Advanced Animation/ Exercises

23/04/2025 - 28/05/2025 / Week 1 - Week 6

Lim En Yu / 0354452

Advanced Animation / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor’s University 

Exercises

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Instructions

2. Lectures

3. Exercises

4. Feedback

5. Reflection

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Instructions

Fig 1.1 Module Information

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Lectures

Week 1:Miro Board

Fig 2.1 Week 1 Miro Board

Week 2: Lecture Slides

Fig 2.2 Week 2 Lecture Slides

Week 2 Miro Board

Fig 2.3 Week 2 Miro Board

Week 3: Lecture Slides

Fig 2.4 Week 3 Lecture Slides

Week 5: Lecture Slides

Fig 2.5 Week 5 Lecture Slides

Week 5 Miro Board

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Exercises

Exercise 1 Bouncing Ball Animation

Our first exercise is to create a bouncing ball animation, this time incorporating specific properties for each ball type: soccer ball, ping pong ball, bowling ball, beach ball, and a squash-and-stretch ball.

1. Download ball rig for the exercise:

Multiball：  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wjGa1o9gyFfnVdeWpQef7xq1uwONsFkI/view?usp=sharing

2. Explore and understand the rigs.

3. Image/video references for these bouncing ball:

Soccer ball - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01cm7H1QoJg

Ping Pong - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTsx5eW2eLU

Bowling ball - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTz_5quG_ig

Beach ball - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s74P1ejubEA

Squash and Stretch ball - General resource on Squash and Stretch

4. Plan the ball movement by drawing it on a paper.

5. Observe the difference of each ball's physical property (soccer, ping pong and bowling) and its weight. 

Analyse how does it affect:

- The timing and travel distance of each bounce (Contact pose to Contact pose)

- The overall timing that determines the number of bounces.

- The height of each Up pose when it bounces.

6. Set the animation setting:

Image size: 1280 x 720 (HD) or 720p

Frame rate: 24fps

Animate each ball base with the correct:

- Timing

- Spacing (Slow in and Slow out)

- Arcs

Soccer Ball

The first one I started with soccer ball. Before starting to animate it, I have watched the reference video and understand the momentum of soccer ball. Actually it is quite similar to most of the ball we have seen. Mr Kamal has taught us the basic way to animate it. We will need to insert keyframe of the position of the ball and utilising graph editor at the same time to make the animation smoother and more natural.

Fig 3.1 Soccer Ball Progression

I want to make my animation better, so I decided to add a background and texture to the ground so it matches the scenario. For soccer ball, I have chosen a soccer field with grass textured floor. It does looked better than I thought.

Fig 3.2 Soccer Ball Background

Final Outcome of Soccer Ball

Fig 3.3 Soccer Ball Animation

Ping Pong

For ping pong, it bounces higher all the time and at a very fast frequency when it is going to stop. I have inserted the keyframe with a closer distance between each point and descrease gradually. This actually harder than other type of balls as it takes a lot of time for me to complete.

Fig 3.4 Ping Pong Progression

Besides that, I have found a empty room as background of ping pong and I have added a light source as well, creating the shadow and match the picture at the same time.

Fig 3.5 Ping Pong Background

Final Outcome of Ping Pong

Fig 3.6 Ping Pong Animation

Bowling Ball

Other than that, as bowling ball is very heavy, so it would not have a lot of bounces. I only made a bounce for it and not very high because heavy ball cannot really bounce. Also, in order to make the rolling seems more obvious as the bowling ball is only one colour, cannot really see if it is rolling, I have rotate the Y and Z to make the 3 holes of bowling ball more visible.

Fig 3.7 Bowling Ball Progression

Same goes to bowling ball, I have inserted picture of bowling center as the background of bowling ball. Also, I have set the ground as wooden texture to immitate the floor in the bowling center.

Fig 3.8 Bowling Ball Background

Final Outcome of Bowling Ball

Fig 3.9 Bowling Ball Animation

Beach Ball

Apart from that, beach ball is lighter and it stops in the air longer. The challenging part for bach ball is when it almost stops, I want to make the feeling of beach ball is filled with air. So, I made the ball slightly coming back when it stops, so it will feels like there are air in it.

Fig 3.10 Beach Ball Progression

I have found a beautiful beach photo yay!! My beach ball animation has a beach picture as a background it looked much more better. Same goes to the ground texture, I have added sand image texture as wellto match with the background. The light source for beach ball is a bit different, I have make it coming from the left side to match with the picture.

Fig 3.11 Beach Ball Background

Final Outcome of Beach Ball

Fig 3.12 Beach Ball Animation

Squash and Stretch

Lastly, it comes to the last type of ball which is squash and stretch ball. I have reused the path of soccer ball but changed the type of ball to a plain colour ball. The part of adjusting the angle of bouncing is not that hard, and I have also reused the keyframe so this is not as challenging as I thought.

As I already have the pathway line as my reference, I have applied what we have learned during Animation Fundamentals bouncing ball animation. I animated the ball and ensure the center of the ball always following the path. I also adjusted frame by frame by utilising graph editor.

