This week focused on developing our existing animation work further and beginning to think more seriously about our Project 1 / FMP direction. We continued from the previous weeks by improving the Heavy Object & Change of Mind animation, but this time the focus moved into Blocking Plus. At this stage, the poses, staging and rhythm needed to be more locked down, instead of still feeling like a rough idea.
For the Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Blocking Plus) assignment, we had to address feedback and make sure the acting choices were clear. The task also asked us to add breakdown keys and in-between keys, with keys placed approximately every four frames. I understood this as the stage where the animation starts becoming more readable and less robotic. It is not fully polished yet, but the main movement, timing and body mechanics should already make sense.
A useful reminder from this task was that offsetting body parts should be done properly using keys, rather than just dragging the whole timeline. This made me think more carefully about rhythm in the body. For example, when a character interacts with a heavy object, the whole body should not move at the exact same time. The hips, chest, arms and head need small timing differences to make the action feel more natural and believable.
During this week, I struggled a lot with the constrain part of the assignment. I kept running into problems where things did not connect or behave the way I expected, which made me feel really stuck and frustrated. Because of this, I had to spend extra time trying to understand what went wrong and how to fix it. In addition to the videos we were given, I also watched other tutorial videos to help me understand the process better. Even though I still got stuck during that week, it helped me realise that constraints are an important part of the workflow and that I need to practise them more so I can use them with more confidence in future animation tasks.
We were also introduced to Project 1, which is a formative assignment connected to our Final Major Project. The project asks us to choose one core element that we might include in the FMP, such as a visual style, character design or narrative idea. We do not need to have the full FMP planned yet, but we need to research one element, experiment with it and create at least one more polished outcome to present.
I found this helpful because it makes the FMP feel less overwhelming. Instead of trying to solve the whole project at once, Project 1 works more like a test run. It gives us space to explore one idea and see if it is achievable, interesting and useful for the bigger project. The examples shown in the brief also made it clear that the outcome can be practical and experimental, not perfect. The important part is to learn from the process and understand what direction could work for the FMP.
On Friday, we also worked on the Facial Pose Photo Reference assignment. This task asked us to start using real references and pose three facial expressions with different emotions. We could use pictures of our own face or actor references. This connected back to last week’s facial posing session, because we had to think about asymmetry, eye shapes, mouth shapes and how the whole face connects together.
Using real photo reference is useful because it stops the expression from becoming too generic. When looking at a real face, there are small details that are easy to miss if I only imagine the emotion: one eyebrow might lift more than the other, the mouth might pull to one side, or the eyes might carry most of the emotion. It also reminded me to use a mirror and observe the expression physically before trying to recreate it on the rig.
The feedback I received for my 3 facial poses was to make the facial expression clearer by adjusting smaller details in the face. I needed to pull the chin down more so the mouth shape would feel stronger and more readable. I also had to think about how the line of action was pushing through the face, and make sure the expression still stayed symmetrical.
Another point of feedback was to pull the eyebrows slightly down, because this would help the emotion feel more connected and intense. I also needed to pull the eyelid a little bit up to improve the eye shape. These small changes helped make the pose feel less flat and made the expression easier to understand.