3 D Animation

#7/113, RAJ CLASSIC, Dr.
RajKumar Road, Rajaji Nagar, Near

Navrang Theatre, Bangalore – 560010.
3D Lab
Bachelor of Science in Animation
In Collaboration with
Karnataka State Open University

Manasagangotri, Mysore-570006
Chairman:
Mr. Ashwin Ajila
Author:
© i-Nurture Education Solutions Pvt Ltd., India
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Mr. Subash Gowda
Mr. Ramesh Chandra
Mr. Aroop Dwivedi
Mr. Arun L
Mr. Balamurali Krishnan
Mr. Biswamit Dwibedy
Reference Book Series
© i-Nurture Education Solutions Pvt Ltd., India

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
This book is given for circulation only among the students / trainers of i-Nurture, subject
to the condition that it shall not be copied / altered in any form, lent, resold, hired out or
otherwise circulated without the Director’s prior written consent.
Block I: Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive Principles of CG Animation
Unit I- Looking deeper into the 12 points of Animation
Block I Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

Principles of CG Animation
Unit –I Looking Deeper into the 12 points of Animation
Index:
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Introduction
1.3 Truly Understand the Big 12
1.4 Getting in to Animation- CG Style
1.4.1 Weight
1.4.2 Posing (& Anatomy)
1.4.3 Non-symmetrical Posing and Performing
1.4.4 Plan Ahead
1.4.5 Blocking/Refining
1.4.6 Intentionality
1.4.7 Isolation
1.4.8 Snap
1.4.9 Visual Styling
1.4.10 Blend Motion
1.4.11 Cinematography
1.4.12 Facial Animation
1.4.13 User-Controlled-Interactive
1.4.14 Solid Modeling and Rigging
1.5 Summary
1.6 Glossary
1.7 Self Evaluating Questions
1.8 Activities
1.9 References
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© i-Nurture Education Solutions Pvt. Ltd., INDIA. 2011 All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in
any form. This book is given for circulation only among the students / trainers of i-Nurture, subject to the condition that it shall not be
copied / altered in any form, lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the Director’s prior written consent.
Unit –II Looking Deeper into the 12 points of Animation
1.1 Objectives
At the end of this unit the students will be able to:
• Examine and provide a strong additional foundation for Computer Animation.
• Approach animation with a strong knowledge of the basics in addition to exclusive
CG Principles and be able to appreciate observational techniques and the art of
planning.
• Determine time-tested principles of animation that will help the students to produce
exceptional animation work.
1.2 Introduction
The twelve basic principles of animation we learnt about previously are crucial to an
animator’s practice. However, there are other principles that are equally useful and are
extensions or combinations of the Big 12 principles.
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1.3 Truly Understanding the Big 12
MEMORIZING a set of rules and UNDERSTANDING them are two very different
things. Understanding means knowing when and where to apply them (if at all) and to what
degree. All twelve principles don’t really apply to each and every performance. Some are
simply inappropriate in certain situations. Often the blind implementation of these rules
results in things like squash & stretch being applied to bowling balls, or too much
anticipation ascribed to a cat attempting a jump. (Because of its weight to volume ratio and
the fact that its skeleton is already in an anticipated pose, a cat doesn't need to crouch before
leaping. It simply extends from its already crouched default pose.) The principles we will
discuss here will enable you to pay attention to the intricacies of animation.
1.4 Getting in to Animation –CG Style
A few of the issues that need to be addressed by these new principles of three-dimensional
computer animation include: visual styling, blending cartoon physics with real world physics,
using cinematography, mastering facial animation, and optimizing user-controlled animation.
Making changes to a character (like making him appear heavier) cannot simply be achieved
by a vague knowledge of the principles of animation. One must know how to combine them
effectively in order to solve trick problems. They should function as parts of speech in an
animator’s vocabulary.
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1.4.1 Weight
This is really a function of properly addressing 1(Timing), 2(Slow in/out), 3(Arcs),

4(Anticipation), 5(Exaggeration) 6(Sq & Str), 7(Secondary), 8(Follow Thru/Overlap) and
10(Staging), but it deserves its own category especially because animators working with CG
characters often overlook the subtleties of this element. You should pay attention to the
above mentioned principles and apply them to represent weight in interesting ways.
1.4.2 Posing (& anatomy)
This is more or less a sub-category of

"staging" and "appeal" but, again, it is
important enough to be listed
separately. However, it is not to be
confused with number 9 (pose to pose
vs. straight ahead), which merely
addresses the difference between the
two methods. We must pay close
attention to anatomy (understand the
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underlying structure) and "appealing" poses. We also need to keep an eye out for center-of-
gravity placement, off balance problems, too much symmetry and so on.
1.4.3 Non-symmetrical Posing and Performing
This can also be considered a sub-category

of "appeal" and "overlapping action". Because it
relates to some very commonly made mistakes in
animation, it deserves special mention. One must
be cautious of poses where the left half of a
character is a mirror of the right (Twins) and
animations where (for instance) both arms hit their
extreme poses on exactly the same frame (also
Twins). You must try and break up such
resemblances.
Usually if a character takes a pose or moves

or stops moving, it is undesirable for every section of the character to start and stop at
exactly the same time. If it does, it will seem very rigid or mechanical. This slight breakup of
timing is a way to avoid twins in the time realm. For example, if a character is standing and
then shifts his weight, putting his hand on his hip and the other hand pointing at the camera,
you might break this up so that each part occurs at a slightly offset time. Almost every action
can be overlapped this way. Another sample would be if a character jumps up and lands on
the ground. Instead of having both feet hit at the same time and the arms swing back (a
good example of follow-through), to counteract the landing also on the same frame, each
foot could hit a few frames apart and the arms could continue to move even longer
afterwards. From this you can also infer that "twins" is not only posing symmetrically, but
also doing timing/actions symmetrically as well.
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1.4.4 Plan Ahead
In general, Plan Ahead refers to extensive planning and drawing thumbnails, acting,
brainstorming, etc. which should do for a shot, because the stronger the planning of your
shot is, the better and more believable your animation will be. Another advisable thing for
animators to do as they figure out how to animate an action or character is to enact (if
possible) that action itself. Once you feel for yourself the dynamics of that action, you will
find it much easier to animate.
1.4.5 Blocking/Refining
The principles of Straight Ahead vs. Pose to Pose

could also be extended to incorporate a third
method of animating (which applies mainly to CG):
Blocking/Refining. To get to this step, the basic
timing and trajectories need to be worked out first.
Then we can progress deeper inwards, towards the
details. This is similar to creating a painting; broad
strokes are used first to get the overall composition
and colors, and then increasingly smaller brushes are
used to hone in on the details overall (rather than
finishing one corner and then moving to the next).
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Another important note with refining is the method John Lasseter mentioned in his siggraph
paper. This entails animating the root of the hierarchy first, like the torso or pelvis of a
character, and then working towards the outer extremities. Details like fingers are done last.
Mostly for computer animation, this allows one to easily sort out the broad timing and
problems, before there are too many key frames elsewhere to be adjusted easily. For
example, for a walk, one could animate the root of the character moving and bouncing first.
Once that is set, add in the legs and spine. Then further refine it to add other details.
1.4.6 Intentionality
The absence of intentionality results in characters looking "moved" rather than

"moving." Characters need to appear as if they are moving as a result of their own apparent
intentionality, not because that's where the animator
put it. This was inspired by an Ollie Johnston quote
"Don't move anything unless you understand its
purpose."
If everything is moving for a specific reason,

the movements are more likely to appear to be
externalizations of an internal thought process,
resulting in classic personality animation. If the
goals and intentions behind a character's
movements can be clearly read, there won't be
room for misleading cues. Mastering this makes the
difference between a character that has been posed,
and one that strikes a pose. A character’s actions
and reactions should make it apparent that it behaves with intentionality; they should allow
us access into a character’s thought process.
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More elementarily, if a sleeve should drag when a hand changes direction and no
efforts are made to move it the way it should move, then the intentionality of that sleeve has
been disrupted. This is because the animator has made the sleeve act not according to its
own inertia, but according to his own skills and control, which could look contrived or
artificial.
1.4.7 Isolation
This is a principle unique to CG character

animation. The term is borrowed from a
dancer's vocabulary; the ability to isolate,
say, a shoulder movement from what the
head is doing... or hips from the shoulders.
Too frequently, old, used-to habits or
restricted subsets of animation tools make
us settle for artifacts of setup. They
hamper the ability to place and time the
movement of a body part where and when
we want it, merely because its parent is in
the wrong place, or moving the parent would disturb too many children, and it might
be too late for revisions. More often than not, this results in strange epicycles rather
than good arcs.
Thorough, extensive planning helps to avoid revisions during to the position and
timing of a character during critical phases. If a puppeteer can move a character's hips,
leaving the knees and shoulders in place, as easily as can a pencil animator, why should it be
harder in CG? Isolating the timing as well as the position, from other parts of the character
and points in time makes revision much more manageable without positing a threat to a
huge body of work.
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1.4.8 Snap
Snap is related to timing, and is mostly mentioned in relation to computer animation