Fig 3.13 Squash and Stretch Ball Progression

Fig 3.14 Squash and Stretch Ball Background

Final Outcome of Squash and Stretch Ball

Fig 3.15 Squash and Stretch Ball Animation

Compilation of Exercise 1

After I finished each of the bouncing ball animation, I have exported them into image sequence and compiled them together in blender video editor.

Fig 3.16 Compiling Animations

Fig 3.17 Final Compilation of Exercise 1

Exercise 2 Pendulum Exercise

1. Download pendulum rig for the exercise:

Pendulum : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rszHRtfgKw-RxTDiL0y6qRCtiQ-7368S/view?usp=sharing

2.Explore and understand the rigs.

3.Animate the pendulum main object moving from left to right on the screen and swing to show drags, overlapping and follow through.

4.The believability is based on speed of the main action and how the tail is reacted through its flexibility attributes.

5.Set the animation setting:

Image size: 1280 x 720 (HD) or 720p

Frame rate: 24fps

6.Animate the pendulum swing with the correct:

- Drag

- Overlapping

- Follow Through

First, we starting by keying keyframes for the pendulum root which move along the y-axis for a short distance. Then, we proceed to the movement of the pendulum cylinder and ball.

The frames of each swing are 8 frames per second. I have adjusted the angle of each side of swing and make sure it doesn't looked too much and swing naturally. On the other hand, to make the follow through looked more obvious as before adjusstments, my one looked very little only, Mr Kamal has advised me to adjust it using graph editor. The key point is it shouldn't exceed the peak point of each swing.

Fig 3.18 Pendulum progression

Fig 3.19 Adding background

Fig 3.20 Final Outcome for Exercise 2

Exercise 3 Emotion Pose

For this exercise, we are to find image references for action poses that expresses these emotions with Snow Rig: 

• Happy
• Sad 
• Angry 
• Scared

Through studying and planning the poses which we would need to create drawings or sketches to highlight:

• Line of Action: The flow and energy of the pose.
• Silhouette: Ensure the pose is clear and recognizable.
• Weight and Balance / Contrapposto: Ensure realistic weight distribution and natural posture.
• Avoid Parallel and Twinning: Ensure asymmetry for dynamic and interesting poses.

Fig 3.21 Poses references

On the other hand, I used Procreate to do pose study which I sketched out the pose according to the picture to understand how each part bends and angles, and to understand the contrapposto of each pose by drawing a line on top of the shoulders and hips. Then, I moved to Photoshop to create the silhouette of each pose by selecting the subject and painting black over it.

Fig 3.22 Using Procreate to do pose study

Fig 3.23 Using PS to draw out the silhoutte

The first pose I do is happy pose. I think the challenging part for this pose is the angle of the leg and hand. According to the reference picture, the pose of left and right is somewhat similar, but it cant be exactly the same at the same time to avoid symmetrical balance happened. Also, there is another challenging part due to this model problem. When the arm is raised up, the chest part will look werid like it became thicker. Mr Kamal has helped me to adjust while he is giving me feedback but he could not solve this as well.

Fig 3.24 Progression for happy

This pose is easier than the happy pose, just the angle of hand putting on the head and on knee need to be emphasize on. For this pose actually I have also another reference picture with the leg slightly open pose.

Fig 3.25 Progression for sad

The angry pose look simple, but it is actually not that simple. The action must be very natural, the placement of hip and hand is very important. For example, my left hand pose originally is placed downwards, but after demonstrated by Mr Kamal that which pose would look more natural, I understand the mistake that I have made.

Fig 3.26 Progression for angry

Besides that, the scared pose is also easy to handle. The point that need to be take care of is the placement of hands and the movement of fingers as it is located at the center of the whole pose and bring out the main emotion.

Fig 3.27 Progression for scared

After I have completed with all poses, I set up all background and lighting for every emotions. The colour of background and lighting for each emotion is different as I believe different colour and lighting could enhance and represent different emotions.

Fig 3.28 Setting up background and lighting

Fig 3.29 Final outcome for Happy

Fig 3.30 Final outcome for Sad

Fig 3.31 Final outcome for Angry

Fig 3.32 Final outcome for Scared

Fig 3.33 Final Exercise 3 emotion pose presentation slides

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Feedback

Exercise 1: Beach ball may be can change a little bit the angle of camera. Soccer ball, ping pong ball, bowling ball and stretch and squash all look okay.

Exercise 2: I have shown Mr Kamal the first draft version and he said that overall looks okay, just the follow through need to be strengthen, so the most bottom part need to be adjusted using the graph editor.

Exercise 3: For the happy pose, Mr Kamal said that it looked a bit unnatural at the shoulder and chest part. However the chest part looks weird is because of the character model problem. And the legs should be avoid to be symmetry. For the sad part, I could used another reference picture, adn try to make it as close as the reference image. For angry, the hip should be on the other side, and hand should be putting up instead of down. And the scared part, the leg in front can be straighter.

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Reflection

I really like this module! May be because I like 3D model stuffs, so I have the same passion for this module smae as 3D modelling. Animation for 3D models are not that hard as I thought!!! It might require a lot of time and need to manage minor details but it is doable!

All of these exercises I really like them! All of this help me to familiarize with the ways applying animations and managing keyframes. With Mr Kamal's guidance, I managed to catch up with the exercises. Okay although I said these were not hard, but at first still need some guidance in order to complete it.

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