Diner Day!
This heartfelt animation is dedicated to my Dad, a tribute that captures a poignant moment between a father and his son. Through this animation, the character imparts a valuable lesson and encourages his son to surpass his own expectations. It fills me with pride to share that this animation was honored with the prestigious Best of Term award for Best Character Animator in 2023 at Gnomon.
MY PROCESS
LET'S Animate!
Below describes the process I used to create this piece!
Reference
Animation starts with an idea. For this dialogue scene, I incorporated one of my favorite scenes from the 2007 Disney movie, "Ratatouille" where Gusteo inspires Remy.
Blockout
Now that I have my reference, I blocked out my character in Maya, putting in the keys, extremes, and
breakdowns.
Polish
After blocking, I revised and reviewed the arcs using the graph editor, and added in the secondary action.
Reference
1
StoryBoards
I created my key poses seen above and juxtaposed bigger actions next to smaller ones for contrast in silhouette and tone.
2
Video Reference
I used myself as reference to get a feel of the motion and to find out who my character was.
3
Inspiration
I researched several of my favorite animated movies to understand the tone and style of the characters for inspiration.
TO BLOCKOUT
1
Matching our keys
I matched my storyboard key poses in Maya.
2
Matching our Keys
Here is the matched key pose from my storyboard to Maya.
3
Keys > Extremes > Breakdowns
After I completed the key poses, I added in my extremes, and broke both them down using breakdowns.
Polish
1
Arcs
Next, I entered the polish stage, and used the graph editor to revise all the arcs. I addressed all the hiccups and fine tuned my curves to suit the arc of the motion.
3
Secondary action & BG
I added in the background characters and cars, and utilize the rigs' features for pushing the animation even further. I made use of the face and body deformations tools/hair flicks/clothes animation/ and secondary action.