which many times are considered "floaty" or too loose. For cartoonish animation, most
movements or pose changes can occur in only a few frames. With a lot of good ease in/out,
a well animated character with snap will look much more appealing and alive than one that
has too much floats inbetweens.
Computer animation tends to look very fluid and mushy. Hence, it is a good idea to
work on timing and editing spine curves to add some snap to your animation. Even realistic
animation which tends to have fewer quick pose-to-pose movements may still have snap in
some cases (for example, in hands or in extreme motions).
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1.4.9 Visual Styling
Visual styling in three-dimensional computer animation far exceeds the idea of just
how things are supposed to look. Visual styling also has a significant impact on rendering, on
animation techniques, and overall production complexity. As we develop a visual look we
must keep in mind that it is feasible to produce within the boundaries of the project. A
certain look for the skin of a beast, for example, might look cool but might also require too
complex a rig, too detailed a model and too complex an animation process.
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1.4.10 Blend Motion
It is possible today to blend motion from different sources, and we need to develop a clear
approach for blending cartoons with realistic motion. Before production starts it is necessary
to define clear guidelines for a variety of motion/animation styles including cartoon physics,
realistic cartoon, realistic human motion and rotoscoping. Above all, we must direct live
performers when capturing their motion to add intention to their movements.
1.4.11 Cinematography
Since three-dimensional computer animation provides absolute control over camera

positions and movements, cinematography should be considered as a crucial component of
animation. The composition, lighting, and sequencing of our moving images have a huge
impact on storytelling. Most of this work can crystallize during pre-visualization and the
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assembly of the three-dimensional animatics. The lighting style needs to be addressed

separately, since it impacts both the look and the rendering pipeline.
1.4.12 Facial Animation
Most of the thoughts and emotions of characters are expressed on their faces. Three-
dimensional computer animation offers more facial animation control than ever before,
including the subtle motion of eyelids and eyeballs. Establishing the level of facial control
and techniques early in the process has a positive effect on the styling of the character and
the design of the production flow. Building a catalog of facial morph targets or blend shapes
for production and reuse is today as essential as building walk cycles.
1.4.13 User-Controlled-Interactive
Computer and platform games put much of the animation control in the hands of gamers.
This poses the challenge to create great animation that works regardless of what move the
gamer decides to make. Games are a combination of user-controlled animation and
preset/narrative animation. One of the challenges in creative animation is to find a balance
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between the narrative and the improvisational aspect of the game. Look at the model of
participatory street theater (different from traditional stage theater) for ideas on how to
constraint the gamer-action to establish strong staging. User-controlled animation relies on
strong animation cycles with built-in anticipation that are able to branch smoothly into
reaction shots. Fortunately many of today’s game engines have built-in intelligence that can
smooth transitions between animation cycles. The combination of preset and dynamic user-
controlled cameras is also unique to games.
1.4.14 Solid Modeling and Rigging
Solid Modeling and Rigging or solid drawing (as it was called in the 1930s), emphasizes the
clear delineation of shape necessary to bring animated characters to life. Solid and precise
modeling helps to convey the weight, depth and balance of the character and it also
simplifies potential production complications due to poorly modeled characters. Animation
rigs are at their best when they are optimized for the specific personality and motion of the
character. One must pay attention to silhouettes when aligning characters to the camera.
1.5 Summary
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This unit helped us familiarise ourselves with ideas beyond the 12 Basic Principles, which
we had discussed earlier. Here, various aspects of CG style animation were discussed in
details. This can only be understood if one has a clear conceptual understanding of the
twelve basic animation principles. This unit helps one get a kick-start with the actual CG
character animation. This unit also illustrates the choice of designing various characters, by
concentrating on the power centres and the line of action.
1.6 Glossary
• Anatomy - The act of dividing anything, corporeal or intellectual, for the purpose of
examining its parts; analysis; http://ardictionary.com/As/9128 in the anatomy of a
discourse.
• Plan Ahead - to make preparations or arrangements for the future
• Isolation - The act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation;
loneliness.User-Controlled-Interactive
• Center-of-gravity - The point in or near a body at which the gravitational potential
energy of the body is equal to that of a single particle of the same mass located at
that point and through which the resultant of the gravitational forces on the
component particles of the body acts.
• Off balance - in an unsteady position and likely to fall
• Non-symmetrical also called as Asymmetrical - characterized by asymmetry in
the spatial arrangement or placement of parts or components, irregular in shape or
outline; "asymmetrical features"; "a dress with an crooked hemline"
• Trajectories - The path of a projectile or other moving body through space.

1. List the exclusive CG Animation Principle?
2. Explain the term ‘Art Direction’ in Animation Film?
3. What is the third way of animation in CG other than Pose-to-Pose and Straight-
Ahead animation?
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1.8 Activities
1. Animate in Maya a simple Two leg human Character jumping with bouncing
ball/over an obstacle/a gap/from a height
2. Using Maya, animate a character which can be a boy or girl on a pogo stick.
3. Animated a Character using weighted objects (hammer, axe, etc)
1.9 References
1. Animators Workbook by Tony Whitec
2. Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG by Angie Jones and Jamie
Oliff
3. Cinematic Storytelling by Jennifer Van Sijl
4. 5 C's of Cinematography by Joseph Mascelli
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Unit II- Pose-to-Pose Animation
Block –I Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

Unit –II Pose-to-Pose Animation
Index:
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Introduction
1.3 Straight-Ahead Animation Vs. Pose-to-Pose Animation
1.4 Advantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation
1.5 Disadvantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation
1.6 Advantages of Straight-Ahead Animation
1.7 Disadvantages of Straight-Ahead Animation
1.8 Life after Pose-to-Pose Animation Approach
1.8.1 Arcs
1.8.2 Line of Action
1.8.3 Offsets
1.8.4 Overlap and Follow Through
1.8.5 Energy
1.8.6 Pace
1.8.7 Silhouette
1.8.8 Motion Pathologies
1.8.9 Timing
1.8.10 Staging
1.8.11 Acting
1.8.12 That’s a Lot to Check
1.9 Gesture Drawing
1.10 Summary
1.11 Glossary
1.13 Activities
1.14 References
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Unit –III Pose-to-Pose Animation
1.1 Objectives
At the end of this unit the students will be able to:
• Examine the process in designing 3D animation scene.
• Analyse the importance of timing and weight techniques in an animation scene.
• Determine the need and complexities of Pose-to-Pose techniques in designing
animation.
• Understand various important stages in designing Pose-to Pose animation.
1.2 Introduction
There are two distinct processes by which animations are made: pose-to-pose animation
(or key-frame animation) and straight-ahead animation. Both are very different ways in
which animators approach the making of the work, and both have their unique qualities and
specific advantages and disadvantages. The terms straight-ahead and pose-to-pose simply
describe the separate processes and the way in which subsequent images are created. As
processes, they yield fairly different techniques.
In the early days of hand-drawn animation pose-to-pose action became the standard
animation technique because it breaks down structured motion into a series of clearly
defined key poses. In straight-ahead action the character moves spontaneously through
the action, one step at a time, until the action is finished. Motion capture and dynamics
simulations, even three-dimensional rotoscoping, are clearly the straight-ahead techniques of
three-dimensional computer animation. They can all be blended intelligently using channels.
1.3 Straight-Ahead Animation Vs. Pose-to-Pose Animation
Within straight-ahead animation the animator makes the first drawing, or sets the
position of the model for the first frame of animation, and then goes on to make the second
drawing or set the second position for the second frame of animation. The animation is
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continually made one frame after the other in chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The images
are compiled in this way until the sequence is complete, creating animation in a straight-
ahead manner. This process of straight-ahead animation is the only process available to stop-
frame model animators because the only way to do such animation is one frame at a time,
one after the other, sequentially. If you recall, this is the way in which you made the flip
book animation earlier.
Making pose-to-pose animation (or key-frame animation as it is increasingly known) is

entirely different. The animator will make the first drawing or set the model for the first
frame of animation (this applies to CG and not stop-frame animation). Once this has been
done they create the next drawing or set the model for the next frame of animation
depending upon a key moment of the action. The important aspect of pose-to- pose
animation is that this drawing or position does not need to be frame 2. This can be almost
any frame within the action and is determined by the nature of the action. Subsequent
drawings are made of key moments of the action (hence the term key-frame) without the
necessary frames in between the key frames. So, for instance, an action of a figure throwing
an object may be broken down into just a few key positions, picking up on all the major
transitions of the action.
1.4 Advantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation
The advantages of pose-to-pose animation generally outweigh the disadvantages; it’s a

