Author: Ekin Ayca Demirli

with George

This week we started talking about body mechanics. We learned that body mechanics are about how the body moves (weight shifts, posture, and balance) and that these movements have to feel real before we can add any acting choices. The most important thing to remember is to shoot video reference to study timing, posing, and motion in real life before animating. We can get realistic motion and learn how things like hips, feet, and center of gravity work together by looking at reference video one frame at a time.

Our assignment this week was to plan our shot. I did 2d animation planning. Here’s my reference and my planning I did accordingly:

The feedback I got for my walk cycle animation was about refining the contact poses and fixing the small movements in the feet. I fixed the contact poses and polished the small details. Here’s the updated, refined version:

with Ting

This week, we had an industry talk from Ting, she gave us valuable insight into where animators fit within different animation roles. She explained us the creative process and mentioned how team structures can differ between big companies and smaller studios. We also discussed what working in the industry is really like and reflected on our own expectations.

Ting finished the session by showing us a variety of showreels, from character animation to gameplay cinematics. This gave us a better idea of the many different career paths available in the field.

Then we received feedback on our handposes, I’ll be refining my poses based on that.

with George

This week, we focused on reviewing our weight shift and walk cycle animations.

For the walk cycle assignment, we had worked in the blocking phase to check the poses and make any necessary adjustments. The feedback I got was that my animation was missing a key pose, so I redid it this week. Here’s the refined version in spline:

For the weight shift animation, George advised me to pay more attention to the arcs. To improve this, I used the motion trail tool to track the head movement, smooth out the motion, and create a cleaner line of action. Here’s the updated version:

with Ting

This week started off by talking about hands in animation. We discussed how hands can be used in order to tell the story. They can be used to cue an action, as a secondary action, to show an emotion and to reveal the personality of a character. The lecture emphasized the importance of shape and silhouette, as well as keeping them basic and readable. We also went through organic posing, gesture flow, interconnectivity, and the concept of a leading finger to help make movement feel natural.

We reviewed some of the hand poses and gave feedback based on these principles, discussing how to improve each pose. Finally, our assignment was to create 1–3 expressive hand poses that clearly convey emotion without showing the character’s face or body. I’m sharing the poses I did for this assignment with the references.

We also had the chance to get more feedback on our Franky assignments, I needed to work on the COG to show the weight shift when he’s taking a step. After refining that, I’ll focus on adjusting the timing to make it more dynamic and engaging, rather than keeping it evenly paced.

with George

This week we started off by talking about walk cycles and how you can show character by adjusting the small details of it. For next week we were assigned to do a planning and blocking phase animation of a walk cycle. For my planning, I filmed myself walking as a reference since it was really helpful last week with the weight shift assignment. I enjoy creating 2D plannings, they’re a great way to refine the overall timing and poses before moving on to the actual animating phase. Here’s my planning:

Here’s the initial version of the walk cycle (blocking phase):

After that, we moved onto the weight shift feedback. The feedback I got on my animation was to add more anticipation and to exaggerate the motion in order to better show the character’s weight. This week, I focused on improving both to make the movement feel more natural, and to emphasize the weight shift. I’m sharing the refined version here.

with Ting

This week, before the feedback, we talked about the workflow in pose to pose animation projects. It’s not a mandatory process, more like a guideline that is a very useful process to animate efficiently. We also looked at different approaches and their examples. Some seemed really useful for my own pace and workflow, while others didn’t feel as compatible. 

Then we got feedback on our Franky pose-to-pose animations. I was told to focus more on the hip movement and timing since I had done my assignment without a reference. I recorded one and adjusted the timing accordingly. Here’s the old and updated version:

We also got a new assignment on hand gestures and create a few hand poses using real-life references. Here’s the poses I did for the assignment:

I’m curious to see what critiques I’ll get, since I haven’t worked on hand poses before.

with George

This week we covered walking cycles and weight shifts and how they are one of the key aspects of animation. We also talked about the center of gravity and how to use it to make sure a pose is balanced and that the weight is distributed correctly. We then were assigned to plan and animate a weight shift for next week. For reference we shot a video of ourselves doing the weight shift. Based on that reference video I did my 2d animation planning.

For more on the weight shift subject, George told us to do a pose from our sketches that shows weight. For that assignment I’ll be using this sketch that I did:

After that we received the final feedback on the ball with tail animations. I had to make minor adjustments to the tail as it landed from the jump to make the tail follow the motion trail of the ball. Here’s the refined version of it:

with Ting

This week, we completed the final reviews for our Juicebox acting animations. Based on the feedback and suggestions, I’ll be doing some improvements in the walking cycle and I’ll be doing more polishing to make the animation smoother.

After that, we focused on the three poses we worked on last week. She explained how we’re going to use them as part of the “pose-to-pose” animation process. For this week’s assignment, she asked us to create an animation that transitions smoothly from one pose to another. To accomplish that she gave us a quick tutorial and introduced us to useful plug-ins for this assignment. My work will focus on transitioning from the angry pose to the happy pose. 

Here’s my angry pose and happy pose:

I think this is a very important exercise in order to understand clearly how the pose to pose animation works and its process.