Illusion of Life: Week 2 Loop

Experiment: A Technical Practice of Animating a Bird

This experiment was about getting the timing and the poses of a flying bird animation right. I created a bird rig in Blender and started blocking the poses. After creating a single loop of a flying bird, I then used the NLA editor to add additional poses to the original animation. NLA editor in Blender is similar to the Animation Layer in Maya, although it’s not developed until its full potential yet.

Before doing the flying bird animation, I researched how a bird flies. Having no previous experience in animating a bird, the research period proved to be useful in providing me with knowledge of the correct poses. I also acquire the timing of a flying bird loop in the research too.

After creating a smooth version of the animation, I found out two methods of converting the animation into animated on 2’s. The first was to apply a Stepped Modifier to the animation in the graph editor, while the second was to convert it in the NLA editor. In the end, I chose to use the NLA editor as it provided me with the flexibility of adjusting the smooth version of the animation even after the change.

Reflecting on this experiment, I would like to build up my knowledge of bird movement more just in case I have to animate other bird’s movements in my studio project. It will also help me in my animation career in the long run.

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/_bRxNUpSmWU 

Note: the magi site isn't showing my youtube video for some reason.