very efficient way of producing animation, lending itself to an industrialized approach, which
is the reason why this is the favored method used in most commercial animation. One
animator can create the keys while others can make the inbetweens based on the animator’s
timings. Using this method it is possible to sketch out an entire sequence using rough key
drawings, enabling the animator to construct the entire action.
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From these key segments, with practice, it is possible to make a fairly reliable assessment
of the development of the action without having to create all the drawings. Using key
drawings also makes it possible for animators to more easily synchronize key moments
within an action to pre-identified frames that appear on the dope sheet. This is most
important when animating dialogue. This is covered in more detail in the chapters dealing
with lip-sync and dope sheets. It is also easier for an animator making classical 2D animation
to keep the characters on model and to ensure that proportions do not change throughout
the sequence.
1.5 Disadvantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation
The disadvantages are that the animated action may at times, in the wrong hands, appear
to be a little stagy, stiff, and have the appearance of being constructed and somewhat
unnatural. For some forms of cartoon animation this may not be a problem but become part
of the stylistic approach.
However, for more naturalistic actions, particularly in those actions that have many
complex elements, each with its own specific timing requirements, it may actually become
more difficult to break down each element into keys and inbetweens. The disadvantages of
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pose-to-pose animation are sufficient to warrant a mixed approach to animation, using both
straight-ahead and pose-to-pose within a single sequence.
1.6 Advantages of Straight-Ahead Animation
The great advantage of straight-ahead animation is that it encourages a liveliness of

approach to the animation. It is unencumbered by an over-structured approach to the
animation, enabling one to go with the flow. This is very useful for actions that have a lot
going on, with separate elements having their own timings. Trying to structure such actions
using keys may kill the action stone dead.
Straight-ahead animation may often allow for a more creative approach to animation
timing, leaving room for surprises and happy accidents—moments when, quite by chance,
what is created is much more wonderful that was first intended.
1.7 Disadvantages of Straight-Ahead Animation
This method of animation puts a great deal of added pressure on the animator, as
corrections cannot easily be made by adding frames within an existing sequence. Straight-
ahead animation can lack structure by its very nature and demands a good deal of
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concentration on the part of the 2D classical animator, something that is an everyday

occurrence for the 3D stopframe animator. Using this method, making one drawing after the
other, it may be easy to allow drawings to change proportion throughout a sequence, gaining
or losing mass.
The difference does not have to be very great from one drawing to the next, but taken over
many drawings this difference may well become very noticeable. It is also more difficult to
hit specific points within a sequence and there may be a tendency to allow the duration of
specific scenes to grow or shrink, which may cause additional difficulties for directors trying
to keep to the initial timing of the Animatic.
1.8 Life after Pose-to-Pose Animation Approach
Now here's a fairly bold statement that does indeed ring true: For the most part, all pose-
to-pose based animation will tend to feel the same. On comparing several different animation tests
from people who have adapted the p-2-p method, it is not difficult to notice that while they
all function, most feel about the same. This can lead to a very unsatisfactory feeling of
creating mediocre products that are not unique and don’t necessarily stand out. This trend
can be broken by making a conscious effort to polish the work and strive for perfection.
One cannot be satisfied with simply getting the major forms and timings figured out.
Animators must pay attention to the intricate little details that add quality to the piece.
Research and cross-referencing are crucial to the creative process for animation, as is seeking
inspiration and advice from people whose work you admire. It is also important to maintain
a checklist of concerns and issues throughout the development of the project and to address
the same methodically during the various stages of animation. This helps to get to the core
of your work—moving away from the construction of a mere skeleton or framework and
into the realm of fleshing out ideas and ironing out details.
Ask yourself the following questions for every motion, pose, timing and action on
every character in your shot. By going through the list one item at a time and cross checking
every motion for the item, you’ll be able to mark areas of weakness that need attention. The
struggle for many beginning animators is that they don’t even know which questions to ask,
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much less how to answer them. Hopefully this list will help you to begin asking the right
kinds of questions.
1.8.1 Arcs:
Check to make sure all motions have good clean arcs. Turn on trajectories if the software
you are using supports them. If not, get out your dry erase marker and draw the arcs on your
monitor.
1 Wrist: Keep an eye on these to avoid that stiff, marionette feel.
2 Elbows: Checking elbow arcs is crucial, especially if you are using IK arms.
3 Feet: Track the heel & the toes to see if both produce clean arcs.
4 Head: The most obvious motion hitches will show up in the head. It's usually a torso
problem; it just shows up in the head arc.
5 Knees: Watch for pops and skips.
6 Hips: The center of mass is vital to believable weight, so check the hip arcs.
7 Ankles: Check the arcs and watch for pops
8 Props: These also require attention, particularly because it is easy to forget that the
prop the character is holding/using is as important to the motion as the character.
9 Eyes: When they turn, are they linear turns? If so, add some arc.
10 Face (lip-sync): Make sure that the face doesn't linearly go from static morph target to
target; it needs to feel organic.
11 Tails: Tails require particular attention because they are generally overlooked, and very
tricky to get right.
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12 You also need to check breakdowns and make them stronger if needed. One way to do
that is to push that breakdown pose.
13 No two motions should have same arcs, because it feels very unnatural. Weave the arc
lines like a tapestry of interesting motion.
14 Cross arcs and overlap for interest.
1.8.2 Line of Action:
Make sure the lines you use are strong because often the difference between an OK pose
and a great pose lies in the line. Some important points worth noting are:
1 Have you pushed your line so it reads clearly?
2 Is your line interesting?

3 Is your line strongly concave or convex?
4 When going from one pose to another can you invert your lines for stronger
contrast?
5 If all you had was one still frame to show for this pose, is your line of action
capturing the kinetic energy of your character like a good illustration would?
1.8.3 Offsets:
Find a part to emphasize by scheduling its late or early arrival. Offsets help keep things loose
and allow characters to breathe, combating the common "pose-move-pose-move" feel of
most Pose-to-Pose animation.
1 Check for twins. Shifting one arm by a frame or two is not fundamentally addressing
the issue of twinning. You need more than that.
2 Does it fit for you to offset the hand from the elbow? The elbow from the shoulder?
3 For this move should your arms lead the torso or do they follow its weight?
4 For this move should your hand lead the arm or follow its weight?
5 Does your upper torso move independently from your hips?
6 For this move, should the head lead or follow?
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7 Does offsetting rotation keys from the translation keys add any life to the character?
How about individual rotation channels from each other?
8 Do the fingers each move independently from the other fingers?
9 Should your fingers flow after the hand or stay tight to it?
10 Is this the right place to use the offset (aka "Pixar") blink?
1.8.4 Overlap & Follow-through:
What a LOT of pose-to-pose animation suffers from is the dreaded "hit & stick". This needs
to be removed from the animation while still keeping strong clear poses and clean timing.
1 Is there too much overlap? Is it too soft? (mushy)

2 Is there not enough overlap? Is it too hard? (sticky)
3 Are the motions distracting? (poppy)
4 Does it feel like the ease-outs are too linear? (robotic)
5 Will this move benefit from the successive breaking of joints?
6 Do the body parts overlap with believable physics? Are the hands too slow (heavy) or
too fast (light)?
7 Don’t blindly trust overlap or lag plug ins… check each frame for accuracy.
1.8.5 Energy:
One primary task of a character animator is to manage tension, energy build up and release
in characters. Each character will build & release their energy in a very different way. Even a
single character could build & release energy differently in different circumstances.
1 Does the size of the anticipation match the speed of the subsequent action?
2 Does the character flow well from one thing to another? Should they?
3 Does the character's body language and gestures' energy match tone & energy of the
dialogue?
4 Look for ways to build texture into a shot-building across phrases and releasing. Not
every pose or move is the same length.
5 Move your character around on their feet to keep them believable. Nothing says "I'm
not believable" like frozen feet.
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6 Does the energy of the character keep building up during hold when appropriate? Tip:
if the pose hit didn't have an extreme with recoil, but is rather meant to build energy for
release (like an anticipation hold) then you'll keep growing the energy up into the pose,
like a long ease into the extreme.
7 Does the energy of the character keep settling with gravity during hold when
appropriate? Tip: If the pose hit had a settle back after an extreme, you'll generally want
to keep the held energy settling into gravity.
1.8.6 Pace:
You need to keep things moving at a natural flow. If a shot feels dull, it is better to
investigate pose holds and transition timings. More often than not, all your holds are about
the same length and all your pose transitions are about the same length.
1 Are you motions too even across the shot?

2 Are all the motions too fast?
3 Are they too slow?
4 Do you have an appropriate mix of fast moves verse slower ones?
5 Be aware of the appropriate speed for a given set of appropriate actions.
6 Mix up the pacing of motion. Fast flurries followed by long simmering holds. Great
contrast.
7 Don't make every move the same speed & flavor.
8 Favor the anticipation or the breakdown or the ease out. Meaning: think what works
best for a given action- slow in/fast out? Or fast in/slow out? Or even in/out but fast
breakdown in the middle?
9 What would Character A move like compared to character B?
1.8.7 Silhouette:
Allow your poses to be instantaneously decipherable; they should be able to be read in an
instant.
1 Do your poses read clearly in plain black & white?
P a g e | 10
2 Are there any awkward lines in the silhouette? Check elbows to see if they're sticking
out unnaturally.
3 Check spine & your line of action.
4 Think of ways to compressing the pose/action into planes in space for cleaner reads.
Perpendicular to camera plane, or parallel to it. Think Woody's "cool sheriff" walk from
the cardboard box in Toy Story 2. Look at how his motion is compressed into a single
easy-to-read plane that is parallel to the camera plane.
1.8.8 Motion Pathologies:
Be careful of jarring or awkward positions that stand out
1 Check for IK pops.

