Hey everyone-- it's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I've honestly just been working on a lot of stuff in the background, without a lot of time to write about things.
Well, that all changes today! I'm going to be covering my most recent Common Art project-- an animated athlete!
You can see him below, juggling the soccer ball like it's going out of style!
And here is an alternative angle.
The inspiration for this project stems from my love for soccer. My family is big into soccer-- so I have a lot of fond memories of trying to juggle soccer balls with my brother and dad.
That gave me a great idea for an animation-- I wanted to capture the fun fluidity of juggling in my demo reel. For a week or so, I was looking into different types of animations to include on my demo reel. I wanted the animation to be exciting and engaging for viewers.
To see more of my inspiration and initial ideas for the project, check out the PureRef board below.
Overall, I wanted my animation to touch on a subject matter that usually isn't seen on demo reels. I know there are lots of bouncing ball and push/pull animations usually on reels and I wanted to stay away from those. I wanted to use a unique subject matter, so I could try something new.
The below gif really stood out to me, as the soccer player was balancing on a ball, while juggling a ball and kicking another ball. I thought it was a really interesting idea for an animation, so I wanted to give it a shot!
I worked really hard to storyboard the animation in 3D, which I did by using stepped tangents and keying each time the soccer player did a key pose. Since he did move around a lot, I definitely have more than 20 keyframes, which is a lot for a 47 frame animation. Overall, this animation is just under 2 seconds long, but there is a lot of dynamic motion in it. And yes, I did use a frame exporter to export the GIF frames, which is why I know the exact amount.
Also, as a heads up, I'm going to be showing my playblast progress between some of the below paragraphs, so you can see all the work I did as the animation progressed!
My biggest struggle in animation is timing, which I hope the project will help me learn. Already, I'm learning just how fast objects move with the impact of gravity. In addition, the character has a lot of weight, which he places largely on the ground (with his hands) and on the ball he's sitting on. The ball that he's sitting on has some squashing going on, which I hope displays the character's weight effectively.
A big setback with this animation was believe it or not the rig. I had originally intended to use the Dirk the Daring rig on Agora Community, however, it required a MEL script, which I didn't know how to run. I decided to use the Ray rig by CGTarian instead, as he was similar in build to the soccer player in the GIF. He also did not have big hair, excessive clothing, or big hands/feet. The character needed to have human proportions, which Ray achieved perfectly.
I initially had trouble working with Ray due to a camera issue, which Nassir was kind enough to help me with! So, thank you so much Nassir- you went above and beyond in helping me. Thank you so much for your awesome explanations- I appreciate it!
After the rig was all figured out, it was just up to how much animation I could power through. I wanted to use this storyboarding period to see how much I could schedule myself to do in the future, so I could get a good idea of how much work I could give myself moving forward.
Overall, I ended up spending about 7 hours working on the blocking out of the animation. I spent around 4-5 hours planning the project in Jira and 2 hours getting references. 2 hours were spent selecting rigs and around 30 minutes were spent testing and setting up the scene.
In the future, I see myself spending around 10 hours or more per week on this project. Based on feedback from my peers, I can increase or decrease this number.
Since this is my own project, assume that all tasks are assigned to myself. I will add more sub-tasks as the project dictates, depending on any re-routes or unplanned hiccups I might encounter. Below is the most detailed schedule I could come up with. I go over additional details in my PowerPoint presentation, which will be shown to the class on May 25, 2023.
Alright, speaking of planning, this project has forced me to learn Jira. I'm actually using Jira to archive and upload my Playblasts and videos, which is great for if I need to re-reference old work. I'm trying to get into the habit of updating descriptions or adding comments to show what work I've finished and when.
But most of all, Jira is great for planning sprints! I want to figure out how to track my time through Jira, so I can get an even better idea of what I've accomplished and how long it's taken me.
Thanks to Jira, I was able to plan out the entirety of the project, from this first sprint until the end. While it took awhile, I think this will be useful in keeping me focused.
So, yeah! I am going to keep working with Jira and continue iterating on the animation . Since this is a highly-focused animation (and since it's only about 2 seconds long), expect lots of little updates, such as me working on the feet or focusing on the face and eyes. I did not do any facial animation this week, so expect some facial expressions and changes in the next few weeks.
This project leaves a lot of different areas for improvement and exploration, all of which I am excited to explore, so I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride as much as I enjoy taking this wild ride. Thanks again for taking the time to read my post and take a look at some of my progress.
See you soon!
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