MA 3D Computer Animation Blog

Author: Anis Ghebache

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Immersion

Unreal Engine – Immersion Project – 3 – Room Design

Now I have some of the basics down, and some clear inspirations. I’ve started getting some ideas going for the main aspects of the game. After considering various approaches to demonstrate computer animation fundamentals, I’ve decided to create a first-person horror experience that builds upon my previous work with “Burlap Friends”. The decision wasn’t made lightly – I want to challenge traditional boundaries of computer animation by incorporating multiple experimental animation techniques that can only truly be experienced through active participation.

The cool thing about making it first-person is how much I can play with animation in ways that can unnerve people. I want to capture and create a unique feeling where the environment you’re in just feels like it’s working against you. Like, imagine looking at one of these creepy plush toys and seeing it twitch ever so slightly – but when you look back, it’s completely still.

I’m thinking of starting with regular curtains, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, when the player walks into a specific trigger zone, or, what I want to have happen as part of the game mechanics, when a certain time frame as passed, something starts peeking through – this creepy, toothy smile appearing between the folds. I’ve sketched out how it could emerge gradually: first just a hint, then more visible, finally revealing this unsettling face with those wide eyes and grin.

I’m exploring different ways the face could appear. Maybe it stretches unnaturally between the curtains, or maybe it should be positioned outside the window looking in – that could add an extra layer of dread since it implies something’s actually outside, watching.

I want to play with lighting, and maybe have it as an important mechanic in the game. The way a light source is positioned in a room can completely change how the environment is perceived. This light source should be a sort of life-line, being a way of notifying the player of dangers and also creating a sense of unease when removed.

Going on from my research prior, I’m going to implement a door hidden behind the bed. This door will be potentially the most derelict object in an already old and withered room, if I go down that route.

It’s funny because all my work with the Burlap Friends shorts has actually been great preparation for this. I’ve learned a lot about timing and how to make things feel unsettling, and now I get to make those moments interactive. Plus, working in Unreal Engine is pushing me to learn proper techniques instead of my usual Cinema 4D shortcuts (no more hiding everything in post!).

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Animation

Week 10 Animation Body Mechanics Blocking

Playing around with reference footage really opened my eyes to some key things. I found that keeping my camera angle consistent between my reference videos and Maya scene makes a huge difference. I ended up setting up my camera on the left view and front view just as I had planned it out, which let me work through the poses step by step without second-guessing myself.

Rather than just working with basic poses, I started experimenting with this really cool proxy rig technique – essentially creating a simplified version with basic boxes to nail down the core movement before getting into the detailed character animation.

The biggest revelation was how much easier it is to focus on one thing at a time. I’d set up these basic box shapes to represent different parts of the body, animate those first to get the overall motion flow, and then transfer that data to the actual character rig. It’s like having training wheels – you can focus purely on the big picture movement without getting bogged down in all the details of arms, hands and feet etc.

(notice how I connected the whole rig + root here oops)
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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Immersion

Week 9 Unreal Engine – Render Settings

We went deep into UE5’s rendering setup. The post-processing volume provides incredible control over the final look, way more than I initially expected coming from Cinema 4D’s more straightforward render setup.

Console commands streamline the workflow – highresshot 1920 x 1080 is a quick and easy way to get a high-res screenshot without having to go through the lengthy rendering process I’m kinda used to. We played with spatial and temporal sampling, pushing beyond the default 8 samples really cleaned up static shots and smoothed out animations.

The render warm-up count helps avoid those rough first frames, giving the engine proper prep time. Working locally versus network made a massive difference in render speeds. Setting everything to cinematic under scalability settings provides that extra polish, though finding the right performance balance takes some tweaking. Coming from C4D, the real-time feedback makes experimenting with different render settings much more efficient, even if the initial setup is more complex.

I have a lot of experience with Octane render, but the viewport isn’t as responsive as UE5’s, also, I can interact with a rendered environment which C4D octane lacks the capability of.