2 Look for and fix hitches in the arcs.
3 Smooth out any hiccups in line of motion.
4 Delete any and all distracting moves.
5 Do you overshoot on moves too much? Not enough?
6 Is there enough "keep alive" on the moving holds? Is there too much so that you're
adding noise to the signal?
7 Clean out any and all distracting nasty geometry intersections. However, you can keep
the small single frame ones in the middle of big moves, as they are barely noticeable.
1.8.9 Timing:
…is everything. Well, almost everything.
1 Do the character's gestures & actions lead words appropriately in the dialogue?
2 Feel free to play with physics a bit to add some texture. Give some jump & hold to
things in the air.
3 A move should never be linear and it should never be even.
4 Are your physics believable (weight)?
5 Break up long holds with secondary action (scratching, wiping nose, weight shift, etc.)
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1.8.10 Staging:
Can we see your action from the best possible angle? And remember: the ONLY view that
matters is the camera view.
1 For visually pleasing images compose on thirds.

2 Avoid staging your character directly down the middle unless you have a reason to.
3 Use those lines of action to add visual angles to lead your viewer's eye where it needs to
go.
4 In production, keep the integrity of the layout composition and then plus it with solid
lines of action & silhouettes.
5 If your character is doing something important, make the action is clearly visible.
6 Track your eye as you watch. Where does it go? Is it where it should go? Do your eyes
feel like they awkwardly jump from cut to cut? Is this the desired effect (sometimes it is)?
1.8.11 Acting:
Will we believe your character is sincere? Are they REAL???
1 Stay true to character. Buzz Light-year will not flail like a spaz like Woody would.
2 Does acting match dialog intensity? Are you being too vaudeville?
3 Do the hands & body merely illustrate words that your character is saying? How
many times do you make a punching motion with your hands when you say the word
"hit"? Not many. How many times do you make a kicking motion when you say the
word 'kick"? Not many. How many times do you spread your arms like an airplane
when you say the word "fly"? Not often. And neither should your character!
4 Do the eye emotions match dialog?
5 Reveal your character's inner thoughts or emotions beginning with the eyes first.
Cascade out from there.
6 Emotion drives motion. Motion does not illustrate emotion (no vaudeville. See
above note). Also, thought does not drive action—emotion drives action. Thoughts
merely drive decisions. But decisions are not acted upon without the emotion to
drive them.
P a g e | 12
7 Avoid overacting. Keep it simple.

8 Don’t try to do too much in one shot. Less is more
9 If the character's face needs to show an emotional shift, it's easier to read that shift
while they are in a pose hold, not in a move. Emotional shifts should occur when the
character is generally held still.
10 Who owns the shot? Don’t upstage the owner of the shot. Keep the secondary and
background characters from being distracting with their motions. Sometimes
breathing & blinking is enough.
11 When the time comes to transfer shot ownership from character to character, make
sure it's a clean hand off. Only one owner at a time. The audience should
instinctually know who to watch based on what you show them.
12 Maintain proper intensity levels appropriate for where character is on character arc.
If your character has a major anger blow out in the third act, don't show that level of
anger anywhere before that point.
1.8.12 That's a Lot to Check:
It always helps to make a preview of the animation immediately after a shot is completed.
Then, while it plays repeatedly, step away from the keyboard and grab a pencil & some note
paper. Let the preview play over and over, until frame is visible. Start taking notes of what
needs to be fixed. Find EVERY single glitch, hitch and problem, making note of what needs
to be fixed. Spend at least 5 minutes watching this shot loop over and over. Then, when you
are sure that nothing needs to be fixed, go back to the file and fix everything on the
checklist. This simple exercise will force you to stop and see the animation for what it is.
Noting every problem will ensure that nothing is forgotten or overlooked. Then, when all
problems are fixed, repeat the process again. You might still find problems that had escaped
you before. It usually takes about three to four times of doing this exercise before the shot
reaches a perfect stage.
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2.1 Gesture Drawing
Long back in drawing classes, gesture drawing was used as a warm up exercise. Now we will
go beyond that simplistic approach. The definition of gesture drawing is to capture the
energy and movement of the subject matter—or to capture the essence of the pose—as
gesture drawing is typically used in figure drawing.
Here are a few gesture drawing tips which have been gathered from Walt Stanchfield’s book
"Drawn to Life". They will help you immensely in your practice as an animator.
1. Use a fountain or pen & ink. Use cheap paper so lots of renderings can be achieved
economically.
P a g e | 14
2. Exaggerate the pose. If the body is leaning over, lean it "more". This creates more drama
and highlights the 'essence' of the pose.
3. Try the pose yourself. Feel the shift of the shoulders, the weight on one leg, the position
of the hips, the stretch of an arm. This will help you "feel" the pose and understand what the
muscles are doing.
4. Always include the hands and feet in the gesture drawing. They are the most expressive
parts!
5. Work to capture the weight of the body. (If the head is leaning against a hand, make sure
the "weight" of the head is apparent in the hand. The position of the arm to head is
important.)
6. Action, reaction, squash and stretch. If the body is bent over, the back stretches and the
stomach squashes. If the leg bends, the front of the knee stretches and the back of the knee
squashes. In every movement there is an action/reaction.
5. Clothes will react in a like manner (squash and stretch) and will enhance the gesture.
Manipulation of the wrinkles, lumps, bulges, folds, seams will enhance the gesture. "A real
solid, expressive, sparkly drawing in one where the clothing is doing what the body is causing
it to do."
6. A pose is always doing an action, even sitting.
7. Avoid tangents; the lines meeting at the same point. It's the death to depth.
8. Draw with verbs not nouns. Add adverbs for drama. (Example: Don't just draw the body
part...arm, elbow, and hair. Instead portray a woman "bending" over, "stretching" her arms
to dry her "wet" hair.)
9. Gesture drawing will solidify your understanding of the pose. You can work out the pose,
modify, elaborate, and change it to 'tell' your story more effectively. Better plan it before you
start your portrait.
Gesture drawings can range from capturing the mass of the figure, to contours, to simple
stick figures. The purpose is to capture the essence of the pose.
From the drawings shown in the last page you can see that a pose has been repeated several
times. They go from fairly detailed gestures to simple stick figures. So how can gesture
drawing help you draw realistically?
P a g e | 15
Just think of the powerful impact of understanding anatomy and applying creative
energy/essence of gesture drawing on your drawings. This will undoubtedly make the
characters come 'alive' on paper!
2.2 Summary
This unit compares straight-ahead animation with the pose-to-pose animation. It
describes in details the merits and demerits of both, to better familiarise us with the
concepts. We discussed the several essential components of a pose and charted a plan of
attack to ensure that the characters’ poses are realistic and expressive. Collectively, these
exercises and checkpoints will help you attain perfection in your poses, actions and shots.
Going beyond the simple application of a singular method and pushing yourself and your
work to the highest level will help you achieve success as an animator.
2.3 Glossary
• Gesture: A motion of the limbs or body made to express or help express thought or
to emphasize speech.
• Manipulation: The use of the hands in mesmeric operations.
• Enhance: Increase , make better or more attractive.
• Exaggerate: To represent as greater than is actually the case; overstate: To enlarge
or increase to an abnormal degree.
• Essence: The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or
identify something.
• Overacting: To act (a dramatic role) with unnecessary exaggeration; to exaggerate a
role; overplay. To act over and above what is required.
• Silhouette: A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human
profile, filled in with a solid colour
P a g e | 16

1. What are pose-to-pose & straight-ahead animation?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of pose-to-pose & straight-ahead
animation
3. Mention the importance of line of action?
4. What is silhouette in animation?
2.5 Activities
1. Animate a character seeing a spider.
2. Create an animation of a bag of microwave popcorn (being heated)
3. Animate a character being hit by a ball.
4. Animate a character throwing a ball.
2.6 References
1. The Animation Book, Kit Laybourne
2. Cartoon animation, Preston Blair
3. Digital Character Animation (1 & 2), George Maestri
4. Inspired 3D Character Animation, Kyle Clark & Michael Ford
5. Drawn to Life, Walt Stanchfield
P a g e | 17
Unit 3: Maya User Interface
BLOCK 1: Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

Index:
1.0 Objective
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Maya Animation User Interface
1.3 Menu Set
1.4 Menus
1.5 Status Line
1.6 Shelf
1.7 Panel Toolbar
1.8 Channel Box
1.8.1 Rotate and Move base using Channel Box
1.8.2 Rename Cylinder Primitive Using Channel Box
1.9 Layer
1.9.1 Display Layer Editor
1.9.2 Render Layer Editor
1.9.3 Animation Layer Editor
1.10 QWERTY Tool Box
1.11 Quick Layout Buttons
1.12 Help Line
1.13 Time Slider
1.14 Range Slider
1.15 Command Line
1.15.1 Command Line and Shelf
1.15.2 Render from a Command Line
1.16 Playback
1.16.1 Previewing Animation
1.16.2 Ghosting Animated Objects
1.16.3 Playing Back Animation
1.17 Anim/Character
1.17.1 Keyframing Character Sets
1.17.2 Creating Expression for Character Sets
1.18 Summary
1.19 Self-Evaluating Questions
1.20 Activities
1.21 References
1|Page
© i-Nurture Education Solutions Pvt. Ltd., INDIA. 2011 All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
This book is given for circulation only among the students / trainers of i-Nurture, subject to the condition that it shall not be copied / altered in
any form, lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the Director’s prior written consent
1.0 Objective
In this unit we will:
• Get introduced to Maya User Interface

