Elsa's Super Animation

Month: April 2026

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2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques

Week 12 Blog: Breathing Animation & Dialogue Shot Feedback

This week, Ting’s workshop was Breathing Animation. We needed to use the monster rig provided by the teacher to create a simple breathing animation. Although this exercise seemed basic, it still required attention to many details, such as the rise and fall of the chest, the shift of body weight, and the natural rhythm of breathing. Through this exercise, I realised that even though breathing animation has very small movements, it can make a character feel more alive.

At the same time, Ting also gave me feedback on my Assignment: Dialogue Shot. She thought that my character’s facial expressions were not lively enough, and that the facial changes could be more natural and layered. She also reminded me that the camera framing could be more selective. If the body does not have much animation, it does not need to be fully shown in the shot. The camera can focus more on the character’s face and the key performance area, so the audience can pay more attention to the character’s emotional expression.

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Term3-sara

Week 12 Blog：Intro to VCam

This week’s session was Intro to VCam. Sara introduced the basic concept and usage of the virtual camera. VCam refers to Virtual Camera, which allows us to control the virtual camera in Unreal Engine 5 through a phone or tablet, simulating the way a real camera is used in filming.

Compared with directly setting camera keyframes in the software, VCam feels more intuitive and closer to real shooting. By moving and rotating a handheld device, we can control the camera’s position, angle, and movement, such as dolly-in, dolly-out, panning, or creating a natural handheld camera feeling. This gave me a new understanding of Unreal Engine 5’s real-time creative functions.

I felt very happy in this class because I learned a UE5 feature that I was not very familiar with before. It not only makes the process of shooting virtual scenes more flexible, but also shows me how digital creation and real cinematography can be more directly connected. VCam is not only a technical tool; it can also help creators explore camera language, spatial relationships, and ways of viewing more freely.

Categories
2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques

Week 11：Facial Animation III & Workshop: Overlap

This week, Ting’s class focused on Facial Animation III: Dialogue Shot – Lip Sync. The teacher explained the basic workflow of dialogue animation, including Blocking, Blocking Plus, and Polishing. I learned that when creating a dialogue shot, we should first set the key poses and facial expressions, then add body movement, mouth shapes, and timing, and finally refine the details.  

In the Lip Sync section, I learned that mouth animation should not simply match every word, but should respond to the sounds. The teacher emphasized finding the accents in the sentence first, then animating the jaw opening, adding the main phonemes, and polishing the final mouth shapes. Different sounds require different mouth corners and lip shapes, so lip sync needs to work closely with the rhythm of the audio.

This week’s workshop was Overlap. We needed to use the provided sea monster file to animate it swimming, showing good follow through and overlap on its body and fins. This exercise helped me understand that different body parts should not move at exactly the same time. Instead, they need delay and drag, which makes the animation feel more natural.

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Term3-sara

Week 11 Blog：Unit Intro

This week, Sara introduced the direction of the A&E Unit, the project requirements, and the main creative focus for this term. I understood that this unit places more emphasis on research, experimentation, and critical thinking, rather than simply producing a traditional animation piece.

The two briefs provided by Sara were both very inspiring to me. The first brief, “Fragments of the Real / The Artificial,” focuses on photogrammetry, urban space, fragments of reality, and the relationship between physical environments and digital worlds. It suggests that absence, distortion, and fragmentation are not necessarily limitations, but can become conditions for generating new narratives. This made me realise that animation does not always need to pursue completeness or realism. Instead, it can use broken structures, deformation, repetition, and unstable visual language to express emotion and lived experience.

The second brief, “Expanded Animation / Context and Practice,” presents animation as a system for constructing, simulating, and questioning worlds. It encourages us to develop projects from our own research interests and to experiment with non-linear animation, real-time environments, installation, or hybrid media forms. This connects closely with the direction I want to explore next.

I plan to continue investigating stylised animation and create an experimental animated work, rather than focusing only on conventional storytelling or character performance. I hope to develop a stronger visual style through black, white and grey tones, textures, lines, fragmented scenes, and unreal spaces, in order to express a psychological state or a wider social feeling.