Animation Alliu

I have animation escaping every pore. As icky as that seems I still stand by it.

So i've started making my way through my list of things to do this week, having pretty much completed locking off the cameras (still wiggle room) and throwing together a new previs that is nowhere near as embarrassing as my first attempt ( hope).

There's definitely still work to be done, but I know I needed to do this to see how things are shaping up! It also includes the almost completed track i've had designed for the first half :D


So firstly i'm very happy that i'm still hitting below 2 mins, and there are definitely a few timing tweaks to make - and once I've animated the dance I think i'll know for definitely. But that will need to be 35 seconds max.
Things that need to be done now that i've seen this all together

• Timing tweaks for certain shots
• Reconsider some of the camera angles - I think I can make shots look a bit more interesting, but again I think this might happen during the dance sequence
• Animation tweaks
• Proper staging!!!
• Figure out how to add a 'glassy/ reflective/ fishbowl' effect for when its her first person perspective.

I've also had some much needed feedback from Sean which was very very useful! He likes what i've managed to achieve so far and has suggested a couple of things: 

1. More extreme poses - especially because her character is so stylised. This is definitely something I aimed to do from the beginning (hence the complicated rig), but I think I got caught up in making sure I got the animation right and kinda left that out. So i'm gonna revisit some shots (13 in particular) and tweak that, the dance sequence was also my main platform to showcase this.
2. Silhouettes - By adding a black surface shader to my character I can just focus on the exaggerated poses and making sure that i've got all the secondary movements nailed too.

So this will also be a job for Friday. I should have the dance sequence by tomorrow, i'll also run it by Cristina so she can help me capture it when I head to the Mo-Cap Lab early next week! But tomorrow I want to start blocking the extreme poses and see how I go.

Week 39: That time when I was animating...

More animation! More and more shots.

Like I was babbling on about a few days ago there's still room for revision with these - especially once I get feedback, but as of now (3am) this (almost nearly) concludes everything that needs to be animated that doesn't include the dance - leaving me with 3 weeks to complete that.

I still haven't got the footage from my dancer yet, hopefully she'll have it for me by this week, hopefully i'll also be able to do some motion capture too.

I've got a nice list of things that I now to need to have finished in preparation for rendering at the beginning of July...

• Animate the dance sequence
• Set and lock my cameras for each Shot
• Set the lighting / IBL in each Shot
• Tweak the textures / backgrounds
• Compile all my playblasts for a new previs / animatic (to check timings and give myself a base for the editing stage)
• Final tweaks to animation

I'm planning on getting most of these done by this week and hopefully this will give me a better view of where i'm at, and what needs doing or changing (especially when it comes to camera shots and angles).

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In ZBrush related news, I have sculpted my first head lol. Definitely learnt a lot from doing this and i've already started work on the next one. I want to keep practising (i'm giving myself an hour a day), and with this next one I want to try and create it without using ZSpheres... ha. We'll see how that goes!

SOOOO now that i've 'conquered' ZBrush, i'm now giving myself a proper crash course in Flash (an hour a day mainly for TV Paint prep) so I can be more confident using it, butttt i'd also like the closing credits to include some 2D animation! (Depending on time).

I really like the credits for 850 Meters

AND the ones for Wall-E - I think something like this (more of the story after the actual story) would make a lot of sense for my project (TIME PERMITTING)

If time does become a problem then I think I could probably replace this with some concept art and animate the camera movements. I need to flesh it out a bit more over the next few weeks - and it would probably better to start it sooner rather that later - but as of now it's not at the top of my priority list but its there somewhere :D

At Olly's recommendation i'm following y Harry's HuHa 2 How-Tos tutorials which are hilariously helpful!

GOOD TIMES

Shots, Sugar and Stranglulations

Haaa well, I think it's just really hit me that i've got 8 weeks to pull this all together O_O. 
Definitely feeling more confident with each shot that I animate, and i've gone back through all of them and made some tweaks - there will probably be more to be made just before rendering, but hopefully by the end of the week I will be completely done with everything (expect for the dance).
I'm still waiting on the footage for this - hopefully if this comes through in the next few days i'll still have 3 solid weeks (give or take) to animate this and make final animation changes.
I'm gonna get some advice / tips from Sean and Sushma on how to make some of the shots look a lot less 'jumpy' and more creeping (mainly the walk for shot 9)!

Shot 7

Shot 8


Shot 9


Shot 9 Close Up





Shot 11
I also need to work on cutting down the timings - mainly for shot 11 which is currently 4 seconds too long pfftt.
Working on these and looking at other animations for reference has also made me rethink some of my camera angles. I need to make sure I scribble these down or i'll forget D=
oooo yes and another thing. For all my love of IKs, FK is defo making my life a lot easier at the moment - especially for the walk cycles. I've gone back and reanimated the arms in all the shots so far to work with the FK instead of the IK, mainly to get more control.
Happy Thursday!