• Familiarize with the several tools available in Maya user interface
• Use the tools to create exceptional characters and animation
• Learn how to preview and playback animation.
1.1 Introduction:
Maya user interface looks very complex at first. However, this large number of functions and the
scope to add more functions to the user interface provides the real flexibility to the program. Other
than the functions common for all the various aspects of a 3d graphics software application, there
are set of functions dedicated to a more specific task like modeling, texturing, animation, rendering
etc.
1.2 Introduction to Maya Animation User interface

The default Maya user interface can be divided into the following sections.
1. Menu Sets
2. Menus
3. Status Line
4. Shelf
5. Panel Toolbar
6. Channel Box
7. Layers
8. QWERTY Tool Box
9. Quick Layout Buttons
10. Help Line
11. Time Slider
12. Range Slider
13. Command Line
14. Playback
15. Anim/Character
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1.3 Menu Set
Tools and items are

accessible from pull down
menus located at the top of
the user interface. In Maya,
menus are grouped into
menu sets. These menu sets
are accessible from the Main
Menu bar.
3|Page
The Main Menu bar appears at the top of the Maya interface directly below the Maya title bar and
displays the chosen menu set. Each menu set corresponds to a module within Maya: Animation,
Polygons, Surfaces, Rendering, and Dynamics. Modules are a method for grouping related features
and tools. Maya® UnlimitedTM has additional menu sets (For example, Maya® nDynamicsTM and
Maya® nClothTM).
1.4 Menus
The best way to begin is to learn the fundamental tools and then learn additional tools as you need
them. Begin by learning some of the main tools.
1.5 Status Line
The Status Line, located directly below the Main Menu bar, contains a variety of items, most of
which are used while modelling or working with objects within Maya. Many of the Status Line items
are represented by a graphical icon. The icons save space in the Maya interface and allow for quick
access to tools used most often.
1.6 Shelf
The Shelf is located directly below the Status line. The Maya Shelf is useful for storing tools and
items that you use frequently or have customized for your own use. You can keep the tools and
items you use most frequently in a location that provides handy access. Maya has some of the Shelf
items pre-configured for your use.
4|Page
1.7 Panel Toolbar

The panel toolbar rests below the panel
menu in each view panel. The toolbar lets
you readily access many of the frequently used items that exist within the panel menu.
1.8 Channel Box
The Channel Box is an editing panel that provides you

access to an object’s transformation information and
much more. It provides information on three distinct
areas for any type of object: The transform node, shape
node, and input node.
Nodes are where information about object types are kept

track of within Maya. Nodes are comprised of attributes.
Attributes refer to information related to what the node is
designed to accomplish. In this case, information about
the primitive cylinder’s Y axis rotation is referred to as
the Rotate Y attribute.
The Channel Box is the primary, fastest, and most

streamlined tool for editing object attributes. It lets the
user quickly set keys, and lock, unlock, or create
expressions on attributes.
5|Page
The user moves and rotates the cylinder primitive using the Move Tool, according to his own visual
judgement. This will usually be sufficient for many of the creative applications.
If the user needs to control the attribute of an object with more accuracy, it can be achieved by
entering the precise values into the appropriate attribute field of the Channel Box.
6|Page
1.8.1 To move and rotate the base using the Channel Box
1. With the base cylinder selected, view the Transformation attributes in the Channel Box.
Specifically, view the values for Translate Y, and Rotate Y.
2. In the Channel Box, adjust the
attribute values so they match the
above image by clicking in the field
and entering the correct numerical
values.
This accurately positions the base in your

Maya scene.
Maya named the cylinder primitive when it

was first created. Rename the cylinder to
something more meaningful to your project.
1.8.2 To rename the cylinder primitive using the Channel Box
1. In the Channel Box, click in the field with the name pCylinder1.
2. Rename the primitive object by typing the new name: Building Base and then pressing Enter.
7|Page
1.9 Layers
Layer Editors lets the User organize large-scale

pieces of the scene so the User can show, hide, or edit them
all at once.
There are three Layers Editors in Maya, namely:
Display Layer Editor
Render Layer Editor
Animation Layer Editor
The User can switch between the Display Layer editor, the
Render Layer editor, and the Animation Layer editor by
clicking the radio button.
1.9.1 Display Layer Editor: This enables you to organize objects on display layers.
The Following functions can be done on the Display Layer Editor
• Show the Layer Editor.

• Create a new layer.
• Rename a layer.
• Assign the selected objects to a layer.
• Remove the selected objects from whatever layers they are on.
• Delete a layer.
• Delete layers without any objects
1.9.2 Render Layer Editor: A system of per layer and per object overrides means that objects can
have different shading and rendering attributes on different layers. With render layers, any user can
assign any object to multiple layers with a different material on each layer. This lets the user create
8|Page
multiple images for each frame, from any combination of Maya's four renderers, third party plug-in
renderers, and post- processes such as Fur and Paint Effects. Rendered images can be efficiently
organized for output to a compositor. Render layers can be also be rendered to Adobe® Photoshop®
(PSD) format, which supports multiple image layers.
Benefits of Render Layers
The user can propagate changes across layers that exist in a single scene, rather than having to
manage multiple scenes. Render layer presets allow easy setup of commonly-used passes, such as
shadows and specularity. Render Layers can also be used to prepare different layers in a scene for
vertex baking or light mapping.
1.9.3 Animation Layer Editor
9|Page
Animation layers are stacked in the Animation Layer Editor in the order that you create them. By
default, layers are stacked bottom-to-top, meaning new layers are added at the top of the layer pane,
and existing layers are pushed down.
Animation layers let the user create and blend multiple levels of animation in a scene. The user can
create layers to organize new keyframe animation, or to keyframe on top of existing animation
without overwriting the original curves.
Animation layers hold animation in a scene, with
each layer containing animation curves for
attributes that have been assigned to it. The
animation layers appear stacked in the Animation
Layer Editor, and depending on various settings,
blend together to create the result animation that
plays in a scene.
The User can reorganize layers by changing the

order of individual layers in the stack although it’s
important to first understand the ways this can
affect the result animation.
10 | P a g e
Changing the order of layers in the stack changes the order in which Maya calculates the resulting
animation. If none of the layers share the same attributes, the order of evaluation does not matter,
and re-ordering layers does not change the result.
If the user has keyframed the same attributes on more than one layer, the following layer modes can
affect your result animation when you re-order the layers:
• Animation Layer Mode: Animation layers in Override mode block the animation from any
preceding layer with shared attributes. Changing the position of an Override layer changes
which layers it overrides.
In most cases, changing the order of layers in Additive mode does not change the result.
However, if the Additive layer contains Boolean attributes (such as Visibility) or Enum type
attributes, those attributes are always calculated as if they are in Override mode.
• Rotation Interpolation
• Rotation Accumulation
• Scale Accumulation
In addition, re-ordering layers that share attributes can affect which layer receives keyframes. In all
three layer keying modes, the order of layers in the stack can influence the order in which Maya
considers them for receiving keyframes.
1.10
QWERTY
Tool Box
11 | P a g e
The Toolbox is located on the left hand side of the Maya user interface. It contains icons that open
tools for transforming your objects within Maya (selection, move, rotate, scale) as well as layout
shortcuts for changing the views and panel layouts.
The upper half of the Toolbox contains the tools for

transforming objects (selection, move, rotate, scale) within
Maya. When you move your mouse cursor over any
transformation tool icon you see the name of the tool
appear next to the mouse cursor.
Select Tool:
The User can select objects and components in
view panels and the texture editor.
Lasso Tool:
The User can select objects and components in
view panels by drawing a freeform shape around them.
Paint Selection Tool:

The User can select components by painting over them with the stylus.
Move Tool:
Shows a move manipulator for the selected objects or components.
Rotate Tool:
Shows a rotation manipulator on the selected objects or components.
Scale Tool:
Shows a scale manipulator on the selected objects or components.
12 | P a g e
The Universal Manipulator Tool:

The Universal Manipulator combines the functions of the Move Tool, Rotate Tool, and
Scale Tool. You can also use it to enter precise values to scale and rotate your object directly in the
scene vie
Soft Modification Tools:

