This week, we had special guests coming in to talk to us, which gave the sessions a different focus. On Thursday, we heard from one of Laika’s stop-motion animators and went through her career from the beginning, which was interesting because it showed how much persistence and experimentation can shape a career in animation.
We also worked in workshop mode on last week’s animbot plant attack, this time placing it inside a proper scenario. We went through the animation layers and used the studio Maya setup we had first used with Frankie back in Term 1. This time, we used it to save animations and import them from different rigs, which helped me better understand the workflow.
At first, we tested it with basic geometry and everything worked fine. We then referenced everything, saved the plant jumping animation, and repeated the movement three times to simulate the three jumps. That part worked as expected. The problem occurred when I tried to apply the attack animation, and I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t behaving correctly. I worked with Ting in a one-to-one to fix it, which helped me realise that I still need to become more confident when combining different animation layers and rigs in a more complex scene.
This was the outcome:
Video that revieved feedback:
During feedback time, I was really happy with the outcome. Ting mentioned it had improved a lot since last week, which was encouraging. What I need to do now is polish, especially the knees and hands. Next week, I’ll fix those areas and finish the rest of the sequence.
For next week, we’ll have the whole scene and the final will be polishing.
Overall, this week helped me see more clearly the creative and technical sides of animation. The guest talk was motivating, while the workshop reminded me that technical problems are a normal part of the process and that I need to stay patient and methodical when things do not work the first time.