Week 38: Scenes, Sculpting and Sleeping

Had a quick catch up with Mark Grindle today for a project catch up and some feedback etc. Was definitely very very useful, and all seems well - although Mark 2 point out that my short was missing a POV - especially from my character - to help the audience better understand the story and connect with my character. He's suggested 2 possible points to add this in: 

1. Once my character arrives on the planet and is nervous
2. After she has finished dancing and is happier

After thinking about i've decided to tweak the 360 turn so it will now be a first person POV - the audience will be looking out into the environment through my characters eyes (so they will see why it's so un-nerving) - I'll give the landscape a greeny/red menacing haze. I'll then do a similar take after the dance - again the audience will be looking through her eyes at the environment, and this time i'll make sure the tones are a lot calmer and brighter - very 'sunsetty'. Already just thinking about it I think this will add another level of depth to my production. ALSO means I don't have figure out how to create a 360 matte O_O GOOD TIMES!

ZBRUSH UPDATE:

Yet ANOTHER programme for me to be ridiculously slow in haha but I know it comes with practice - i'm currently modelling a bust! I was originally attempting to scultp Anna Paquin buuuuttt remembered I needed to WALK first so doing a practice head first based on memory but still using her for anatomical reference.

It's going ok so far I think... although forgot that Perspective view makes things look different so I need to tweak things (completely changed the head shape forgetting about Perspective view :( ).

Aiming to FINALLY have this finished by the end of the week. I'll then probably create another one - a male head but not using ZSpheres, i'll start from a sphere/cube instead and manipulate.

I've DEFINITELY learned how to think in 3D and apply my Photoshop techniques to this - It feels like i'm painting, and I think that's definitely helped me pick it up quicker.

Speaking of Photoshop, i'm still picking up new things an attempting different styles - mainly for colouring. I've successfully learned how to use and abuse the various colour adjustments.

Nux (Mad Max)

Rogue (X-Men)

Keen to start using TV Paint (post ZBrush success), in the mean time i've been looking a lot more 2D animations to pick up inspiration and to just general enjoy - especially if it reminds me Evangelion and Gundam... 

Week 37: Mondays, Movements and MmmZbrush

SO this week is operation animation (yep). As I think I yammered on about in my previous post, the aim is to have most (if not all) of my 'secondary' animation done - like the walk cycle, etc.

I've been looking at lots of movement references (for things I didn't capture myself) for extra ideas. I found a really useful Movement Playlist on Youtube.


Anddddd some reference images - along with a couple of thumbnails that I did.

Soooooo I've attempted to apply these to my scene - her emerging from the space pod in particular.

INITIALLY, I was really happy with this (after staring at it for about 6 hours straight), however upon reflecting, and taking a step back to AGAIN make sure I was conveying the animation style i'm aiming for, I realised that it didn't lol.
It has that flowy type movement that i'm trying to avoid (and I know that comes with experience - which I think i'm getting more of). So AGAIN after looking at a few other references i've decided to redo my existing animations, including my walk cycle.
I think I can get the snapper / stylised look i'm going for if I take what I learnt from the current cycle and re-did the whole thing. So now that I'v refreshed my walk cycle memory, i'm going straight into creating the creeping walk instead of adding the adjustments on an animation layer.

I found some really useful references to base it on.



(TOO snappy, but still useful to look at)


Also found a few useful things to help in my endeavour!

1. TIPS AND TRICKS
2. SNAPPY ANIMATION
3. ANIMATION STYLES

And here's my result so far!

There are still a couple of tweaks to make - the main one being the speed obviously lol, but this definitely captures what i'm going for. The foot bend not working (still not sure why) its definitely a bummer, but i'm working around it. Sushma's gonna cast an eye over these to give me a second set of eyes / advice.

This is definitely VERY good prep for the dance sequence - which I should have reference footage for by next week. I've been thinking about how to go about it, and sticking to this style reminded me of an animated fight scene. Sooooo I think looking at a fight scene animation would be really really REALLY useful as reference when i'm animating it.

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In ZBrush related news...

We're now getting along (thank you Digital Tutors), and i'm attempting to sculpt a bust... lol lol lol

Adaptive skin view

DT even gave me a fancy certificate for dedicating valuable Eastenders catch up time to loving up ZBrush.

I R Websiter & Animator

I've been beavering away getting my 'affairs' in order the last couple of days - one of the top being a NEW WEBSITE / BLOG for all my professional art/blog update needs after the course ends (I'll add an animation section once i've pulled together my showreel etc).

I was initially going to build the entire thing from scratch... which meant would have taken a few weeks and would have driven me crazy over android responsiveness etc, but then I came across Squarespace and the rest is history!

Yannis is also making me a new logo which is very much needed! I want something a lot slicker (the current one was something i'd draw a few years ago in a art induced haze)

New website here

In animation related news - i've been keen to get a second set of eyes on my animation because mine begin to glaze over lol - also want to make sure i'm not over animating. SO i've been pestering Natasha and Sushma - they've got great animation eyes. They picked up on something i'd missed completely for the breaking animation and that was - the eyebrows ¬_¬... they weren't moving/ reacting at the correct time.

