Floppy Animation Lesson Five

We were asked to open floppy, a file provided to us on Moodle.

We set our timeline to 40, then we created a key, ticking off the rotation and scale, leaving only position ticked. We only did this on frame 0, 10 and 20 on the timeline.
Going into the curve editor, we selected the first key frame point and then the last key frame point while holding control, and then dragged them up to 40 on the scale within the curve editor. We then set a fast tangent on frame 10 the middle frame, to make the bounce of floppy fast.

(Example of First bounce)

After doing this we selected all the points and then went into the top screen bar (edit), then control and then Parma curve out-of-range types, from there we clicked cycle this repeated the animation over and over making floppy bounce on the spot again and again.

(Bounce on Cycle)

Now we moved on to making floppy squash, working in Z position from the control box which controls the stretch bottom part of floppy, we created a key frame on frame 10 and the same for frame 9. Turning auto key on, and squashing floppy with the control box on key frame 10, resulted in making floppy look like he's getting ready for the bounce up plus the force of impact from jumping into the bounce, we left frame 9 normal for now.

(Example of what Floppy looks like squashed)

Having problems with frame 9, I managed to work my way around the problem by going into the curve editor on the bottom control box (Red box within picture) on key frame 10, and dropping that frame lower than 0 on the curve editors scale, making the bounce on the floor correct, instead of going into frame 9 and moving floppy back into place with the floor before the bounce happened on frame 10.

(Example of bounce with no frame 9, and bounce animation past 0 on scale)

I creating a key frame for 0 and 20 for a stretch for floppy when he's in air for the next step. Highlighting frame 0 and 20 for the stretch top control box within the curve editor, I then moved them up the scale so floppy would scratch out at the start and end of animation as frame 0 and 20 are at the same scale start to finish, resulting in a perfect loop. I did the same on the stretch bottom control box as well which controls floppy lower half of his body.

(Example of stretch bottom control box for floppy)

(Example of stretch top control box)

We now moved onto making floppy more life like by making him look at where he's jumping, for this we went to the twist control box and made frame 0 a rotation key instead of a position key working in X rotation only.
The first frame we moved floppy's head back to make it look like he looking up as he jumps, then we went to frame 4, by this frame floppy is getting ready to look at the floor as he is about to hit it. By frame 8 he's looking right down at the floor. Frame 13 bending his head back again but dramatically to show the force behind bounce, by frame 20 we set our (create key) source time to 0 so it at the same scale as frame 0 helping make a perfect loop.

(Example of Twist control box of floppy's head movement on curve editor)

After completing his head or upper part to his body, we then moved onto his foot rotation control box. Inserting a (create key) on rotation on 0, 10, and 20, we then went to frame 5, this is where his feet is out ready to embrace the floor, and frame 13 for his feet behind him as he pushes back for the jump, all of which created a comical and life like animation for floppy.

(Example of Foot Control box on curve editor)

We then moved onto his ears, we did this by selecting and working on the ears controls box individually to get a natural looking effect for flopping we used the animation technique over lapping with the ears to help create the force and friction on his ears.

(Example of all rotations in floppy's ears)

Now that everything is done to make floppy look like he bouncing, we needed to make him move, we did this by selecting the compass looking arrows which controls the location on floppy, by clicking that we then created keys in which positions we wanted. Working in Y, I made floppy move across the screen on key frames 0, 10 and 20. Once I was happy I then went into edit, controller, then put of range types and set it on relative repeat making flopping bounce on for ever!

(Example of Y axis movement of Floppy control box to make floppy bounce forever)

Going into modify, then into cameras, we could chose two type of camera for now we selected target camera. Using the target camera we placed it in the working environment and positioned it where I liked, until I was happy. I also linked our camera to floppy, so where ever floppy goes, my camera follows, allowing some great video shots.

(Example of camera)

Here is the render result of my animation that I made from today's work.

 

The animation of floppy does appear to be slightly harsh in his movements and animation but still shows a wide range of movements and emotions within floppy. 

Outcome: Understanding how control boxes work, along side the tweaks and loops used within the curve editor to achieve such great animations really helped me to gain a good understanding of how to perform animations to a good level of standard within 3ds Max. Today lessons was very busy, but worth it as I learned a great deal, from the usage of body language, (Helped by the 12 rules of animation, Anticipation, Squash and stretch, and over lapping) even how to use a camera within an animation, something of which has never crossed my mind within animation. Being able to see my animation working and performing the way I wanted it to brings me great satisfaction.