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Refinements

With our animations coming together, we are continually making further refinements and edits to each of our scenes to ensure each part of our narrative flows and is effectively portrayed.  Below are some updated notes that our producer, Lorna share with me of her opinion and advice on my current animation.  They are refinements that will help the overall appeal and appearance of our story, as well as ensuring our users aren't distracted by actions and movements that look...just plain wrong.
scene 1 notes
Lorna suggested the movement of the mug and the male character should have a frame deleted as it seemed pretty jerky.  Below is one of the animations created of the male after applying some of the feedback.


Another development for my animations was to add in the AI walk cycles.  I struggled with matching these up but although some areas are floaty, the design and nature of our project and in particular, our environment, means that the whole walk cycle does not have to be perfect.  As long as the parts clearly seen by the user are believable and authentic, then it should be fine.  Below is a look at some of the walk cycle, when it was introduced to the scene.  I should also say, the walk cycle was designed and animated by Lorna and imported by myself and Megan so that our walks were consistent across all sections.


Lorna pointed out that the animation of the girl's reaction to having to be patient was a little, rigid.  Adding more back arch, along with shoulder motion and follow through animation, the little girl's reaction to this becomes far more believable and compelling to the viewer.  It seems there is a lot more force and emotion now and I feel this really adds to the overall story.  Below is a clip of the refined animation -


In addition to this reaction, an area of animation that I have been finding tough, is the moment the little girl stands up on her booth chair out of impatience and frustration.  Achieving a believable stand up in such a short space of time proved very difficult.  This motion I believe will require a further revisit and refinement and the audio of our project may need to be slightly shifted so that there is space to apply a more timed, easy to animate section.  At the minute, my refinements have moved from a straight stand up from sit down position, to incorporate a leg effort and muscular source for the standing up.  As I say, this will need tightened up again before final exports but for now, it is at this stage -


Currently, the following are the animations in my section combined, as they stand -

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