Harvey Castle @harveycastle-blog - Tumblr Blog

Work Plan for the Summer

As the FMP is now finished and now there is just a big long wait till I start Uni. To keep myself preoccupied over the summer I'm continuing the FMP project over. Reasons being that I don't want to go to Uni unprepared or out of the game, and I'm not proud of the end result of my FMP, I think it's a pile of crap, honestly.

I want something I'm really proud of to take to Uni so I've set about redoing nearly everything. The sloppiness started to occur around halfway through modelling. I began to rush it so that is where I'll start off, I'm re-designing the whole alleyway structure and modeling a more interesting warehouse for it to be based in. I'm also going to model an apartment block to sit on a corner, just to expand the scene a little more. I haven't made plans for the other processes yet in regards to colour, light and so on. I don't want to as I'm still not sure how I'll feel once I've finished modelling.

I'll start posting progress soon. Here goes.

Here is my final comp of my Pacman chase sequence. It hasn't come out the way I wanted, in regards to the actual content. I anticipated more, but aswell as that for some reason my quality is really poor even though I rendered in 1080HD. However this is not something I'm particularly worried about as I have the entire summer to work on something I'm proud of. I'm just glad I've got it up here for deadline date.

#unit 6 #Unit 67

Shared with Dropbox

#unit 6

Render update

I have the majority of my cameras rendered now,7/10 done. I aim to get the last 3 done by tomorrow morning as I've timed them so I can start the longest and last one just before I go for a night shift at work. So the plan is that once I get in tomorrow morning from my daunting 12 hour shift, I'm going to make an additional adjustments to renders whilst I sleep for a few hours, then I'll be editing in AEffects. It's a tight plan but I don't see why I can't pull it off so fingers crossed my next post will be my final animation accompanied with an evaluation.

#Unit 67 #unit 6

Cameras

For my animation, I've animated some cameras to render through to give the animation some cinematic effect and make it nicer to watch. I started by looking back at my storyboard and the type of shots I liked, these being tracking and panning shots. They're easy to pull off and effective when trying to accomplish a smooth coverage of footage.

I've separated this into 8 cameras inorder to get the footage I desire:

Camera 1: The camera swoops in from an aerial view to land in front of the ghost (as the ghost walks through the camera) then does a 180 degree spin show him walking in front.

Camera 2: This shows him now running (from the 3rd shot in the storyboard) and turning into the alley. Pacman follows.

Camera 3: Here we have a tracking shot of the Ghost running round a corner too fast and hitting the wall to stop him. This tracking shot then rotates to show him fleeing (storyboard shots 6&7).

Camera 4 & 5: I've decided to communicate the Ghost's dilemma in shots 8,9 & 10 a little bit different to the way I've drawn them. I hint a little at events to come in Camera 3 by showing the ghost come to a halt after the camera has rotated in its direction. Then I've left a still shot from face-on showing the Ghost go into the alley, then run back out. I have placed Camera 5 in that alley and I will split the shots up in order.

Camera 6: This is just a plain shot to be used as a filler.

Camera 7: A tracking shot of the Ghost (face-on) showing him sprint down the final stretch where he comes to a dead end. I've chosen to do this from face on so that it builds suspense and the audience won't know where he is going.

Camera 8: I'm going to animate a tracking shot of Pacman and another of the Ghost right at the end which I will then cut up when I edit in After Effects.

#Unit 67 #unit 6 #unit 55

updates

All the character animation is finished now, I've also textured the characters within Maya to a basic standard. I was going to start animating cameras for renders however alot of the functions on Maya won't work (most of them being 'show' tools like different views). I've tried repairing the original Maya file whilst trying to find solutions in forums. With no luck I'm now Re-installing Maya as a whole, hopefully with some results. Whilst I wait for that, I'm going to look into some quick ways to texture the buildings in interesting ways just to make it ever so slightly pleasing to the eye. I'll blog some more tonight, with more news hopefully.

#unit 6

Updates

So tonight I’ve managed to complete the ghost navigating through the alleyway. I haven’t got a render to present because it’s a bit late to start one, so I may do one on Thursday (atleast I’ll have a bit more to show that way). Tomorrow I move onto animating Pacman and some of the surrounding bins.

#unit 6

PLAN

For the final 2 weeks of the project I will only focus on the animation, so here is what I intend to get done:

Week 1

Monday: Finish animating ghost around the maze Tuesday evening: Begin animating Pacman, being aware of his surroundings and possible object that I can animate around him Wednesday: Continue animating progress/ blog screenshots and a low res render if there's enough content to warrant one. Thursday: working Friday: working Saturday: working Sunday: hopefully finish animating Pacman Week 2

Monday: Blog update in the morning. Animate where needed for Pacman and finish. Tuesday: Look into Toon shaders for render a sa replacement for the texturing Wednesday: Off Thursday: Come into college instead of wednesday. Friday: hand in.

#unit 6

Evaluation of the FMP so far

Throughout the whole of the course of the FMP I have been constantly distracted with hiccups and problems, which means the end result is going to be far from the standard I first anticipated. The setup of the project went really well, I don't think I could've improved much more on that as by the end of those few weeks of project setup I had a very clear image of what I wanted to produce and how I was going to do it.

