Internship Work #1

(time taken: 2 days total)

For the first work I had to do for my internship at Image Creative, I had to animate a butterfly going from one place to the next. The butterfly had to think for a moment before it landed at the second place.

I used Truong CG's 'Boxy Butterfly' Maya rig for the shot, as it was the only butterfly rig that was readily accessible to me. Prior to this shot, I had created two test animations using the rig: a flying cycle, and another basic shot.

With these two tests, I had learnt how the rig worked, and how I can use it. Butterflies are naturally very lightweight, and fly very quickly, due to their nature as small insects. This, along with the fact that the scene was staged in such a way that we can't see the butterfly emote, presented a challenge to show the pause in thought that was required for the shot. The exaggeration and anticipation principles of animation were necessary to convey the desired feeling for the shot. The flight pattern of the butterfly in the shot is not like the flight pattern of a real life butterfly; there is a lot of stop-and-go movement. But this exaggeration in the anticipation and timing were needed to properly convey the movements.

This was also my first time adding environmental interaction in any of my animations (i.e. the flower movement as the butterfly takes off and lands). For this shot, it was as simple as moving the pivot of the objects and the rig's master control, and rotating them when needed.

- Zayd