Blog 6: 3D Animation

3D Animation: Introduction

Recently, I animated a wolf from the Paragon Shinbi pack using Unreal Engine 4. Using the tutorials, I realized that getting 3D animations to work properly in UE4 requires several instances of programming such as variables, states, Boolean rules, and more. I have also learned that two concepts discussed in Game Anim are affected differently between 2D and 3D animation styles.

The Principles: Anticipation

The first of these would be anticipation. In general, this is a simple indication to the player that an action is about to occur. For example, if a player presses the jump button, the character could bend his or her knees or even squat to anticipate the jump. In my 2D Link animation, I incorporated this as well as squash and stretch to show Link squatting to anticipate his jumps, slipping to anticipate his falls, and landings to anticipate him returning to his regular stance. While I am new to the world of 3D animation, I think that including an anticipation in this format would be far more difficult. With 2D characters, designers only have to design poses from one or two sides, while they would have to design poses from most if not all angles for 3D characters. 3D character designs can be used in all sorts of different game interfaces, so depending on what the game is, animators have to plan where they put their anticipations much more strategically. 2D and 3D anticipations are still extremely similar, yet 2D is one specific side of the all-encompassing 3D image.

The Fundamentals: Elegance

Another important concept for game animation is elegance. This fundamental involves using underlying systems that might not be apparent to the eye and making animations. In my 2D animation, I implemented elegance by using the free transform tool and the bone tool to create a realistic skeleton that stays consistent across keyframes. In 3D, however, elegance is far more complicated. Realistic skeletons, body meshes, and programming are used to incorporate elegance into Unreal Engine. In 3D animations, elegance does not have to be more difficult than in 2D animations. Yet in a similar way to anticipation, elegance is much more strategic when it is put into a 3D animation as the animation has to flow in more ways than one. With that being said, elegance does not have to be perfect symmetrical movement as that would make the animation look fake. With that being said, it has to have just enough of the inner consistency of reality to be considered elegant.