FTP.

Please hand in 2 files, your playblast and your maya fil.
You can hand in videos in any standard format except .wmv.
Ex: .mov, .avi, .mp4,
Naming convention:
tdonovan_attack_000.ma
tdonovan_attack_000.avi

Include any referenced files. Please watch your naming conventions. No caps, extra characters or spaces. Feel free to number the files up to 999 as you like. It will help differentiate the files should you need to resubmit.

Please hand in files via ftp.

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.