495 Week 6

     

10/12/2025

                         Weekly Review 6:

        This week was a productive one for our group, especially since we finally got to spend the entire class period on Wednesday using the Xsens suit to record all the motion capture movements for the knights. It was exciting to see the mocap process in action and bring the characters’ performances to life after spending so much time planning their actions and timing in earlier weeks. We were able to capture all the necessary movements for the knights, which will serve as the base animations for the rest of our project. Seeing the recordings play back gave us a better sense of how the characters will interact with the dragon and environment once everything is imported into Unreal.

                       

        Outside of mocap, we also spent time finishing up the animation adjustments for the dragon that we started last week. Since we can only access the mocap setup from the school computers, we made good use of our off-campus time by polishing the dragon’s movements and refining some of the timing to make the animation feel more natural. Our layout artist, Katherine, also put in great work on the main bridge scene this week—she focused on improving the environment composition and making the layout feel more dynamic and visually balanced. Her progress helped tie together the world that both the dragon and knights will be interacting in, giving us a clearer sense of scale and atmosphere.

        Our next step is to review the captured data carefully and check for any technical issues or movement errors. We’re planning to spend time on Monday going through each take, cleaning up any inconsistencies, and deciding whether some of the scenes might need to be re-recorded. While the mocap session went smoothly overall, we know that data from motion capture can sometimes have glitches, so we want to make sure everything looks clean before moving on to the next stage. The goal is to have the knights’ animations finalized soon so we can begin integrating them with the dragon’s scenes.

493 Week 7

 

10/12/2025

              Post 7 Azula Correction:

        This week, I dedicated my time to restarting and refining Azula’s flip animation to achieve a much smoother and more natural motion. After identifying the issue from last week—where the flip felt uneven due to being animated from the base control—I decided to completely rework the movement. This time, I focused on animating from the hip control instead of the root. By doing this, I was able to make the flip rotate around the character’s center of mass rather than her feet, which made the motion look more balanced and believable. This adjustment immediately fixed the jittering problem I had previously encountered, especially the awkward bump caused by overlapping rotations on the x and z axes.

        Once I got the flip motion looking consistent, I turned my attention to the landing. In my earlier version, the landing felt too abrupt and lacked weight, so I made several changes to improve the realism. I started by having Azula extend her left foot forward to touch the ground first, followed by her right foot to steady her stance. This gave her landing more rhythm and flow, instead of both feet hitting the ground simultaneously. To emphasize the force of impact, I lowered her hip controller and head controller slightly right after she landed. This subtle movement gave her body a realistic sense of weight transfer and made the motion feel more grounded. It’s a small detail, but it adds a lot to the believability of the animation.

        While polishing the landing, I ran into a strange technical issue on the timeline. Whenever I scrub through the frames—especially around the landing—the left foot occasionally translates in a circular motion before settling into its final keyframe position. The odd part is that it only happens depending on how fast I scroll through the timeline, which makes it hard to identify the root cause. I’ve checked for extra keyframes and double transformations, but nothing obvious stands out. I plan to ask for advice during critiques later this week to see if anyone has encountered a similar problem or can suggest a workaround.

        Looking ahead to next week, I’m planning to take the animation a step further by changing the landing environment. Instead of Azula landing on the ground, I want her to land on a rock-styled wall, kick off from it, and slice through a boulder that Toph will throw at her. This will create a more dynamic moment and set up a strong finishing attack to close out the video. I’m excited to explore how this new sequence will bring the two characters’ fighting styles together in a more cinematic way.

495 Week 5

     

10/5/2025

                         Weekly Review 5:

        This week our group focused on reviewing and applying the notes Frank gave us about how to improve certain parts of the commercial. His feedback gave us a lot of direction on what needed more clarity and what could help make the story flow better. We went through each section of the animatic and discussed which moments could use stronger visuals or better transitions. A lot of his suggestions centered around pacing and how to make the product stand out more within the story, which helped us approach the project with a more commercial-minded focus.
        

        One of the main changes we added was a new shot showing the microwave door opening with a steaming bowl of the branded noodles inside. This small addition makes a big difference because it clearly shows the product to the audience and creates a smoother transition to the next scene where the knights are eating. We made sure to plan out how the steam and lighting would highlight the noodles to make them look more appealing. Another idea we implemented was having the dragon’s eyes glow red right before he blasts fire at the screen. This adds intensity and personality to the dragon while building anticipation for the commercial’s big ending moment.

        On the technical side, we couldn’t get much work done yet on the motion capture for the knights this week. However, we held a team meeting where I presented the movement plan for each knight, and everyone agreed on the actions and timing. I spent extra time practicing the moves myself so that once Monday comes, we’ll be ready to start capturing right away and hopefully get all the mocap done in one session. Overall, this week was focused on refining the animatic based on feedback and getting ready for our next big milestone with motion capture. We’re setting ourselves up to make strong progress next week.

