AnimBreak Challenge "Death" (May 2017)

My May entry for the AnimBreak challenge. This month's theme was "Death".

May #Animbreak challenge. Theme "Death". from Tyler Anthony on Vimeo.

Lessons Learned

1. Updated workflow

There is no one correct way to work. Everyone has different ways of how they like to animate. There's the usual Blocking, Blocking Plus, Spline, and Polish. But how you approach these steps and move from one to the next can be different depending on the scene or personal preference.

I usually enjoy animating with a combination of straight-ahead and pose to pose for blocking because I like to feel how a character is going to move. Most recently all of my work has been for in game animations and my preferred workflow gets results very quickly. This shot was more of an acting piece and this time around I've honed my process a bit further when approaching future shots.

Often blocking is done in stepped mode, this has positives and negatives which I won't discuss here. A big hurdle when moving from Blocking and Blocking Plus into Spline is the loss of timing or at least the perception of timing. When the keys are in stepped your brain fills in a lot of the gaps and assumes motion and timing that may not be there. I found that taking the keys to linear while playblasting in Blocking/Blocking Plus will help visualize the timing and allow quicker adjustment at an earlier stage.  

Things that went right

1. Editing the rig

Sometimes rigs don't work the way you want them to or work the way you expect. Even if you're expertise is animation, it's important to know the basics of the character pipeline. You don't need to master these areas, but it always helps! It also feels great when you can solve a problem on your own. Model, unwrap, texture, skin, and rig. This all comes before animation. Learn these even at a basic level, that way if a rig doesn't do what you want you can change it. Or even make your own!

2. Start something you can finish

This “Sneeze Death” was actually my second idea. My first idea involved four characters and a set. I already started blocking the idea and had the set finished before I realized the scale might have been too much. I know I could have finished the piece, but I wanted to take the shot to polish. It's very important to finish something all the way through even if you doubt the piece or your ability.

Going through the animation process from start to finish on a three second scene allows for more learning and growth than trying to take a fifteen second scene halfway and getting bored and starting something else. There will be times when you make it 80% of the way through and realize you could have done something better so you'll have the temptation to start over, but “do it right this time”. Resist the urge. You will always have that feeling.

I may or may not finish my first idea. I started documenting my workflow and thought process from idea phase to polish which may be helpful to some. I'd prefer to have an accompanying piece, so perhaps it will resurface at a later date.

Credits: 

Finnion rig by Sergio