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Animation

Week 9 Animation – Body Mechanics Planning

The jumping poses are pretty straightforward, mapping out that anticipation crouch through to the landing. It’s capturing those key moments of weight distribution that’ll make the difference between a solid jump and one that feels floaty. As you can see, I paid some attention to the compression in the legs, which is going to help sell that force.

Looking at these now, I can already see where I might need to push things in Maya. Some of these poses could probably use more extreme angles, especially in that anticipation before the jump. The timing might need some adjusting too – might play with holding that compressed pose a bit longer to really sell the force of the jump.

These would translate pretty well into blocking. Main beats are there, timing’s mapped out. Should save some headaches later trying to figure out where the key poses need to be.

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Immersion

Week 8 Unreal Engine – Dynamic Lighting


This week, looked into dynamic lighting in UE, exploring how intentional and informed use of lighting techniques can enhance a scene and even contribute to storytelling. The seminar had me experimenting with these techniques firsthand and gave me a newfound appreciation for how light, materials, and atmosphere interact in a 3d environment.

The Lumen system is pretty interesting, though getting it to work right was a bit of trial and error. Had some annoying issues with noise in my renders at first, but figured out it was because I was pushing the global illumination settings too far. Once I dialed those back, things started looking much cleaner.

The different light types were fun to mess around with. Directional lights for sun stuff felt pretty straightforward, but I got really into experimenting with spotlights and point lights for more specific effects. Those rectangular lights were cool for soft lighting, and can help fill in a scene when you dont want to have to decrease the shadow constrast.

Material interaction with lighting turned out to be crucial. Adjusting the albedo before adding lights helped optimize the global illumination. Post-processing volumes let you control effects either globally or in specific areas. Adding IES profiles to spotlights made them behave more realistically. Reflections required careful consideration. Using skylight and different reflection types (box and sphere) improved material realism, especially for metals and glass. I found those IES profiles for spotlights interesting – it gives a realistic look that I really like. Had to keep an eye on performance though, especially with ray tracing and high-res reflections.

Post-processing was another thing we touched on, that I found intruiging. Experimenting with color grading through Look-Up Tables (LUTs) showed me how much impact these adjustments can have on the overall mood of a scene. The ability to maintain consistent cinematic tones across different shots feels like a powerful tool for storytelling.

I had a bit of a revelation with post-processing volumes – they’re actually really useful for tweaking specific areas without changing up the whole scene. I’ve been thinking about using them sparingly but purposefully in my project in order to utilise colour theory to my advantage, I’m going to look into being able to change settings mid-gameplay so that I can have it react dynamically.

The most useful thing I learned was probably how to balance different lighting approaches. Sometimes you need that real-time dynamic lighting for specific effects, but other times you can get away with baked lighting and save some performance. Thankfully, I have a decent PC, but if I want to be able to produce experiences that most people can enjoy – I should become acquainted with ways to manage performance.

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Animation

Week 8 Animation – Planning your body mechanics shot

This week focused on understanding body mechanics and the importance of proper planning in animation. We went over how the body moves mechanically – all weight shifts, foot placements, etc that come together to comprise a whole piece.

Rather than just copying movements, we need to understand why they happen – like how weight shifts as someone walks, or how the body prepares before jumping. It’s interesting how much detail you miss until you really break down a movement frame by frame.

I learned about the proxy method too – starting with basic shapes to figure out the main movement and timing before getting into the details. It reminds me a bit of the pendulum exercise, where simplifying things actually helps you understand the core mechanics better.

For our assignment, we need to create a body mechanics shot, choosing from things like:

  • Getting up from a chair
  • Jumping over something
  • Walking up or down stairs
  • Basic jumps
I wanted to do a little planning for an animation I wanted for the game I’m working on, but unfortunately it doesn’t meet the criteria for this week’s assignment

There’s a lot of reference material available – from motion study websites to YouTube channels. The trick will be finding good, clear examples that show the mechanics I want to capture. I’ve noticed in my animations that movements can look stiff when you don’t understand the underlying mechanics, so I’ll be spending time studying references before jumping into Maya.

