Weekly diary of work for ‘3D Animation Fundamentals’.
For these week animation exercise, I want to share something that impressed me a lot. The playblast video which in AVI format takes me over 400mb to store but after I use Media Encoder convert it into mp4, it only takes less than 1mb. At the meantime, there was no difference in the quality of the video. It will save me plenty of time uploading the videos. I will definitely use this skill in my further videos.
For the reference video, I have no idea why it’s so hard to find a satisfying reference. I found that other people’s videos on the Internet really cannot match my requirement. Some of them are half-length, some of the main characters are out of frame. The camera in the video I chose is also moving, but I didn’t realize that at first. But for me it just a reference, I can measure the distance by my own as well. I think the way I did may also be a solution, because satisfactory reference may not always be found.
Generally speaking, I am quite satisfied with the results in the blocking stage, and I hope all things are good when going into polishing.
Here is the link for this week animation exercise:
Week 5: Reference footage & Setting Up Maya, Exploring Rigs & Blocking Out Body Mechanics Part 1
Considerations in recording first hand reference.
Actor
- Using appropriate equipment and shooting angles, enough lighting, stable camera
- Clothing, not to dark, not wear a coat if you need to show body movement
- Using ‘appropriate’ objects & contact points (weight & forces), need to show the force, the things you catch need to have weight.
- Skill level, actors (friends), and directing
- Eye focus, and (stand in) props
Skill
- Quality: The aspect ratio & pixel quality of the footage
- Frame rates
- Make it useable: 60fps to 30fps not 30fps to 24fps
- Motion blur: higher frame rates reduce motion blur. Less motion blur, the more detail you can see.
- Real vs stylised goals: You can either perform stylised timing or edit (adjust time) to create stylised timing. However editing/adjusting is more limited.
- Add a timecode: You can add a time code in After Effects to help with basic timing.
- Maya: Make sure to match Maya’s frame