fran's digital portfolio

a little digital sketchbook to keep track of my work.

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STORYBOARDING.

While the storyboard was very simple, I had my idea set in mind. Originally, I wanted Naia to enter the screen, look startled at the screen, before lowering herself down, jumping into the sky, and going back down on the floor again, while executing a pose. I ultimately decided to go with a different route, which included Naia walking into the scene, and lowering herself down. I wanted to animate the hands and face as well, but due to the bones in the face and hands not allowing me to animate them, I decided to change the storyboard to fit what I could do on Blender.

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FINAL ANIMATION.

The principles used were staging, appeal, follow through and overlapping, exaggeration, anticipation, arcs, secondary action and squash and stretch.

Staging is present in the background. While my computer had some difficulties in having more than one object in the background, I worked with textures to create some sort of environment around Naia’s figure. While making it, I was thinking she would train around a stable of some kind, hence the wooden walls behind her. Appeal was used in the way that Naia was made, in terms of character design. Follow through and overlapping is present with the hair, which moves alongside Naia’s figure as she acts across the screen. Exaggeration is, again, present in her design. Her legs ar excessively long, the ears are large, and her figure is far from being stereotypically human-like. Anticipation was used in the way that she prepares herself before lowering down and on to the floor. She pulls her arms back, she jumps, and then is finally on the floor. The arcs principle was used in the way that she walked, at the beginning of the video, as well as in the way that her arms move as she walks. They follow an arc-like movement. Secondary action was present in the way that Naia moved her arms as she walked. Finally, squash and stretch was used in the way that she stretches when she jumps, and squashes when she crouches on the floor. 

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CASE STUDIES AND INSPIRATIONS.

Tangled

Tangled was one of my major inspirations for, both, my first and second animation. This is mainly due to the movie’s aesthetics, setting and proportions used for each character. The protagonist, Rapunzel, for instance, has overly exaggerated features, including her eyes, a round face, and a slim body shape, which resembles the one I drew for the first assignment. Both Naia and Mavis has similar exaggerations on their bodies. 

Furthermore, Tangled is a 2010 3D animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film is greatly inspired by the German Tale “Rapunzel” and tells the story of a long, lost princess with magical hair. This movie was of great inspiration to me in terms of visual aesthetics and setting as well. As it is set in a medieval-like environment, it really fits with the overall aesthetic that I picked for Naia’s universe. The colors are bright, warm and vibrant.

Wreck it Ralph

Wreck it Ralph was another movie I looked up to for inspiration. Again, this movie resonated with me in terms of character design and proportion-wise. The characters have distinct characteristics that make them unique in their own way. Wreck it Ralph is a 2012 animated film, it follows the story of Ralph, a video game character. The settings in this movie, like Tangled, are very other-worldly and fantastic. Since they resemble video games, the environment is far from seeming realistic, and this applies to the color schemes as well. The movie is bright and energetic.

Frozen

Frozen was of great inspiration to me, not only in terms of character design, but also in terms of character story and development. It is one of the few 3D animated movies that focuses on the main characters being independent women going out of their own way to begin their own adventures. Alongside this, which helped me develop the story and motivations behind Naia’s character, Frozen’s aesthetics are also remarkable and inspiring when I was developing Naia and the environment she is in.

Honorable Mentions: Coraline

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WORKING IN 3D: REFERENCES.

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WORKING IN 3D: TWEAKING NAIA’S MODEL.

While I tried to experiment with making an armature for Naia’s hands, I ultimately ended up not having them, since Blender would not allow it to work. Regardless of that, I tried to add it to the full body armature to see if it would work. Furthermore, I reduced the vertices in Naia’s hair strands by using the Diffuse modifier, so that it would allow me to rig the full body successfully. 

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WORKING ON 3D: WEIGHT PAINT.

Some issues I found revolved around the weight paint and how Naia’s ears, who were supposed to stay still for this animation, kept moving whenever I moved the hands, arm or shoulder. Therefore, I fixed it by painting it in negative, so that the entire ear would match the same color.

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WORKING IN 3D: NAIA’S RIGGING AND ARMATURE.

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WORKING IN 3D: NAIA’S FINAL PRODUCT.

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WORLD BUILDING: FURTHER EXPLORING THE ENVIRONMENT.

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WORKING IN 3D: EXPERIMENTING WITH FACIAL EXPRESSIONS.

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WORKING IN 3D: COMPLETED TEXTURE.

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WORKING IN 3D: TEXTURING.

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MORE CLOTHES REFERENCES.

While Naia’s knight outfits were okay, they didn’t really convince me to the fullest. So I started experimenting with the more casual look for Naia, and I began researching outfits that characters in Medieval times would wear casually. For this, I researched series like Merlin and Game of Thrones, once more. 

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NAIA’S COLOR PALLETTE. 

I wanted Naia’s color pallette to match, in a way, the one Mavis had. Therefore, I played around with a series of colors that Mavis had, which included oranges and light browns. With Naia, however, I also added shades of blue, since her ears resemble fish and her story revolves around her being a river nymph of some sort. In a way, she is related to water.

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WORKING IN 3D: THE EYES.

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WORKING IN 3D: NAIA’S POSE.

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WORKING IN 3D: NAIA’S FIRST RIGGING.