Category: Animation Fundamentals

Final Outcomes

Each week, I’ve encountered fresh challenges with this term, making it a dynamic learning journey. Reflecting on my work, I realize how enriching this experience with Unreal Engine has been, despite the initial overwhelm. Although I still find it a bit intimidating, I believe that spending more time with it will gradually unveil its intricacies.

My introduction to Unreal Engine involved grappling with the complexities of levels and sub-levels, which proved challenging at first. However, delving into tutorials significantly improved my comprehension, offering me a better grasp of its functionality. The materials class in Unreal was particularly enjoyable, and I’ve had a great time implementing those learnings into our final project.

While I faced some disappointment due to time constraints preventing me from modelling, rigging, and animating a character for our game, I remain optimistic. The prospect of refining and showcasing our project in the final end-of-year showreel excites me. I see immense potential in this piece, and envisioning its growth into a more expansive project in the future.

Animating has never been my favorite activity, but this unit has been a delightful surprise. I was genuinely amazed at how animation can be both easy and enjoyable when you break it down and simplify the process. Although I had limited exposure to Maya, having used it briefly in a BA project before switching to Blender, this unit has provided me with valuable insights.

The key takeaway has been learning how to deconstruct significant movements by isolating and breaking them down into manageable parts. I’m pleased to share that I now feel much more at ease working with rigs than I did at the beginning of the unit. I dedicated time to practicing animating substantial movements, and I’m eager to continue honing this skill in between classes.

Initially, my focus was on creating assets or enhancing them through activities like texturing and lighting. However, as the unit progressed, my perspective evolved. Now, I find myself looking forward to incorporating character animation into a piece for my final major project (fmp). It’s a shift that reflects my growing confidence and enthusiasm for animation.

Title: Crafting a Unified World in Unreal Engine: My Role in a Collaborative Project

Introduction:

Embarking on a collaborative journey within the Unreal Engine, I took on a pivotal role that involved shaping the visual language and aesthetic foundation of our project. From setting the design language to creating a texture library and establishing a cohesive style for all the models, my responsibilities extended to crafting concept art for various elements, including landscapes, structures, and characters.

Our goal was to craft a vertical slice for a playable game level. While our initial vision was an ambitious short film comprising 5 shots narrating a story, Serra urged us to embrace a more experimental route rather than sticking to the conventional approach. This led us to rethink our original concept and transform it into a single, playable scene. Our focus shifted towards exploring the realms of physics within the Unreal Engine.

Setting the Design Language:

One of my primary duties was to define a design language that would serve as the visual backbone of our project. This involved meticulous look development, where I explored various themes, colour palettes, and stylistic elements to create a consistent and engaging visual experience.

Concept Art for a Unified Style:

Creating concept art was a key aspect of my role, allowing me to establish a unified style for the diverse elements in our project. From the lush greenery of a forest to the rustic charm of shacks and the whimsy of mushroom characters, I sketched and conceptualized each component, providing a visual roadmap for our team.

Texture Library Creation:

To ensure that our models seamlessly blended together, I curated a comprehensive texture library. This library became a reservoir of visual elements that unified the aesthetic appeal of our environment. From the bark of trees to the texture of mushroom characters, each detail was carefully crafted to contribute to the overall cohesion of our virtual world.

Contribution to Environment Assets:

I used Blender to create environment assets and small props. Using Blender’s versatile tools, I carefully designed, added textures, and set up lighting for these models. This approach provided my team with a straightforward preview of how these assets would fit into the Unreal Engine environment once we imported them.

Unrealized Characters and Animation:

Despite our ambitious goals, time constraints led us to prioritize certain aspects of the project. While I sketched out characters with unique personalities and characteristics, unfortunately, we couldn’t dedicate the time needed for modelling, rigging, and animating them. Nevertheless, the groundwork laid through the concept art ensures that these characters can be brought to life in future iterations.

Conclusion:

In the collaborative world of Unreal Engine, my role involved shaping the very essence of our project. From defining the design language to creating a texture library and producing concept art, my contributions aimed at establishing a cohesive and visually stunning world. While some aspects, like character modelling and animation, remain unrealised for now, the foundation has been set for future development, promising an immersive experience in the digital landscapes we envisioned.

Body Mechanics: Essential Tips for Capturing Perfect Reference Shots

1. Consistent Angles: Maintain a consistent angle in your reference shots to effectively capture the body mechanics.
2. Vary Perspectives: Capture multiple views and perspectives of the same action to gain a comprehensive understanding.
3. Ditch Orthographic Views: Focus on front and side views instead of orthographic views for a more dynamic reference.
4. Stabilise the Camera: Lock your camera or make minimal shifts to maintain a clear and consistent reference frame.
5. Harness Mirrors: Utilise mirrors to get unique angles and perspectives that enhance your reference shots.
6. Ensure Continuity: Maintain a seamless flow in your reference shots to understand the progression of movements.
7. Infuse Intent and Action: Bring characters to life by emphasising their intentions and actions, allowing them to focus on their tasks.
8. Purposeful Behaviour: Remember that every movement has a purpose, and capture it authentically in your reference shots.
9. Body Markers: Use post-it notes or markers on your body to highlight key points for reference.
10. High Frame Rate Recording: Record at a high frame rate (240fps) for precision and clarity in your reference shots.
11. 11. Always Question Movements: Continuously ask why certain body parts move in specific ways and observe the relationship between movements, such as understanding the role of the knees when the hips are in motion.