I have the eyebrows as part of the facial blendshapes (not on their own), which means I can't animate them separately (If I were to model her again now this is something I would definitely do different), so i've had to tweak them on the blends and be careful that i'm not overshooting. Lesson learnt!

Thumbnails ahoy!!

So then I felt like I was on a roll! I've pretty much now roughly blocked out all the key bits of animation with the help of referencing anddd some thumbnails to understand the poses a bit better - like the shot where she steps out of the ship.

When I add more keys and clean them up I want to make sure the movements are snappy! And not too 'airy fairy' - I think that' just my own personal preference in terms of style, but I also think it will work really well with this and the stylisation of the character.

Oooo I also changed one the poses slightly - the bit with the flag. I really couldn't get it to work or make anatomic sense so i've tweaked where her hand will be seen placing a couple of rocks on the ground the keep the flag in place.

Lots to tweak, but I see it as just sketching out my rough guide and movements.

I want to have these all cleaned up, finished and double checked by the end of next week - which gives me 3 glorious weeks on the dance sequence - aiming on finishing 15 seconds of animation per week...The last week of June will be for any texture changes /updates before rendering commences beginning of July! (hopefully earlier)

Semester 2 Reflection

Well... if I thought Semester 1 was quick, this semester has FLOWN by. I literally have no idea where the time has gone, and while that's a bit scary deadline wise, it does make me feel pretty damn proud about everything i've achieved within the time scale.

So my main aim for this Semester was to learn all the key things I needed to complete my solo final project. I think Going Live gave me the best chance to do this, especially when it came to things like setting up renders and compositing. But most importantly I wanted to push myself to be better at the things I learnt last semester - Like Modelling, Rigging and Texturing.

I also wanted to take Semester 2 to grow mentally as well (when it comes to art and animation), so using all projects as opportunities to test and strengthen my problem solving skills by finding new solutions to any issues - whether it be deformations or my initial distaste for texturing (I like it now that i've taught myself to 'think in 3D' so to speak).

This means it was trying and testing new things and picking up new skills along the way and not just relying on what I'm used to. For instance with the whole texturing hate I was convinced that using the 3D Photoshop function would make me like it, and while it kind of did it was only when I saw the issues with it and gave in and tested Mudbox again (taking all i'd learnt from Photoshop) that it clicked and started to make heaps of sense.

I've also used this time to set myself lots of personal creative goals, including learning ZBrush, TV paint and drawing everyday. I've learned to take things one step at a time, but still have to remind myself that I can't run before I can walk D=.

So the key things i've learnt from Semester 2:

1. Practice and Confidence is key
   I 100% want to keep getting better at both art and animation, and to do this I now know that I literally do have to just keep practising every day, even if its in tiny chunks. I'm more likely to get better quicker if i'm doing 1 hour as opposed to 4hr spurts once every couple of weeks. But in order to do this I need to remain confident in my over all goal and get things wrong before getting them right. (I sound so deep, pffft)
   
   
2. Positivity and Practicality
   This is something that Going Live definitely revealed to me. I definitely see myself as a relatively calm/chilled out person (i'm sure most do), but there is really tested when you're under stressful conditions such as meeting a tight deadline.
   
   I think I was able to retain this throughout the project in spite of any issues that did come up. Keeping a calm head also helps you think more practically and solve solutions a lot quicker and more effectively. So my hope was that my Powerpuff Girls positivity would rub off on other people, because I really wanted everyone to come away from it with a really positive experience (I also like to think that high-spirits can positively impact a production).
   
   Having worked in a very high pressure role previously (and done a lot of panicking), I really really wanted to approach this differently and I think I managed to achieve that :)
   
   
3. Director of all the Art!!
   I think this could be a good career path for me... Now while I didn't perform the role in its entirety for Going Live, now that it's done and i've reflected on it, I feel like this is a role I could fulfil one day.
   
   I love to get involved in everything, and support where I can. I'm also fully aware (I hope) of my creative strengths and weaknesses - and I think I can recognise them in other too. I know Art Direction is more than that, but it think these are some of the core things needed - everything else would be learning and experience (I hope). I'll see where it takes me!
   
   
4. I love artists
   This is actually the first time (not including school), that i've actually worked with and around lots of artists and i've loved it. I didn't realise how 'isolated' I was as an artist until joining this course and working with everything. I've learnt sooooo much from them especially in terms of style and technique and just different ways of thinking, and thats definitely something i'm really grateful for.
   
   I've loved working in a team and the dynamic (and the fun, food, jokes, banter and booze it brings) and I feel like i've really begun to thrive in those types of situations.
   
   As sappy as it sounds this course and these peeps are great. Long live the artist/animator!

Besides finishing (lol) my final project, I think my main goals for Semester 3 are pretty much to continue on as I have been these last few weeks - lots of art, practice and learning! But I also need to really start thinking about my next move career wise and how I can initiate my plan to take over Marvel.