This is a selection of work from the Character Animation course offered through School of Motion. Character rig and storyboard were provided.
The deliverable of this project was a :10 - :20 title sequence using the designs and audio files provided. The pedagogical goal for this project was to animate a character in a narrative setting, paying particular attention to the continuity of movement from one action to another.
The concept and design phase of this project was very straightforward. Using the narrative sequence provided, a series of actions were choreographed and roughed out. Finally, a series of key poses were planned for each individual action of the character (e.g., walking, interacting with items in the scene, etc.).
The next phase of the project required researching the detailed mechanics of the aforementioned individual actions. This research included a variety of sources, from studying Eadweard Muybridge's famous image sequences to personally filming reference footage to better understand the minutia of a particular movement.
The goal for this animation was to build a full narrative scene that demonstrated the performance of the character, rather than mere mechanical correctness of the movement. Thus, the emphasis was on the continuity, intention, and meaningfulness of the character's actions and reactions.
The animation process for this project was fairly systematic and consistent throughout. It begin with keyframing the key poses of a discrete action to provide a structure for both the mechanical trajectory of the characters as well as the timing for their actions. Then, after the key poses had been established for that action the interpolation of those key poses were worked out through a combination of manual and algorithmic methods.
Even for a simple animation such as this one, the sheer number of variables to keep account of can be overwhelming. The methodical approach to character animation used in this project was immensely helpful in keeping much of that potential chaos at bay. While I believe that the goal for this project has been achieved, in the future I would like to concentrate more on creating a better illusion of weight distribution in my characters.
"Universal rules are for lackeys, context is for kings."
