Author: Masi Dehdar

I slightly extended the timing and readjusted spacing of the pushing up the edge part and added anticipation, it feels more natural now, the character is pushing up his weight and needs momentum to launch himself up otherwise it looks like he is pulling himself up only with his arms.Although this is now done for submission I want to work on it further and polish it even more, the timeline will be extended by 12-14 frames to let some parts breathe more. Many of the difficulties experienced during this assignment were due to inadequate planning and not enough reference videos, I used a reference video only for the initial jump and push but not for the pull, turn around and second jump and fall towards the end. That was animated blindly with no reference, this caused issues with timing and some of the poses. I would say the main thing I would like to improve on is the timing and spacing of the second half, from when the character is pushing himself up the edge to the end.

Using the graph editor and motion trail I’ve worked on the arcs and the timing. arms were readjusted again to make the timing and the position look more natural. The push from the edge is still too fast, and the second part of the turn once on top of the edge is also too fast. At this point too many key frames had been set and adjusting the timing of one part of the animation requires the adjustment of the whole animation, for future reference timing should be adequately planned and figured out during planning and blocking stage.

Blocking plus was done in 2’s 3’s and 4’s, arms position during the run has been changed to look more natural, spine is more bent during run. Timing if standing up and turning has been adjusted but it is too fast now, slightly slower and more curves would make the movement better. When the character is pushing himself up the wall it is too fast, the timing needs to be readjusted to make the movement more believable.

Spine is too static and straight during the first run. Timing needs to be readjusted and some of the poses need to be further adjusted to emphasize weight and balance. The push towards the edge of the building is decent and in spline I will play around with timing with the limbs to add display overlap and follow through. Some of the poses when the character is hanging from the edge of the cliff and once he has climbed up are too symmetrical, must break symmetry to make the silhouette more readable. Timing in when standing up and turning need to be adjusted too as it is too slow.

For the body mechanic shot I decided to animate a wall climb parkour, the above thumbnail sketches were drawn after carefully examining the reference footage. Some of the poses are pushed to extreme for clearer silhouettes, some other poses need to be further refined as the silhouettes in those are not clear. George’s feedback (drawings in red) further emphasized which poses should be pushed even more and which ones should be removed.

Rough animatic made using the thumbnail sketches and further analyzing the reference footage.

The memory stick that contained mechanical arm maya file and part of project one previs files was lost. This post contains progress up to and including week 6.

Since the last post I’ve modeled the rest of the arm, pistons and joints. The arm and joints are in the correct hierarchy. I had rigged the arm and was ready to animate it to a reference footage.

Building on idea two

The image and video above are from Love Death and Robot season 3 episode 4, the episode was produced by Buck a multi national VFX and animation company. Buck used a combination of live action photography and 3D models and the tilt shift effect to create the miniature look of the episode. For the comprehensive artefact project I have chosen idea two from project 1. It will be set in a miniature New York with the tilt shift effect applied using digital methods, I will research how to produce this effect digitally.

Week 3 was spent refining the fingers, correcting the position of the thumb and doing a test animation and further polishing the some parts of the finger.

There was no class in Week 1 due to Nick being unable to attend. Week 2 was spent modelling the fingers.

Using basic modelling tools finger tip and all individual finger joints are modelled, and shaped together into an index finger.

The index finger is duplicated and the mesh is adjusted accordingly to form the other fingers.

No further feedback was given, the previs uploaded in the previous post was accepted as the final version, it was suggested to add in effects such as dust, water splash as well as other particle effects.