493 Week 6

 

10/5/2025

                       Post 6 Azula:

        This week, I shifted my focus to Azula’s animation and decided to give Toph a short break. After spending the last few weeks refining Toph’s movements and smaller secondary details, I wanted to turn my attention to the other half of the fight so I could start building more interaction between the two characters. My goal was to animate Azula performing a dynamic flip—using the momentum from Toph’s ground attack to push off a rock and transition into a smooth aerial movement. I wanted this motion to feel fluid and powerful, showing off Azula’s agility while contrasting Toph’s grounded, heavy fighting style.

        Animating this flip proved to be more challenging than I expected. The concept was clear in my head, but when I began translating it into motion, I ran into an issue with the base rotation. Because the flip involved both vertical and horizontal movement, I had to rotate her main control to follow the arc of the motion. However, I accidentally animated the rotation across both the x and z axes, which caused an unwanted jitter in the motion. Essentially, Azula’s flip looked shaky and uneven instead of clean and controlled. I spent a good amount of time trying to isolate which axis was causing the problem and eventually realized that the movement should only be happening on the x axis.

        Fixing this issue has been a valuable learning experience. It reminded me how easy it is for small mistakes in rotation or keyframe alignment to throw off the entire flow of an animation. Even though I’m still in the process of polishing Azula’s flip, I’m really happy with how the scene is coming together. Having both characters in motion finally makes the fight sequence feel more alive. Next week, I plan to finish cleaning up Azula’s flip and start working on her landing and recovery poses. Once those are solid, I’ll move on to syncing her timing with Toph’s attacks to make the scene flow as one cohesive action.

495 Week 4

    

9/28/2025

                         Weekly Review 4:

        This week our team focused on pushing the dragon’s scenes further so we could start building a more complete animatic. Getting those sequences into the animatic has been a big step because it allows us to see the flow of the story more clearly and make adjustments before we dive too deep into polishing. By watching the scenes play out in sequence, we’ve been able to identify where transitions felt too rough or where pacing needed to be tightened up. Having that bigger picture of the dragon’s role in the story also helps us decide where to put more detail and where we can keep things simpler.

      

        The dragon scenes themselves took a good amount of refining. Since the dragon is such a major character, it was important that its movements look powerful while still fitting naturally into the environment. We experimented with different poses and timings in Unreal to figure out how the dragon would interact with the bridge and the knights once those scenes are added. Even though we know the knights aren’t fully in place yet, blocking out the dragon gave us a head start and made it easier to picture how the full sequence will play once everything is combined.

        Looking ahead, the big shift is moving our focus onto the knights. We’ve decided to use motion capture for all of their movements, so this coming week will be about setting up and recording mocap data for the knight rigs. This choice should save us a lot of time in the long run, since the knights will have more natural movements right from the start. Once we bring the mocap data into Unreal, we’ll still need to do touchups to clean and polish the animations, but it gives us a solid foundation to work from.

493 Week 5

 

9/28/2025

           Post 5 In-between Fixing:

        This week my focus shifted from working on large, dynamic poses to refining the smaller but equally important details of my animation. After finalizing the major movements of Toph’s jump-spin attack in the previous week, I turned my attention to secondary animation, specifically the hair strands around her face and the folds of her outfit. These details may seem minor compared to the big fight choreography, but they play a huge role in making the character feel alive and believable. For example, when she stands idle, the subtle sway of the hair and the gentle shifting of her outfit add an element of realism that keeps the character from feeling stiff. When she launches into the spin, the way her hair whips and her clothing folds react to the force of the motion gives the attack more weight and energy, which ultimately makes the scene more engaging for the viewer.

        One of the challenges I encountered this week was figuring out how to animate fabric and hair so that they looked natural without being distracting. I had to carefully balance the exaggeration: too much motion and the elements felt cartoony, but too little motion made the animation appear static. I spent a lot of time scrubbing through the graph editor and experimenting with overlapping action, making sure the secondary movements lagged slightly behind the main motion of the body. This layering process was tedious, but it helped me better understand how small adjustments can completely change the overall flow of an animation.

        Looking ahead, my plan for next week is to begin work on the Azula rig and get her animation blocked out. I want to establish her fighting style early so that it contrasts strongly with Toph’s. Since the two characters move so differently, I’m excited to explore how their personalities and techniques will clash on screen. Blocking her movements will also help me start shaping the pacing of the overall fight sequence.

495 Week 3

   

9/22/2025

                         Weekly Review 3:

            This week our group made some big steps forward in production. We managed to transfer both the dragon rig and the knight rig from Maya into Unreal Engine, which is something we’ve been preparing for over the past couple weeks. Getting them into Unreal let us finally start blocking out the first scene, and we’ve already been able to put the new bridge asset to use in setting up the environment. It was really exciting to see the characters and the environment come together in the same space, since up until now most of our work has been separate.

