3D Character Animation

For my character animation, I decided to go ahead with 3D as I want to understand the software better for future purposes. I also think it's a good opportunity for me to learn new things that I would not in strict 2D formats, such as different perspectives, textures and dimensions. However, instead of diving straight into animating, i want to take time and think about what i will be doing. For example, story boarding, researching human motion and existing examples.

For my 3D animation, i had to pick one of three sound clips to animate over. I decided to go for the third which highlighted sounds of footsteps, shuffles and dialogue such as "They're coming to get you Babara". I chose this sound clip because of the emotion portrayed just through itself. It sounded creepy and evil/sinister, but not only the way in which the voice is spoken, but the accompanying footsteps etc. It was then i began imagining animations to the sound and thinking what would work best for it.

Okay, so my idea was to have two characters within the animated sequence. One playing as the main figure who conducts all of the motion, the other would be known as 'Babara' or in other words the receiver/victim of the action. As previously stated, this sound clip made me think of more evil and frightening concepts, so i needed to plan how my animation would show elements of that theme. It was then that the footstep sounds would be turned into a tiptoe/sneaking motion, that would add to that element of the character becoming 'creepy'. I also envisioned from there that the character would have his hands perched just under the head with strained, bent fingers. With these small elements, already my main character hosts the image of being a frightening character. So from this creeping idea, i want the character to sneak up on the 'Victim' who will to start with, be calm and unaware of the other figure. In the sound clip there are multiple footsteps and shuffles, i have decided to use one of the shuffles as a stopping/halting motion as the main character finalizes his journey behind the 'Victim'. From there, it will raise one hand onto the shoulder of the 'Victim' and then express the dialogue through various facial expressions. In result of the sudden touch and the threatening dialogue, the Victim reacts in terror through the rising of the shoulders and facial expression.

To represent what i mean clearer, i have done a rough story board that has annotation to the 'fear' element i want to portray.

 

Sound clip for Animation chosen: 

I thought a lot about how the camera would be positioned within my animation, as i want both characters to represent different roles. In my story board you can see that i have made the 'Victim' the main focus, so that the other 'main' character appears in the distance and is more secretive/sneaky. It makes it appear that the Victim is unaware of the other character's actions as he cannot see him. I also chose for this figure to have part of his face showing, as i don't want to take away any emphasis on the other character's actions but obstructing the camera angles too much. This way i think works good, as i can see all the action portrayed by the main character, but also can have the Victim's emotions shown through facial expressions, based on the action taking place. Lip syncing is not part of this particular animation project, so i really have to think about portraying the correct emotions through both facial expression and body language.

To understand the correct postures and movements within my animation, i thought it would be a good idea to make small records of the action in reality. From this i can analyse the mechanics of the human form, with how the weight and shape changes during movements. For this particular idea, i want to look at how the body moves whilst 'creeping' or 'sneaking'. I filmed 3 different angles of the sneaking motion, side, front and back to gain a wider perspective on the transitions of form.

Here is the video clip with the 3 angles. I managed to get the actor to mimic the initial posture of the main character in my animation from my storyboard, so i could get a better idea of how i should manipulate movements:

 

From taking these clips I learned a great deal of how the body reacts to that sort of movement. The body lowers and rises depending on the posture of the legs. For example, when  a leg rises up, the body goes with it, and when the leg impacts with the floor, it squashes down. I think that is an important element to remember, not only for a more realistic animation, but it also emphasizes one of the 12 principles of animation 'Squash and Stretch' which i should use to exaggerate the movements of my character. It was also interesting to see how the force of weight and gravity affects the leg as it transitions between the motions, for example with this creeping motion, the knees fall very low to the floor in relation to how the body moves.

From this additional research, I feel more confident in making my animation now. Looking into the facial expressions, story boarding and even taking references from real time movements, I have a much clearer head for what I want want to do within Maya. So now it's just a case of going and doing it!