1. Introduction to 3D Art and Animation
Introduction to Character Animation and the Eleven Rig

2. Character Animation 1:
The Eleven Rig is a standard industry rig, useful for practicing animation cycles and performances. Animators can render work with this rig and use it in demo reels.
A more advanced rig is the Mery rig:
Watch examples of performance animation at the Eleven Second Club:
Consider these articles, especially “Acting it Out” and “Put it There”:

3. Character Animation2: Books
EXCELLENT ANIMATION TEXTS:
Acting for Animators
by Ed Hooks
Animators are performers!
Learn to perform in order to better animate.
Timing for Animation
by Harold Whitaker and John Halas
An excellent text on how to understand
timing in animation: concise and clear.
Animator’s Survival Kit
by Richard Williams
A comprehensive survey of animation
By the Director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

4. Character Animation 3: Weight
Animation is the art of creating the illusion of weight and expression for your character.
What pose communicates the emotion you are trying to convey? How can you push that pose further, to exaggerate the action?
Always act-out the motion you want to animate. Ideally, record yourself performing the motion multiple times, and use that to inspire poses and timing!
Anticipation is about telegraphing an action with an opposite action first, to prepare the viewer to see the intended motion. Examples include pulling a fist back before throwing a punch, or moving downward before standing up.
Follow-Through is the motion after the action, how the character shifts their weight to balance-out the motion.
Vary the timing of the Anticipation, Action, and Follow-Through to create different experiences of force for the viewer!

5. Character Animation 3: Weight
Key things to consider when animating a character:
Every motion is a Root motion: always animate the character Root (located near the hips) first, and be sure there is root animation in every motion.
Conveying weight in a character is a combination of poses and timing. The up-and-down of the root in a walk is critical for making a character feel like they are moving against gravity, and altering the timing of the up/passing pose can make a huge difference in making the walk feel lighter or heavier. What difference could be made if the passing pose is moved closer to the start of a step, vs moved toward the end?
Don’t forget to animate shoulders (clavicles) and fingers!
Exaggerate motion and work in arcs!

6. Character Animation 3: Weight
Contrapposto: The hips should be rotated in most poses, and the shoulders will typically be rotated opposite. In a walk animation, the hips and shoulders are rotated on Maya’s Y axis for the planted poses, and Maya’s Z-axis for the passing pose. Exaggerating contrapposto can make a character feel more flexible.
Animate with Arcs: It can be easy with IK handles to just move a hand or foot right to where we want them, but organic beings don’t move in straight lines– we move in curves. Try adding a third keyframe between the start and end of a motion, moved off the line of action, to create a curve in the motion.

7. Character Animation 3: Cycles Part 1
WALK CYCLE STEPS for working with the Eleven Rig (and most rigs), Part 1: Preparation 1. Save a new copy of the rig. NOTE: The Eleven rig can only be saved-as an .MA, not .MB. 2. At frame 1, Select each body control and hit [s] to set an initial keyframe on all tracks: feet, knees (pulled forward), hips and root, spines and chest, shoulders, back-elbows (for IK), wrists and hands/fingers. NOTE: CAREFULLY select certain head face controls, test them, and then hit [s] on those you intend to animate, like the head (back oval), jaw, and eyes. Don't key the head scale!
3. Turn on Auto Keyframe toggle, so changes in the viewport are recorded as keyframes. You will animate these poses:

8. Character Animation 4: Cycles Part 2
WALK CYCLE STEPS, Part 2: The Keyframes
4. At frame 10, set each controller for the entire body planted pose. Start with the Root, pulling it a bit down. Move one leg forward, the other back, and arms opposite. Curl spine forward, head up, and rotate hips and chest on the Y-axis for contrapposto, to open the hips Set keyframes [S] on all the same controllers as frame 1, to be sure all tracks are keyed
5. To save time, skip to the end of the animation (frame 40), and set keys [S] to copy the starting pose to the end, for a good loop (animation will stay in place this week)
6. At frame 25, select and keyframe [S] all the same controllers (especially feet and Root), then change the pose so it is the opposite of pose 10 (swap legs, arms, and hands poses, rotate hips and chest opposite)
7. At frames 17 and 33, set the Passing poses: front foot from previous frame stays down, back foot rises, pointing down. Back straightens, head down, hips and chest rotate on the Z-axis for contrapposto. Front arm from previous frame pulls in, back arm lingers lightly back.
8. At frames 23 and 38 set Heel poses-- straighten passing leg so front heel touches the ground at the same spot that the heel will be in the next frame.
NOTE: To copy and past a keyframe, do NOT hit [cmd]+[c]. Instead, select the controller, LeftClick the keyframe  on the timeline (to its right), RightClick and choose Copy, then LeftClick where you want the copy in the timeline, rightClick and choose Paste > Paste.

9. Character Animation 5: Fixing Problems
ELEVEN RIG BREAKAGE
Q. When I hit Play my head comes off! My foot mesh doesn't follow the rig! Why?
A. Usually the problem is a joint was accidentally keframed, when only Controllers should be keyframed. For example, the culprit for decapitation is "h_head_scale_joint" -- find it in the Outliner and delete any keyframes applied, from last to first. Be extra careful to never keyframe anything in the "Do Not Touch" Display Layer -- keep it frozen!
How do I see Eleven Rig eyes in a playblast?
1. in the viewport, Lighting > Two Sided Lighting fixes the eye display issue.
2. to avoid eyes disappearing for a playblast, Show > uncheck NURBs Curves
How do I see Eleven Rig eyes in an Arnold render?
This is an Opacity issue. Carefully select the outer meshes for EACH eye, and uncheck Opaque in the Attribute Editor!

10. Character Animation 6: Maya Animation
CREATING KEYFRAMES: Select a control, hit [s] to set keyframes on all tracks, or RightClick in Channel Box to set keyframes on selected tracks. ALL CONTROLS YOU PLAN TO ANIMATE NEED INITIAL BIND POSE KEYFRAMES AT FRAME 1. Please DO NOT select around everything and hit [s] – select your intended controls one at a time. Be extra careful with the head Controls. Do not unlock the hidden joints in the Display Panel. Turn on Auto Keyframe Toggle. Your first new pose should be at frame 10 (the start of your animation).
COPY/CUT/PASTE KEYFRAMES: In the timeline, RightClick a keyframe (to the right of the red line) to Copy or Cut it, then select elsewhere in the Timeline to Paste > Paste. You can copy and paste an entire timeline for a selected object and time in the Edit > Keys menu.
REVISE ANIMATION IN THE GRAPH EDITOR: Open Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor. Select an animated object in the Viewport. Select one or more tracks to view the keyframes for the selected track/s. These can be selected and moved. In the upper left corner, hit the Region Tool to select a range of frames, which can then be moved or scaled to increase or decrease time or value. To adjust tangents, select the keyframes and hit a new tangent option at the top (“Linear” removes curves between two keyframes) or select the Bezier Handle itself and middle-mouse drag. A selected keyframe can also be adjusted by typing in the time or value desires and hitting [Enter]
VISUALIZE YOUR ANIMATION: Animation module, Visualize Editable Motion Trail or Ghost Selected

11. Character Animation 6: Live Video & Playblast
RECORD VIDEO REFERENCE: You are encouraged to record yourself performing the action to use as reference when animating!
PLAYBLAST: In the Persp viewport Hide spline curves so our rig controls are not in the way.
Set your play range to (or longer, if your walk cycle is longer), RightClick on the timeline, and hit Playblast options. Set size, quality, name, and location, and Playblast!