            A big decision we made as a team was to fully commit to using motion capture for the knight rig. At first, we thought about mixing mocap with some keyframed animation, but we realized mocap would give us more realistic movement and help save time later in the pipeline. Having the whole group agree on this approach also gave us a clearer production direction, and it feels like a strong step toward keeping our process more consistent.

    That being said, the knight rig didn’t transfer perfectly into Unreal. We ran into some errors with the way the rig came through, which slowed us down for a bit. Even though it was frustrating, we started troubleshooting right away, and everyone pitched in to figure out workarounds and fixes.

Overall, I think this week was a good mix of progress and problem-solving. We now have our first scene blocked out, the bridge asset looks great in the environment, and we’ve got a solid plan for motion capture.

493 Week 4

 

9/21/2025

                     Post 4 Second Pose:

            This week was a good project work week. I focused on working on my anticipated second pose, being the jump-spin attack. I initially struggled with the foot placement as the jump started because I couldn't keep her heel on the ground, but after a lot of tweaking in the graph editor, I was able to fix that issue. The other issue was landing because I didn't have a full reference for that move, and I had to improvise with a recorded video of myself performing it to see how the human body turns throughout the spin and the weight of the feet landing after a jump. This is the video of the progress with the Toph rig. My plan for next week is to clean up this animation after I receive feedback and animate the smaller controls like the face, hair, and outfit folds.

This other video below showcases the progress on the rock assets in the scene, where I wanted to have an earth-bending move coming from Toph and attacking Azula, who isn't ready for animation just yet. With Azula, I would like to start on her only when I complete Toph because the fighting styles between the two are such polar opposites, I don't want to mix them up by accident. 

495 Week 2

  

9/16/2025

                         Weekly Review 2:

            During this week, we decided to work on going through the Medieval collection and choose what building assets we were going to use, the knights we were going to animate, and any other assets available to use for our commercial. We made slight changes and additions to the story to propel it in the direction we wanted to ultimately have it at. We've kept constant communication in the Discord chat, as well as constantly updating the Trello page to-do list, letting the group know what each of us is doing. The other day, one of our animators, Reed, changed the eye design on our dragon rig because the pupils of the original one was ultimately too small to see clearly. He also produced a simple bridge asset to use to place the dragon upon to get an accurate size to better resize the knights when we start on them.

The picture above shows how our rig is working and it's able to start being animated soon. The next on our to-do list is to get it successfully transferred over to Unreal. The photo below is part of our Trello page where we keep updated on who's doing what and how far along each person is working on their specific part. For this next week, the plan is to have all the assets allocated out to the respected jobs. The layout artist, Katherine, will start working on the scenes in Unreal and the animators, Nilo and Reed, will be working on the beginning animation of the dragon. Our goal is to have at least 2 shots from syncsketch to be replaced with the rough scenes.

493 Week 3

 

9/14/2025

                     Post 3 Blocking:

            So, this week was a bit of a major change to my whole plan. I decided after really thinking what I wanted to animate, that I wanted to put together a short fight sequence; and not just the punches, but I wanted to include effects. So, after looking around the 3D rig models, I figured out I wanted to simulate a fight scene between Toph and Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender. My idea is to have Toph earth bend rocks to attack Azula.

This week was a big research week to study how Toph moves when bending and attacking enemies. I learned that between the two, Toph has a stiff style of movement, while Azula's is very fluid and smooth. I also learned quickly that there actually was never a scene in the show that the two characters actively fought one on one, so I'm going to implement my own idea of a fight between them. In addition, I blocked out poses that Toph would do when performing earth bending.

One of the difficult parts I'm dealing with right now is Toph's movement style. Issues like movement fluidity while trying to keep her motion stiff is proving difficult where I'm having trouble finding a good in-between. Another issue is on my keyframe timing. Currently, one of Toph's poses is a total of 74 frames and I feel like it needs to be shortened if I'm going to fit a whole fight sequence into the project. My plan for next week is to continue blocking other attack poses as well as introducing the rock models.

493 Week 2

 

9/6/2025

                     Post 2 Character Decision:

            So, during this week, I was experimenting with the free rigs available on the different sites. I surprisingly couldn't find a working rigged character for Shrek or Tangled. All of the possible rigs were so messed up with the model and the joints being so broken, I might as well have just made one from scratch. So, the next best thing I thought of was to imitate a scene from Aladdin. I found a working Jasmine rig and I found a working Jafar rig and I went through the movie and found a good short scene with the two interacting and now I only just been able to start working on the animation. 

This was one of the rigs that I was hoping to work successfully but as you can see, the IK/FK controllers were everywhere, and they weren't binding to the model skin well so there were many breaks.

This Jasmine rig was working successfully with only little issues with body collision with the clothing. The Jafar one was similar with the same issues, so the plan is to animate the character as-is and fix the clothing issues as I work more on the rig. I've been working on other projects this week so its been hard to get much progress in the beginning, but once the work schedule finds it's groove, I'll be able to accomplish more in the coming weeks.