The Soft Modification tool and deformer lets you modify a surface by smoothly pulling or
pushing groups of vertices.
Show Manipulator
Shows a manipulator tailored for the selected node or attribute.
1.11 Quick Layout Buttons
The quick layout buttons let you switch to one of a few common panel layouts quickly.
• Click one of the layout thumbnails to switch to the pictured layout and panels.
• Press right button on one of the layout thumbnails to change the layout/panels the button
loads.
13 | P a g e
• Press left button on a box in the layout thumbnail at the bottom to change the content of a
panel in the current layout.
Press right button on the layout thumbnail to change the current layout. To change the panel layout
to view the base from a side view
1. From the Toolbox, click the Four View layout shortcut.
The workspace changes to a four-view

layout. The perspective view is located
in the top right corner and the other
views show the object from the top,
front and side. The layout shortcuts
have other options that you will learn
later in this tutorial.
14 | P a g e
It’s now possible to see the base from the side view, but it would be easier to determine the
position of the base if the side view were enlarged to a full view.
2. To enlarge the side view, position the mouse cursor in the side view, and tap the spacebar of
your keyboard.
The workspace changes to a single view layout with the side view in an enlarged view. It is
easier to view the position of the base from this side view. Notice that the base lies slightly
above and below the ground plane (X, Z).
1.12 Help Line
The Help Line at the bottom of Maya's window shows information about tools, menus, and objects.
Like the Popup help, it displays descriptions when the mouse moves over icons and menu items. It
also displays instructions when a tool is selected. This is useful if the user don’t know or forget how
to use a particular tool.
1.13 Time Slider
The Time Slider is a vital part of the animation interface in Maya. The Time Slider Controls the
Playback range, keys and breakdowns within the playback range.
1.14 Range Slider
The Range Slider controls the playback range reflected in the Time Slider. The Range Slider sets the
total length of the animation in frames. You can also use the Range Slider to temporarily limit the
range of playback and set the playback start and end frames
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1.15 Command Line
The command line lets the User type single MEL or Python commands without having to open the
Script editor. The User can switch between MEL and Python mode by clicking the MEL/Python
button. The result from the command appears in the output
Type MEL or Python commands in the command line. The result appears in the coloured box to
the right of the command line. The User can drag the divider between the input and result boxes to
resize them. When the cursor is in the command line, press and to scroll through the
command history.
1.15.1 Command Line and Shelf
The User can also enter short Python commands into the command-line. A toggle allows the User
to enter either MEL or Python commands.
The User can middle-mouse drag Python scripts to the Shelf, just like MEL scripts. A dialog box
appears asking whether the script is a Python or MEL script.
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1.15.2 Render from a Command Line
You can render from a command line if you want to render an animation or single frame.
Advantages include the following:
• works with single images and animation

• uses less memory than having all of Maya (UI) running
• can be scripted
• can be integrated into a rendering pipeline (render farms)
• for Maya software rendering, you can override render settings using command flags (for
other renderers, you must also write a MEL script)
1.16 Playback
1.16.1 Previewing Animation
While working on an animation, the user will want to preview the playback at a speed close to final
production speed. To save time while previewing, the user needs to balance the quality of graphics
with playback performance. The user can also turn on display options, such as ghosting and motion
trail, to help the User visualize the flow of a character’s motion.
1.16.2 Ghosting Animated Objects
Ghosting simulates a technique in classical animation where an animator rapidly flips through a
handful of cell drawings to get a feel for the timing of the action he is working on. The User can use
17 | P a g e
ghosting to sketch out and visualize the flow of a character’s motion through an animation, and to
solve problems with the timing of the motion.
Using the Ghosting feature in Maya, the User displays an animated object for specified frames
before and after the current frame. Ghosts refer to character images displayed at a time other than the
current one. Ghosting can be controlled locally on each object in your scene, and The User can
ghost entire skeletons, object hierarchies, or specific parts of an object.
1.16.3 Playing Back Animation
Ideally, you should be able to click the Play forwards button and your animation would play back
full-screen, fully shaded, and in real-time without dropping any frames. Although this is possible
with smaller animations, the more complex a scene is, the more computations are required before
displaying each frame.
1.17 Anim/Character
Defining character sets enables you to animate characters as a single entity rather than as a group of
separate objects. For your convenience, all the attributes relevant for the character’s animation can
be available together in one place. For example, animators can set keys and breakdowns on
characters instead of on the various objects that make up a character. This enables Maya to provide
animators with a more intuitive approach to animating characters. Further, you can set a character as
the current character set, identifying it as the character you want to focus on and animate.
1.17.1 Keyframing Character Sets
As with any object that can be animated in Maya, you can set keys and breakdowns on character
sets.
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1.17.2 Creating expressions for character sets
You can create expressions for character sets, or for the objects that make up a character set.
Expressions provide an excellent way to incorporate automatic or overlapping, secondary actions
into a character’s behavior. For example, you could create an expression that acts on smooth skin
and influences objects behind a character’s chest or belly, making the character seem to breathe.
1.18 Summary
In this unit you learnt about the basics of Maya User interface and how it can be manipulated using
its various tools. We learnt about the various layers (display, rendered, animation) and layouts, about
the command line, and previewing and playing back animation. We were also introduced to
techniques of keyframing character sets and creating expression for character sets.
1.19 Glossary
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Unit 4: Graph Editor
3D Animation LAB I
BLOCK II
Index:
1.0 Objectives
1.2 Graph Editor Components
1.2.1 Menu Bar
1.2.2 Tool Bar
1.3 Working with Animation Curves in Graph Editor
1.3.1 Keys
1.3.2 Maya User Set-Up
1.3.3 Editing Key Frames
1.3.4 Moving Keys in Graph Editor
1.4 Tangents
1.5 Key Frames
1.6 Summary
1.7 Glossary
1.9 Activities
1.10 References
1|Page
BLOCK II
UNIT 4: Graph Editor
1.0 Objectives
In this unit we will learn to:
• Understand the different components of Graph Editor

• Create a simple animation using Graph Editor
• Work with Animation Curves using Graph Editor
• Editing Key Frames and moving keys in Graph Editor
• Work with tangents and Key Frames in Nodes
1.1 Introduction
The Graph Editor is a helpful tool for tweaking values for keys to set. It gives a visual
representation—a curved line—of the attributes that are animated. The animation time goes from
left to right, and any keyed variable appears as a line that ramps up or down to indicate its value over
time. It can help visualize how things are changing and how fast. It can also navigated (pan and
zoom) this panel like any other.
2|Page
1.2 Graph Editor Components
1.2.1 Menu bar

The Graph Editor menu bar contains tools and operations for manipulating animation curves and
keys within the graph view of the Graph editor. The Edit menu is similar to the one in text editors
or word processors, except that you're working with keys instead of text.
The Edit Menu: The View Menu:
The menu items that This menu controls

appear under Edit menu components that are
behaves in a similar visible, and therefore
fashion to the main Edit editable, in the graph view
menu in the modeling of the Graph Editor.
view.
The Select Menu:
These options control the

components of an The Curves Menu:
animation curve that are
available for selection and The Curves menu gives you
editing. control over how the curves
are set up with the keys in
your scene.
3|Page
The Keys Menu:
This menu includes

Tangents which causes
the manipulation of an in
or out tangent handle
.
The List Menus:
The Tangents Menu:
This menu loads the objects.
This describes the entry

and exit of curve segments
from a key.
1.2.2 Tool Bar:
The toolbar gives you quick access to functions for modifying animation curves and keys.
4|Page
• Buffer curves:
Use Buffer Curve snapshot and swap Buffer curves to compare changes to the current
animation curve with its previous shape.
• Break Tangents:
Allows manipulation of the in and out tangent handles individually so you can edit the curve
segment entering the key without affecting its opposite handle.
• Unify Tangents:
Unify Tangents cause the manipulation of an in or out tangent handle to affect its opposite
handle equally. It retains the relative position of the tangent handles even after tangents are
individually adjusted.
• Lock Tangent:
Weight specifies that when you move a tangent, only its angle can be changed.
• Free Tangent:
Weight specifies that when you move a tangent, only its angle can be changed. This allows
the weight of a tangent to be adjusted as well as the angle.
• Clamped Tangent:
Clamped tangent creates an animation curve that has the characteristics of linear and spline
curves. The key's tangents will be spline unless the values of two adjacent keys are very close.
• Step Tangent:
Step tangent creates an animation curve whose out tangent is a flat curve.
• Flat Sets
Flat Sets set the in and out tangents of the key to be horizontal.
1.3 Working with Animation Curves in Graph Editor
1.3.1 Keys:
Keys store a value at a given time in animation. This time is measured in frames. Most animations
have 24 frames in a second, so, if at frame 1 there's a key frame that says the value is 0, then on
frame 24 there's a key frame with the value of 5. In the time-span of one second, that value changes
from 1 to 5. The way this value changes is defined by tangents; we will explore this further later on.
5|Page
1.3.2 Maya User Set Up:

We're going to create a basic animation using
a sphere as the test model with Graph Editor.
Step One: Go to create>polygonal

primitives>sphere.
Step Two: Go to the animation menu set.
Step Three: Go to the timeline and set the

animation range to 1 and 20. This allows for 20 frames of animation.
Step Four - Go to window>settings/preferences>preferences. Go to timeline and set the Playback

Speed to real time (24 fps). Close the preferences.
6|Page
Step Five - Select your sphere and go to animate>set key. Now we've set our first key frame. This
key frame has all its values at 0 because the sphere hasn't been moved.
Step Six: Go to frame 10.
With the model still selected, go to window>attributes editor. Go to the tab pSphere1. This tab
contains all the transformation information.
The attributes in red are attributes that have

key frames assigned to them. Select the center
translate attribute; this is the Y axis (up). Set it
to 5.
7|Page
Now set another key. Go to frame

