Major - Submission Post

Reflective Statement 

At the beginning of my Major project I there was a fair amount of work to do, as my characters took me longer than I had planned to model.  I knew that rigging was not an area I had much experience with, however I wanted to make sure that I spent as much time as I could so that I could improve my skill in the area as well as getting the best out of my models. Looking back, I think that I would not have created a rig for my third character as I ended up cutting her from most of my shots. I think that this also gave me very little time to animate and therefore the quality of my animation was not to the best of my ability. I had to cut some scenes and environments that were in my original animatic, as well as my music. I think as I found the rigging stage difficult it did slow down my work speed, however, I managed to work on other aspects of my short in between. As a whole I don't think I was able to show the best of my animation. 

I feel that if I had left myself more time to animate, the quality of my 2D effects would have also been greatly improved. The effects were fairly last minute and with more time I feel that the overall look of the animations would have fit with my computer animated pieces better. The overall piece lacked some lighting and rendering effects I had hopped to add, however, the basic lighting fit well with my block colour shading. My narrative had to be cut short because of time constraints, and whilst some of the set up is lost, I believe that the story still comes across. 

Although I had multiple thing I would change about this project and it's outcome, I feel that I have learned a lot from the process and have a much better understanding of the cg pipeline as a whole. From a positive perspective, I feel that I was able to keep the look that I had originally designed and produce it in a 3D space. My sets are similar to my original designs achieved through hard surface modelling, lighting and texturing. I think that I have been able to use this project to improve areas that I have not necessarily been able to focus on in previous projects. From an aesthetic and style point of view, I think I have been able to show of my skills. My sets were all intentionally basic to act as a frame for my characters as these are the main focus of the piece. I think this project has improved my confidence not only in 3D software, but in my ability to create my own characters and narratives. I had a clear concept in my head and I think I was able to achieve a good outcome. Overall, there are things I would change about my final short (and hope to improve in the near future), I am happy with the piece I have produced and I think that I have worked hard to create a piece I am proud of. 

Over the past three years of this course I think I have struggled with my confidence in my skills and ability. I think that the pandemic did have an effect on my progress and just overall work mentality - not being around other people in a studio like environment to get feedback. My short represents anxiety and lack of self confidence, and although I will continue to have struggle with this myself I think that this process has really helped mem to see things from a different angle and help me grow as a person. 

Links 

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-background-effects.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-characters.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/03/major-sets.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/03/major-characters-update.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-characters-facial-rigging-skinning.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-sets-02.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-progress.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-violet-walk-cycle.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-still-render-test.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-animation.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/04/major-playblast.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/05/major-still-renders.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2022/05/major-short-2d-animations.html

Major - Short 2D animations

 https://youtube.com/shorts/OQj__YOHl8g?feature=share

Major - Still Renders

I have rendered and animated the second half of my short, I now need to finish animating and rendering the first half. There are a few issues with my rendered sequences, some frames have missing textures so I will need to re render these. After this I need to edit everything together and add some final touches as well as putting together my art of document. 

Major - Playblast

 

Major - Animation

I have managed to animate all my main hallway scenes and the majority of my final scene shots. Some of the animation needs cleaning up but I will focus on this according to how much time I have. I have also begun to render four of my shots, after these have finished I will know how much time it will take to render all of my shots. Visually the shots are looking how I envisioned them, my animation is not of the highest quality, so hopefully if I have enough time I will try to go back and improve some shots.  

Major - Still Render Test

I have rendered out a still with my character in frame as a test. Just a still render took 20 minutes with this quality, I plan to go through all my textures and render settings to see if this can be cut down anymore whilst keeping the quality. Most of the shots will be close up in this environment so that will also reduce time. However, I am happy with how everything is looking. I plan to animate as many scenes as possible and take them into uni to be rendered across multiple screens so I can continue working. 

 

Major - Violet Walk Cycle

 I have done a quick walk cycle test, the animation is still a bit jumpy, I plan to go back into the graph editor and make some changes. I will also produce a run cycle, both are needed for my scenes, the majority of the animation for the second to characters is above the waist and no walking. 

Major - Progress

This week I have been able to start animating, my sets and models are all textured, my characters have complete rigs. With not a large amount of time left to animate and render, I aim to animate all the major scenes first, the render times should not be too long as the sets and characters have basic textures. The only thing I need to do is play around with the settings as my lighting is fairly extensive. The 2d animation element took a minimal amount of time to create in tests, so I should be able to complete that in about a day.

 

Major - Sets 02

I have done a few quick tests of the colour layout for the hallway scene. The beams need to have more variation to create the look I am going for. For reference, I am aiming to achieve something psychedelic, somewhat like the scene from 'Coroline' referenced below. There needs to be more of a gradual fade from dark to light and lighting changes will also help with this. From a cinematography point of view I am pleased with how the scene looks structurally. 

 

Major - Characters Facial Rigging/ Skinning

The rigging and skinning stage has defiantly been difficult for me. This not being a strong suit of mine, I should have anticipated the length of time it would take me to complete. I now only have the facial rigs for my second to characters to complete, which I hope to complete by the end of this week. I will then be able to start animating. I am slightly worried with the deadline being so close and having not yet started the animation process that I will not have a full two minutes of rendered animation by the deadline, however I aim to power through and complete as much as I can to the best of my ability. Looking back it would have been more reasonable to focus on two, if not one characters. For future endeavours I will keep this in mind.  

 

Major - Characters Update

 All of my characters have rigged and skinned bodies, my final task is to complete the facial rigs for all three. Once this is completed I need to create some simple textures for my environments and then I will be able to start animating. My narrative needs a significant cut, however my animatic overestimates the time each shot needs so I think the the overall run time will condense quickly when I get to my animation stage. The main issue with this however is that my music wont be the right length, something I will have to sort out before submission. 

Major - Sets 01

 This week I aim to have finished skinning my second two characters as well as the majority of the facial rigs completed so I am able to start animating my scenes. I have started with some quick lighting tests on my sets, which currently just have a basic surface shader on them. The textures for my scenes will be basic as I want the lighting to do most of the work. 

Major - Characters

 The majority of the first character has been rigged and I just need to produce some turn arounds before I move onto the modelling some basic environments, however, I plan to make a few small changes to my characters textures which should be finished by the end of the week. Modelling and texturing my sets should be a quick process as they are all fairly simplistic and don't require any major details. I will then be able to move onto animating and creating my effects for my background scenes. I also plan to make a few changes to shorten my story somewhat so the animation process in more achievable in the time that I have, taking rendering times into account. I think I am struggling with the rigging and skinning element immensely and I am not entirely sure if completing that for one character let alone two is possible for me. I think I will have to make some changes and I am struggling to complete everything that I need to in the time that I have.  

Major - Background Effects

 For my background effects that make up the more abstract parts of the environment I am still deciding between a 2d or 3d/ after effects solution. I am leaning towards 2d as I like the look I am able to achieve however for time purposes I may have to stick to a 3d process.