Advanced Animation: Final Project
3/12/2024 - 10/1/2025 (Week 11 - Week 15)
Seh Zi Qi/ 0355872/ Bachelor of Design(Honours) in Creative Media
Module Name: GCD21204 Advanced Animation
Final Project
LIST
Final Project: Action Animation
LECTURES
INSTRUCTIONS
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FINAL PROJECT: ACTION ANIMATION
"Produce and manage an animation project individually by using relevant
programs and software that enable 3D animation of action body mechanics.
Each progress should be clearly labelled, explained and dated in blog
entries."
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Blocking Progress
Before going into the animation process, I had to find a video reference of what I wanted to do. The ideas I had were:
- Fighting
- Cooking
- Full-body Dancing
I quite liked the full-body dancing concept and asked Mr Kamal if I could do it and he said yes as long as there was movement in every body part. Then I remembered that the game Honkai Star Rail had a trailer where one of the main characters danced; Then it led me to this video which I will be using as my video reference.
Youtube Link:
https://youtu.be/pej8diEOpt8
https://youtu.be/pej8diEOpt8
After finding my reference, I downloaded the video, put the video into one of the screens as a video sequence and went straight into the blocking phase from there. I started making a pose per 3 frames to get the best accuracy of each pose from there, I also only used IK posing for the movement as I wasn't taught FK posing yet and it is much easier to use IK posing.
Fig 1.1, Blocking Phase Progress #1
Fig 1.2, Blocking Phase Progress #2
My friend, Akif, gave me a video on how to achieve constant interpolation to create the instant posing effect.
Youtube Link:
https://youtu.be/7_Bd323hUy4
https://youtu.be/7_Bd323hUy4
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This is the complete blocking phase of the dance:
Fig 1.3, Blocking Phase
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Polishing Progress
Once I was done with the blocking phase, I went into the polishing phase. I realised that I had made the animation in 60 frames instead of 25 frames, so I had to drag or delete the necessary frames so that the current frames that were in accompanied the actual video's frame rate.
Even though I had to delete some of the frames, the interpolation helped create a smooth experience for the dance; I used the bezier interpolation to create that smooth effect. I also held some frames if necessary to hold a position or to make the character move at the desired time.
Fig 2.1, Polishing Phase Progress #1
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This is the complete polishing phase of the dance:
Fig 2.2, Polishing Phase Video
After I was done, I went into sketching the storyboard for my video. This is to help me figure out the camera positioning during the rendering phase so that it can showcase the best qualities of my animation.
Fig 2.3, Action Animation Storyboard
Once I was done sketching, I went to Sketchfab to acquire a backdrop for my dance. I found this stage that felt perfect for the action animation that I had and went straight into making the mood just right but using volumetric lighting. Lastly, I used an empty plane that was inside the character model and made the camera follow the plane so that it would be easier to control and manage.
Fig 2.4, Polishing Phase Progress #2
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FINAL Action Animation
Drive Link to 3D Blender file:
Youtube Video Link:
Fig 4.1, Final Action Animation Compilation, 10/1/2025
REFLECTION
For the 14 weeks I've been in this module, I know that I've learned a lot and I've definitely improved from where I started, but I still feel that I could've done better if I had tried a bit harder. Even though I'm down in the dumps, my efforts weren't wasted because I was able to create a whole dance within the time frame I gave myself; I feel proud that I was still able to give something in. I was quite inspired by the references I found and my classmates' works as they were all very unique and made me somewhat motivated even when I had artblock. Overall, I feel that 3D animators don't get a lot of credit for what they do and the animation industry as a whole should be more proud of their works despite the backlash they received. I do hope that I can strive for improvements in the future and come back to these blogs to revisit my old works and see how much I've improved with the dedication and experience I would get.
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