Major Project: Finalising the Animation + Changes Made Along The Way

 For the past 3 weeks I have been working hard to make sure I complete the animation in time for the deadline. My original plan was to have everything animated by May however I still have a few shots which I have either not completed yet or I am currently unhappy with the quality of the animation. 

Overall the animation process has been stressful as I have very limited experience of animating up until this point and my project is very animation demanding. After completing the first few scenes I gained confidence in my abilities more, however I was not feeling confident about completing everything in time to a decent quality. With that being said I defiantly got into a flow of how to work. I started with the block out which closely referenced the animatic. I then attempted to clean up the movements as best I could, however most the time they look very messy. However the secret weapon I uncovered was using the auto key function in Maya. For me this made everything so much simpler as I could do a really quick block out and then continuously tweak it until it looked natural. The auto key function was also ideal when it came to adding additional movement to secondary animation. I could focus on a single part of the characters body and follow along with its movement until it fit in with the actions the character is performing. I did my best to add in additional animation to make sure the character did not look stiff and instead natural, however I feel that I could still improve upon this. 

Halfway through the animation process I had to make a decision. After tweaking some of the scenes with the auto key function, I saw how much better my animation could look if this was done. I decided to reduce the time I had to render and focus even more time on the animation as I knew I could do better than what I had. To me this was important as it is the main focus of my project and I didn't want my animation to look like a pre-viz. By spending more time on the animation it also meant I had less time to model the environment. I made this decision as I realised I cant do everything I want to achieve in my project and this part seems far less important. Its one thing planning out a project and having all the ideas than it is to actually complete everything within a deadline. I now realise how much work I set for myself and have to be harsh when it comes to making decisions as there is a deadline. At the end of the day I am doing an animation based project and so that must take priority. I spent so much time on the characters and I would rather show that off than a rushed background. 

With that being said as you can see from the video below (some shots may still be unfinished), I have made a few drastic changes to how some of the shots play out. For instance I changed how the Cyberpunk character is introduced after jumping over the bridge. I found the original shot to simply be boring while animating it and wanted to include something which is more visually interesting. Most of the changes made where done for the betterment of the animation to make it more engaging to watch. This is especially clear from the removal of the scene where the Cyberpunk character scans the Samurai for the object. I realised that I never really enjoy animating this scene in the pre-viz and if I felt this way about it the audience will feel this way watching it. It basically came down to the fact that I would rather spend my time animating something which is really cool rather than something which just looks boring. Its removal wont effect the overall product but its inclusion will. 

Another clear change which was made when comparing the Pre-viz to the final animation was that most of the fighting choreography was changed. This was quite a drastic thing to do however I realised that the first sections animation was far too quick to really have anything interesting going on. This was a big problem for an animation which relies on the characters and their movements. In terms of the second section, I realised that certain shots such as the leg kick and stabbing of the Samurai, really did not play out very well when making the transition from 2D to 3D. This is why doing the Pre-viz was such an integral part of the project. For both sections I went back and watched loads of fight scenes to really understand what makes them interesting and how both characters play a part. It took a while to do this however I found that once I was inspired from a fight scene I would work harder to complete the shot as I had a better understanding of what I was trying to portray. This lead to what I have produced so far, which I believe is a far better animation than it would have been had I continued using the pre-viz's animation. 

Overall I am glad I gave myself the time to focus on the animation as I have been left with something which is far better than what I had. I am confident with my choice in bringing the attention away from the environment and am on my way to beginning the rendering process.  I will come back to the scenes which need cleaning up for now I want to focus on lighting and texturing what I have so far. 

Original Pre-viz For Reference