I mainly focused on refining detailed animations, such as the secondary motion of the straw, and tried to anthropomorphize the juice box to better convey its emotions. At the same time, I aimed to make its movement patterns feel more natural, drawing inspiration from human walking rhythms and the logic of a charged jump.
Among all the animations, the one I’m most satisfied with is the standing-up motion. The juice box uses its straw like a cane to support itself while getting up, which I find both interesting and effective in strengthening the character’s personality.
Category: 3D Computer Animation Fundamentals
I changed my previous creative approach and decided to create a scene inspired by Little Nightmares for this project. I want the atmosphere to feel dark and distorted, with a cold, eerie lighting setup and a monster lurking within the environment. I have explored similar themes before, but only at the 2D stage, such as character design. This time, I aim to bring my ideas to life in a fully realized 3D scene using Unreal Engine.
environment reference：
Planning:
My work:
In the bouncing exercise with the squirrel-tail ball, I focused on the follow-through and secondary motion between the character’s actions and the prop. The ball’s delay, swing, and rebound during the bouncing process provided clear rhythmic references for the character’s movement, helping me better understand the relationship between primary action and secondary motion. By continuously adjusting the bounce height and timing, I realized that follow-through not only enhances the sense of realism but also adds vitality to the overall animation. This exercise made me aware that well-designed secondary motion can enrich action layers and make character movement more natural and expressive.
This week, we explored the fundamentals of character performance. We learned that acting isn’t limited to human roles – animals, plants, objects, and even something as simple as a ball can become compelling characters through expressive movement and exaggeration.
The key to believable performance lies in ensuring every action serves a clear purpose: conveying emotions, revealing personality, or illustrating circumstances.
Ultimately, successful character acting requires that each gesture and movement authentically reflects the character’s inner nature, making the performance both convincing and engaging.
Here is the first version of my animation. The main storyline follows a juice box that wakes up after a fall, struggles to its feet, discovers its injured companion, and immediately administers first aid.
Sad emotion:
Regret emotion:
Using spacing and timing to convey the fall of juice boxes with different physical properties.
This time, I experimented with animating based on my intuition rather than reference footage. It was a valuable exercise, and I look forward to creating a new version after filming reference to compare and refine my work.
Hero pose:
Angry pose:
Sitting pose:
Inspiration:Jinx’s room in Arcane.
This is a hidden place. It’s a safe room, a workshop, and a museum of memories.
Everything here tells a story about the person who lives here. You can see her struggles, her past hurts, her love for pretty things, and the childlike heart she tries to hide. Anyone who sees this space can feel what she feels inside.
Rusty pipes, glowing neon lights, old childhood toys, graffiti, and metal parts – they all tell a story without words. Everything in this room shows who the person is inside.
Rusty pipes, glowing neon lights, old childhood toys, graffiti, and metal parts – they all tell a story without words. Everything in this room shows who the person is inside.
I plan to refine a Jinx-inspired character concept and build a personalized living space for her. This space will use lighting design, object placement, and other environmental elements to create a complete visual storytelling system. Every detail will reflect the character’s conflicting personality and life experiences.
Due to time constraints, I’ll just place the character in a static pose within the scene without animation.
Understanding the follower and joint movement.
Here’s my rough sketch.
Here is my work.
These are some of my daily sketches that help me understand human anatomy and movement.
Pose a golden pose from the rig provided.
Hero pose:
Standing pose:
Happy pose:
Pose Turntable：
In our first week, we dove into the fundamentals of Unreal Engine. We familiarized ourselves with the core interface and workflow, which included key tasks such as sourcing assets from the marketplace, constructing our first level, and establishing an organized file structure. Additionally, we were introduced to essential concepts like applying basic materials to surfaces, and manipulating the World Sky to light our scenes. It was a productive and exciting introduction to the power of UE!
Creating a ball bounce animation from a side view to demonstrate the fundamental principles of animation.
Here’s my rough sketch.
Here is my work.