Assignment 2: Self Critique

Comments

I feel that my animation was successful in a way that it shows exactly my intention of my original story for this red box scenario.

I took some time to add in lights and use the camera, which is not a requirement of the assignment, but I thought it would improve the animation. While the final lighting and camera setup is not the best in my opinion, I feel that the spotlight shining on the robot and the boxes is sufficient to bring the focus on those objects, since there's really nothing interesting in the surrounding.

However, I feel that the lights could be better in terms of providing more variety of colors (instead of just a plain white spotlight).

The camera is also positioned at certain position to scope the focus of the animation even further. For example, the later part of the animation had the camera focusing mainly on the red box and the robot. The green boxes are not our main concern so it is partially shown on the screen, if not completely hidden at all. The shaking effect of the camera was an accident discovery when I meddle with the camera. Since the red box is supposed to be heavy, why not show that by shaking the camera when there's a big drop made by the red box?

However, I feel that I could have further utilized the camera, since for the front part of the animation (the part where the green boxes are moved), the animation of the robot moving the green boxes are (honestly) a bit boring, and the camera sitting on the same spot for that period didn't really help bring up the interest.

I think that the last animation where the red box drops off from the conveyor belt can be improved, because right now it doesn't look like it is really being influenced by gravity. Also, I think that the robot could have have another reaction when the box dropped, but I did not have any good idea in terms of what reaction the robot should express when it happens, so no reaction for the robot was incorporated into the last segment.

Principles

The animation uses ease-in-ease-out for the robot's movement. However, I felt that I should have made that ease-in-ease-out movement more obvious by tweaking the curves in the graph editor, so that it is more curvy, which makes the ease-in-ease-out more obvious.

When the robot is trying to push the box, it uses the principle of anticipation, as the robot moves to its preparation position before it gives a big hit on the box.

The animation also uses the principle of timing. The robot gets increasing impatient with the red box as its encounter with the red box gets more and more unpleasant, and therefore is more determined to get rid of the red box as fast as possible, either by normally moving it, or by pushing it away. Its impatient and great desire to get rid of it as fast as possible is reflected by the fact that the robots acts and reacts more quickly as the time goes by for the interaction with the red box.

The secondary action is also displayed in this animation. The robot jerks a little as it comes to a stop. The red box also bounces on the conveyor belt as it is being dropped. The camera shaking as the red box drops is also a secondary action.

Finally, the camera's change in focus during different periods is the usage of the principle of staging, whereby things that are not in our main focus are hidden away from the audience as much as possible by moving the camera away.

Assignment 2: Storyboard

(click to see enlarged picture)

The BoMo will move 2 green boxes as per normal, by lifting it up from the conveyor belt, and then rotating and lowering it at the platform 90 degrees to its right.

After the two green boxes, the conveyor belt will give a box that is red in color. The BoMo will realise this abnormality, and start to inspect the box, to check that he really did see the red box and see whether there was anything special with it.

Thinking that he worried too much, he goes back to normal and starts to lift the box. However, half way during lifting, the box will drop off the magnet. The BoMo did the lifting of the red box twice and in both times, the dropping off always occur without fail.

Fustrated with the red box, the BoMo decided that the red box is an invalid box, and tries to push the box away from the conveyor belt. It tries very hard to do it but because it is extremely heavy, the robot only manages to move it to the edge of the conveyor belt. After trying very hard to push the box away, the BoMo feels tired, and tries to catch its breath.

In the end, the BoMo effort's paid off, when the red box drops off from the conveyor belt by itself due to gravity influence.

Assignment 2: Character

Name: BoMo (Box Mover)

Thoughts:
BoMo: All in the day's work! Time to start moving boxes again!
(moves box 1)
BoMo: Now for the next box...
(moves box 2)
BoMo: Now for the next box...
(saw box 3 that turned to red)
BoMo: ...wait...
(looks and moves its head around the red box)
BoMo: ...why is this box red in colour? Am I seeing something right?
(retracts back)
BoMo: Oh well, maybe it is supposed to be like that.
(returns back to normal position and start lifting up the box)
BoMo: This box feels a bit...
(drops the box)
BoMo: ... HEAVY! Or rather, it feels extremely heavy!
BoMo: Come on, I can do it, I can move this box over...
(tries to lift the box again, only to drop it again)
BoMo: ARGH!
(tries to push the red box away from the conveyor belt)
BoMo: Go away you stupid box!
(continues to push box away until it is at the edge)
BoMo: (catching its breath)
(stares at the red box)
BoMo: What is inside there? Really...
(box starts to lose balance and drops off the conveyor belt)
BoMo: ...well I guess that's the problem solved!

