Category: Project 1

This week’s job is to get the animation done. That is to complete the animation of the cat’s ears and tail.

The references listed in Chapter 6 are very useful, and many times cat ear and tail movements can be found in the references I listed above. Like a cat’s tail and ears.

In order to facilitate the animation production, I selected the tail and ear parts to form a lot of mel, and formed two mel for the tail. First, the whole tail is one mel, and then the second half of the tail is another mel, so let me It is a lot more convenient when doing animation selection controllers.In order to facilitate the animation production, I selected the tail and ear parts to form a lot of mel, and formed two mel for the tail. First, the whole tail is one mel, and then the second half of the tail is another mel, so let me It is a lot more convenient when doing animation selection controllers.

This image shows keyframes for the ear and tail section. The position with the red vertical line is the position with the key frame.

This week was mostly animation, the animation of the cat’s body part was done.

Cats have a very special bone structure. Studies have shown that cats have widely spaced vertebrae with elastic fibrocartilage interspersed between them, which makes cats more flexible. Compared to large cats, this body structure allows cats to be more flexible. Second, they can rotate the spine 180 degrees, while humans can only rotate 90 degrees.

Cats’ eyes have strong dynamic vision and can see three times as many frames as humans, and high-speed moving objects appear to them as slow motion. However, cats also have a disadvantage, that is, myopia. They cannot focus on objects within 30 cm and can only be judged by their whiskers and smell. This is why cats like to aim at distant objects first and see that they are charging and sprinting.

In fact, there is not much difference in the speed of nerve transmission in various animals. The only difference is probably only the length of the neural circuit, and the cat’s body is much smaller than the human body. The nervous system is much faster than us humans, both in input and output.

When we start from another aspect, that is, the conditioned reflex of neural activity, it is not difficult to find that the cat’s response is faster than our human’s. We all know that the parts below the cerebral cortex of mammals such as The low-level centers such as the oblongata and spinal cord control the low-level neural activities of animals. The basic form is unconditioned reflex. The reflexes mainly include knee-jerk reflex, eye blink reflex, retraction reflex, baby’s sucking, urination reflex, and the unconditioned reflex of feline not only has the instinct of breathing and feeding, but also includes the food reflex. , defensive reflex, hunting reflex and postural reflex to maintain body balance.

For us humans, many unconditioned reflexes are no longer necessary for survival in a long time, but not for animals. For animals, these unconditioned reflexes are actually equivalent to their survival. In the case of external stimuli, in fact, the unconditioned reflexes of these animals are like some of our human actions that can be responded to in an instant without thinking through the brain, but the unconditioned reflexes possessed by humans are similar to those of cats. The unconditioned reflexes of animals are different. Many stimuli for us humans are received from the nervous system, and then analyzed by the corresponding brain regions, and then submitted to the prefrontal lobe for intellectual analysis and decision. …this series of processes is at least half a beat slower than the animal’s unconditioned reflex.

It’s just that for us humans, we humans act with rational thinking, not like animals that do not have the process of thinking to produce unconditioned reflexes to stimuli, so our human reaction speed is faster than a certain It is reasonable for some animals to be slow. After all, every action of human beings requires a layer of rational thinking and choice than animals.

Because the cat’s reaction ability is very fast, the cat’s action frequency is fast and the amplitude is large, so it has caused great difficulties and troubles in the process of making animation.

There are several poses in one second. Moqi’s body often twists from S-shape to reverse-S-shape within a few frames, because the core of the controllers is on his ass, and if you adjust one of the controllers, the others will follow. So while it doesn’t seem like the range of motion is significant, all of the body’s controllers need to be adjusted. Moreover, it is much more difficult to animate a 4-legged animal than a two-legged human. The time it takes for each of his feet to fall and lift is different. These all require frame-by-frame, controller-by-controller adjustments.

It can be clearly seen from this picture. How many keyframes are there for the animation of the cat’s body parts. It’s a really big project!

In order to study cat behavior, I refer to many different books about cat behavior, I have cut out the useful parts and put them in this blog.

猫语大辞典

今泉忠明. 猫语大辞典. 北京联合出版公司, 2016.

Tadaaki Imaizumi. A Dictionary of Cat Language. Beijing United Publishing Company, 2016.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s ears in different moods.

The emotions expressed by the cat’s ears in the four pictures above are fear, vigilance, calmness, and curiosity.

