Minor - Animatic OGR

 

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/10/minor-project-development-so-far.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/10/classwork-lighting.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/10/minor-project-project-proposal.html

Minor - Project development so far

 So far in my minor project I have made some redesigns for the purpose of making the modelling process as effective as possible. To save time, my three characters will have the same bodies/ rigs, their hair faces and clothing will however be individual to each one. This way I will be able to produce the right amount of work and still have a high quality outcome. 

When looking at my original designs for violet I noticed that, although the hair style is effective and works well with her character, it may cause some problems when it come to animating, e.g. clipping in and out of  the characters back and restricting range of arm motion. 

Below are the final designs for my three characters that I intend to have modelled the end of this project. 

Classwork - Lighting

The last two Maya sessions have focused on effectively lighting scenes and recapping some lighting and rendering techniques from toolkit 2.  The first three renders are basic lighting set ups for different times of day. 

 The next few renders look at atmospheric lighting, using spotlights and various plugins to create texture and substance within the space. 

 Specifically for my project there is at least one scene when I will consider using heavy atmospheric lighting. The majority of my scenes will need fairly basic lighting, which also will save me time when I get to the rendering stage of my animation. 

Minor Project - Project Proposal

 

Project Outcome Proposal

 

Working title of project:

‘Violet’

 

Idea Synopsis:

Violet a young adult struggling with social anxiety, attempts to get through a day of school. The story follows an everyday scenario which quickly turns on its head when Violet is asked to read in front of the class. She quickly begins to panic and is left in a warped version of her own reality, a representation of her mental state.

The narrative takes place between the exterior of Violet’s house and the interior of her classroom. The settings and its characters are realistic in style, however, the main defining feature being that everyone is monochromatic neon colours.

 

Outcome:

Based off my premise work, I plan to make an animated short which will focus on character design. I will revise and develop designs from my premise project as well as updating my animatic and producing a pre-viz. I will also produce up to three of my characters as 3D models. By the end f this project I hope to be at a stage where the characters are completed so that I can move onto some basic set modelling and animation for Major project. I aim to focus on character design and character modelling.

 

Publishing context:

The narrative I have already developed is based heavily on a real-world situation which I plan to show my narrative and character-based skills. The purpose of this animation is to build my portfolio of work and hopefully submit to various animation festivals.

 

Technology:

I plan to use Maya for the modelling and animating stages, as well as premiere pro and other adobe software’s to edit everything together. I will use a combination of substance painter and photoshop to texture my characters, environments and props. I also plan to look into some 2D rendering techniques and the possibility of some 2d animation.

 

Minor Timetable:

October

4^th-10^th: Edit and develop character designs/ orthographs and any prop/ environment design that still need to be completed.

11^th-17^th: Review and develop animatic and make amends to scenes and script work.

18^th-24^th: 3D pre-viz. Focus on camera shots and timing.

25^th-31^st: Make any changes and amends to pre-viz, add in music and any other editing elements.

November

1^st-7^th: Begin modelling process for characters (aiming for 3 depending on time constraints). Compile all work for OGR(12^th).

8^th-14^th: Continuation of modelling for main characters (OGR submission on 12^th).

15^th-21^st: Continuation of modelling characters.

22^nd-28^th: Start rigging and skinning of characters.

29^th-5^th: Continuation of rigging and skinning characters (+ fixing any issues).

December

6^th-12^th: Cleaning up any issues, start texturing process.

13^th-19^th: Texturing characters.

January

3^rd-9^th: Create character turn arounds and test renders. (Look into ‘blob people’ designs and basic 3D models for these). – Start ‘Making Of’ document for submission.

10^th-14^th: Clean up all work and make sure everything is presentable and complete. Finish up ‘Making Of’ documents for final submission on 14^th. Make sure everything is posted to blogger/basecamp.

 

Work I intend to submit:

-Finalised design work (including updated animatic).

-Finalised pre-viz.

-Three characters fully modelled, textured, rigged and skinned.

-Character turn arounds.

-‘Making Of’ document and all work posted to blog/basecamp.

