ANIMATION FUNDAMENTALS // Project 2
Week 7 - Week 11 (04/10/2021 - 01/11/2021)
Fann Man Ling - 0344623 (BDCM)
Animation Fundamentals // Ms. Jennifer Teh
Project 2 // Character Acting & Lip Sync
LECTURES
Week 7 : Project 2 Briefing & Lecture: Character Acting, Lip Syncing, Expression
Week 8 : Independent Study Week
Week 9 : Lecture: Background Design
Week 10: Lecture: Storyboard in Animation
Week 11: Progress and Consultation
INSTRUCTION
Module Information Booklet
PROJECT 2 // Character Acting & Lip Sync
WEEK 7 // 04.10.2021
For this project, we were tasked to create an acting and talking character in a scene accompanied by the given dialogue audio of our choice. We were allowed to use other audio of our own as well.
Below is the dialogue audio provided by the lecturer for us to choose from:
Dialogue 1: Alien: "I hate this job."
Dialogue 2: Finding Nemo: "Don't touch it the butt."
Dialogue 3: LOTR-FOTR: "You shall not pass."
Dialogue 4: Monster Inc: "Mikewazowski"
Dialogue 5: Star War: "I got a bad feeling about this"
In today's tutorial class, Ms. Jen did a demo to guide us step by step on doing the character acting and lips library. At the end of the tutorial session, she asked us to create a background illustration for this project and assigned us a minor exercise, in which draw a character's expression sheet with at least 6 expressions included, in black and white.
Ms. Jen also attached her finished sample of character acting animation video and lips library in Google Classroom to guide us.
Character Acting, Lip-Sync, Background Design Animation of Ms. Jen:
Fig 1: Character Animation done by Ms. Jennifer
Fig 2: Lips library provided by Ms. Jennifer
IDEATION
WEEK 10 // 25.10.2021
IDEA #1
At first, I picked the audio clip of Alien "I hate this job". After I sketched its key poses out in Animate, it didn't work out. I don't see myself happy with that.
Fig 3: Idea #1
IDEA #2
Hence, I've decided to redo with another audio clip again. After brainstorming again over the dialogue audio clips, I opted for Monster Inc's 'Mikewazowki' instead as the voice sounds fit to my character's optimistic personality, and also I had the image in my mind when I listened to it. Then, I began to sketch it according to the audio in Animate. The keyframes placement is varied according to the audio. Additionally, I created a few lines as grids to avoid my character from going out of form.
Fig 4.1: Progress_Sketch
Practically, I did not find any reference for this, all I did was experiment and act it out on my own. When I acted it out, it was quite funny, but it was really helpful in terms of giving me ideas on how to make the action appear more natural and real. There are mainly 4 key poses in the animation.
Outcome:
Fig 4.2: Progress_Pose 1
Also, I bore the animation theories that I've learned in the previous classes in my mind, such as anticipation, squash & stretch, follow-through, overlapping action, slow in & slow out, and secondary action, when I was doing the sketches.
Fig 4.3: Progress_Pose 2
Fig 4.4: Progress_Pose 3
Fig 4.5: Progress_Pose 4
These in-betweens are on twos because the action will be faster here.
Fig 4.6: Progress_In-betweens
Fig 5: Final Sketch
Feedback received from Ms. Jennifer during Wednesday's practical session:
- The sketch looks good, can further proceed with it :)
PROGRESS
ATTEMPT #1
Subsequently, I took two days to complete the builds and clean-up with the 3Q-view of the Turnaround character that I have made previously.
Fig 6: Progress_Clean up
Fig 7: Attempt 1
Feedback received from Ms. Jennifer via WhatsApp:
- It looks really good to be honest!
- There's anticipation and so much characteristic in the action!
- Maybe the end only can do a very very small tweak.
* Below are the advice on the Animate file:
Fig 8.1: Feedback 1
Fig 8.2: Feedback 2
Fig 8.3: Feedback 3
Fig 8.4: Feedback 4
Fig 8.5: Feedback 5
Fig 8.6: Feedback 6
WEEK 11 // 01.11.2021
After receiving the feedback given, I tried to alter it. However, I felt that the end output of the lip does not quite sync with the audio.
Fig 9: Refinement after feedback (30/10/2021)
Meanwhile, I've done the illustration in Adobe Illustrator, and then I imported it to my Adobe Animate.
Fig 10: Background Design
Hence, I consulted with Ms. Jen again and asked for her opinion on two videos: one is without full lip-sync, and one is with lip-sync throughout the action.
Fig 11.1: 1st version (limited use of lips)
Fig 11.2: 2nd version (full use of lips)
Feedback received from Ms. Jennifer via WhatsApp:
- 2nd one is better actually. 1st one is not bad also if we're looking at the lip sync, but that style is more towards anime where the lip use is limited.
- 2nd one is the correct way of demonstrating proper lip-sync work.
- but very good work. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 hope to see your storyboard soon ya
As such, I opted for the second one and tried to figure out where can be improved in an attempt to have the best lip-sync result. I tried to adjust the lips' keyframe and it works!
Fig 12.1: Progress_Adjusting lips keyframe
Fig 12.2: Progress_Adjusting lips keyframe
Fig 13: Final Work_Character Acting (01/11/2021)
Minor Exercise (Character's Expression Sheet)
Below is the work I've done, along with the description stated one:
Fig 14.1: Expression sheet (14/10/2021)
Fig 14.2: Expression sheet with description (14/10/2021)
FEEDBACK
*Details of feedback have been mentioned in the content.
REFLECTION
After diving into this project, I found that the keyframes can be set according to the animation's pace I want. This is something I did not realize when I worked on my first project (walk cycle). Through working on this project, I developed a better understanding of the software Animate, including keyframes, and tools, thus gaining better control in the animating process. Additionally, I learned a lesson from this project as well, which is that I better not include too many details in the character as it really took a lot of my time and energy when animating it.
On the other side, this project is an enjoyment! It's fun to act it out when planning the postures for the animation, animating the character's expressions, and creating the background. I'd like to express my appreciation to Ms. Jen as well for her excellent explanation in the class and prompt response when I personally consulted with her about my animation work :)
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