Bison Animation Project

Introduction

Project Overview: At the beginning of this year, I was assigned to animate a quadruped, specifically a bison. Quadrupeds, such as horses, bulls, dogs, or cats, have different weight distributions at their front and hind legs, making their locomotion look and feel different.

Objectives:

• Crop out the Atlases and reassemble the assets to import into Spine.
• Animate the bison by referencing in-game footage of various win scenarios and special features.

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Process

Step 1: Cropping and Assembling Atlas into Usable Spine Image Assets

• Extracted individual images from the atlas.
• Reassembled them into the correct order and structure for Spine.

Assembling images in Photoshop.

Step 2: Rigging and Animating the Bison's Head

• Began with the head animation, which felt more manageable.
• Focused on facial expressions and head movements.

Rig attempt 1: head movements as main focus.

Rig attempt 2: remove excessive bones for easier limb controls.

Step 3: Animating the Bison's Gait

• This was the most challenging part due to the complexity of the limb movements.
• Used real-life references from animation groups and online resources.

Yellowstone Bison running (source: Youtube).

• Sketched out the side view walk cycle first to better understand the movement.

Walk cycle sketches observed from real footage.

Bison animation separated into different events: Idle, Pawing Ground, Charge.

Step 4: Animating a Wild West Background

• Created a Wild West-themed background to enhance the animation.

Level 1 Background.

Level 2 Background.

 

Animated with the game UI in consideration.

 

Step 5: Animating the Hoof's Impact on the Sand

• Added secondary motion and effects to make the hoof impacts more realistic.

Sketches to study on hoof impact on sand (Image source: shuttlestock video).

Final animated sequence.

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Challenges and Solutions

NG (Not Good) Scenes.

1. Fumbling with Meshes in Spine:

• Initially struggled with using bones and weights on the meshes.
• Solution: Focused on facial expressions first to build confidence before tackling limb movements.

2. Understanding Limb Movement Patterns:

• Difficulty in recognizing the pattern of limb, head, chest, and back movements, especially from the front view.
• Solution: Used side view sketches to extrapolate front view movements and emphasized clear arcs in the animation.

3. Ensuring Clarity and Realism:

• Struggled with making the hooves’ front and back positions clear from the front view.
• Solution: Utilized color shading and size adjustments to convey movement direction.

4. Looping and Transitions:

• Ensured that looping animations had smooth transitions by matching the first and last frames.

5. Impact Realism:

• Realized that the hoof lacked impact on the ground.
• Solution: Added sand effects