Advanced Modeling and Animation - Project 2

 

Reflection

Throughout this project, I have learned how to utilize bone rigging to create animations. This has been a tough process for me as it is my first time working with rigging, and I have encountered many issues along the way. Inspired by my last assignment, which involved building an interactive wall for ADHD children in a healing center, I decided to create an elephant mascot for my interactive wall. The mascot will serve as a guide for ADHD children throughout the gaming and learning process on the wall.

Figure 1.1 Elephant model

Figure 1.2 Elephant overview

I created the elephant model mainly using sculpting. To me, this process is adaptable, so it didn't take a lot of time. However, when it came to parenting bones to the model, I encountered many issues, especially with bone weight. Since I used automatic weighting to parent them, the bone weight did not always produce the desired outcome, requiring me to adjust the weight manually for both the mask and vertex. As a result, I spent a lot of time on it.

Figure 1.3 Bone

After I had set up all the bones and ensured that each bone functioned correctly in the desired parts, I began planning the animation I wanted to create. I started with the main movements before refining more precise animations to get a rough idea of the type of animation I aimed to produce. Therefore, I decided to start with simple animations, such as walking, jumping, and idle. Then, I add some details on the timing and the animation like shaking ears and waving its tail. Apart from the difficulty I faced in making the animation, I also encountered challenges in creating the content for my elephant. Initially, I wanted my elephant to act as a mascot on the interactive wall. However, following the assignment brief, I decided to focus solely on animating the elephant without integrating it with the interactive wall I had previously created. Below is the proof of my animation keyframe.

Figure 1.4 Animation keyframe

Given the limited time to learn and create an animation, it was not an easy task. It involved not only learning the techniques to create the bone armature and animation but also ensuring the smoothness of the entire animation by adding necessary details. Below is my final outcome for the animation. There is still much room for improvement in the fluency and detail of the animation. However, this assignment has given me a better understanding of how bones work in animation. For my final assignment, I hope to incorporate my elephant into the interactive wall I created in the previous assignment to make it more engaging, immersive, and interactive.

Figure 1.5 Animation render