What have we learnt?
In today’s class, we explored more advanced aspects of blocking than I initially anticipated. At first, I understood blocking as simply setting up the key poses in Maya. However, after the session, I realized that blocking involves much more than that. In fact, blocking can incorporate significant movement, similar to spline, and the more detailed our blocking is, the fewer challenges we will face later on. Since blocking is the foundational stage of animation, investing time in it reduces the work required during the spline phase, where we can focus on refining knee pops and performing cleanup tasks.
Key Concepts in Blocking
Basic Blocking:
- Establishing key poses, timing, spacing, and initial motion.
Blocking +:
- Expanding on the original blocking by adding more frames, refining the initial movement.
DO NOT HIT SPLINE:
- It is essential not to automatically convert to spline during this stage. The focus is on solidifying the animation’s structure.
Moving Holds:
- Moving holds are critical to prevent the animation from appearing static or “floating.”
- These are moments when a character is holding a position while still subtly moving.
- For example, before the head turns to the right, the body, head, or hand might slightly tilt to the left.
Overshooting:
- After a movement, there may be residual movement that follows through.
- For example, after a head turns to the right, the body, head, or hand might continue to move slightly to the right, creating an overshoot effect.
Copy-Pairs:
- Sometimes, you may want to hold a specific frame without any in-betweening. To achieve this, you can copy and paste the frame to maintain the pose or position for a desired duration.
Additional Tips:
- To adjust the timing of a moving hold, you can use the middle mouse drag to shift its placement.
By understanding these advanced principles, I can now approach the blocking phase with greater depth and attention to detail, ultimately streamlining the later stages of the animation process.
Breakdown:
Breakdowns are the in-between poses that help define the motion between key poses. For example:
- Waving: Shows the movement of the arm as it waves.
- Bending: The poses between straight and fully bent positions.
- Leg Walking: The in-between frames showing the movement of the legs as they walk.
Arcs:
Arcs are the curved paths followed by moving objects or body parts. They are crucial for making movement feel natural and fluid. Even if there are some mistakes in the animation, arcs help improve its overall quality.
In short, breakdowns define the in-between poses, and arcs ensure smooth, natural motion. Both are key for creating believable animation.
Body Mechanics Progress
This week, I revisited and re-shot the reference footage for my sword-pulling animation, focusing on enhancing both the emotional expression and the physicality of the character’s performance. In particular, I worked on exaggerating the celebratory moment when the character successfully pulls the sword from the stone—emphasizing the joyful “Yay!” to make the moment more expressive and readable. I also aimed to increase the sense of physical effort during the pulling motion by incorporating more stretch into the body and adding several follow-through steps after the sword is released.
During the reference shoot, I paid close attention to body mechanics, particularly the weight shift required to convincingly portray the character’s struggle. Initially, I attempted to simulate resistance by embedding a stick into a heavy object, mimicking the sword-in-stone scenario. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a prop with enough resistance, which made the performance feel less grounded. As a workaround, I asked a friend to hold the stick tightly, allowing me to better simulate the character’s physical effort.
Even with this adjustment, I felt that my acting lacked dynamism. This prompted me to be more expressive during the animation blocking stage, pushing poses and timing beyond what was captured in the reference. I also made a conscious effort to add more curvature to the character’s poses. I’ve come to realize that I need to think more about how the character’s form changes dynamically during movement—incorporating curves throughout the body to avoid stiffness and to create more appealing, fluid motion. In particular, I am beginning to understand that different body parts should move with offset timing, similar to how different parts of a bouncing ball move in a chain reaction, emphasizing follow-through and overlapping action.
After shooting the reference, I sketched thumbnail drawings to explore key poses and refine the composition. I focused on using more curved lines to accentuate movement and silhouette clarity.
For the blocking phase, I experimented with using locators—a technique I had not previously utilized. Although there was an initial learning curve, I found it extremely helpful, especially in sequences where the character travels through space. Locators allowed me to plan the overall timing and trajectory of the character by animating the main control first, and then transferring that motion to the individual body part controls. This helped establish a strong foundation for the animation early on.
In this pass, I also decided to add more keyframes during blocking, aiming for a version that was closer to the spline stage. This approach allowed me to reduce the amount of refinement needed later and gave the animation a more finished appearance early on. I am relatively pleased with the results; the animation feels more polished than my previous work during my undergraduate studies. However, I do acknowledge that the improved result may also be partly due to the higher-quality rig I am currently using.
In summary, this week’s work provided a valuable opportunity to reflect on both technical and performance-related aspects of character animation. Key takeaways include the importance of pushing acting choices, creating curvature in poses, and treating different body parts with staggered timing to enhance fluidity. Going forward, I will continue polishing this animation, with particular attention to refining movement arcs and emphasizing believable, expressive motion.