Secondary Action - Dog Tail

Critical Evaluation 

This is the Secondary Action - Dog Tail exercise playblast, using Autodesk Maya.

The main topic of this project was the secondary action. I began by animating the main action, which is the dog walking. As the story develops, the main action is the character hitting on the box. I believe, that the animation when the character is lifted in the air should be stronger, because in this animation, it appears smooth enough. Additionally, the main action in the end is the dog which attempts to understand what happened, and the motion of the head is very effective, because the slow in and out make the motion believable enough.

While the motion of the walking was completed, I continued with the head turning. This movement is the secondary action of the animation, because the dog is sniffing around and it is not a significant part of the plot. In my opinion, this motion is not realistic enough, because it appears linear. even though I adjusted the spacing in the Graph Editor. After the dog is on the ground again, the secondary actions are the ears lifting and the motion of the tail. In my opinion, the animation of the ears is very efficient, because it portrays the surprise of the dog due to the hit, and the appearance of the cube which it had not noticed, also the timing and spacing are appropriate, giving a fast and believable motion. Furthermore, the animation of the tail is also a successful secondary action. Firstly, it shows the tension of the dog due to the conflict. Secondly, the timing is fast enough and makes the action stronger. However, the stopping of the tail movement in the end is slightly abrupt.

This was a great project because I was occupied with the separation of the main and secondary action and the different elaboration of them.