During this week’s progress, I dedicated my efforts to refining the walk cycle. I transitioned my animation from stepped to spline, but encountered challenges with the frames. Unfortunately, I somehow lost a significant number of keyframes, resulting in an undesirable bobbing effect in my character’s motion.

Attempting to salvage the situation, I explored the use of animation layers to introduce a left-to-right transformation. While I successfully recovered my walk cycle frames, the issue of sliding persisted, proving difficult to resolve. Eventually, I made the decision to start afresh and reanimate the entire sequence to ensure a smoother and more accurate outcome.

Finishing the Weight Shift

Implementing George’s feedback, I focused on refining my animation. He gave me some key pointers: keeping relaxed knees, rotating toes outward, and ensuring that the first and last poses were the same. I diligently attempted to incorporate these suggestions into the animation. I’m delighted with the outcome, seeing how these adjustments contributed to a more polished and expressive animation.

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Walk Cycle – Blocking

I studied the Animator’s Survival Kit to grasp the breakdown of key poses and frame spacing for the walk cycle. Here’s the outcome of my work based on these principles.

According to George’s feedback, he suggested incorporating more hip sway into the walk and highlighted an issue with the feet sliding back after the down pose. This required adjustments for the animation to look smooth.

THURSDAY

I couldn’t attend class this week, but I caught up with my classmates who shared their insights on control rigs for characters. They demonstrated the process of exporting a character from Quixel Bridge to Unreal and taught me how to set up nodes in the editor. Additionally, I learned the importance of rigging bones while ensuring a correct hierarchy.

Dynamic Poses

During this class, we learned about weight shifts. Our task was to create a simple straight-walking animation in blocking for the following week. George then provided feedback on our side-to-side weight shifts and the three dynamic poses. His input aimed to improve my understanding of weight distribution and exaggeration.

It was my first time using the Bony Rig, and I faced challenges while posing the fingers due to the IK restrictions. Discovering that shifting to FK for arm posing could alleviate stiffness in the poses was enlightening. This transition enabled greater exaggeration and expression, allowing me to infuse more emotion and dynamism into the animations.

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Weight Shift

George encouraged us to record ourselves as a beneficial practice before diving into character animation. While filming, I became acutely aware of my movements, striving to meticulously observe and dissect the key gestures. These observations translated into my work, specifically while blocking the animation for the ball with legs, where I aimed to incorporate these nuanced movements for more authentic and realistic animation.

Upon finishing my stepped blocking and reviewing the playblast render, I observed an issue with the knee joint remaining in spline, causing noticeable sliding during the animation. George provided feedback, suggesting ways to enhance the animation by exaggerating the weight shift. He advised me to implement these changes in the spline version of the animation for next week’s review.

THURSDAY

Using Physics for Animation in UE –

In our recent Unreal Engine session, we delved into the fundamental physics governing objects within the platform. Beginning with a simple sphere, we experimented by modifying various properties to observe their impact on its bouncing behaviour. This hands-on approach allowed us to grasp how altering these values influences the sphere’s dynamics.

Progressing further, we transitioned to working with a chain link, where we implemented constraints between each link. This step was crucial to ensure proper physics application, enabling Unreal Engine to comprehend how these interconnected links would interact within the game environment. By adding constraints, we laid the foundation for realistic physics simulation, enhancing our understanding of object behaviors and interactions

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FRIDAY

In this class, we continued to work on our Ball with the tail blocking. Upon receiving feedback on my blocking, I discovered an issue: the tail wasn’t synchronising correctly with the body’s movements. George offered an insightful analogy, similar to a rollercoaster with its buggies. He encouraged me to envision the lead buggy’s motion and how the subsequent ones would follow the same path. This analogy significantly aided in visualising and rectifying the tail’s movement.

Implementing George’s feedback, I decided to refine the tail’s motion to achieve better synchronisation with the body. The rollercoaster & buggy analogy served as a helpful mental model, enabling me to adjust the tail’s movements to ensure a smoother and more coherent animation sequence.

THURSDAY

I had eagerly anticipated this class ever since my introduction to Unreal, and Serra did not disappoint. In this session, she introduced us to the material editor, providing a detailed walkthrough of its functionalities. The knowledge gained from this class fuelled my desire to further explore the material editor at my own pace, allowing me to become more familiar with its interface and layout.

Once back home, I dived into several tutorials on texturing in Unreal, the most insightful one was about transferring procedural textures from blender to unreal. This tutorial helped me a lot with my Island project. Here are the key insights I learned from the experience –

Creating stunning visuals and bringing virtual worlds to life is an art form, and one of the essential aspects of achieving this in Unreal Engine is mastering material creation. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the intricacies of crafting materials in Unreal Engine, exploring the tools, techniques, and tips to elevate your game or project to new visual heights.

