Self Evaluation: "Robot and the Button" Animation

This self evaluation reflects on my latest animation "Robot and the Button" which is a small animated scenario about a robot finding a button.

In this blog post I'll cover the following aims: pacing, story/character and animation quality. I also look at how the research I've done has informed my practice.

The pacing was originally too slow unlike my last animation. I sped it up so that the character's tempo matched its character. I feel like I've given this animation enough time for each action, no action is particularly rushed and its easy to interpret the story. That being said, the reaction 'double-take' to seeing the button could've been extended and there could've been extra reactions I could've put there if I wished to enhance the character or create more mystery. I chose not to purely because I felt the scene was complex enough and that I'd like to move on and animate something different.

The character I wanted to convey was a child-like, innocent robot with a bouncy and curious personality. From working with this character in 'Professional Project' I was reminded of Wall-E who has a similar box-like structure with big eyes and a curious nature. Unlike Wall-E, this character's eyes are static. While this was intended and I am happy with the amount of character I got from this model, I would like to try animating a more complex character which does have pose-able eyes.

I feel the actions I made the character take were appropriate for his character. He is quite observing of his surroundings and wants to investigate things. I've been reading Ed Hooks' Acting for Animators and one of his seven essential acting principles is about "Acting is Doing, Acting is also Reacting". He describes how not all characters would react the same to an action but all characters would react. Seeing the character's reactions on screen tells us about the character and we read the story and environment through the character.

Animation quality was again okay, still an improvement over my previous animations but not quite there yet. Not much I can do but keep animating and get a little better each time. This animation required me to think over all the little details: the footing, the head movements, the pauses and reactions. The walk cycles aren't as 'floaty' as some of my older animations and its evident my use of the graph editor has helped to tackle some issues. I think I could've tweaked curves further, particularly in the way the character moves across the screen. The walk cycle looks all right but the translation along the screen is quite uniform, but I guess he is a robot after all.

Overall I'm quite happy with this animation, I enjoyed making it and felt more like a little scenario than some of my other work. It did take longer to make but at 12 seconds this does exceed the time frame I was aiming for.

Robot Character Animation 4

This week a guest lecturer, John Harrison, was covering for Ryan Locke. He gave some feedback which I found valuable. He suggested there should be more weight and impact on down steps to add bulk to the character. The robot may be small but he is made of metal and would be reasonably heavy. I was also given the suggestion to exaggerate the double take and hold pause longer.

John also mentioned the footwork where the character turns to face the button before walking towards it. There is something not quite right about it and if you look at the previous playblast you'll see how the inner foot has to spin on the spot as the outer foot takes the step around.

With this latest playblast I've attempted to correct this along with the other feedback. I've now made the inner foot lead on the turn which makes more sense as it was the outer foot that made the last step. Doing this has changed the way the body rotates and this has actually improved the way he turns. It looks a lot more natural now even if it took a long time to correct.

I used the graph editor to move the timeline of the steps forward (but pulling the translation back to match), re-keyed the animation at the beginning and at the end of the cycle, while also moving the arm swings and body rotations to match the new walk.

I've also added more weight to the down step. Again I used the graph editor to achieve this. It's not quite perfect yet but its definitely an improvement.

I also made the head turn double take more noticeable by increasing the time he pauses on looking at the button, as well as increasing the rotation in both directions, both looking at the button and looking forward as he registers what he saw.

I've also added in another action/re-action when the robot character walks up to the button. I added in a head turn of curiosity, I was inspired by how Pixar's Wall-E character reacts to new things he finds. 

And finally I finished up animating his reaction to the wall falling over, its a simple jump of shock but I think it works effectively.

I'm considering this animation to be complete for now, I will evaluate this fully in a future blog post.

Robot Character Animation 3

This playblast shows the next iteration of this animation. I've slightly tweaked the curves on the initial walk cycle mainly on the arms. It adds a little more "gravity" to the scene which is unnoticeable small but I do think it is an improvement.

I've also altered the pause where the robot sees the button. He begins to take his next step but doesn't make it and his leg pauses in air for a while. I'm still tweaking on this as its not quite right, especially when returning to the ground.

I've now completed the walk cycle all the way up to the button including all the arm and feet movement. This walk approaching is slightly slower paced and he doesn't swing his arms as high. The character's head also remains fixed to looking at the button. His body rotates slightly towards the button as he gets closer.

I've thought up the end of the scenario and decided it would be funny if the character ended up messing something up. In this case, the button doesn't do anything specifically but the consequence of putting force on the button causes the thin wall to shake out of place and quickly fall over. I've began blocking out the jump reaction the character has. Again, I was looking at Wall-E for the way he often reacts to things.

Robot Character Animation 2

I increased the tempo of the robot's walk cycle and it already looks better. That, along with the swinging arms and bouncy antenna gives a great "care free" personality to the robot.

As the robot approaches the button I've made him pause but his leg and body continue to move for a while. I wanted that comedic 'leg in the air' pause as he sees the button for the first time.

The tempo increase enhances both the first walk as well as the second walk up to the button. I added some body bend as he approaches to suggest curiosity.

I did a bit more work on the feet as well. In the previous playblast the feet are flat throughout. Here, I have given them a rotation and "snap" back into place as they impact the ground. It's a small change but it takes time and it's always worth it.

Robot Character Animation 1

As part of my 'Professional Project' module I have been creating animation rigs for our game and animating them. As I have animated with the rig I've imagined how that character would move out-with the game's environment. The character model for this rig was designed by fellow classmate Ryan Shearer. I wanted to use this rig in an animation created for this semester.

The walk cycle in-game is quite military and has an obvious focus on getting that character to the other side of the battlefield to fight. As part of 'Creative Research' I explored different variations of a walk cycle that was more light-hearted and bouncy to match the character's profile.

These are three walk cycles which I did for 'Creative Research' on which I based my next animation for this module on. Each walk cycle has a different character to it, this has been attributed to how much movement went into the body and the tempo of the character's walk.

I liked the bubbly bouncy character style that swung his arms and bobbed his head as he went. I designed a scenario in which he encountered a strange button and his curiosity gets the better of him.

At the moment I only have the basic movement blocked out, just the walking right now. The pace is a bit slow so I shall speed this up next iteration.

Still have to add arm movements and have him actually press the button.

I'd like to add more of a reaction shot to him seeing the button and then cautiously or curiously approach the button. I'm not exactly sure what should happen once he presses the button. I'll see what I can think up.