Thief

So for the past month or so I've been working on the final group project for my Intro to Body Mechanics Animation class (128A). The assignment was to basically showcase all that we've learned in our shot as well as make sure it flows as a sequence. I picked the title sequence with the character free-running/jumping from letter to letter in the word "Thief". It was a real challenge working on this. The flips were very complicated but I got lots of help from Raquel (my professor) and friends along the way! I had a blast working on this project and learned SO much! Through working, it only further cemented my passion for 3D animation, and I can't wait to start a new shot!

Without further delay, here is the film:

ANI 128a Digital Animation I, "Thief" - a group piece. Spring 2015, Animation and Illustration program. SJSU. from Raquel Rabbit on Vimeo.

 Below is the process I used to create the shot.

First I started with an animatic, drawn in Photoshop and timed in premiere pro: This was to figure out timing and poses of the shot.

Then I moved into first pass blocking, where I create the main poses (and major breakdowns) of the character in stepped mode in Maya. It's usually all great until you switch into spline, where the computer basically adds the in-between poses for you. This is what I saw after putting it into spline mode the first time to check my progress, and after seeing this I knew I had a long long way to go! lol (also this is an old costume design) (version 6)

Then after a week of working I was able to fix it up to this. But the timing and everything still felt off. (version 17)

To fix the timing, I added a ball to the hips, like Aaron Hartline said he did when he critiqued my work at BACC (Bay Area Creative Connection). I animated the ball to the timing I wanted, then matched my character to that timing. Then I switched back into Stepped Mode and worked a lot more on the poses. (This is version 28):

Finally, I worked and worked, added lighting, squash and stretch in the rig, fixed curves/arcs, overlap, etc and at version 67, I comped it together and submitted it! I hope you like it! :)

Here it is again:

 It was a lot of fun working on this, I got a lot of guidance from my friends and classmates! But most importantly, thanks Raquel for all the amazing feedback, I can't wait for next semester. And thanks Animation Mentor for the awesome Stewart Rig!!

More Poses and Quick Studies!

Hi all!!

Been super busy lately, but thought to post some more of the warm up work I've done.

Below are some poses I've worked on throughout the last couple weeks:

Here's a Quick Study from Week 10, practicing the art of "overshooting", where an object in motion goes just a bit beyond the landing before settling back into it's final position. It can help make characters look realistic and alive and not so mechanical.

And Finally, here's another quick study, re-visiting the head turn. I was really proud of this one because it was the first time experimenting with the layered animation approach!