Feeling Rather Flash...

Sooooo i've been working on a new animatic with my new storyboard! I wanted to go a bit further with this one than I did with my previous one so I decided to start getting back into flash.

Haven't used it in a while, let alone made an animatic so it took a while to get back into the swing of it. And I had to remind myself that it didn't need to be perfect visually (to stop me spending days on it!)


It's reminded me how important it is to stick to my timing! I made a few tweaks in Premier Pro and left a few long gaps for the dance sequence... which i've yet to choreograph ha...but i've got room for it to be at least 1 min - there's potential for longer, but I definitely want the whole thing to stick below 2.5 mins.

The audacity if animating...

Haaaaa today was my first try at 3D animating haaaa (not including the rotating solar system lol). What did we animate? the classic bouncing ball!!

Tbh it was a lot easier than I though it would be - i've been spending a bit of time in the Graph Editor and with the deformers for rigging purposes so i'm a bit familiar with it. So far i've found that it will require a lot of attention to detail, patience, sugar and PRACTICE.

I'm planning on getting in at least a month of solid practice (thanks to Going Live and my personal time) ahead of animating my character - the dance sequence will be the tricky part, bit i've made it easier on myself by making her more stylised and using a squash and stretch rig, so I don't have to worry about completely anatomically correct poses.

I'll be going to a dance drawing class every week which is perfect and will get into the mind set of making those types of movements as well as drawing them. I'm also hoping to get the choreography nailed by that point too.

Huzzah.

Wolves, Working, Whimsical Sounds

I've been working on some wolf designs for Slava's final project Fall of the Wolf.
Its been a while so I spent time drawing anything other than human's so i've been doing lots of warming up / scribbles.

I find it easier to approach this in the same way I would with humans - know the anatomy and build up from there. I've been working from photos - here's the references i've been using - to understand their structure, and from there i'll start to stylise into a character based on what Slava has said.

I also pulled together a playlist to help gather my ideas and inspirations. I've also been doing some wolve /pup studies

These are the digital designs of the wolves!

This has been really fun to do! It's nice to turn my art hands to something none human. It also gives me the chance to try out different texturing styles in Photoshop. Since working on my character i've been really working on creating more stylised illustrations, still a long way to go till I find my style, but i'm having fun doing it!
UPDATE: I'm going to be doing some tweaks to the mother wolf design. Slava's suggested that I look at The Secret of Kells for inspiration into how they stylised their wolves, so i'm gonna work on making the designs a bit blockier, but also make sure they're feminine and feisty!

UPDATE 2:
I've re-designed Slava's mother wolf based on her feedback, but also a slightly new visual direction that she's taking - based on the work of Chris Sanders.

I've also been working on some concept art for Amit's final project. Pulling together the storyboard this weekend.

Spinerette has been my playlist of choice for this, again with some Porcupine Tree.

Colour Me not so clueless

I've been working on my colour script, I really needed to make some final decision on my colours and textures (to much umming and ahhing)

I kind of had an idea of the scheme I was going for, but still wanted to use Adobe Colour CC to make sure I was using complimentary shades and tones. There are a couple of things like the plant at the end that break up the colours, and I wanted to make sure they did this without throwing everything off. Also needed to make sure my character stands out from the background

These are the colours i've gone with:

And here is my (first ever) colour script capturing key scenes from my story. Huzzah.

Still need to pull together my animatic and 3D previs... which might take a bit more time. Will also be working a new storyboard for Amit's project.

I'm also in full storyboarding mode for other projects - i've been pulling together the one for our Going Live project, i'm also working one one for Amit's final project.

The process is really getting me thinking about more than just drawing. Storyboarding is really helping me to explore and understand the importance of angles, scenes and key pieces of narrative. I'm definitely getting quicker at doing them (I think my anatomy practice is helping my create poses much quicker).

Week 20: Housekeeping

So i've been doing a bit of housekeeping to make sure all my pre-production is in check to get me ready for my production at the end of February. Ideally i'd like to get started earlier than that, but with the Going Live project I need to do a bit of prioritising.

I've re-drafted my script just to tighten it up a bit.