Rigging and Animating the Arm Robot

Forward kinematics - calculate from the root joint (the translation of the root affects the rest of the bones)
Inverse kinematics - calculate from the back (the translation of the last joint affects the rest of the bones)

Process

Basically today's exercise was to learn how to rig the robot. To do so, we use the Joints tool that allows us to create joints.

The joints are created one by one after activating the tool by clicking the different areas where our joints would be, and thus, the bones would be created together with the joints joining the bones together.

Even with the joints created, it is still not completed. First, there is no inverse kinematics, making the last joint feels extremely "disconnected" from the rest of the joints. Second, the joints are not connected to any parts of the body, so even if we move the joints, Maya does not know which part of the model belongs to the joint, and therefore, the model parts would not move together with the joint.

Applying inverse kinematics was just a simple task of selecting the first and last joint and using the IK handle tool. Now with inverse kinematics, the last joint is also able to influences the movement of the rest of the joints.

Next is to actually parent each model parts with the individual joints, this was done using the hierarchy window, but it can also be done in the outliner if needed. By parenting the model parts to the joints, when the joints move, the model parts will move together since it is parented. As this is just a robot, we do not need it to stretch like human skin, so parenting is a good way to rig the robot.

Finally, the parent constraints were created for the crate. What is it for? Basically, it allows us to control when the crates get parented, and which thing to parent to during a certain period. For our arm robot animation, the crate's position will be influenced by the arm control, and the platform. With the parent constraint, I can set it such that before the arm robot sucks the magnet, the parenting effect is disabled, until the magnet touches the crate. When it touches the crate, then the parenting value is set to 1 such that the crate will move together with the magnet. However, upon dropping it at the platform, the parenting value should change such that the magnet no long has any influence (set to 0 for magnet) but the platform now has influence on the crate's position (set to 1 for platform).



Critique 1:
The motion was too unrealistic. Robots usually stop and pause for a while after moving in a direction, but in this animation, the robots immediately switches to the next movement after its previous movement, which is too fast for a robot. There is also no arc in the movement and the motion does not has ease-in-ease-out principle applied.



Critique 2:
The motion was better than the first one. But there is no shaking motion or anything when the machine comes to a stop, to resist the inertia. So, the motion is added in the third video. The final video is below:



Reflection

The rigging exercise was very fun to do as it allows us to animate something that has different parts of the "body", and not just a simple bouncing ball. It shows how Maya provides a system whereby we can create joints that act similar to how human bones and joints works. This will definitely be very useful since we do not have to animate different joints separately and end up getting weird or screwed up positions, as the movement of the other joints are influenced automatically, allowing us to just focus on animating how our robot should behave.

The constraint part of the tutorial is also a life-saver since it means that if we have any changes that we want to make for our robot, we don't have to worry too much for the crate, since the crate is temporary parented to the magnet via the constraint and not animated separately, so little, if not none at all, fix is needed for the crate when we change the magnet's movement.

Week 13 Exercise 2 Questions

1) Apart from their different sizes, it is obvious from Luxo Jr. that the big lamp is “older” and that the small lamp is “younger”.
How is this communicated by the animation? Give at least THREE examples.
Do NOT say because the small lamp is playing with a ball, or that its name is Luxo Jr. – you should be looking at the animation, how the lamps move and emote (emote means to express emotions).

First, the smaller lamp feels more energetic than the bigger lamp. The smaller lamp tends to leap around more often and moves around the area frequently compared to the big lamp. Younger people will usually be more energetic and likes to move and jump around, compared to the adults or even the elderly.

