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.

Self Evaluation: "Standing Up" Animation

This is a self evaluation post on my "Standing up from a chair" animation which I have set as "completed" however I may still have a chance to work on it later.

This evaluation will cover the following aims: pacing, story/character and animation quality.

From the first and second playblasts, I did slow down the pacing of the animation but I feel I could've went further on this. For example when he sees his friend he jumps straight into a wave. It would've been nice to have seen some additional action here such as squinting his eyes or taking a moment to register if that was his friend or not. I definitely attempted to go for a slower more realistic/natural scene rather than my usual slapstick scenarios. I do think there's some subtlety in there but could have paused longer on actions or exaggerated them to come through more strongly.

The narrative was decent I think, not great but not bad either. It is definitely an improvement over a similar animation I made last year. Whereas that animation was a simple wave, there was no story to it and therefore no character could really be shown. With this animation I wanted to put that character in a place and time and therefore I put more consideration into what he was thinking and what he was reacting to.
I could've expanded on the moment at the start, perhaps increased agitation or fidgeting if he was nervous or perhaps taking a more active interest around the place he was sitting. If he was more relaxed then perhaps I could've gave him a more laid-back pose.
I tried to avoid any moment where the character was still, he's always moving ever so slightly in every frame. I did not finish off the animation so well, I tried to anticipate any future actions he may take but his rest posture and future actions could've been set-up better.

This is the first animation where I've used the graph editor in more depth (other than some basic tests) and while there are no quick accelerations or demonstrations of impact forces, I did use the graph editor to my advantage in places such as the instant he sits up which I made have a steep curve to get that slow start up into a quick sit-up.
I feel this animation isn't as "floaty" as my previous animations but it isn't perfect either. The sitting up part suffers from a few issues which I tried my best to solve. One issue is that I don't feel like he is properly "pushing" against his knees to assist him in sitting up. I think this issue is related to the pose he is in. Either I need to have his body further forward or have his hands located elsewhere.
I tried out the action in real life a good few times and while it helped me to solve a few issues it still wasn't perfect. The rig itself does have quite long arms and the shoulder movements can be limiting sometimes.
The arms themselves feel like they're just attached to the knees rather than pushing against it. This is because I used IK controllers which dictate where the elbow joint bends based on the position of the hands and the shoulders. However if I were to use FK controllers then I'd have more control over the elbows (and therefore control over the "push") but would instead have the hands constantly clip through the legs as his body moved. I picked the lesser of two evils and went for the IKs so I could have the hands firmly on the legs. This is something I imagine a lot of animators have a problem with and I will attempt to research on how to get around this.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not as entertaining to watch as some of my previous animations but there's definitely an attempt to give more subtlety to the character which I was proud of. With creating one animation after the other, it will allow me to take my own advice and apply it to my next animation.

Playblasts

As I wanted to be able to evaluate and compare my work as I went along as well as show my progress to others for feedback, I have been rendering out my animations as playblasts as I make changes. I've chosen to make around 3-5 playblasts for each animation depending on the changes I make and the complexity of the changes.

I've continued to work on the "Standing up from a Chair" animation (not very creative name, I know) and have slowed down the pace of the scene to allow the character to react to seeing his friend.

Since the first playblast, I have raised the head back a bit more and given the character a smile (and jaw open) as if mouthing "hey" to his friend he has just spotted across the room. I've also made him keep eye contact for a little bit longer and kept the moment before he turns his head back in anticipating for sitting up.

As for the standing up part, I've altered the posture he rests at and smoothed out the rotation and translation in his hip joint for a smoother rise and rest.

I would normally give a playblast its own post but I thought I'd try including two here since they the changes were made within a short time of each other and I'd like to compare them as well.

The third and last (for the time being) playblast adds in the remaining motion on the arms. The character now rests his hands on his knees and pushes against them to stand up. At the moment his hands touch his knees I changed the arms to IKs so that they remain on the knees until I lift them off again (where they go back to FK controllers).

At the start of the scene, I added in a waiting "idle" pose for the character. His knees move together and back again, he also taps his fingers on the side of his leg. I also put some small head movements in as if he is listening to his own thoughts. I wanted the idle state to be as if he was just waiting in a train station for someone.

He slowly glances to the left, then continues quicker to the left once he spots someone off-screen. To accompany the smile and head movement I added in the last playblast, I also add in a small friendly wave to acknowledge his friend. The feet move back in anticipation and the character stands up, returning his sight to his friend in anticipation that they'd be walking over and can greet.

As per my reflective brief, I will evaluate this final animation in a following blog post identifying parts I believe were done well, and parts I can improve upon. While this animation could still be worked on, I will start on another animation as per my plan for this semester. There is nothing stopping me from coming back to this though.

Evaluating Last Semester's Work

As discussed, as I wanted to have a more evaluative approach to my work, I will be taking a look at my previous work.

To evaluate an animation I decided to make a video report where I highlight parts of my animations where there is room for improvement.

To summarise the video I make these key points:

• 'Impacts' need to be stronger - i.e. footsteps
• Work on timing - it affects the forces, weight, narrative and believability
• Reduce 'floatiness' of animations - combat with timing, graph editor, and poses