I've also been doing a bit of research on cinemtography (and using notes from last semester) to re-draft my storyboard. I worked on our group one for Going Live and have taken on board some of the changes to help influence how I go forward with my personal one. I want to make sure all the angles are right (and simple) and that it makes sense!

Cinematography of 2014 from Jacob T. Swinney on Vimeo.


I've also been looking at Duncan Jones's Moon to get a few tips for angles in a space setting!


I'm aiming to have the colour script with the help of Adobe Colour CC and a revised animatic also finished this week. I've asked Natasha to take a look t it cause its good to get a second pair of eyes on it and she's great with this stuff. I want to start a 3D visualisation over the weekend, then I need to get a wriggle on with the environment.

I'll be working on the environment modelling for our Going Live project because I really wanted to use this as a chance to practice and get myself ready to work on it for my final project. 
I'm aiming to work both projects side by side - so when i'm working on the GL environment, I want to work on the environment for my one, same with assets, texturing, lighting etc. And with my rigging already done, hopefully by the end f the month I can kick off testing and production. My animation skills will hopefully be decent by then too!
OH and i've also come up with a provisional title Girl Lunar Explorer - based on a song of the same name by Melora Creager. The lyrics also really fits the story ^_^
UPDATE (30/01/15)
After speaking to Natasha i've revised a couple of my panels so they make more sense! She's suggested The scene where my character comes out of the space pod and looks around will only work properly if she's still in shot for the 360 view - otherwise it might confuse the viewer which totally makes sense.  Here's a few lol-worthy examples courtesy of Michael Bay.




My updated shots and my full storyboard.

Final Storyboard

Trouble Shooting, Trouble Blending, Trouble In Maya Paradise...

Well maybe that's a but dramatic, but still.

SO i'm in the home stretch of my rigging process - before the final bind and weight painting. Working on the blendshapes and binnding tests has highlighted some aspects that need to be tweaked.

Due to the lack of bone/joint in the jaw, I can't get the teeth to move with the blending faces. So instead of my September reaction (which would have been panic), using and abusing Maya these last couple of weeks have given me potential solutions to this. As the mouth wont be moving THAT much in my animation, i've decided to add Set Driven keys to the upper and bottom set of teeth so I can rotate these via the head control when needed.

After being mocked by the eye brows, i've decided to create a separate blend shape for each eyebrow so I can control them individually without affecting the rest of the face.

These are probably the longest way to do things, but i'm trying to think practically, about the skill set I currently have, and how I can apply what i've learnt. AND i'll be the one animating her so i'll know where everything is and what it does :D

Some quick renders!

LATE NIGHT BLEND SHAPE UPDATE
SO after refusing to be bested, I wanted to investigate the mystery of my dodgy blendshape eyebrows even further. After lots of tests I realised that my issue was that I was just moving the eyebrow object on the new blendshape face instead of moving the vertices!

So now that i've done that all blend faces are loving me and working properly =D

I've also been looking at other models for a bit of inspiration.

Time to revisit the textures. I'm thinking of using Maya's paint feature...

Music to blend to: 
Ghost Love Score - Nightwish
8-Bit Bjork!! Stonemilker/Unravel - Bjork

Week 19: Going Live, Going Hungry, Going for Pizza

Yep.

Been doing a lot of group work this week for our Going Live project - its going to be taking up a bit more time than I realised, so I need to reorganise my schedule to make sure that i'm maintaining my final project.

What's good is that it's given me the chance to experiment a bit with more stylised designs - which again is something out my comfort zone. I'm definitely getting more comfortable with doing it, and its been fun to try out different things!

My designs for the matriarchs and ogre for our Going Live project

I've also carried on with my daily pose practices to keep my comfortable with anatomy, and test our different movements, and after talking to Barry about my project, I think this has been a good idea. 

From the beginning I knew that this project had to be simple (cause it's just me), which meant I had to choose an area of focus. And while my programme of study is music's contribution to character design, I know this would be addressed and tested in the pre-production process. Which left the story, environment and animation to contend with. By keeping the story and environment simple it means I can place a large majority of my focus on animating - mainly the dance sequence. 