When I had begun producing content, the first 2 weeks went very well, I modelled the environment. For the next couple of weeks after that I ran into constant problems (this was during the easter holidays) varying from a failed PSU and problems at work. After this I had to evaluate the project as a whole and decide what corners to cut, I decided to lose the texturing job as this is falls under a unit I've covered in detail attaining distinction grade. I'm focusing all of my time on the units that I don't have a respectable grade for, which is just the 3D Animation unit. Now all my efforts are going into the animation and constantly showing my developments via Tumblr.

My project has downsized from:

- A textured and lit environment with animated elements (including inanimate objects like flickering lights). I will also produce animated and textured characters playing parts in a graphic narrative showing a variety of animation skills.

- A finished animation sequence of a chase scene between two characters showing a variety of animation skills and use of the principles where effective.

I think that even though I've been held up with problems, I think I've still kept control of the project by having back up plans and last resorts. The final content is something that I will continue into the summer holidays, expanding on the idea, it will keep me engaged in the industry and I will have something I'm proud of afterwards.

#unit 6

I'm not going to do a render to show you tonight, it's not worth it considering how much I've done in comparison with what I still need to do. I've been trying to make the ghost's movements look as natural as possible, so I've spent alot of my night trying to get the timing accurate to express the character's mood and thoughts through his body language. The way he changes from a steady pace, an arched back sprint to exaggerate desperation. When he turns the corner I've implemented the follow through principle to give the illusion of a build up in momentum in his previous sprint. I'm trying to make the ghost look at panicked as possible by including small details; such as how he isn't running in a straight line when he turns the corner and is very off-balance. That's my progress tonight, I'd like to have him at the end of his journey through the alleyways by tomorrow, then I can move onto animating Pacman. I've been considering how I'm going to render this animation. As nothing will be textured I'm thinking about using the Toon shader Tyler posted a tutorial for a few weeks back, just so I can give a bit of definition to the scene and hopefully make it more aesthetically pleasing.

#unit 6 #Unit 67

Updates for this week

Have been fixing the problems I had with the rig, well I haven't corrected anything, I've just found an easier and better way to do it. Rather than using the IK handle and having all of that aggro I've just been using the middle joint as a good substitute. My characters movements are too simple to require IK. I'm still animating the ghost in the alleys, hopefully I can get the majority of that done tonight. I'll upload some more screenshots and a low res render in the next few hours.

#unit 6

Fmp progress

This week I've animated the first part of the chase scene, which is; the ghost initially walking down the street, hearing a noise and looking over his shoulder. I've managed to use the simple rig to my advantage as I've given the ghost a little bob and sway to make it look a little more natural. I'm going to finish the ghosts movements before I start Pacman's. This way I've got something to follow when I do animate Pacman, rather than do it the other way around and try to pace the ghost in front of Pacman. That would look really weird and un natural. The only problem I'm having now is with the rig, when I key frame the top joint of the IK handle to try and replicate the ghost spine flexing. It ruins the previous walk cycle by turning it sideways. I'm not really sure what to do, I haven't tried much to get around it as I've been working quite a lot but I'm going to revisit it tomorrow night and hopefully I'll have some more interesting updates to share.

#unit 6

I've added a very basic skeleton to the ghost just to so I can play with the arch of the back when I animate him fleeing from Pacman. Because it's quite simple I haven't I didn't experience any problems when I smooth bound it to the mesh.

#unit 67

Here are the two characters side by side just to give an idea of how intimidating I want Pacman to be so I've made him about 1.5x bigger than he is in comparison to graphics from in game. That'll create some goosebumps!

#unit 67

Here's is the Pacman mesh. I've parented the teeth to the jaw, and positioned them in a way that the mouth can close fully without any being visible. I spent quite alot of time on the teeth, trying to make each one unique by manipulating the angle of the point, but still trying to make teeth look organised. I don't think I'll rig this, it's too simple, I may consider it to continue this project on, especially to control the facial muscles.

#Unit 6 #unit 67

Problems I've Experienced

All of the hiccups I've encountered throughout this project have set me back quite alot. I've already explained the problems, but I'll list them again to conjure sympathy among my peers:

- Unanticipated work schedule during easter holidays (which they wouldn't let me abandon... Great guys)

- Nothing like a failed PSU to round off the holidays

- Finally a broken hard drive, resulting in an inability to get my work to and from college. I know I can put it on Dropbox, but the don't handle complex folders very well. So I'll just be working from home for the next couple of days.

Now I can asses how to move forward. At this point in the project I was supposed to be completely finished with the chase scene and be well into the making of the scenes that make up the rest of the story, which is about 4 weeks behind schedule. I've cut corners with the environment as I've decided not to texture or even begin properly lighting it until my characters are completely animated and textured. I am prioritizing this because it's all I can do at this stage to complete Unit 67: 3D Animation, and Unit 55: Graphic Narrative Production. My plan running up until the next time I'm in college is to have all the animated chase sequence finished and the characters textured to a basic standard atleast. It seems like alot but I'm not in until the 12th May as next Monday is bank holiday, and I'm at Thorpe Park with the college on Wednesday. I may go in for drop in sessions, though.

#unit 6 GC4

Week 8 Progress Update

During this week I've changed my plans, it will effect my idea, but be better in the long run. As my hard drive has just broke, I'm falling behind schedule even more, so I've looked back over the units and have had to prioritize whatever I do now in line with my weaker units. 3D animation doesn't have a grade so I'm going to focus on that from now on, I've set aside the texturing and lighting as I have distinctions in those units. I've quickly coloured all the mesh in a basic colour. If I get time I will texture the characters.

#unit 6 GC4

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Harvey Castle