Hello, my name is Mr. Coxhead and it's great to see you joining me for today's lesson that's called Key Frame Animation and Parenting Objects.

Let's get started.

The outcome for this lesson is I can create an animation using key frames.

And here are the key words.

Timeline.

A visual representation of time on which frames can be sequenced.

Key frame.

A marker that captures the most important positions or states of an object.

Tweening.

The process of automatically generating frames between two points.

And parenting.

The process of nesting objects within other objects.

There are two parts to this lesson today.

The first one, we're going to look at how we can animate with key frames, and in the second part, we're going to look at how we compare and organise objects to keep our scene tidy and to make it easy to work with.

Let's get started on the lesson.

Look at the 3D model below.

What shapes do you think we'll use to create the model? Pause the video if you'd like some time to think.

So the model was created with three cones under cylinder.

Remember, these are what we call primitive shapes and they're usually the starting point to get the main shape of our models.

Animation is the process of capturing still images that can be replayed to create the illusion of movement.

There are five main types of animation.

Traditional or cell animation, 2D vector animation, 3D animation, motion graphics, and stop motion.

Let's take a look at these types of animation.

So traditional cell animation, each frame is hand drawn on paper or digitally on a computer.

Here we can see we're playing back the frames at one frame per second.

When we play them back at speed, it gives the illusion of movement and this is the oldest form of animation and it's what was used on the early cartoons.

The faster we play these speeds back, the smoother the animation.

In 2D vector animation, images can be manipulated in software to speed up the production process, and this technique is often used on websites, TV shows, video games and cartoons.

In stop motion animation, physical objects are moved before each frame is manually captured.

And materials such as clay and plasticine are ideal choices for models in this style of animation.

In motion graphics, use of shapes, text and objects add impact to a message.

Motion graphics are often created to add impact to video titles, logo graphics, and digital advertisements.

In 3D animation, computers are used to create moving images in a 3D environment.

So this type of animation can produce very high quality 3D content for use in movies, visualisations and video games.

In 3D animation, a timeline is used to visualise the sequence of animations.

This animation starts at frame one and it ends on frame 24.

It also has a total of 24 individual frames.

Key frames can be set on a timeline, and a key frame is a point that defines the start and end of a smooth transition of an object.

In this example, key frames have been set on frames one, 12 and 24.

Tweening is used to automatically generate frames in between the key frames.

In this example, tweening has been used to create frames two to 11 and 13 to 23, and this has created the illusion of a smooth movement between those key frames.

And tweening saves animators lots of time and effort.

There are several advantages to using keyframe animation such as faster to make the animations, easier to edit, smoother animations and repeatable.

So you can use the same animation for somebody walking in a different shot.

Many different applications can be used to create 3D animations.

Blender is an open source 3D modelling and animating application that is free to use.

You can use whatever software you have access to in this lesson, but just keep in mind they may look a little bit different than the examples when I use Blender.

Keyframes can be added to an object's timeline by selecting an object and pressing the I key.

Each object in a 3D scene has its own timeline, and this means that more than one object can be animated in the scene.

Key frames can be edited on a timeline to improve the animation sequence and playback.

3D animating with key frames can be used to add realism, dynamics and fun to 3D models and scenes.

Here's a video clip on how to animate a snowball.

Here we are inside of Blender and we're going to take a look at how we can animate a snowball into the snowman's head.

Once the snowball has hit the snowman's head, the head is going to fall onto the floor.

So the first thing to do is to make sure you're on frame one and press I to insert a key frame for the snowball.

Move along the timeline to frame 20, and then move the snowball across to its final position and press I to add a key frame.

We can move back through the timeline to check that it's okay.

We're then going to select the snowman's head and press I to add a key frame, move along the timeline to frame 40, and then we're going to move the snowman's head into its final position.

And remember, tweening is used to fill in the frames in between these key frames.

Press I to add a key frame.

And now we can play our animation.

Once we have our basic animation, we can decide to adjust the key frames to change the timings of the animation.

And this can just make it look a little bit more realistic or add a little bit of fun to the scene.

Feel free to play around these settings and find what works for you.

We can also change the number of frames.

In this case, we've set it to 50 frames.

We can now rewind and play the animation.

Welcome back, and let's have a couple of questions to check our understanding so far.

What is used to state the start and end points of an objects movement on a timeline? Is it A, tweening, B, key frames, or C, motion graphics? Pause the video and think of your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer.

And it is of course, key frames.

Well done if you got that right.

If you didn't, feel free to have a look at the previous content and just refresh your memory.

And the next question is what can tweening be used for? Is it A, to generate frames in between key frames, to state the start and end of an animation, or C, to capture the individual frames when using physical modelling materials? Pause the video and think of your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer.

And it is A, tweening is used to generate frames in between those key frames.

Well done if you got that correct and again, don't worry if not.

You'll get used to things in Blender and how to animate and you can take a look back at previous content.

Let's move on.

And here we are for task A, which is the first task in this lesson.

And we're going to use key frame animation and tweening to create a short 3D animation to knock off a snowman's head with a snowball.

A little tip.

You can use the example Blender scene provided or you can use your own 3D snowman if you have one.

Good luck with this task.

I can't wait to see what you produce.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you really enjoyed that task and had fun animating.

Let's have a look at an example answer.

So here we can see Aisha and she used her own snowman model and she's added a small sphere for a snowball and she's really pleased with her animation.

She goes on to say that she added some key frames to the timeline, so we can see the timeline down here at the bottom underneath the images of the animation.

And she animated both the snowball and the snowman's head to create the animation.

Great to see you using the key frames and getting that really nice smooth animation by using the tweening in between those key frames.