By practising poses I feel like i'm gearing myself up for working on different angles, positions and perspectives. I'm going to start doing daily dance pose practices too so there's a direct link! I've potentially got Cristina to do the dance sequence which would be great! And I really want to give myself a couple of months to work on it and refine it!

Once i've finalised the rig and weight painted i'm hoping to start doing tests at the beginning of the month.

Success and hunger.

Music to mull and art to:
Billie Holiday: Solitude


RIGGING UPDATE: Although I may not need it, I decided that I wanted to create rig-able eyelids for my character so she can blink on demand!! Whilst I was at it I also rigged the eyes so they move on demand. 

Took me a while to find the best way to do this, and although I considered blendshapes, I felt i'd have more control if I created and rigged the lids. Now I need to work out how to attach the eyelashes and do blendshapes them i'm done!
RIGGING UPDATE- UPDATE: I've been working on my blend shapes which has been lots of fun. And FINALLY after 2 days i've figured out how to get my eyelashes to follow my eyelids sweep blink!!  After looking at heaps of tips (and non working) I figured out that by selecting the eyelash, then the eyelid and hitting WRAP I could get them to work together!

Here is my character throwing some serious shade.

I've tweaked a couple of the vertices on the lashes so they don't cross over to dramatically with their opposites, but all in al VERY happy! I'm probably now going to need to add a jaw bone to get the teeth and tongue to connect to for my blendshapes

So it's 5am....

And I think that's a perfectly acceptable time to blog and announce that I have FINALLY finished rigging (not including the face or weight painting, but still).

It's been a much longer process than I expected the second time round, but mainly due to the complexities of the rig. I DEFINITELY learnt a lot from this process, and again I feel like I know Maya a little better. But the main WIN from this is that I can now spot issues with the rig and know how to address them / where to look to amend etc. I usually would have had a wtf moment and restart from my last point, but working with the Node, Connection and Script editors has really helped.

A rest from Rigging

Back to some drawing.

Decided to redo my model and expression sheets for my updated character. I've also be doing daily pose practices which I think it's really helping and giving e more confidence to tackle various positions.

Aiming to redo my storyboards next AND make a 3D Previs. As busy as Going Live will be I really feel like it's going to arm me with the skills and confidence I need to really push this project forward... especially cause i've never done this before. ha.

Week 18: Reflect, Re-Interpret, Realise

New term, new modules and a nice new list of things to do!

Going Live
Firstly we've started our Going Live projects for this semester! In a group with Kaitlin (PM) Natasha, Cristina, Ritchie, Sushma, Ritchie, Amit, Ioanniss and Carlo. We're still discussing ideas of what we'd like to produce and i've already been having a think about where my skills would b best used.

I've already put myself forward to maintain the blog as my OCD permits it ha. Im also thinking that i'd be suited well to modelling (cause i'm loving it) and it would be potentially a good chance to model something that isn't a female human like my last 2 models! I'm also keen to help with the design / concept art etc. But i'd also love to try out any effects what we'll need as well as the animating process itself - which i'm sure we'll all be doing due to the work load.

Lots to do but i'm excited and feeling confident about it.

Reflection on Practice
Had a great session today which really really got me thinking about my processes, approach and the ways in which I evaluate myself and work. In terms of my work it really had me considering things I hadn't previously considered.

In terms of my journey so far during this course I really feel like i've learnt alot practically and about how I work best - music being a main driver, one that i knew was important, but especially so and I can link this to everything I do in some shape of form.

Here's my Reflective Learning Map.

I've definitely gone from the 'have I bitten off more than I can chew' stage to the 'bring it on!' stage. I'm so much more productive, picked up new skills, more confident in my art and trying new things, bit i've also picked up on where my weaknesses lie and how I can address these.

Although throwing in a but of Justin Bieber for the confidence i'm beginning to feel about my art, and the beat that was in my head when I was considering my map... obvously a lot of the lyrics don't apply, but the essence is there HA.

We also did some Reflective Dialogue - this could be with anyone, and the first person that popped into mind was Jim Morrison, which surprised me cause I thought it would be someone that I feel is directly impacting my creativity at the moment like Janelle Monae.

