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Pratt Institute
Department of Digital Arts
Instructor: Prof. Claudia Herbst-Tai
Course: 3D Character Animation, DDA 517


Assignment I

Expressing Weight: Pushing, Pulling, Lifting







Summary: The purpose of this assignment is to convincingly express weight by animating a character as he/she pushes,
pulls, or lifts an object or obstacle. The final animation is due nine weeks into the semester. (The exact date will be announced in class.)

Character designs are required to include two arms and two legs of reasonable length. In other words, a regular bi-ped.... no tails, wings, etc.
There will be no facial animation the character's body-language will be the key to story telling
The camera has to be static: cuts are allowed but no movement...
Students begin by sketching out their character's action and frame composition for each shot


Length: This animation may be no shorter than 8 seconds and no longer then 15 seconds.
(Title and credit slates do not count; scenes can be looped or recycled.)

Deadline: The final animation is due nine weeks into the semester. (The exact date will
be announced in class.)

Requirements: For the completion of this assignment, each student is required to...

1) ...complete motion and shot sketches

2) ...present weekly motion tests on tape & actively participate during critiques.

3) ...submit a final, fully rendered animation that convincingly demonstrates
a sense of weight. The animation has to be handed in as an uncompressed
Quicktime movie on DVD.