This week was mainly about planning and gathering references. Since drawing isn’t really my strong point, working with visual references feels like a much more effective way for me. Using references made the process clearer and helped me stay focused while planning the next steps of my walking ball.
Before animating, I studied the key walk poses: contact, down, passing, and up. Planning these poses helped me understand how weight shifts from one leg to the other and how the hips move in relation to the legs. I also checked the motion in front view to make sure the hip movement felt balanced and believable.
This task reinforced the importance of clear structure and weight transfer in walk cycles. Focusing on blocking and strong key poses made the motion easier to read and provided a solid foundation to build on in later animation passes.
This week’s assignment focused on planning a basic walk cycle, with the aim of creating two full cycles over 48–50 frames. The animation was limited to side view and blocking only, with the walk translating from left to right across the screen, rather than walking on the spot.
This week’s task was to plan and animate a ball with a tail, focusing on clear planning and simple motion before adding complexity. The animation was restricted to side view only, blocking only, and a 100-frame limit at 24fps, which helped keep the focus on fundamentals.
I began by sketching the motion path of the ball and then planning how the tail would follow and overlap the main body. Looking at reference, such as squirrels, helped me understand the relationship between the body and tail, especially how the tail drags behind and catches up after direction changes. I planned areas where the tail would stretch, squash, and overlap to enhance the sense of weight and flexibility.
This exercise reinforced the importance of secondary motion, timing, and overlap. Keeping the animation simple allowed me to focus on clarity and strong motion, rather than detail, and helped me better understand how tails and similar appendages should behave in animation.
I need to make sure the tail reacts correctly to the movement of the ball instead of moving at the same time or in the wrong direction. The tail should always lag behind the ball, clearly showing overlap and follow-through, so it feels attached and affected by the ball’s motion.
I also need to adjust the direction and timing of the tail, making sure it consistently trails opposite to the direction of movement and only swings wider when there is enough speed or impact. Right now, the tail movement feels too independent, which makes the motion less believable.
Finally, I need to refine the tail’s settling after the landing. The ball should come to rest first, while the tail continues to move and gradually settles, creating a clearer sense of weight and physics.
Final realisation of the pendulum challenge:
This week’s task was to plan and animate a simple pendulum motion, keeping the movement side-to-side only, in side profile, within a 100-frame limit. The focus was on planning the timing clearly before animating in Maya.
I planned the pendulum by drawing key positions across the timeline, marking important frames where the pendulum reaches each extreme and passes through the centre. The spacing between drawings changes to show how the pendulum moves faster through the middle and slows down at the ends. I noted that longer spacing means more frames, which helped me visualise timing and rhythm more clearly.
This exercise helped reinforce the importance of planning motion paths and timing before animating. Keeping the shot simple made it easier to focus on weight, flow, and realistic movement, which I can now apply when animating the pendulum in Maya.
I need to focus more on creating clear C-shapes and S-shapes in the motion.
The small ball should always follow the top part of the pendulum, not move ahead of it, otherwise the motion feels illogical.
The top section must always lead the movement, with the rest of the pendulum following afterwards. The secondary parts should never be positioned ahead of the leading part, as this breaks the sense of physical logic and weight.
Feedback of the bouncing ball (Week1)
I need to clearly define the arcs of the movement. Each bounce should have a smaller arc and a shorter gap than the previous one, as they are currently too large or remain the same size.
I also need to use the motion trail correctly, making sure it matches exactly what is shown in the Graph Editor, so the motion reads clearly and consistently.
This week I worked on a bouncing ball assignment that focused on planning rather than execution. Beforehand, I thought animation was mainly about the act of animating itself, but this exercise made it clear how crucial preparation is for creating believable motion.
By first creating a hand-drawn timing chart, I was able to better understand the relationship between height, speed, and time. The first drop of the ball starts high and fast, suggesting strong energy. With each subsequent bounce, the ball clearly loses energy, which is visible in the lower bounces and shorter arcs. Planning these moments helped me think more consciously about timing and spacing before I even started animating.
From the feedback, I learned that slow movement requires more frames and fast movement fewer, something I did not take into account enough in my initial planning. I was also missing some arcs and was not yet making enough use of tools such as the motion trail, which helps visualize movement more clearly.
I also gained insight into how subtle details make a big difference. My squash and stretch was too strong, and it was recommended to completely remove this effect after the third bounce. Each bounce should also become smaller until the ball eventually starts to roll. Finally, I learned how important proper cleanup in the Graph Editor is, by removing unnecessary keys at the end and adjusting the midpoint so the ball realistically slows down after each bounce.