Fear: Shows fear when the cat’s ears are drooping and drooping. It also means to make the other party feel weak and not hurt.
vigilance: When the cat’s ears are turned sideways, it looks angry and alert. Maybe they are preparing to attack the opponent.
Calmness: When the cat is in a relaxed state, the ears are facing forward, and the back of the ears can be seen slightly outward. This is the most relaxed state of the cat.
Curiosity: When the cat’s ears are raised straight up and facing forward, it is focused on observing things of interest, and the back of the ears cannot be seen at this time.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s beard in different moods.

The emotions expressed by the cat’s whiskers in the four pictures above are curiosity and calm.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.

This part is about cats licking their own bodies when something fails.
For example, when you want to jump to a certain height, but unfortunately stumble. As if to confuse the master’s sight, he kept licking his own hair. But even in what appears to be an attempt to hide its failure, cats don’t really care about human eyes. As I said before, licking hair has the effect of calming the mind. The cat licked the fur in order to appease his panicked heart due to failure. In this case the licking time is very short and will end soon.

猫咪不是故意的图解全阶段养猫宝典

[1]浅井亮太, and 林佩蓉. “《猫咪不是故意的》.” 宠物世界：猫迷 8(2017):2.

[1] Ryota Asai, and Lin Peirong. “The Cat Wasn’t Intentional.” Pet World: Cat Fans 8(2017):2.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.

The emotions expressed by the cat’s tail in the above pictures from left to right and top to bottom are coquettish, play with me, relax, be in high spirits, attack, restless, intimidate, fear, don’t attack me.

coquettish: For intimate objects such as female cats, cats will snap their tails up.
play with me: In this case the cat’s tail will turn into an inverted U shape. If you are facing the enemy, it will be intimidating.
relax: When you are relaxed and in a good mood, your cat’s tail will swing slowly and floatingly.
be in high spirits: Cats twitch the tip of their tails slightly when they find something that seems interesting.
Attack: When the cat is ready to swoosh down on its prey, it will lower its body and wag its tail.
restless: When the cat’s tail flaps quickly from side to side, it means that it is in a bad mood.
intimidate: When the cat faces enemies and fears, it will swell its fur upside down, making it look bigger.
Fear: When the cat feels fear, it will move its tail closer to the body to shrink the body.
don’t attack me: Help the cat tuck its tail between its back feet to indicate that it is ready to avoid an attack.

Some behaviors of cats, such as hunting instinct.

This section is about cats’ distraction behavior.
When scolding the cat or when the cat thinks it has done something wrong, it sometimes acts like licking or grinding its paws. This is a transfer behavior to relieve tension or anxiety and to calm down. This behavior can help calm your cat’s agitated emotions from being scolded.

全圖解貓咪行為學

單熙汝. 全圖解貓咪行為學. 商周出版, 2018.

Shan Xiru. Completely Illustrated Cat Behavior. Shang Zhou Publishing, 2018.

Some behaviors of cats, such as hunting instinct.

This section is about the hunting nature of cats. Hunting is a natural and a mission for cats. Even if they are raised to obtain food without hunting, they still need to hunt. And in addition to getting food, there is another great significance for cats, which is to release stress and build self-confidence.

These pages detail cat frustration and the behavioral problems it causes.

When the cat encounters prey (birds, insects, etc.), it will start hunting, and if it fails, it will transfer the target. If the target is transferred correctly, to other flies and mosquitoes, it will build confidence and vent stress. However, if the cat’s target is wrongly transferred, such as transferring the target to the owner or other pets, and it is not corrected for a long time, there will be behavioral problems.

Some frustration for cats.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s ears in different moods.

This picture shows the shape and appearance of a cat’s tail in different moods.

References and links

Akatani, J., Miyata, H., Kanda, K. et al. Differential effects of hindlimb peripheral afferents on motoneurons innervating different parts of longissimus muscle in cats. Exp Brain Res 157, 111–116 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-003-1825-6

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between the synaptic pattern from hindlimb afferents and the area innervated by motoneurons. ——These findings indicate that the effects of afferent inputs from the hindlimbs are related to motoneuron type or the area innervated by the motoneurons.

