W11
Shot 2 – Character animation
Here is the second shot of my animation. A girl goes upstairs and tries to push the stop button but fails. Then she falls into another scene where she jumps onto a pillar.
V1
In this shot, it was very challenging to animate because the entire scene is rotated at a 45-degree angle (I shouldn’t rotate the ladder). This made the keyframes for the character’s body, feet, and every part more difficult to adjust.
At first, it was so embarrassing to look at because it turned out really ugly. Haha! The feedback from GEO is to pay attention to the side to side movement. When we lift our foot, out hip will rotate!
V2
This is the second version I made of the girl going upstairs. The rotation part made her look really weird.
LOL! GEO even gave up drawing corrections for me on SyncSketch. He asked for the MAYA file and helped me keyframe everything step by step.
V3
This is the final advice for this shot which GEO gave me, but I didn’t have time to implement it before submission. However, I’ll make sure to render it for the final exhibition show.
In this shot, the timing of the character’s movements is crucial to the keyframes. Since all the actions, like running upstairs and jumping, are very dynamic, I learned that if I can’t get the timing right, keyframing frame by frame is always a good approach—even though it takes a lot of time.
Shot 3
Mr. Clock Character animation
This is the third shot I created, where Mr. Clock makes a jump (the first scene introducing this new character).
Mr. Clock is actually a sidekick in the whole video. While not a crucial character, it serves as a simple symbol of time flying.
V1 Jump and walkcycle
Even though the animation is really simple, like a jump loop, I still took the time to refine it. The feedback GEO gave me was to bend the feet higher and add a slight delay when the feet fall and jump.
V2
For the second adjustment, GEO helped me review the animation. He noticed some parts I hadn’t changed yet. It’s amazing—just when I feel like the animation is good enough to render, he always knows where it can be improved. It’s surprising how he can pinpoint exactly which parts I missed every time!