Understanding Unreal Engine Materials:

Unreal Engine’s material system is a powerful tool that allows developers and artists to control the appearance of surfaces, meshes, and objects within the game world. Materials in Unreal are created using a node-based system, providing a visual representation of the material’s logic and flow.

Getting Started:

1. Material Editor:
   • Launch the Material Editor within Unreal Engine to begin crafting your materials. This interface allows you to build complex shaders using a network of nodes, each contributing to the material’s final appearance.
2. Textures and Maps:
   • Incorporate textures and maps to add detail and realism to your materials. Utilize albedo, normal, roughness, and metallic maps to define how light interacts with the surface, creating depth and complexity.
3. Parameters and Constants:
   • Experiment with parameters and constants to make your materials dynamic. This allows for real-time adjustments and customization within the engine, providing flexibility during development.

Advanced Techniques:

1. Material Instances:
   • Harness the power of material instances to create variations of your materials without duplicating the entire shader network. This efficient workflow facilitates quick changes and iterations.
2. PBR (Physically Based Rendering):
   • Embrace PBR principles to achieve realistic lighting and shading in your materials. Unreal Engine’s PBR system simulates the physical properties of materials, resulting in accurate and visually appealing renditions.
3. Material Functions:
   • Streamline your workflow by using material functions. These reusable components allow you to organize and optimise your material logic, promoting efficiency and maintainability.

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FRIDAY

In this class, we delved into the significance of Anticipation in animated motions, applying our knowledge to a unique task: animating a Ball with a tail. This exercise merged our learnings from prior assignments, combining squash and stretch techniques from bouncing ball animations with pendulum-like movements for the tail.

Anticipation, a key animation principle, creates expectations before actions in animated sequences. It adds realism by mimicking how people naturally prepare for movements in the real world. This visual “breath” before an action not only builds momentum but also engages viewers, guiding their focus and enhancing emotional impact

George presented an intriguing video featuring squirrels playing in a garden. Breaking down their movements, he pointed out a fascinating detail: the tail’s delayed response. As the squirrels moved or jumped, we noticed how their tails followed through moments after the body. This observation was crucial for our task with the ball with the tail.

This session provided a real-world perspective on how anticipation works in nature, inspiring us to apply these observations to our animations. Analysing animal movements offered valuable insights, enriching our understanding of timing and the nuanced interplay between body and appendages in animation.

Upon receiving feedback on my animation blocking, I discovered an issue: the tail wasn’t synchronising correctly with the body’s movements. George offered an insightful analogy, similar to a rollercoaster with its buggies. He encouraged me to envision the lead buggy’s motion and how the subsequent ones would follow the same path. This analogy significantly aided in visualising and rectifying the tail’s movement.

Implementing George’s feedback, I decided to refine the tail’s motion to achieve better synchronisation with the body. The rollercoaster & buggy analogy served as a helpful mental model, enabling me to adjust the tail’s movements to ensure a smoother and more coherent animation sequence.

THURSDAY

Sequencer & Cinematics in UE – 

In this session, Serra walked us through setting up levels in Unreal Engine, building upon our previous class. As we explored a sample scene, we navigated through the environment, familiarising ourselves with the basics. We engaged in practical exercises, creating shapes, manipulating them with the sculpting brush tool, and exploring material setup.

The Sequencer tool within Unreal Engine stands as a dynamic asset for crafting compelling cinematic experiences and interactive sequences. This feature empowers developers and storytellers to orchestrate intricate narratives, cutscenes, and gameplay events seamlessly. 

We learned how we could manipulate cameras, animations, audio, and visual effects within a single timeline interface. It simplifies the creation of complex sequences by allowing precise control over every element’s timing, placement, and behaviour. Moreover, the Sequencer’s versatility extends beyond gaming; it finds application in fields like virtual production, architectural visualization, and film. Its editing capabilities enable real-time adjustments, empowering creators to experiment and refine their content efficiently.

After the walkthrough, we had the opportunity to share our project ideas and get feedback on what we could potentially pursue in line with the brief.

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FRIDAY

Recommended reading – The Illusion of Life – 1- 70

The Illusion of Life” by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is a cherished guide for animators, unravelling the secrets behind Disney’s magical animation. Pages 1 to 70 delve into the core principles that shape captivating animation.

These pages explore animation’s evolution from simple movement to character-driven storytelling. They unveil the 12 foundational principles of animation—like squash and stretch, timing, and staging—crucial for bringing characters to life. Emphasizing realism and emotion, the book highlights observation, exaggeration, and storytelling techniques to engage audiences.

Rich with illustrations and examples from Disney classics like “Snow White” and “Bambi,” these pages offer practical insights into applying animation principles. They bridge theory with real-world implementation, guiding animators in creating lifelike characters and compelling narratives.

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Pendulum

This week’s assignment was to animate a pendulum rig. We went over the 12 principles of animations and discussed overlap terminologies.