Sara J. Shettleworth,
Animal cognition and animal behaviour,
Animal Behaviour,
Volume 61, Issue 2,
2001,
Pages 277-286,
ISSN 0003-3472,
https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1606.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347200916063)
Abstract: Cognitive processes such as perception, learning, memory and decision making play an important role in mate choice, foraging and many other behaviours. In this review, I summarize a few key ideas about animal cognition developed in a recent book (Shettleworth 1998, Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour) and briefly review some areas in which interdisciplinary research on animal cognition is currently proving especially productive. Cognition, broadly defined, includes all ways in which animals take in information through the senses, process, retain and decide to act on it. Studying animal cognition does not entail any particular position on whether or to what degree animals are conscious. Neither does it entail rejecting behaviourism in that one of the greatest challenges in studing animal cognition is to formulate clear behavioural criteria for inferring specific mental processes. Tests of whether or not apparently goal-directed behaviour is controlled by a representation of its goal, episodic-like memory in birds, and deceptive behaviour in monkeys provide examples. Functional modelling has been integrated with analyses of cognitive mechanisms in a number of areas, including studies of communication, models of how predator learning and attention affect the evolution of conspicuous and cryptic prey, tests of the relationship betweeen ecological demands on spatial cognition and brain evolution, and in research on social learning. Rather than a ‘new field’ of cognitive ecology, such interdisciplinary research on animal cognition exemplifies a revival of interest in proximate mechanisms of behaviour.

Naomi Wada, Kenro Kanda,
Trunk movements and EMG activity in the cat: level versus upslope walking,
Progress in Brain Research,
Elsevier,
Volume 143,
2004,
Pages 173-181,
ISSN 0079-6123,
ISBN 9780444513892,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(03)43017-3.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612303430173)
Abstract: This chapter addresses the neural control of spinal-column behavior during locomotion. Kinematic and EMG measurements were obtained from the adult cat during its level and upslope treadmill walking. Increasing the grade of upslope walking augmented horizontal movements of the spinal column and decreased its lateral movements. In conjunction, there were significant increases in the amplitude, duration, and pattern of EMG bursts in relevant spinal column musculature. During even steeper upslope walking, three EMG bursts were evident. They were phase-locked to the outward, downward and backward movements of the spinal column, respectively. Our results suggest that the component of the locomotor pattern generator that produces rhythmical spinal column movements must generate a wide variety of EMG bursts in spinal column muscles, as dependent in part on sensory input from the spinal column and its musculature.

http://www.animalcognition.org

We Are Cats International!

https://petozy.com/blogs/about-cats/how-smart-are-cats-instinct-and-intelligence-in-cats

Vitale Shreve, K.R., Udell, M.A.R. What’s inside your cat’s head? A review of cat (Felis silvestris catus) cognition research past, present and future. Anim Cogn 18, 1195–1206 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0897-6

Vitale Shreve, K.R., and M.A.R. Udell. 2015. What’s inside your cat’s head? A review of cat

Because my research focuses on animal behavior, I don’t want to spend too much time rigging, especially quadrupeds. Very fortunately I found a very useful model of a rigged hairless cat online. After that is the link to the model.

by Truong CG Artist：

https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/DV51/sphynx-cat-maya-rig

The model is bound very well, and there are a lot of controllers. Before using this model to animate, I need to group its different controllers and get familiar with what each controller controls.

This group is the body part, and I used this group first to animate.

The entire interface looks much clearer, and no extra controls are accidentally touched during the animation process.

This group is the ears and tail. Once I’ve animate the body, I’ll animate the ears and tail.

This group is an expression.

This last group is a few small controllers, some I’m not sure what it does, and some I might not use in my animations. These are all temporarily grouped into this group and don’t turn it on during the animation.

The main work of this week is to build the scene. Because my project mainly focuses on animation, the scene construction is relatively simple. The marble material is the marble material that comes with MAYA.

Importing reference sequence frames and models into the scene makes it very clear how big the scene should be built and where the various parts are best positioned. This is very useful.

I replaced the glass part of the scene with sequence frames. I’m not going to make glass because it’s going to be cumbersome to render and texture, but I need a face to replace the glass so I know where the cat’s claws should stop when the cat flies at the fly. So I replaced the glass in the scene with the face of the imported sequence frame. This not only solves the problem of no glass, but I can see the movements of the cat in the reference very clearly for animation.

This image is a simple rendering, I need to see what the scene looks like. I’m not going to put a lot of effort into the scene. So for me it’s fine as long as the scene looks good.

Story Board