Toolkit 2 - Reflective Statement

During the drawing section of toolkit two I feel that I developed my skills somewhat drastically. The life classes were valuable, even though the main bulk of the sessions happed at the end of term due to covid, I developed my drawing skills as well as trying out some different styles. I also found the process of drawing everyday for a week therapeutic as I was able to draw similar poses in lots of different ways. However, it is a shame that these sessions were not all throughout the term as I feel that the figure drawing side would have helped me in my other projects. Overall, I think that I could have been more adventurous with my style but I have defiantly developed my drawing ability. During the character design project I was defiantly apprehensive at first. As we were all given characters and scenarios at random it was a good opportunity to get in the mindset of a commissioned concepts. I don't have a huge amount of practice with creature and animal concepts and especially not in a chibi art style so it was a bit daunting but once I created a few concepts it developed quickly. I think that if I was to redo the character design project now I would be able to produce more work and to a better quality but I am pleased overall with the outcomes. 

For the animation section of toolkit I feel like I learnt a lot in a small amount of time but there is lots I can improve on. My animation comes across as floaty often, and I think in general this takes me a bit longer to grasp. I know there is lots to improve on but I feel that I have improved immensely since the beginning of the year. I found the texturing classes insightful and I also feel like I managed to understand all of the content in such a short amount of time. These classes will be extremely useful for year three. For Jet Pack Jones time keeping was a major issue. I found it difficult to complete the tutorials in the time I had planned because I was became too critical about the head modelling. I hoped to have more of the tutorials done and I am pretty frustrated that I didn't complete more but I plan to complete it all in the next few weeks so I am prepared for my final film. I did, however, find this process informative as I have improved my problem solving in maya and I now know that I need to give myself much more time to complete the modelling process. 

Overall, I am pleased with how my drawing ability has improved over this year and even though my maya based work is more or less unfinished I have learnt a lot of skills that I will be able to transfer into third  year. I do think that being at home for a large amount of the year in person lowered my work ethic somewhat as I am usually really motivated. The substance painter classes were a great asset to the term, as I will be able to apply everything in those classes to my upcoming projects. Although there are unfinished elements to this toolkit, I am happy with what I've learnt and produced. 

Toolkit 2 - Submission Post

 

Animation 

Acting Poses:

 https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/week-1-action-arcs-moom-poses.html

 https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/week-2-dramatic-arcs-moom-poses.html

Weightlifting Task:

 https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/week-56-force-trajectory-loosening-up.html

Lip Syncing Task:

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/05/toolkit-2-in-class-expression-changes.html

Drawing 

Character Design:

Week 1: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/toolkit-2-character-design-week-1.html

Week 2: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-week-2-kaiju-sketches.html

Week 3: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-week-3.html

Week 4: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-week-4.html

Week5: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-week-5.html

Week 6/7: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/01/character-design-week-67.html

Character Bible: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/02/character-design-bible-toolkit-2.html

Life Drawing:

Term 1: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/toolkit-2-life-drawing-week-1.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/life-drawing-week-2.html

Term 2: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/06/life-drawing-catch-up-sessions.html

Maya and Associated Software 

Lighting and Rendering:

Part 14: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/toolkit-2-maya-arnold-lighting-and.html

Part 16: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/toolkit-2-maya-arnold-lighting-and_29.html

Part 17: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/10/toolkit-2-maya-lighting-and-rendering.html

Part 18: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-photometric.html

Part 19: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-depth-of.html

Part 20: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-2-fog.html

Part 22: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-2-sub.html

Part 23: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-2-aovs.html

Part 24: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/maya-lighting-and-rendering-2-stand-ins.html

Jet Pack Jones:

Pipeline 1 (Jet Pack Jones) - Body Modelling Part 6: https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/06/jet-pack-jones-part-414-head-and-16-body.html

Texturing:

Book Texturing (Maya): https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/02/maya-tutorial-book-texturing.html

Book Texturing (Substance Painter): https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/03/substance-painter.html

Oil Can Texturing (Substance Painter): https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/03/substance-painter-oil-can.html

Dumpster Texturing (Substance Painter): https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2021/03/substance-painter-dumpster.html

Additional:

Art Jam:

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/art-jam-monster-mash.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/11/art-jam-ink-blots.html

https://alexomartin.blogspot.com/2020/12/art-jam-character-mash-up.html

Jet Pack Jones - Part 4/14 Head and 1/6 Body

During this Jet Pack Jones project I have struggled with time keeping somewhat. I underestimated how long it would take me to model the head, and I realised a bit to late that I was being too picky on my modelling. Unfortunately, to save time I have not modelled the skull cap, and moved onto the body modelling so I had most of the character completed. Over the summer I plan to complete the pipeline process for Jet Pack Jones as my premise project contains two characters.