20. Once again, set the Y translate
attribute to 2. Now set another key.
Now that we've set the key frames,

play the animation.
1.3.3 Editing Key Frames:

So far we've got a simple animation. Now we're going to change the key frames in the graph editor.
Step One: Go to window>animation editors>graph editor
Step Two: Select your sphere and you can see its key frames in the graph editor.
8|Page
Step Three: First look on the left side of the graph editor. Here are all the attributes that have key
frames for the sphere.
On the right side, you can see all the key frames. The numbers going vertically up the side of the
graph represent the value for that key. The numbers going along the bottom of the graph represent
the key frame's position in time. The curves represent the transition from one key frame value to
another.
9|Page
The key frame we're looking for is the Y axis key frames; that's the one that we changed the value.
Since the other curve's value didn't change over the set key frames, their curves are flat.
We only need to work on the Y translate axis right now, so select it on the left side. This will allow
us to only display the selected keys.
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You can select multiple keys by holding Shift and selecting multiple keys.
1.3.4 Moving Keys in Graph Editor
The fundamentals of working with animation are in being able to change the key frame's position on
a graph.
Step One: Click on the key frame at frame 10.
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Step Two: Go to edit>transform tools>move key tool. With the middle mouse button, click on the
key frame. Now hold and drag it sideways to frame 13.
Now our key frame sits at frame 13. But there's another way of moving key frames. Look at the two
stats fields. They should now say 13 and 5. This means that the key frame is at frame 13 and its value
5. Use the fields to change the value to 8. You'll see the key frame on the graph move up.
You can also change what frame it's on by using the frame's field.
1.4 Tangents
Tangents allow you to change the way values are processed between key frames.
By default, these values have a smooth interpolation between the key frames.
This interpolation can be changed. Select the key frame that we've been working with and go to
tangents>linear.
Note: There are other tangent options to change the interpolation between keys. The best way to
learn them is to try them all out.
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Notice how the curves change. Also, if you play the animation, notice how the sphere moves
differently.
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You can undo that. Now that we're back to the default tangent, select the key frame, go to the move
key tool and click on one of the tangent handles.
With the middle mouse button, click, hold and drag. This changes the angle of the tangent.
14 | P a g e
This also results in changing the value. If you change the angle to the same angle in the image on
frame 15, the value is closer to 8.7 than 8, therefore, increasing it. This can happen when you don't
want it, and causes the animation to look bad.
As you noticed, there are two tangent handles on the key frame (one on each side). Therefore, the
tangent interpolation can be changed on each side. So, if you wanted to set the in value tangent to
spline, and the out tangent to linear, you would go to tangents>in tangent>spline and them go to
tangents>out tangent>linear.
1.5 Key Frames and Nodes
Key frames are stored in nodes. These nodes add additional options for the key frames.
Step One: If it's not already selected, select the sphere.

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Step Two: Re-open the attributes editor if it was closed.
Step Three - Go to the tab pSphere.
Right click on the Y translate axis value and go to pSphere1_translateY.output...
This takes you to the pSphere1_translateY node.
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Step Four: To show one of the features, check use curve colour.
Now click on the swatch to change the colour to any colour you need.
Now in the graph editor that colour is used on the curves.
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Also, that colour is used on the timeline.
This helps the organization process if you have a lot of key frames.
1.6 Summary:
In this unit we learnt to work with Graph Editor, understanding its different component and
functions. We learnt to handle animation curves and editing key frames, moving keys and
manipulating tangents in Graph Editor. We also learnt to use key frames in Nodes to add additional
options to Graph Editor.
1.7 Glossary:
1. Tangents: The tangent at a curve to any given point in a curve is a straight line that
just touches the curve at that point.
2. Components: Components are integral parts or constituents a whole
3. Buffer: A buffer is a middle area between two stages or components.
4. Attributes: An attribute is a factor of an object or any kind of entity
5. Transition: Transition is an element that signals changes or movement from one
phase to another
6. Interpolation: The act of introducing something additional or extraneous between
other things or parts.
7. Linear: Pertaining to a line.
18 | P a g e

1. What are the functions of F curves in Maya
2. What are weighted tangents and non-weighted Tangents.
3. What are the different tangents in Maya Graph Editor.
1.9 Activities
1. Animate using Maya a simple Ball moving from place A to Place B in a linear way
2. Animate using Maya a simple object moving from place A to Place B in different timing
3. Animate using Maya a simple Maya Pendulum moving from place A to Place B through C.
4. Use the F Curves interpolation to get various timings and spacings.
1.10 References
• Maya 3D Animation for Everyone by Roger King; Charles River Media, April 2006
ISBN-10: 1584504706
• Creating 3-D Animation by Peter Lord and Brian Sibley; Harry N. Abrams, November 2004,
ISBN-10: 0810949717
• Introducing Maya 2011 by Dariush Derakhshani; Cybex, May 2010, ISBN-10: 0470502169
• Maya 8: The Complete Reference by Tom Meade and Shinsaku Arima; McGraw Hill/TAB
Electronics, ISBN-10: 0071485961
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Unit 5: Path Animation & Dope Sheet
BLOCK I
Index:
1.0 Objective
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Path Animation
1.3 Dope Sheet
1.3.1 Planning the Dope Sheet in a View
1.3.2 Editing Animation with Dope Sheet
1.3.3 Using Dope Sheet Menu Bar
1.3.4 Using Add Keys
1.3.5 Using the Dope Sheet Outliner
1.3.6 Working in the Dope Sheet View Area
1.3.7 Pop-up Dope Sheet Menu Bar
1.3.8 Sound in Dope Sheet
1.3.9 Select Tool, Move Tool and Scale Tool
1.3.10 Workflow in Dope Sheet
1.4 Key Frames in Dope Sheet
1.5 Summary
1.6 Glossary
1.8 Activities
1.9 References
1|Page
1.0 Objective:
In this unit we will:
• Learn the basics of Path Animation
• Learn the fundamental concepts of the dope sheet
• Edit animation using Dope Sheet
1.1 Introduction:
1.2 Path Animation:
Path animation is an easy way to animate an object along a pre-drawn path. The path is drawn using
the curve tool, then the object is attached to the path.
2|Page
Step One
In the top view, add a CV
Curve to the workspace
(Create > CV Curve Tool).
Step Two
Add a rectangular polygon shape to the workspace by choosing Create > Polygon Primitives >
Cube. In the options, set the Divisions to 1 in all directions and set the Width to 2, Height to 0.5
and Depth to 10.
3|Page
Step Three
Select the rectangle and choose the Move Tool. In the Move Tool options, select Object Space.
The arrows indicate each object axis. For this model the rectangle will travel in the x direction (red
arrow) and y is the up direction (green arrow).
4|Page
Step Four
Select both objects. Choose Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path from the
Animation menu set. Be sure to select the
options.
Step Five
By default, the animation will be for the duration of your current timeline setting. You can change
the start and stop times in the time range section. In this example, we will select the Time Slider
checkbox.
5|Page
Step Six
The Front Axis is Y and the Up
Axis is X as determined in step
three. You can also activate
banking and set the scale and
limit.
Step Seven
Play the animation. If you wish to change any of the settings, click the path and open the Attributes
Editor. Click the motionPath tab and your settings can be updated.
At frame 1
6|Page
At frame 12
At frame 24
7|Page
1.3 The Dope Sheet
The Dope Sheet is another animation editor in Maya that is similar to the Graph Editor. Instead of
displaying curves, the Dope Sheet displays key times as colored rectangles and lets you edit event
timing in blocks of keyframes and synchronize motion to a sound file.
To open the Dope Sheet Select Window > Animation Editors > Dope Sheet
8|Page
1.3.1 Placing the Dope Sheet in a View
Select the view.
Select Panels > Panel > Dope Sheet
1.3.2 Editing Animation with the Dope Sheet
Note that much of the functionality and behavior of the Dope Sheet is similar to the Graph Editor,
and this unit will focus on the unique elements of the Dope Sheet.
Use the Dope Sheet primarily for the manipulating of key times, represented as colored rectangles in
the view area.
The blocks represent integer time units along the horizontal axis, and the vertical axis represents the
items currently loaded into the Outliner. The Dope Sheet consists of four components:
• the Outliner
• the menu bar
• the toolbar
• the view area
The Dope Sheet is available as a panel in a modeling view or as an independent window.
To place the Dope Sheet in a modeling view, select the modeling view in which you want the Dope
Sheet to appear, and then select Panels > Panel > Dope Sheet.
To open the Dope Sheet as an independent window, select Window > Animation Editors > Dope
Sheet.
1.3.3 Using the Dope Sheet Menu Bar
The Edit, View, Tangents, and Options menus operate in the same way as they do in the Graph
Editor.
9|Page
1.3.4 Using Add Keys
The Add Keys Tool places a new key at the time and for the attribute where you click the middle
mouse button. It functions as the Add Keys tool in the Graph Editor with an important exception.
Because the Dope Sheet view area does not display values, using the Add Key tool in this window
results in keys being placed with their value set to the current value of the attribute.
1.3.5 Using the Dope Sheet Outliner
The Outliner hierarchically represents the attributes of selected objects.
The Dope Sheet Outliner differs from the Graph Editor Outliner. The Dope Sheet Outliner
organizes attributes in groups according to type and object. This lets you manipulate entire
collections of attributes at once. For example, all of the rotation attributes of objects listed in the
outliner are summarized and available for manipulation in the Summary group Rotate.
The organization of this grouping descends as follows:
• Summary: all keys all selected objects by attribute type;

