Animating Ninja – ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR/AE
Introduction
In adobe illustrator and after effects. we are able to rig and animate a ninja character limb-for-limb and learn how the rigging process works.
When animating this character, we keep each feature of the character in a separate group so that we can animate everything independently.
We have to name independent parts of the body and separate them so they can move individually. This means we can animate easier in After Effects.
In After effects, we have to change the pivot point of the head so that when it rotates it looks accurate. When everything is separated, such as the feet and the legs etc, we have to pair them up with the correct corresponding parts. This is called ‘parenting layers’. For example, we would parent the head to the body, the feet to the legs etc.
The layering we did in Adobe Illustrator has carried over into After effects, as the layers are organised in a way that allows us to see the character in the best way possible with the most detail. For example, the main body is beneath the arms and the head but if we move it to the top, it will cover up limbs etc.
We used the whip tool to connect the different parts of the character together and ‘parent’ them to one another.
Next we need to give the character a neck. For example, if we were to want the character to look up, the giant gap between the head and body shows that there’s no neck for the character yet.
We need to open the right file in Illustrator and go to the layers. Hide the head layer temporarily and press ‘A’. ‘A’ is the hotkey for the direct selection tool. This gives our layers points that we can individually select and move. So for the neck, we select it with ‘A’ and move the point up into where the head would be.
Now we have a shape behind the head, appropriately coloured and it acts as a bridge between the head and the body so that when the character looks up, it no longer looks broken.
Use ctrl + s to save and it will shortly update to After Effects.
We use ‘Y’ to get the pivot point of the neck and arms and rotated the limbs etc to make sure they move in the right place. We removed the parenting from both of the legs because we need them to be their own parent for the calves and the feet. This is so that they can move all on their own.
We changed the background to white to give a cleaner look when we export the character. We then added a time range of only 1 second as that is all it’s going to take to complete an angry walk cycle.
We used 24 frames, this makes it easier to plan and map out where and when each animation needs to be and 24 is a number that can be divided easily.
To give this character the visual effect of being angry and having an angry walk cycle, we need to make certain alterations such as changing the angle of his body, the way his arms move, and the way his legs move. We rotate the body forward and link the head to the body using the whip tool.
Remember to click the stop watch next to the layers on the bottom left to time the animation. The rotation needs a start, middle and an end.
We added frames to the first leg along the timeline so it was able to have the visual affect of moving back and forth. The leg is very straight when it moves, it would flow better if we added joints and bent the knee where appropriate.
We animated the contact to the ground with the first leg, added more emphasis to the joints in the leg and now he has taken his first step.
The position of his leg needs to be in proportion to the position of his body. It is important that everything is scaled correctly and looks normal, in terms of human anatomy and walk cycles. In this image above, the leg’s orientation makes sense here and it looks normal.
After adding the keyframes and making sure the leg bends in the correct way and reaches contact in the right way, we have one of the legs animated all in a one-second time frame. The animation looks like it takes longer than one second when I focus on it. But the time line beneath shows me how long it really lasts, I think that’s a cool effect it has on the human mind.
We make the foot or the toes move a little more independently than the rest of the leg to make the animation look a little more fluid and less robotic. We need to make sure the pivot point of the foot is attached to the calf of the leg. The toes need to be the part of the leg that makes first contact, and when the leg comes forward – the toes come forward first before the rest of the leg. Furthermore, when the leg is pulling back, the heel comes back first.
Here we have the different joints and areas of independent movement of the leg. Next we do the same to the other leg, whilst keeping in mind for the duration of the process that he is expressing an angry emotion.
At the bottom left, there is a toggle switchers option which enables ‘shy guy’. This gives us the ability to click and drag all of the layers for animating.
Using P+Shift+R on the second leg, we rotate and bend the back leg and turn on the keyframes. Here we are bending the joints as the leg moves back.
Ensuring that the pivot point is correct for the knee and the foot. If we copy all the keyframes of each layer, trying to cut corners, it could lead to duplicating all of the layers again. We have a start, end, and middle frame for the legs. It is important to always establish these parts of the cycle first.
Without the rest of the body, we can clearly see that the legs are looking realistic in terms of proportions and positioning and the walk cycle is relatively accurate for the emotion we’re going for.
Ctrl + P is used to activate a new tool, called the puppet pin tool. Our first puppet pin is going at the toes of the right foot, as well as the very tip of the foot. The puppet pins allow us to rotate the foot around where the pin is placed. If we place another pin at the heel of the foot, we can create an anchor for the foot, so that when we rotate the end of the foot and the toes, it creates the arch/bridge of the foot.
In areas where the foot would normal bend a little, we used the pin points. When the foot comes back in the cycle, we need to bend the toes as the foot leaves contact with the floor.
As the foot comes forward, it has a slight bend to the toes too;
And before the next contact, the foot goes back into a resting position. We repeat this process on the next foot, using the puppet pinpoints.
We are starting to animate the arms. First, we animate the opposite arm to the leg that is forward. We need to make the movements rigid and harsh, as this is most suitable for an angry walk cycle. Make sure to avoid giving our character free and loose arm movements, as if he were happy.
For more detail, we can add a pivot point to the wrist which will allow the wrist to move as the arm is moving, giving the animation more to look at. However the difference is subtle, it still makes the movements appear more fluid.
We can do the same for the other joints, such as the elbow. The elbow is likely to bend as the arm is coming up, and the wrist will bend with it. This makes the character’s attitude seem serious or angry and focussed.
We have animated the cape to lift up from the body when he is walking and move up and down steadily to resemble the air or movement of the cape.
When exporting into Photoshop, use 25 frames.
Conclusion
This character walk cycle was the first cycle we had to do in this workshop. At first it was pretty easy to understand and follow along with. However this software introduces a lot of new features and functions all at once and it can get a little overwhelming.
Leah Morrell Games Designer 