Category: Maya

This week, Ting introduced us to the basics of cinematography and how camera choices influence storytelling in animation. We learned how composition and framing, such as the rule of thirds, can help guide the viewer’s attention within a shot.

We also looked at different shot sizes, from long shots to close-ups, and discussed how they are used to show space, interaction, or emotion. The class briefly covered camera angles and how they can change the feeling of a scene, as well as basic camera movements like pan and tilt, with an emphasis on using movement with intention.

Finally, we were introduced to simple continuity rules, including the 180-degree rule. This session helped me understand the importance of thinking about camera language when planning cinematic animation projects.

In Week 11, I focused on refining the full body mechanic shot. Based on feedback from George, I increased the range of motion in the arm extensions to make the action feel more dynamic and readable. I also adjusted the anticipation before the jump, focusing on smoothing the transition into the take-off so the movement feels more natural and grounded.

Using this new reference, I created a revised blocking pass for the shot. However, due to limited time, the key poses were not refined in great detail yet. In the next stage, I plan to further polish the poses and improve the overall timing and clarity of the movement.

In Week 10, I continued developing the shot based on the feedback I received. I made revisions according to the comments and also recorded a new reference video myself. I realised that it was difficult to imagine the revised movement clearly without a proper reference, especially after changing parts of the original action. Filming my own reference helped me better understand the motion and adjust the animation more accurately.

Using this new reference, I created a revised blocking pass for the shot. However, due to limited time, the key poses were not refined in great detail yet. In the next stage, I plan to further polish the poses and improve the overall timing and clarity of the movement.

In Week 9, we started working on our body mechanics shot. However, I encountered some issues with the reference I initially chose. I misunderstood the requirement and thought that the restriction only applied to weapons or props, but the tutor clarified that the shot should also avoid any hand contact or interaction. As a result, the reference I selected was not suitable, and I will need to adjust or change it in the next stage.

At the moment, the animation is still in the blocking stage, so the movement does not feel very smooth yet. There are several areas that will need further refinement. Some poses need to be pushed more to make the action clearer and more dynamic, and the arm swings also need to be smoother and more fluid. In the next step, I plan to continue refining the timing, poses, and overall motion to improve the quality of the body mechanics.

This week our assignment was to plan a body mechanics shot. In class, we discussed what body mechanics means in animation, including shifts in the center of gravity, foot placement, and dynamic body posture, and how these elements need to work together. This assignment felt like a combination of skills from previous lessons, as we needed to make sure the character’s movement from point A to point B looks believable and natural.

To achieve this, we were asked to find suitable video reference and use it to plan the full sequence of actions. I found the planning stage especially important, as it helped me understand the logic and timing of the movement before starting the animation itself. This week, I mainly focused on analyzing reference footage, designing the movement progression, and thinking about how to show changes in the center of gravity and overall body dynamics.

At this stage, I continued refining the walk cycle animation assigned by the instructor. In my previous version, the horizontal movement curve had issues, which caused the character’s motion to look choppy and uneven. To address this, I optimized the curve to make it smoother and more continuous, resulting in a more natural and fluid overall movement.

While improving the movement curve, I also noticed that some poses did not fully reflect realistic walking behavior. Therefore, I made further adjustments to those specific actions, improving the pacing and posture logic so that the walk animation better matches the dynamics of real human walking.

In addition, during this lesson the instructor also covered details of hand animation. It was emphasized that hand motion plays a significant role in performance: it not only enriches the movement but also conveys a character’s emotions, personality, and intent. This made me realize that hand animation should not be overlooked when creating a walk cycle, or the action may lack expressive depth.

Accordingly, after refining the walk cycle, I created 1 to 3 expressive hand poses to practice and apply the hand animation principles discussed in class. These hand poses were designed to appear natural and articulate, helping to communicate the character’s intention and emotion more effectively.

This week, I continued refining my weight shift animation. I adjusted the character’s centre of gravity to make the movement feel smoother, and I slightly exaggerated the motion curve so the action feels more dynamic and expressive.

In George’s class, the main focus was creating a walk cycle. I first made a small movement plan to think about timing and weight distribution during walking, and then produced a short animation test based on this plan.

In Ting’s class, we continued polishing our pose to pose animation. In my previous version, I had added a small in-between action between two key poses, which made the movement feel less clean. This week, I removed that extra action so the transition between poses is clearer and the animation better follows the pose to pose approach.

This week’s course content focused on Walk Cycle and body weight. The teacher explained the basic structure of walk cycles in class, and also analyzed how body weight is distributed in the hips and legs, as well as its importance in motion performance. My assignment this time was to create a basic weight shift animation, which helped me gain a deeper understanding of how body weight moves and changes in actions.

During the process of making the weight shift animation, I clearly felt the key role of the body weight’s movement path. By continuously observing and adjusting the character’s center of gravity, I realized that whether the body weight’s path is reasonable and smooth directly affects whether the motion looks natural, rhythmic and weighted. Especially when a character moves from one pose to another, the lifting, dropping and forward-backward movement of body weight decide the stability and visual believability of the motion. A proper body weight movement makes the animation look more realistic, while an unreasonable path will make the motion appear stiff or unbalanced.
Besides, I also learned the Pose to Pose animation method with Ting. This helped me master the skills of connecting key poses smoothly. When making the weight shift animation, I first confirmed the body weight position of each key pose, and then adjusted the transitional movements in between. This made the whole motion more fluent and natural in terms of vision and rhythm.

In the 4th week, George gave me further suggestions on my tail animation to make it more natural. I also refined the juice box animation assigned by Ting, moving it from the blocking phase to the polish phase, but the timing was a bit too drawn-out and needs further improvement. Besides, I created three Golden Poses with different emotions using the Frankie rig.

Golden Pose