I’ve been paying more attention to smaller details in my animations, and want to learn more about how intricate movements of fingers and subtle shifts before and after a major action can bring a whole piece to life. By looking deeper into references, I want to start to analyse these interactions at a deeper level.

Getting feedback has been crucial for spotting areas that need work. Having someone look at my animation has been a lifesaver, honestly. When you’ve been staring at the same animation forever, your brain kind of stops seeing the rough spots.

This walk cycle is still not to the best standard and needs a lot of attention. I plan on cleaning it up before I submit on the 10th.

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Animation

Week 7 Animation – Polishing your walk cycle

Here we go over key aspects of polishing a walk cycle, and in this blog entry I will be going over what I had produced so far and what I want to improve on.

Although it has decent posing, the movements don’t feel like they have much weight to them. I have some of the toe roll mechanics down which looks good, with the toes and feet reacting to the movement imposed on them with swings and anticipation.

Here I am instructed to pay close attention to the curves, ensuring that the rotation is and stays consistently fluid. Tz is a little too jittery and betrays any sense of fluidity wheres Ty needs to be more clean and smooth. I snap the feet to the floor in order to give the movement weight but am instructed to use toes in order to create the same effect but in a more subtle manner.

The knees are a good indicator of momentum, as is evidenced in the video above. How knees sweep past each other communicates intentional yet relaxed movement and is key to a realistic, believable walk cycle.

Pointing out the knee and producing a wave-like cohesion will produce better results. The character is moving in 3d space and even though this may look okay from a side angle, I should push to develop a solid overall set of movements here.

I try to draw a figure 8 with the walker’s middle point here, in the front view. It still looks a bit unnatural and robotic due to how I have everything set up. Right now, the animation is also quite rigid. I’ll integrate a squash and stretch to convey weight, making it so the body reacts more to when the feet are planted on the ground.

Overall, it looks good but not perfect. Iterative improvements and self analysis is key.

Categories
3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Immersion

Week 6 Unreal Engine – Control Rig

In this lesson, we went over the control rig in order to create dynamic character animations. This involved setting up skeletal meshes and exploring animation tools like inverse kinematics and spring constraints. Like most things in UE, the process is quite layered but offers a lot of flexibility in how you approach it. I found it interesting how the system blends technical rigging with creative control, letting you focus more on getting the movement right rather than wrestling with the tools.

I started with skeletal mesh setup – you can either get these from Quixel Bridge or make your own. What I found interesting was being able to convert static meshes into skeletal ones, which means you can animate pretty much anything.

Forward and Backward solving was particularly intriguing. I’m fairly familiar with forward solving from playing around in C4D, but backward solving, where bones control the controllers, is a novel approach that’s really useful for extracting animation data. The IK setup really surprised me with how natural it felt. In other programs, I often find myself fighting with IK chains to get them to behave properly, but here it just clicked. I could get limbs moving exactly how I wanted without that usual back-and-forth tweaking that eats up so much time.

Working with the IK chains turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. As I experimented with different movements, I found the system really intuitive – you can adjust limb positions and joint rotations without having to think too hard about the technical side of things.

The spring interpolation system was definitely the highlight for me though. I was testing it out with some simple animations and realized how perfect it would be for the “Burlap Friends” project. Getting those fluid, unsettling movements for the monsters would be much simpler with this setup. Instead of spending ages manually animating each frame, you can create natural-looking motion just by moving the main body. It works great for things like tentacles or tails – the kind of movement that would take ages to animate frame by frame.