Secondly, the small lamp also express its disappointment when the smaller ball deflates by lowering its head, while the big lamp, after the small lamp temporary left the camera view, moves in such a way that it gives a sense of relief that the trouble is gone, and is also observing the deflated ball. Therefore, it shows the maturity of the two lamps and obviously the expressions shown by the big lamp and small lamp shows that the small lamp is more immature than the big lamp, and older people shows more maturity than the younger people.

Thirdly, the big lamp shows less interest in the small ball as it tries to move it away from its surrounding whenever the ball rolls in front of it, without any concern of where the ball is heading to. However, the small lamp is playing with the ball, and not getting rid of it, as it is trying to chase the ball after pushing the ball away from it. Therefore again, we can see that the big lamp is much more adult because adults have less interest in things such as the ball, which does little to make it enjoyable for them, while children will be more curious about the ball and try to generate some fun with the ball by moving it around so that they can enjoy themselves.

2) Give an example from Luxo Jr of how timing is used for comic effect. Explain how the timing decisions contribute to the humour.

The timing of the movement, actions and reactions of the lamps makes it looks more lively. Since lamps are robots their movements should be rigid, fixed, and has a constant speed, but because of the different timings and fast motion and slow motion in different periods, it creates humanly personality in the lamps. The possessing of human behaviours and movement due to the timing makes it looks more comical since should lamps really move in real life, the movement timings and all are fixed and constant.

3) When you create a joint chain, these form a hierarchy, with the first joint at the top and the last joint at the bottom. Explain why this is necessary for the joints to work properly.

The first joint influences the rest of the joints below it. Without the hierarchy, if we rotate the first joint, other joints will not move together with it. The hierarchy also describes the relationships of the joints, since not all joints might be belonged to one whole group.

Week 12 Exercise 2 Questions

1) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 2D animation? Explain your view.
Partly yes. Being able to draw will make your characters and objects looks more realistic. However, animation is also about timing and movement. In other words, you must have both of the elements to make a good 2D animation. Either one is missing, and the animation will turn out bad.

2) Do you need to be able to draw well to create good 3D animation? Explain your view.
Since we are using Maya, drawing would not be really an issue. Storyboarding does not require fantastic drawings, as long as the purpose and intention of the animation is known, then it served its purpose. Otherwise 3D animation would be the same as 2D animation: the model must look good in terms of appearances and movement.

3) What do you think would separate a piece of poor animation from a piece of good animation? In other words, how would you go about deciding if a piece of animation is good or bad?
Sometimes there's no actual guidelines for judging an animation. Depending on the intended style of the animation, it might not always be extremely realistic. As long as it looks good to the style that we are expecting, then it will be good.

Some things like timings however will always be expected in our animation, such as ease-in and ease-out. Good timing naturally contributes to the quality of the animation, however, things such as physics and realism can be varied.

4) In 2D animation, you need to be very aware of timing at a frame by frame level, using timing charts and other techniques - but for 3D animation, this is handled using the graph editor, which is more concerned with manipulating rates of change over time.


Does this affect how you approach your animation work? Explain.
It does not. It still require good timing on a frame-by-frame basis. While Maya helps us draw the arcs and curves, it is not always in the perfect shape that we want, thus we have weighted tangents in the graph editor.

Manipulating the curve still requires the awareness of timing at frame by frame. Sometimes, even though we have our keyframes/poses and our curves/arcs, we still find that the ball might be going way too slow at some areas and too fast at other areas.

5) Give a brief critique of Maya as an animation tool. Don't just say Maya makes animation difficult, or easy, or that you need to learn a lot of stuff to use Maya - explain what Maya does well and not so well in terms of creating animation.
Maya allows easy creation of animation. Maya has frame interporation, allowing frame between keyframes to be generated automatically, and allow us to apply the ease-in-ease-out principle easily by using curves. This means that we do not have to do it frame by frame manually to adjust the object's transformation, which is a tedious job.

However, when dealing with complex animations, Maya tends to be more difficult to use, especially when adjusting the timings. Sometimes the time slider is not sufficient enough, and you have to use the graph editor, and even then, moving the frames through the graph editor is difficult because all the frames right behind what you are currently adjusting have to be moved as well, and also frames for other objects.

Bouncing Ball 2: Ball Strikes Back (With HD)