Category: Maya

This week, George gave feedback on my pendulum animation, and I made improvements accordingly to make it smoother. We had an assignment to create a fox bouncing animation, focusing on the tail movement. I studied squirrel tails as a reference to understand how the tail moves in tandem with the body. Ting’s assignment required adding performance elements to animations — she specifically asked us to make a short emotional animation for simple objects like a juice box that falls on the ground, so as to help the audience understand the ideas conveyed by the object. In addition, I also completed more emotion-driven Golden Pose practices with references.

In the second class, I readjusted my bouncing ball animation, and George gave me plenty of crucial feedback, including the unnatural state of the ball when it touches the plane, overly slow bouncing speed, and failure to return to its original shape at the highest point — these suggestions were really helpful to me. He also taught us pendulum animation in Maya, discussed how time and energy specifically affect motion, and I made a simple pendulum animation following his guidance as well as drew some corresponding animation sketches.

In class, Ting first explained timeline operations and knowledge related to animation timing, covering various speed variations such as constant speed and ease in and out. She also emphasized that proper control of distance and a sense of weight can enhance the believability of animated movements. Focusing on this knowledge, I finished the relevant assignment: creating falling animations for an empty juice carton and a full one to clearly show the motion differences caused by different weights. I also continued practicing golden poses at the same time.

Pendulum Exercise

Gesture drawing

Golden Pose practice

Juice box exercise

In the first class, we introduced ourselves to one another first, and got to know many friendly classmates and teachers. Afterwards, we previewed various basic animation exercises we would work on this semester, such as those related to bouncing balls, action overlap and weight shift. Meanwhile, our teacher explained some basic animation principles to us and recommended a book titled The Animator’s Survival Kit. I have purchased its e-book edition, which is very practical. Besides, Ting introduced us to the golden pose in animation and its significance in class. A good golden pose has a clear silhouette, enabling viewers to understand the action at a glance while being dynamic and appealing. Thus, my first assignment is to copy different golden poses.