Robot #7 Dance - Jabbawockeez

Robot #7 Dance - Jabbawockeez is my Senior Animation Project. It's basically using the same robot character model from my previous project with Kelly Root. In this animation, it acts as somewhat of a spin-off where you just see the robot dancing.

You can watch the original animation where the robot character was involved here.

I want to first give credit to Kelly Root for the design of the model. Since the model was his creation, it would be inappropriate if I didn't give the proper credit where it's due.

My main focus for this animation short is to focus more on the animation aspect. This is my 4th animation project ever using AutoDesk Maya so I'm still relatively new to the capabilities of the program. Out of all the developmental stages of creating an animation with Maya, my weakest area by far is animating. As shown in my previous animation, the scenes where I worked on where extremely weak, especially compared to Kelly's animation. I really wanted to improve on this aspect so I made it my focus on this animation, taking everything I learned from Kelly last project and other resources and put them together to see what I can do.

The setting and other objects in this animation are relatively simple and nothing complicated. They're all very simple objects to make and since the camera will not move, I didn't feel like it needed any more than what's been occupied already. The lighting is unrealistic. Again, the main focus on this animation is the animating and everything else isn't the main focus.

The choreography I used as a reference is a performance done by Jabbawockeez in America's Best Dance Crew Charity Event. The soundtrack I used is from the same performance as well. Because it's a live event, the soundtrack has cheering and applause from the audience in it. I never got around to try and filter it out. Also, the soundtrack used abruptly ends at a certain point so the ending of the animation seems really sudden. By the time I realized this, the project was near its due date so there wasn't much I can do about it.

This animation took about 4 months to complete. Pretty much the expected time frame given my schedule that includes work and homework from other classes. I didn't run into many problems this time around with the program itself. The only real problems I've run into during this project is mostly from the creative standpoint. I didn't entirely want to copy the entire choreograph by the Jabbawockeez so at certain points, I had to put in some of my own choreograph in. Also, I tried to include the animation principle, exaggeration, so incorporating my own choreograph into it gave me a chance to play around and come up with something that fits under that principle. I had some timing issues, mostly the ease-in and ease-outs so there are some areas that could definitely use some of that. The rig built for the robot is limited in some areas so there were some parts where I had to really improvise to get the result that I wanted.

Overall, I really love this project. By far, I think this is the best project I've been able to produce. Watching this after watching my previous projects with Maya, I can honestly say that I've improved with each project I do. I'm still learning the art of animation and I want to continue to improve in that field. For now, I'm particularly proud of this animation.

This project was shown at University of Utah's Animation Screening, part of University of Utah's annual EAE Week on April 24, 2013. A video link for this animation can be found under the "Completed Projects" tab at the very top.