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FMP PROPOSAL：
Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques
summary
Studying animation over two semesters has improved my understanding as well as my knowledge of the technical aspects of animation.
Last semester was to complete a process to familiarise me with the animation process and to understand the importance of keyframes. Only when the keyframes are done well can the subsequent animation be done well. Exploring the shot language has taught me that it is essential to design the shot language, how to articulate it, highlight the subject and not to suddenly cross the axis, etc.
Using the lens language as a vehicle to get a more intense, realistic and vivid picture. In the past, my shots tended to be mostly flat, but in the first semester I intentionally used some shots with a large perspective. I feel that the impact of the images is stronger when I use shots with a large perspective. I will continue to experiment with different lenses in the future.
At the same time the creation of the robotic arm helps us to make up for our knowledge of modelling, as well as to understand binding. It is possible to make great results with just the properties that come with maya.
This was an area I had never been exposed to before because when I normally make mapping I do it in SP and rarely use maya’s own material balls to connect nodes to make changes. This was my first introduction to nodes and it was very important, difficult but also very interesting.
And the arm bindings, basically, are bound by curves as constraints. I used to basically use bones, and this was very inspiring for me.
I think I have a better understanding of binding and can use it in combination in the future, which will be more convenient.
This semester has improved the understanding of animation, and both limb animation and mouth animation are very important.
Good lip sync is done on good body animation. Body animation is the foundation, and the keyframe pose is the most important. If the keyframes are not posed properly, the animation will be stiff. During the blocking stage, in particular, more time is spent on determining the pose and the shot.
I learned a lot at this stage, such as that a character’s face should be facing the camera most of the time, that posing in key frames should be as extreme as possible for the action, not to shy away from the camera, to dislike the face when it’s time to dislike it, etc.
This makes it much easier to adjust the spline, so that the movement doesn’t feel flimsy and weak. There are times when adjusting the curve will break the feeling of the original blocking, so we will need to jam certain poses. This is where you need to remove and modify the broken parts of the blocking to spline.
I think I will pay extra attention to these areas in my future animations because it will be very helpful in making them.
Also, the short films that the group worked on were very helpful to me. I learnt about how different members of the team think about animation and how they make it. The collaboration gave me a deeper understanding of textures and lighting, as our film had more realistic materials for the spaceship and scenes, but the characters were cartoonish. How we combine these is something we always need to be aware of.
This time I worked on a lot of lighting techniques and the final light came out pretty well I think. Especially the part where the ship is flying into the tube, the tube is cool, but outside I used warm ambient light, and the colour of the ship’s tail flame looks good with the mixture of warm and cold. I also used a lot of surface and silhouette lighting to avoid objects being invisible outside in the dark.
I am very grateful to the members of our group for working together to complete this animation in such a short period of time. Although it was the first semester we had already completed part of it, due to staff changes and revisions to previous assets, we had the equivalent of redoing this animation. Having gone through the changes, our group has become more united, we speak up if we have any problems and are all willing to keep working on completing it.
The final film may leave a lot to be desired, and I think we will continue to improve it when we have time, and finally finish a nice film as our answer.