Animate a Jelly in Motion

Jelly rig swim cycle with caustics

In this beginners' animation tutorial, part of our series on animal and creature animation, we show how to animate a cute "jelly" in motion. The tutorial uses the free "Jelly" rig which you can find here at Animation Buffet - a great source of free rigs for character and creature animation.  

Jelly is a very simple rig - but gives a good range of movement and also facial expressions. 

Jelly Rig Introduction

Watch this short video to see how to use the Jelly rig
 

Jelly Rig

Free "Jelly" Rig from Animation Buffet

The tutorial uses the free "Jelly" rig which you can find here at Animation Buffet - a great source of free rigs for character and creature animation.  

The Jelly is a very simple rig - great for beginners - but it gives a good range of movement and also allows for squash and stretch and facial expressions. 

Jelly Thumbnails

"Jelly" 32 frame swim cycle

To get started, take a look at the thumbnails on the right. The jelly cycle is designed to be a looping 32 frame cycle, where frame 1 and frame 33 are the same. 

The extreme half way point is frame 17, which is the "up" part of the cycle. 

Jelly Animation by Daniel Baidoo

To see some excellent animation done with the "Jelly" rig (showing that it can also be used for Lipsync and dialogue), check out the Jelly animation by Daniel Baidoo below:

Jelly Animation Tutorial

You can find the "Jelly" animation tutorial below:

Jelly Animation Part 1 - Setting the Scene

https://vimeo.com/842779525

Jelly Animation Part 2 - Jelly "swim cycle"

https://vimeo.com/842779596

Add Caustics

To add caustics, use Maya's Content Browser to add an underwater light effect.

1. Windows/Content Browser/FX/Fluids/Ocean Examples/Underwater Caustics

2. Select the Underwater Camera and Look Through Selected. This is your camera view

3. Scale down the Jelly (Scale to 0.01) and position the Jelly in front of the camera. 

4. Render a frame using the Maya Software Renderer

5. Render a Sequence of Frames so that the Jelly swims in front of the camera

Animal and Creature Animation at Animation Apprentice

Gorilla animation by Michael Davies

We have many resources here at Animation Apprentice for students looking to learn how to animate animals and creatures. 

To get started, see the blog posts below:

• Animal Anatomy for Animators
• How to Animate a Quadruped Trot
• Leopard Walk Tutorial
• Dragon in Flight Tutorial
• How to Animate Quadruped Transitions
• Horse Animation - Best Free Horse Rigs
• How to Plan Animal & Creature Animation
• How to Animate a Dinosaur Walking
• How to Block Out Creature Animation
• How Framestore Use Live Action Reference to Create Great Animation
• Animal Locomotion for Animators - Free eBook from Stuart Sumida
• Leopard Rig by Truong - How to Use It
• Animate Quadrupeds with Michael Schlingmann
• Spider Animation Tutorial
• Crow in Flight Tutorial
• Animation Locomotion for Animators - Free eBook from Stuart Sumida
• The Five Key Rules of Animal Anatomy with Stuart Sumida
• Stuart Sumida Explores the Principal Animal Gaits
• Butterfly Animation Tutorial
• Dinosaur Walk Tutorial

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.