Animation take 1

This is our first animation post. We will have more coming during the week.

The animation in R6 was done manually. Motion capture was out of the question, since our animation department wanted to work on it manually for learning purposes and fun :)

In this post we'll cover the work process for shot 16, as well as the shot planning by the animator.
This post was prepared by our Animation lead, Eran Lazar, who animated this shot.

First of all, let's have a look at the progress of this shot. We start with the storyboard, where the general camera angle and action is determined, as well as rough timing. Then we make the layout in which the camera movement is finer & the timing starts getting more attention (in this case, we decided that merging two shots we had in the storyboard into this one shot worked better). After we have our layout, we shoot video reference for the parts of the shot we find relevant. The reference is used selectively by the animator as he plans the shot and animates it. As the animation progresses from blocking to final animation we fine tune the timing & the camera movements. When we're done we light, render, and composite the shot.



The animation starts with a layout scene & the video references. Before getting to it, this shot was planned out using thumbnails and notes. Here are the thumbnails for this shot:

Frame 0-64: Camera movement.
Frame 64-72: Snap enters frame and take a single step - the weapon leads the motion.
What I saw from the reference is that his foot should face inwards, and then, as he moves from frame 77 to 82 he shifts his weight over his left leg and lifts his right leg from the floor.
Frame 87-94: This is where Snap turns his left foot on it's heel inwards as his right foot takes the step.
Frame 94-100: Drift.
Frame 100-112: Lifts his left foot and takes a step forward as he lowers his weapon and starts to run.
I wanted him to do a quick scanning movement to the right of the frame and then back during frames 77-100, so he will start the shot vigilantly and survey the hallway alert to any movement or sound, and then when he starts running down it he will be able to lower his weapon and run forward with a little more confidence.

After I finished the animation I found out that the grass actually reaches his knees (and not his foot, as I thought), and some out of focus games were added to the camera :)
So these are a couple of the issues we've started paying more attention to - and generally we take more notice now in making sure that anything that affects the animation to this extent will be represented in the animation scene.

Here we can see the animation together with the video reference.



There are things that I've realized by watching the reference such as the arc the pelvis does as he takes the step and shifts his weight from one leg to the other, and the legs crossing that gives an X shapes silhouette. However, there are things happening in the reference that I exaggerated or completely ignored - the timing of the final animation, for example, is faster and snappier in order to create alertness and tension, while the body's lines of action have been exaggerated.

Hope you enjoyed this post, more to come!