Animating Vivien

The animating I could do for Vivien was a bit limited due in part to the simple rig I had done and also the skinning of her skirt. I had done the skinning in a way so that the skirt would move but not too much and not too crazily. However this restricted the amount she could move and I had to keep that in mind when animating.

Going into the animating phase the sequence I had in mind was Vivien being dropped down onto the concrete block we had filmed, walking forward then being picked up and dragged back to the centre like a puppet and waving and curtseying when she is put back down. This came as a great challenge and with the limited time I had I had drop everything else in order to get it done.

When I had blocked out the keys and began to really fine tune the animation I came across many problems when it came to moving the rig. My main problem was getting the proper weights behind her movements especially when it came to the part where she gets picked up and dragged back. It looked completely unnatural and when I presented it to my teacher for advice on how I could fix it he simply told me that I wouldn't have enough time to fix it and I would be better off leaving it out.

Removing that part of my animation meant that everything after it had to be re-keyed. This was a rather quick process and the animation moved smoothly and her movements were nice. I spent quite a bit of time moving her arms around until I got the movements I wanted from her. This meant instead of waving as she stepped forward she swept her arm out as if she were presenting herself to the audience and then finishing with a curtsey.

Her movements are very light as she's a doll and doesn't have much weight anyway and they're also very artificial looking as if she were pre-programmed to move that way or as if she was being controlled.
Her walk is very rudimentary and looks as if it's a child who only just learned how to walk because she doesn't know how to walk properly on her own.
Her hands and arms remain rather stiff throughout the animation and that's a result of restrictive 'doll' movements. As a doll/puppet her arms and legs move in a more restricted way when compared to a more organic character.
To get these movements I watched some Barbie Doll stop animation videos on YouTube and noted how they moved and also watched some puppet videos with puppets controlled using strings. I noted how they move and how they're restricted by their structure. I also made note of how the dolls and puppets look without seeing and how their joints won't move during some movements or how things like their shoulders will stay the same while their legs move.

Here is the final animation: