Performance animation & Pre-Viz

Performance Part 3: 

Preparation: Character Set & Body Blocking (Storytelling Poses)

I have created a character set for the body keys to create the animation. After I decided that I was going to use an FK arms rig since they are only moving on a table. I set the animation settings to stepped keyframes, I brought the reference footage I have recorded in the scene to use as a guide while animating and created a geometry for the table where the hands are leaning onto.

Just like I did for the body mechanics I tried to match the character rig which myself in the footage even though it was not possible to match them perfectly since the proportion are different. I then saw the major changes for storytelling in the footage and created the first keyframes: I focused my attention on the head and hands movement since, in my opinione those are key for the entire performance. When recording I have used a “cat-light” to use as a prop to aim what I was saying to something so I made sure that was clear in the animation too. In the first part the hands move as to explain something or make a point and in the last part they clearly show the angriness of the character.

Methods for creating pose transitions using ‘biasing’ (easing/slow in and out)

To simplify the process of creating breakdown poses between the key poses that I have created for my performance I have used a Maya plugging called tween machine which helps animators to create breakdown poses in Maya on stepped curves.

After working on the animation with the tween machine and adjusting the animation and converting it to splines The overall hand and body moment was to working: it needed more life too still and the hand movement in particular was not correct since only the wrists were working instead of the arm.

To correct the arm moment I pinned the Pole elbow with rig to avoid just the wrist movements an excessive rotation (as it was before).

I have also added a spine movement (focusing on the rotation) which was lacking and the character looked too still. I have tried to sync the movement of the spine with the hand and the audio so that it would look natural. To remove the sense of “stillness” I have searched into moving hold in animation. A “moving hold” is basically just a way to have your character hold a key pose for a long time without looking dead and doing small adjustments movements that we also do in “real life” which can help understand the character mind. In this case, I created the “illusion” of the character breathing when there were long pauses between keyframes using the torso rotation since he was quite cross so its breathing was increased while shouting. I tried not to add to many keys for the moving hold otherwise it would have moved to mush too quietly resulting in an unnatural animation.

I have added a character which I have dowloaded from the school library, forky from the toy story series which I thought it would have added a “funny” elect to the animation since that he is so angry at an innocent, apparently lifeless character. I have also animated him slightly so that it would jump when the character slams his hand on the table and in the end I made him fall as it was “hit” by the characters words. I added a toy story wallpaper in the background that recalls forky.