The ability to rig complex models like dragons or octopuses shows how versatile the system is. Adding aim constraints for targeted movements (like making a head track an object) feels natural in the Unreal environment. This week gave me a good look at how Unreal handles animation. There’s still plenty to learn with the new terms and workflow, but I can see how it’ll be useful for creating responsive animations.

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Animation

Week 6 Animation – Walk Cycle

This week we explored weight shifts a bit further and also started work on our walk cycles, two key components to a good character animation! Weight distribution and timing are aspects that must work together in harmony in order to give a character life.

A structured pose-based blocking approach helped me visualize how my character is going to walk across the screen. Making sure that the knee controllers were placed in a way that didn’t cause them to pop during the movement was a challenge I didn’t expect, but helped me understand anatomy and physics that comes into play.

Subtle hip swaying can leverage otherwise insignificant aspects of a simple rig in order to convey personality, I’m making sure to keep things simple for this exercise though. I intend to utilize parts of the rig I overlooked such as the toe roll in order to give it a better and more refined look.

Feedback gave me a helpful look into some aspects I didn’t include in this attempt, rotating the body downward to better portray its intention and weight while moving ahead, and also progressing the animation slightly as the knees pass each other in a swinging motion will communicate a sense of momentum.

Raising the heel as the character moves upward adds spring to the movement, and acts as overlapping action with the knee raise.

I notice that the right knee here doesn’t look right, I think I mean to convey a sense of weight shift but it ended up looking unnatural and pop-y. This will be changed in the next iteration, the character also moves too straight for it to look at all relaxed and natural.

Here, I focused on the main poses and had the character move between them. By playing around with the keys and changing a few of the poses I intend to make this weight shift a lot more dynamic and realistic.

Categories
3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Immersion

Week 5: Unreal Engine Physics

This week, we focused on physics-based materials and dynamic simulations.

Fracture Mode

Fracture mode in Unreal reminded me a lot of Cinema 4D’s Voronoi Fracture, but with a built-in focus on physics and interaction. The concept is the same: take an object, break it into pieces, and configure physics attributes. You can control how an object breaks: uniformly, radially for glass, or in clustered chunks.

For one experiment, I simulated a bullet piercing glass, tweaking the radial fracture’s origin point until the crack radiated out convincingly. I loved how easy it was to customise.

Chaos Simulations

When we wanted to simulate dynamic interactions between objects, Chaos Physics came into play. I then set up some cubes to collide mid-air, adding a Chaos Cache Manager and recording the simulation. This is an essential step if you want to render these effects later, as the cache converts the live physics into an editable sequence.

The process of “directing” this chaos was both thrilling and challenging. Everything had to be captured perfectly—from the cubes’ initial collision to the way fragments settled on the ground. It reminded me of C4D’s simulation baking, but in Unreal, the tools for editing and playing back the chaos felt more versatile and tailored for rendering final sequences.

Constraints

Physics constraint actors allowed us to attach objects to each other and control their movement. I did a few pendulum-like setups with objects swinging around their anchor points. It was even more exciting when applied to skeletal meshes. I simulated a mannequin hanging from its hand, the rest of the body responding to the forces in a very natural way.

It reminded me of building dynamic rigs in C4D, where you have to carefully balance movement constraints to make the simulation feel natural. In Unreal, it felt like the system handled a lot of that heavy lifting for you, letting me focus on refining the storytelling. I found myself imagining scenes where characters cling to ledges or objects tumble in chain reactions—a creative spark I didn’t expect from what started as a technical experiment.

Working in Unreal this week felt like building on everything I’ve learned in Cinema 4D but taking it further. The tools in both programs share similarities—whether it’s PBR materials, dynamics, or constraints—but Unreal integrates these tools into a cohesive, real-time system that feels alive.

It made all the difference when in Unreal there was instantaneous feedback, especially while fine-tuning material properties or fracture settings. It was like rendering in a C4D viewport, only without the waits for an age for a preview to load. It’s this real-time responsiveness that kept it flowing, allowing for more experimentation without it feeling bogged down.