Beginner Animation – Allan Didier

Goals

Students will learn how to animate objects using keyframes and the dope sheet by creating a simple animation in Blender.

Skills

Animation: timeline, keyframes
Dope sheet
Graph editor

Assignment Details

Animate an object, group of objects, or simple humanoid or animal rig. Your animation needs:

An interesting object or objects have been animated. You can use objects or the rig you created in previous assignments.
Objects have a simple color or texture that helps view the animation.
A simple background allows the animation to be more visible.
The animation has been broken into sections requiring at least 30 keyframes.
The animation is at least 60 frames (~ 3 sec) long.
The animation is smooth.
The animation is lit well. A 3-point lighting system in useful, but not necessary.

Notes:

If you use the physics engine to assist with your animation, you still need 20 keyframes of animation. The physics engine is a great tweening tool, where the computer does the animation between keyframes, but I still want you to control the animation for this assignment by using multiple keyframes.
Blender may smooth too much between keyframes, i.e. the objects at your keyframes get moved to intermediate locations automatically by Blender to make the motion smoother. This is called Interpolation. By default in Blender 4.2, this is set to “Bezier Curve”, which smooths (or interpolates) the motion between keyframes. You can turn this off or actually turn it to linear which does no interpolation between keyframes.
1. Click on the keyframe in your Dope Sheet. Click ” T ” on the keyboard. Choose “Linear” for the Interpolation method.
2. You can also change the default setting by going to Edit – Preferences – Animation – F-Curves – Default Interpolation – Linear.

Previous Student Work

Resources

Blender Fundementals 2.8 tutorials

Keyframes

Timeline

Dope Sheet

Graph Editor

Rubric

Grade / Topic	A	B	C
Object/s	At least one object has been animated. The object has a color/texture that helps with the animation.	At least one object has been animated. The color/texture does not help with the animation.	At least one object has been partially animated. The color/texture detracts from the animation.
Background	A simple background allows the animation to be more visible. The background is visible throughout but not animated.	The background gets in the way of the animation a little bit. The background is visible throughout but not animated.	The background is distracting. The background changes during animation.
Animation Keyframes	The animation has at least 30 parts requiring 30 keyframes. Keyframes have been used well to control the animation.	The animation has at least 20 parts requiring 20 keyframes. Keyframes could be used better to control the animation.	The animation has at least 15 parts requiring 15 keyframes. Keyframes poorly control the animation.
Animation Length	The animation is at least 60 frames long.	The animation is at least 50 frames long.	The animation is at least 40 frames long.
Animation Complexity and Creativity	Animations are smooth. Animations are creative and interesting to watch.	Animations are fairly smooth, but could be better. Animations are simple, but interesting.	Animations are crude, make abrupt changes, and were hastily put together. Animations are boring.
Lighting	The lighting allows the object to be clearly viewed throughout the animation.	The lighting allows the object to be clearly viewed through most of the animation.	The object is poorly lit during much of the animation.