But after having my imaginary convo with Mr Morrison, I realised that i'm really seeking to also improve my storytelling skills (especially for personal projects), and making sure I keep the essence and core theme of my story throughout, and I feel like Morrison nails what with most of his poetry and a lot of his music with The Doors - 2 different ways of story telling but storytelling never the less. It helped A LOT and I pulled together some tips to help my writing flow.


And finally some nifty Structured Reflection - Recall, Relive, Re-Interpret, Respond. After flashing back to the horrors of dicovering UV mapping in semester one, this practice really REALLY helped me to see it in a different way and get something completely positive out of it.

Not only has UV mapping practice helped, but the Re-Interpret / Respond part made me consider the reasons why I haven't liked it as much as i'd hoped, especially due to my art /painting background, and how I can address this to make it more fun and positive for me =D

LESSONS LEARNT:

1. Listen to music when rigging to enhance to productivity and 'flow'
2. From Jim M on storytelling: 
• Empty the closet first and let the words flow 
• Create a story to a beat
• Keep the core and essence of the story you're trying to tell
3. UV Mapping - Find an alternative way to enjoy it. Paint the face as I normally would in photoshop (a front and side view), THEN splice and shape to fit the UV map (similar to mapping a real face to a model!) 

Productions, Precisions and Practice

I've FINALLY gotten round to working on my production timeline for my final project! As this is my first one I had a little scout around Google to find some thorough examples to make sure I haven't missed out anything. Also found a blog with some really useful advice.

The blog also directed me to the PERFECT video, which really captures what i think i'm going for with this in terms of texturing, movement and lighting!!


It's been really useful to see a full breakdown of what's needed and how much work there is to do O_O, but in terms of pre-production a lot of this stuff has been done which is good! But it has highlighted that i've neglected my environment, so will be bending Nicola's ear for some advice!

I've also decided to redo my storyboard/animatic so I can make sure that everything is locked down ahead of animating. I also need to start locking down my dance sequence and redesign for the music.

In terms of other projects, Amit's decided to rework his, and i'm gonna we working on some new designs and concept art this week! I'm a massive fan of the new idea and it's something i've looked at for previous projects. Will update with with designs later on! It's all great practice for me too and means i'm drawing everyday which is great.

Music to influence the concept art for Amit's project:
Porcupine Tree
Radiohead


RIGGING UPDATE: The legs are FINALLY done!! This is taking a bit longer than I initally planned bit there's lots to get my head around and I feel like its giving me real insight into the animation process and how i'll go about controlling it!

Just the arms to go.. and will think about a different system for the face.

Week 17: Clash, Clans, Cons

I've still been having a massive think about how I want to texture my character and the look i'm going for for my final project, and im still undecided. ALSO I did very much like the look of the style in the Clash of Clans advert, so this is something I might explore and test out.


I'm also still keeping up my sketching and testing out different colouring techniques/styles to see if this is something I could apply to my project/model. Also having fun with posing to make sure i'm not just focusing on my go to, which is portraits. These also link into my personal projects, and will hopefully get me prepared for my DeeCon comic.

I've also been doing a little bit of clean us and got some advice from Sean - some of the extra armour geometry was penetrating the main model which would cause issues when I animate so I've cleaned these up and made sure i'm paying attention to them in smooth and low-poly mode! I've used the snap tool and my keen (not so keen) eyes to try and get the extra topology to lie as close to the model as possible without interfering with it too much.

SO for now i've decided to just rigging her to do some testing and maybe texture after!

RIGGING UPDATE:
I've been thinking quite a bit a bout my rig and decided I wanted to try something a lot more advanced than i'd done for my semester 1 project - mainly because I felt this would help me understand other techniques and increase my skills and learn a bit of MEL scripting (I also like a challenge).

I'm using the Digital Tutors Advanced Character Rigging In Maya tutorial and it's tricky but i'm finding it quite fun and relaxing!

I also wanted to use  more complex rig because i've been thinking ahead to my story and for the dance movement that's needed, I think the flexiplane route would be a really good way to go, and help my characters movements look a bit more exaggerated.