Tails

This week was my first ever experience animating a rig! Using a ball with a fox tail attached to it, we learned how to use the principle of overlap - when a part of the body moves at a different rate to the main body and needs to catch up. For the rig, it meant that if the ball moved somewhere, its tail would drag in the opposite direction to create the illusion of weight.

We were shown a tutorial by Keith Lango, stating exactly how overlap is animated and tips on how to make it look realistic. This was incredibly helpful, but the best way to learn, I find, is doing it yourself...

The animation process was somewhat more difficult than that of the simple ball tests, as we had to manipulate the rig using three handles (not the joints). These handles could be quite temperamental, especially if they crossed over or stretched too far!

I was quite pleased with these tests as a first attempt, but the overlap is not as realistic as I'd like. It gives an impression of springiness, which makes the tail seem more solid as opposed to bushy and flowing.

I felt like I needed a reference, but as I don't have any balls with tails lying around, I thought I'd try filming myself holding a piece of fabric. I'm happy with the reference, however it would have been a great deal better if I'd kept my hand more stable and if I'd found something to move that was a little more weighted.

The next step was setting up a scene in Maya and importing the reference video as a .iff sequence. I also added some directional light to create a shadow of the ball and tail on the back wall.

I found the rotoscoping process for the ball and tail more difficult than I had done in the past - having to adjust three handles to get the exact position without deforming the tail was definitely more challenging than just moving one ball!

What made things worse was trying to animate the z axis to create depth - obviously with just a 2D reference point, it was guess work trying to assess how far back and forward the tail was spinning. Unfortunately, in doing this I'd ruined the effect of the original overlap.

Not a success. Nor does it feel very realistic - the tail seems to have a life of its own and keeps swinging, which makes it appear far lighter than it should be. It is also obvious that the tail isn't connected to ball where it should be; instead, the tail goes right into the centre of the ball which means that during the big swings at the beginning, the tail travels through the surface of the ball. Also, I clearly made a mistake at some point and deformed the tail - it shouldn't look curved or rigid!

In future, before focusing too hard on rotoscoping, I should find a better reference video that correctly matches the weight of what I want to animate. 

The next challenge was getting the ball and tail to travel up a flight of stairs... with character. Therefore, the ball had to show thought, which could be done using the principles of anticipation and exaggeration. The tail, on the other hand, had to be lifeless - pulled along by the ball's movement and gravity to emphasise the principle of overlap.

In the first three frames of my storyboard, it is clear that I hadn't quite grasped the 'lifeless' aspect of the tail and instead made it somewhat squirrel-like...!

The first step I took was blocking out the action of my ball in Maya, although the timing at this stage was quite different to what it was by the end of the animation. I then focused on achieving realistic bounces and arcs for the ball and added some squash and stretch afterwards for appeal. I didn't want to start thinking about the tail or camera angles until the ball was perfect.

I then started the long process of animating overlap in the tail by adjusting the three individual handles. To challenge myself, before each bounce to the next step, I made sure to emphasise the ball's anticipation by incorporating even more overlap in the tail, but in a different direction (eg. side to side, as opposed to the usual up and down).

Unfortunately, Maya glitched during this process (see image above) meaning that I had to start the overlap again from the beginning.

The most challenging part of this animation was making the ball and tail tumble down the stairs. Rotating the ball was not the problem, but getting the tail to wrap around the ball as it spun around was near impossible - the rig wasn't designed for it! This meant that I had to adjust the tail for near on every single frame, otherwise it would snap from side to side and stretch out in different directions (very peculiar).

On the whole, I was pleased with the outcome, although there are a few slips and mistakes - for example, after bouncing on the first step, the last flick of the tail travels upwards too quickly and too far to seem like realistic overlap, and there doesn't seem to be enough overlap on the bounce to the second step.

The finished animation! I much prefer this cinematic style as opposed to just one plain wide shot, not only was it enjoyable adding in different camera angles, but it meant I could emphasise my favourite parts and draw attention away from parts that I didn't like so much. However, if I were to do it again, I would not have so many different shots during the last few seconds as seems quite messy.