• Objects: all the keyed attributes for the selected objects in the Outliner;
10 | P a g e
• Compound attributes: all the individual attributes of a particular type, such as translation,
rotation, and so on
• Attributes: individual attributes are the lowest level of the Dope Sheet Outliner hierarchy.
1.3.6 Working in the Dope Sheet View Area
The view area of the Dope Sheet displays keys, hierarchically along the vertical axis, and time, along
the horizontal axis, as cells or blocks.
Animated attributes are bounded by solid lines to indicate their extents.
The colors of the blocks define the placement of an attribute or group of attributes within the
hierarchy of the Dope Sheet.
• red-all keys of all displayed objects (Summary object)

• blue-all of the keyed attributes for the selected object in the Outliner (object groups)
• green-all of the individual attributes of a particular type, such as translation, rotation, and so
on (compound attributes)
• dark green-keys for unselected individual attributes
• yellow-selected keys
• brown-keys for unselected attributes whose values are zero (particularly useful for working
with the Blend Shapes Editor where zero-value attributes are frequently important)
1.3.7 The Pop-up Dope Sheet Menu Bar
Clicking with the right mouse button anywhere in the view area causes a pop-up menu containing
the Dope Sheet menu bar items to appear.
1.3.8 Sound in Dope Sheet
Loaded sound files will appear in the Dope Sheet view area as waveforms, letting you synchronize
events with sound.
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1.3.9 Select Tool, Move Tool & Scale Tool
In addition to the Dope Sheet tools in the toolbar, the Select Tool, Move Tool, and Scale Tool also
are used to manipulate keys in the view area of the Dope Sheet.
Because of the hierarchical nature of the Dope Sheet Outliner, you can edit groups of attributes by
type. This lets you perform powerful timing editing on large numbers of objects at once.
1.3.10 Workflow in Dope sheet

Step One - Create a cube (create>polygonal primitive>cube).
Step Two - Drag the cube above the grid.
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Step Three - We're going to make our first key frame here. With the object selected, hit S on your
keyboard. This sets a key frame. Make sure that the frame is set to 1.
Step Five - Now go to frame

10.
Step Four - Move the cube
down. Set another key frame (S
on the keyboard with the object
selected). Now play the
animation. Use the image below
to understand the animation
play controls
1.4 Key Frames in the Dope Sheet
Now when you play the animation the box drops at a nice pace. In the Dope Sheet, we're going to
adjust the key frames to make the box drop faster. Open the Dope Sheet by going to
window>animation editors>dope sheet. To get around the Dope Sheet, you can use scroll on your
mouse to zoom in and out and alt + middle mouse button to pan back and forth. Zoom out a bit in
the Dope Sheet and you'll see our two key frames. One at frame 1 and one at frame 10. Here we're
going to speed up our animation. Here's a brief on how key frames work.
13 | P a g e
One frame in an average animation will last one 24th of a second; therefore it takes 24 frames to
create one second of animation. A key frame saves information about an object at any given frame.
For an example, at frame 1 our object is three units up. At frame 10 our object is at the origin
(center of the scene) which means it's at 0 Maya units in any direction. Now, as we play the
animation, Maya will move the object from three units up to 0 over a period of 10 frames. To speed
up this motion, we would move the last key frame from 10 to 5. Now the cube will move over a
period of only 5 frames.
Now let's move our last key frame we created from frame 10 to frame 5.
Step One - Select the last key frame.
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Step Two - Click the move button in the dope sheet then using the middle mouse button, click and
drag it to frame 5.
Now play the animation. The box drops much faster now. It doesn't take too much logic to find out
how to make the box drop slower. Try moving the last key frame to frame 24. Now it'll take a full
second for the box to drop. As you can see, it would take quite a few frames and key frames to make
even one minute of animation. This is the main reason it takes so many animators to make one
movie or 3D TV show. Also, the more you work in animation, the more you'll see that want to work
with more frames per second, creating a smoother animation.
Using the same technique, try creating a ball bouncing up and down on the floor. Also try rotating
an object. Practice timing it by moving the keys. It's very important for an animator to practice
timing. This is the bare basics of creating an animation.
1.5 Summary:
In this unit we learnt how to use path animation and particularly the dope sheet to create animation.
We discussed the various tools and features of dope sheet and learnt how to use the dope sheet to
edit and playback animation. This acquainted is with some of the fundamentals of 3D animation,
which we will be using in the future.
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1.6 Glossary
CV Curve Tool: The CV Curve Tool allows you to define a curve by creating Control Devices.
Maya Primitives: Primitives are basic built in objects of Maya, such as cube, sphere, cone, cylinder,
prism, etc, available both in 2D and 3D. They are basically meshes, basically made up by Polygons,
NURBS surfaces or subdivision surfaces.
Synchronize: Timekeeping which requires the coordination of events to operate a system in
unison.
Manipulate: To manage skilfully
Workflow: A depiction of a sequence of operations and consists of a sequence of events.
Attributes: The characteristic of an object.
Horizontal Axis: Horizontal axis is the x-axis on a graph.

1. What are the function of Bank Scale and Bank Limit in Motion Path
2. What are the different types of Curves available in Maya
3. What are the different time range available in the Motion Path options and name them
1.8 Activities
1. Animate in Maya a simple object moving from place A to Place B. Then change the timing frame
of the object using Dope Sheet.
2. Create an Object in Maya and Assign a path to it and animate according to the path in various axis
1.9 References
• Learning Autodesk Maya 2008: Foundation, Autodesk Maya Press, ISBN 1897177429
• The Art of Maya: An Introduction to 3D Computer Graphics, Alias Learning Tools, ISBN
189717747X
• Learning Autodesk Maya 8: Foundation, Autodesk Maya Press, ISBN 189717733X
16 | P a g e

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#7/113, RAJ CLASSIC, Dr.

RajKumar Road, Rajaji Nagar, Near

Bachelor of Science in Animation

Karnataka State Open University

Reference Book Series

© i-Nurture Education Solutions Pvt Ltd., India

Block I Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

Unit –II Looking Deeper into the 12 points of Animation

1.3 Truly Understanding the Big 12

1.4 Getting in to Animation –CG Style

This is really a function of properly addressing 1(Timing), 2(Slow in/out), 3(Arcs),

1.4.2 Posing (& anatomy)

This is more or less a sub-category of

1.4.3 Non-symmetrical Posing and Performing

This can also be considered a sub-category

Usually if a character takes a pose or moves

1.4.4 Plan Ahead

The principles of Straight Ahead vs. Pose to Pose

The absence of intentionality results in characters looking "moved" rather than

If everything is moving for a specific reason,

This is a principle unique to CG character

Snap is related to timing, and is mostly mentioned in relation to computer animation

1.4.9 Visual Styling

1.4.10 Blend Motion

Since three-dimensional computer animation provides absolute control over camera

assembly of the three-dimensional animatics. The lighting style needs to be addressed

1.4.12 Facial Animation

1.4.14 Solid Modeling and Rigging

1.7 Self Evaluating Questions

Block –I Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

Unit –III Pose-to-Pose Animation

1.3 Straight-Ahead Animation Vs. Pose-to-Pose Animation

Making pose-to-pose animation (or key-frame animation as it is increasingly known) is

1.4 Advantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation

The advantages of pose-to-pose animation generally outweigh the disadvantages; it’s a

1.5 Disadvantages of Pose-to-Pose Animation

1.6 Advantages of Straight-Ahead Animation

The great advantage of straight-ahead animation is that it encourages a liveliness of

1.7 Disadvantages of Straight-Ahead Animation

concentration on the part of the 2D classical animator, something that is an everyday

1.8 Life after Pose-to-Pose Animation Approach

1 Wrist: Keep an eye on these to avoid that stiff, marionette feel.

5 Knees: Watch for pops and skips.

7 Ankles: Check the arcs and watch for pops

14 Cross arcs and overlap for interest.

1.8.2 Line of Action:

1 Have you pushed your line so it reads clearly?

2 Is your line interesting?

1.8.4 Overlap & Follow-through:

1 Is there too much overlap? Is it too soft? (mushy)

1 Are you motions too even across the shot?

9 What would Character A move like compared to character B?

1 Do your poses read clearly in plain black & white?

1.8.8 Motion Pathologies:

Be careful of jarring or awkward positions that stand out

1 Check for IK pops.

1 For visually pleasing images compose on thirds.

7 Avoid overacting. Keep it simple.

1.8.12 That's a Lot to Check:

2.1 Gesture Drawing

2.4 Self Evaluating Questions

BLOCK 1: Basic Principles of Animation and Exclusive

In this unit we will: