In WEEK 05 of Computer Animation Fundamentals, Professor Ting Liu explained to me the concept of pose to pose animation and how it is used to plan and execute animation in a clear and structured way. She began the session by emphasizing the importance of planning before starting any animation. She explained that:
“Having a clear goal for the animation helps in making strong decisions throughout the process, especially when working with key poses and timing.”
Professor Ting showed me that pose to pose animation starts with defining the final objective of the action. For example, if the animation is about a punch, the most important frame would be the moment of impact. From there, the animation is built by working backwards and forwards, deciding what the starting pose is and how the character reaches that final pose. This approach helped me understand that animation is not random movement, but a carefully planned sequence of actions.
She then explained how to break the animation into key poses and once they are established, additional keyframes can be added in between to support the action and improve clarity. This method made it easier for me to understand how blocking works and how poses are connected to create believable motion.
For the WEEK 05 assignment, Professor Ting asked me to use the Franky character poses I created in the previous week. I was required to select any two poses and create a pose-to-pose animation between them. One pose had to act as the starting point, while the other served as the ending point. My task was to demonstrate how the action transitions from one pose to the other by carefully placing keyframes and adjusting timing.
Step 1: Choosing the Start Pose
Step 2: Choosing the End Pose
Step 3: Planning the Animation
Step 4: Composing the Final Animation
Step 5: Rendering the Animation
Step 4: Receiving the Feedback
After I submitted my animation, I received encouraging feedback from Professor Ting as she mentioned
“ One of the most important things in character animation is to check whether the hip movement is working properly, although hip was moving in your animation, it needed to be pushed further, The hip movement should be more exaggerated to give a stronger impact and make the entire body feel freer and more dynamic.”
“using reference is very important, and it helps a lot if the reference is placed side by side with the animation while working.”
This week helped me better understand how strong poses, hip movement, and reference all play a key role in making character animation feel believable and impactful.