Category: Advanced 3D Animation

In Week 9, I further developed my script and refined my concept scene images.

For the script, I focused on clarifying the overall narrative direction and the relationship between story and visuals. This stage was more about organising ideas, ensuring that the visual design is guided by the story rather than created independently.

For the visual development, I refined my concept scene images by adding more detail and improving the composition. Compared to the previous version, the scene feels more complete and closer to the atmosphere I want to achieve. Through this process, I gained a clearer understanding of the artistic style needed for the project, which will guide the next stage of development.

Character Design：

Character Design
This week, I made initial progress on my Project One, mainly focusing on character design. I created an alien-like character and developed three different versions of the design based on the story. These variations represent changes the character goes through during the narrative. Each version differs in form and visual tone, helping to support storytelling and providing a clear direction for future animation work.

Character References：

Scene Design：

Scene Development
For the scene, I built a hand model and started to recreate a specific moment from the story. I arranged a rough layout and composition to explore how the scene might look visually. At the same time, I gathered references and explored different artistic directions to define the overall mood and style. Although this stage is still exploratory, it has helped me clarify the visual direction for further development.

Scene References：

In Week 7, I continued refining my heavy project while also developing the facial animation further.

For the body animation, I focused on improving the timing to make the movement more physically believable. Previously, some joints were over-rotated, which made the motion look unnatural. This week, I corrected those issues so that the action works better within a realistic physical space. I also refined several details, such as adjusting hand placement to better reflect force and contact, adding subtle vibrations during the rebound to enhance the sense of weight, and improving the coordination between the torso and hips to make the movement more cohesive.

For the facial animation, the main issue was timing. My animation felt too even and lacked variation in rhythm. Techniques such as ease in and ease out, or fast-in slow-out, were not clearly applied, which made the expressions feel less natural. There were also some issues with keyframe spacing, resulting in slightly stiff performance. Moving forward, I need to introduce more variation in timing and improve keyframe distribution to create more dynamic and believable facial animation.

This week made me realise that timing is crucial for both body mechanics and facial performance. Variation in rhythm is what makes animation feel alive. In the next stage, I will continue refining timing and details to improve the overall quality and believability of my work.

In Week 6, we started working on facial animation to make the character’s performance more expressive. I focused on creating basic expressions and blinking.

The feedback I received was mainly about naturalness and subtle details. For example, my blinking animation was too synchronized, with both eyes moving at exactly the same time, which feels unnatural. Also, the facial expressions were too symmetrical, making them look slightly mechanical.

The tutor also suggested adding more in-between frames in facial animation, instead of switching directly from one expression to another. This would help create smoother and more believable transitions.

In terms of body animation, I continued refining my polish. One key issue was still the center of gravity, which affected the stability of the movement. Additionally, my hand animation looked a bit floaty and lacked a clear sense of control and weight. I made some adjustments to improve these aspects.

This week helped me realise how important subtle details are in animation, especially facial asymmetry and a proper sense of weight. I will continue refining these elements to make the performance more natural and convincing.

Assignment: Heavy Object & Change of Mind (Blocking Plus)

In Week 5, we continued refining our blocking to make the animation more detailed and natural. Instead of changing the overall structure, I mainly focused on improving smaller motion details.

One key issue pointed out by my tutor was the lack of a clear sense of weight, especially in the backward movement. The character did not feel grounded, and the motion looked a bit floaty rather than being affected by gravity. Based on this feedback, I adjusted the character’s posture and tilt to better establish the center of gravity.

Another important issue was the timing. The rhythm of the animation was not well controlled, particularly in terms of ease in and ease out. Some movements lacked proper acceleration and deceleration, making the animation feel stiff and less natural.

Through this week’s work, I started to better understand the importance of timing and weight in animation. In the next stage, I will continue refining these aspects to make the movement more believable and smooth.

In Week 4, we started learning about Facial Animation, focusing on facial poses and how to make expressions look organic. Facial Anim – Pose We learned that an appealing face should avoid perfect symmetry, because symmetry can make the character look robotic. Instead, we should use asymmetry, clear shapes, and good connectivity between facial features to make the face feel alive. Facial Anim – Pose We also studied how muscles work together, especially the eyebrows and eyelids, and how small changes in shape can affect emotion and energy level. Facial Anim – Pose Another important point was maintaining volume in the face, so expressions do not look flat or collapsing. Facial Anim – Pose

For the assignment, we had to reproduce five facial poses using a model sheet and attach references. Facial Anim – Pose We needed to apply what we learned in class, including asymmetry, shape design, and clear emotional intention. Camera angle also mattered in presenting the pose. This exercise helped me understand that facial animation is not just moving sliders, but carefully designing expressions with structure and intention.

In Week 4, we continued practicing animation, focusing on facial expression exercises. We used animation references and recreated different facial poses to understand how expressions work in motion. This practice helped me see the importance of timing, clarity, and emotional intention. Instead of only copying the reference, I tried to understand why the expression works and how small changes in asymmetry or shape can make it feel more natural.

At the same time, we started the basic blocking for the “Heavy Object & Change of Mind” assignment. In this stage, we focused on clear storytelling and strong poses rather than details. The goal was to show the action of pushing or lifting a heavy object and clearly present the change of intention. Blocking helped me think more carefully about key poses, timing, and silhouette before moving into more complex animation. Overall, this week helped me connect facial performance and body mechanics with stronger planning.

This week we learned about story structure and how it helps organise ideas clearly when we create narratives. Story structure is the way events and actions are arranged in a story so that the audience can understand the journey from beginning to end. A good structure usually has a clear setup, a build-up of tension or conflict, and a resolution that answers the main question of the story.

We studied how events must connect through cause and effect, which means one event leads logically to the next. This makes the narrative easier to follow and gives the story a sense of purpose and direction.

We also learned that different structures can change how a story is experienced. For example, a typical three-act structure has a beginning where characters and their goals are introduced, a middle where obstacles and tensions develop, and an ending where the conflict is resolved.

As part of class discussion, we analysed how structure affects viewer engagement and how we can apply these principles to our own story projects. This helped me understand not just what happens in a story, but why and how it happens in a satisfying way.

In Week 3, we worked on the “Heavy Object & Change of Mind” planning assignment. The main goal was to find a strong reference that includes both physical action and emotional change. The character needed to interact with a heavy object, and there had to be a clear shift in intention or decision. This task helped me understand how to combine body mechanics with acting and storytelling. I learned that the emotional change must be clear and motivated, not random. We also did self-study on Parent, Constraints, and Locator functions in Maya. These technical tools are important for controlling objects and characters more efficiently in animation, and I realised they will be very useful in later projects. In addition, we submitted the final version of our “Hunter to Prey” previs. Reviewing and finalising that project helped me reflect on camera design and story clarity. Overall, this week connected performance planning, technical skills, and narrative thinking together.

In Week 2, we learned about basic story structure and how to build a clear narrative. The main idea was that a story is not just a list of events. It should show cause and effect. The slides explained that we should not connect story beats with “and then,” but with “therefore” or “but.” Story -Basic
This helped me understand that every action in a story should create a consequence.

We also learned that stories are built, not imagined randomly. Story -Basic
A good story is a sequence of meaning, not just things happening. The character should lead the story. Events should happen because of the character’s choices, personality, and flaws.

Another important idea was that conflict creates drama. A story begins when desire meets obstacle. Story -Basic
There can be internal conflict (inside the character) or external conflict (from the outside world). This made me think more carefully about what my character wants and why they cannot get it.

We also practiced the SWBST method:
Somebody → Wanted → But → So → Then. Story -Basic
This structure helped me organize my ideas clearly and check if my story makes logical sense.

Overall, this week helped me understand that storytelling is about character, motivation, and consequence. Simple structures like SWBST are very helpful for me to think clearly and build stronger stories.

This week we completed several assignments that helped us understand story and cinematography more deeply. We did a cinematography analysis where we studied shots from a film and focused on camera movement and composition. By analysing framing and camera techniques, we tried to understand the director’s intention and how visual choices create meaning, emotion, and tension. This helped me realise that every shot is carefully designed and not random. We also created a previs project called “Hunter to Prey,” which shows the transformation of a hunter becoming the hunted. In this project, we had to design the camera movement and shot progression to clearly show the shift of power. Through this process, I explored different ways to use camera language to support narrative change. These assignments helped me connect theory with practice and understand how visual storytelling works in a more practical way.

In Week 1, we learned that cinematography is not just about making images look nice, but about using the camera to communicate meaning. We were encouraged to ask important questions before placing the camera, such as what the scene is about and what we want the audience to feel or understand.

We explored how focus can guide attention. Deep focus allows the audience to look freely around the frame, while shallow focus directs attention to a specific subject. Rack focus can shift attention without cutting, which helps storytelling visually. Cinematography II

We also learned that depth of field depends on aperture, focal length, and distance, showing how technical settings affect the emotional impact of a shot.

This week changed how I think about making images. Instead of only focusing on visuals, I now see cinematography as a language that shapes how the audience experiences the story.

This week we practiced how to draw storyboards and think carefully about how to use different camera techniques. Instead of only sketching actions, we learned to plan shots clearly, such as deciding when to use a wide shot, medium shot, or close-up to communicate information step by step.

We also practiced showing camera effects directly in the storyboard, like framing, focus changes, and movement. This helped me understand that a storyboard is not just drawing pictures, but explaining how the camera will work and how the audience will see the scene.

Another important exercise was recreating a classmate’s video. By doing this, we learned how to translate a storyboard into actual visual content and check if the shots make sense when combined. This process helped me see the connection between planning and final result.

Overall, this week improved my understanding of how to organize shots logically and use camera language to tell a clear story visually