Maya Files

Posted Below is a link to all of the maya files that i used whilst creating my animations. Click the link to download any that you want to have a closer look at! :)

Maya Files of Richie Enticknap - Click Me!

Lip Sync

As one of the final tasks for our module we where told to create a lip synced and animated scene. We were told to create whatever we wanted, so i got to work finding clips from films that i wanted to use in the animation. I narrowed it down to three different clips one from Star Wars, one from Nacho Libre and One from Alice in Wonderland. In the end i decided on a scene between the Cheshire cat and Alice from the Disney animation. I choose this because it enabled me to animate two completely different contrasting characters. Alice would be relatively normal, where as the Cat character would be crazy and disjointed. This would allow for some very interesting animations.

Above is the reference clip that i used. I started by cutting the clip to the right length for the sound and then i put it into maya with max ready to start. I listened to the sound clip looking at which frames words where spoken in from the sound. I blocked out the speaking by moving the mouths of my characters up and down at the appropriate times as a rough guide.

From this i created a dope sheet, writing the pronounciations that maxs mouth would have to take at what word. I used this to created the correct movements of the mouth for the prenounciation of the words. These saved me alot of time!

Once i had finished the dope sheets and Lipsyncing I started to do some little sketches, mapping out where i wanted max to move whilst he was performing. These where only quick drawings with arrows showing the next stage of the animation, but it was all done to save me time when i was creating the scene.

 From these sketches i began blocking out my animation. I made a backdrop, floor and mushroom model for the scene so it would look abit better. I then placed the characters into position and blocked out the animation adding in keyframes for the end frames. The cheshire cat was based on one of my friends who moved in the same way when she mouthed the cats words to me, this was a good source of inspiration. For the Alice character, i used the actual disney clip as my reference for he animation so she moves in a very similar way.


 Once it had all been blocked it was a huge challenge making the flow of the animation smoother. It took me a long time to make it like the characters were not robots. This is probably the biggest challenge for an animater. The cat was alot simpler as his movements where often unpredicted and awkward whereas Alices had to be as fluid as possible.


Looking back at the scene, there are sections where i look and wish i had perfected sections more, this is particularly evident with Alices hands which i found a huge challenge. I think if i could do this task again i would try a different scene and just collect alot more reference and take time perfecting the scene as much as i could. Over the summer i intend to make a brand new scene and i will use all the tricks and avoid the pitfalls i have learnt doing this task. It has overall been incredibly helpful and will be the foothold for my animation knowledge when i begin creating my portfolio!

Walk cycle

This weeks task was to create a walk cycle from a chosen reference. I went about on youtube looking for a reference to a walk. I chose to use the below woman video as my reference as she had a very odd way of moving. She leads with her head and chest. Its safe to say aswell that the woman is expressing anger through her walk so i thought this could be interesting to create.

I started by observing her highest point in the cycle and working out the time taken per step in relation to keyframe. I blocked this out, creating a shuffle like movement with the feet and blocked the arms using movement keyframes.

From this, it was more a case of getting down to the fine details of the walk. The head is position slightly forward from the mesh and leads the rest of the body. The high point is observed when the characters back foot lifts of the floor, giving him a slight boost, and lowers when the moving foot lands on the ground. After this i rendered them using movie maker and batch render on maya. I took them from a front and side view so that the walk can be better obsereved. These are the results.



Jump Cycle

Our task this week, was to find reference for a jump animation. The point of the exercise was to show that everything that moves has potential energy, and that people "prepare" or "build up" to a movement. This is particularly observed in a jump animation. 

I went on to youtube and found an animation reference of a man doing a crouching jump. I liked this as it showed alot of preperation. 

  Using this as my reference i blocked out the jump, adding in a couple more squats to show more anticipation for the characters movement. Once blocked, i began moving the arm joints, changing the facial features, moving the torso to show the shift and balance and moved the foot and leg joints to get a smooth jump arc. The final result is below.

It was very difficult to get a smooth arc to his jump and i had to add lots of movement keyframes within the joints of the body to get a full natural swing of balance. The other challenge was the knees and feet, which change rotation when airbourne. It took me a while to smooth this out so it looked natural.

Obsticle Course

This week i began creating a short obsticle course to get a better understanding of the flow of the ball in the animation so i can get a smoother video. I planned it out by making a quick sketch of places in which the ball would impact etc. and then i created the course from this. 

I liked the squash of the foam/rubber ball, so i used this as the ball within my animation. It was hard to maintain a smooth flow throughout, but by adding keyframes to follow a certain path, it eventually smoothed out to show the squash and stretch of the ball.

Squash and Stretch

Today we where shown the principles of squash and stretch. Whatever is organic must squash with an impact, and as a result, it will stretch on recoil. This was best shown using a variety of different balls. The first i used was a rubber ball which i timed when i threw it along the floor. From the timings i created a short animation demonstrated the squash and stretch.

After this i created an animation for a basket ball, once again i bounced it and timed with a stop watch the amount of bounces, time etc.

This week has shown me the importance of squash and stretch. The best way to understand these principles is by creating these simple ball animations. I will use them as a demo in my final presentation.

Rigging tutorial

Here is the Rigging tutorial i have created in order to teach people how to rig a basic humanoid mesh.

Click here for Tutorial