So well done for completing that task.

I hope you had fun animating.

And we are gonna move on now, we're gonna look at the next section of the lesson.

Well done.

In the second part of the lesson, we're going to look at parenting and organising objects.

Let's get started.

Take a look at the scene collection below.

Can you spot the snowman's head in this list of objects? Pause the video and see if you can find it.

Welcome back.

And like Aisha says, "It's really hard to tell." And she knows that the head is a sphere, but there are six of them.

So as 3D models and scenes become more complex, they can quickly become confusing and hard to manage.

There we can see, it's actually sphere 001.

So it's good practise to keep objects and the scene as organised as possible.

Objects should be given suitable names to make them easy to identify and manage.

Can you spot the snowman's head now? Well, of course it's just there.

It's much easier to see when we've renamed parts and they've got sensible names and they're easy to identify.

Look at the scene collection below.

How many objects make up the snowman model? Pause the video and count them.

Welcome back.

So how many did you count? So Aisha has counted them and she's found 12 3D objects in her snowman model, but she wonders if there's a way that she can organise them even more.

And there we are, we can see the 12 3D objects.

So parenting can be used to organise and link objects together in a model or scene.

Parenting is the process of nesting objects within other objects.

And parenting keeps more complex models organised and makes animating multiple parts of a model much easier.

Objects that are stored within a parent object are said to be nested and it's similar to grouping.

In this example, the eyeballs are nested inside the head and the pupils are nested inside the eyeballs.

If we expand this out a little bit, it's more easy to see.

And this model is organised in this way and it makes sense for this particular setup.

But all different 3D models will be organised differently.

So use whatever makes sense for your model.

It's straightforward to nest objects inside of a parent.

To nest objects, select the object to be nested, make sure the final object selected is the parent.

Press shift and P or command and P and select object from the popup menu.

Note that the final object selected should be the parent and the parent should have a lighter highlighted border than the children.

Alternatively, click to select an object, hold Shift, and then drag and drop the object onto the parent.

Nested children object can be accessed by expanding the parent object in the scene collection.

And when a child object is linked to a parent object, the child inherits the movement of the parent object.

If the parent object is moved, rotated or scaled, the same happens to the child.

Nested children object can be modified without affecting the parent object or the other nested children And children objects attached to a parent can be removed if necessary.

To remove a child from a parent object, press Alt and P or Option and P and click on the clear parent from the proper menu.

If a parent object is animated, the children will also follow the animation.

And parenting is an important part of setting up objects when animating.

And here we have a question to check our understanding so far.

Child objects inherit the movement of their parent object.

Is this true or false? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer.

And the answer is, of course, true.

Child objects do inherit the movement of their parent.

Well done if you got that correct.

If you didn't, don't worry, you can always go back through the previous content.

So look at Aisha's snowman animation.

And how do you think it could be improved? Well, Jacob, he thinks that Aisha's snowman would look better if the nose and eyes fell off along with the head.

And Aisha agrees and thinks it's a great idea.

And she's had a thought, maybe she could parent the nose and eyes so they fall off with the head's animation.

And Aisha's right, she's remembered that child objects follow the movement of their parent objects.

Here's a question to check her understanding so far.

What is parenting? Is it A, the process of nesting objects within other objects? B, the process of automatically generating frames between two points? C, the process of renaming objects so they are easy to identify? What do you think, A, B, or C? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back and let's take a look at the answer to the question.

And the answer is of course, A.

So parenting is the process of nesting objects within other objects.

Well done if you've got that correct and if you didn't, don't worry, you can always go back through the previous content.

And we're onto task B, which is the final task of this lesson.

And we're going to use the knowledge that we've learned in this lesson to rename the parts of a model snowman with suitable names so the objects are easy to recognise.

And then we're gonna pair the objects of the snowman.

Finally, I'd like you to edit, adjust and improve your snowman animation.

For example, make the nose and eyes fall off with the head.

Here's a tip.

You can use the example Blender scene provided or you can use your own 3D snowman model if you have one.

Good luck on this task and I can't wait to see what you produce.

Pause the video and have a go.

Welcome back.

And let's take a look at some example answers for this task.

So the first part was to rename parts of the model with suitable names so the objects are easy to recognise.

And here we have Aisha and she's renamed all the parts of her snowman model and each part is sensibly named and easy to identify.

The second part was to parent the objects of the snowman.

And Aisha has parented lots of objects on a snowman model and it's far more organised now and it will be easier to animate.

The third part of the task was to edit, adjust, and improve the snowman animation.

And here we can see Aisha's improved her animation and she's made the eyes and nose fall off with the head and she's also made the hat fall down onto the body, which was a nice touch.

Well done, Aisha.

And Aisha created new animation to make the hat fall and added extra key frames to the snowman head to make it roll as well.

So she's done a great job editing those key frames, moving them around and having fun and improving the animation.

And Aisha even had time to create some more trees and improve the quality and the fun of the scene.

And I think Aisha's animation looks brilliant.

She's done a great job using all those skills that she's learned in this lesson to produce a high quality animation.

Well done, Aisha.

So I hope you've managed to produce a high quality animation too, and you've really enjoyed using all your skills in today's lesson.

You've done a brilliant job.

We're nearly there now.

And let's take a look at the summary.

Animation is the process of capturing static images and replaying them to give the illusion of movement.

Key frames are used to make animations.

A timeline is used to sequence an animation.

3D models and objects should be given suitable names.

And objects can be combined by parenting.

Now, we've covered a lot in this lesson.

You've done a fabulous job and I really hope you feel like you've built some confidence in 3D animating using all those skills.

I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Well done and keep practising those skills.