Weekly Summary: 06/05/2019 - 10/05/2019
Though I had already finished my digital 3D project, I decided to give my UFO Animation a Black background to make it look as if the scene was happening at night. I feel this makes it look a lot better and more presentable for my showreel. Overall, I like how it turned out as it was my very first Animation created using Maya.
Similarly to my UFO animation for my Digital 3D, I had also completed my Mystery Box project but decided to lengthen the duration of my Animatic so it would fit with the time of my actual Stop Motion Animation in my final Showreel.
Experimentation Reel
This week I also made my experimentation reel for my mystery box which included my storyboards (original and digital), Video Reference, Animatic, trial and error videos, and my final outcome. Thankfully, I managed to recover some of my old videos which I deleted, thinking I wouldn't need them anymore. I added the walk-on from my very first take on the mystery box, as I then made it better in take 2 of my first pass, when I was also given enough time to complete the rest of the animation. It took a little longer than expected to make because I wanted to try and edit the videos in a way that each iteration transitioned onto the next nicely. Although I lengthened my Animatic for my showreel, I felt the faster version was better for my experimentation reel as it moved onto the next frame more quickly, so fit better with the beat of the music playing.
Overall, I am really proud of how it turned out. It’s a good indication of how far I’ve come and how much my stop motion skills have improved. Though It took a long time to make as I wanted to get everything as perfect as I could, I actually found the process quite satisfying and fun.
This week I focussed mostly on getting my lip sync completely finished. Each day I managed to update my lip sync making it better each time whilst also getting closer to finishing it. I am very proud of how the final animation turned out, especially with how well I feel the mouth (shapes) fit with the audio to create the ‘lip sync’ effect. I am also really pleased with how smoothly it all flows, and I definitely feel it has a lot more appeal. I managed to copy the hair movement sequence from previous frames, saving me so much more time which was good, it also meant the animation looked a lot neater and more precise, which is how I like things. I feel the hair movement shows some good secondary action too, as I have it move upwards as the shoulders are shrugging as if there is air being made from the ‘shrug’ pushing the hair upwards. Secondary action is also prominent within the hair. Since hair is quite light when there isn’t too much of it, it tends to ‘float’ whilst it falls, this means it would fall slower than it would rise if it were to be pushed upwards or blown.
Overall, I am now finally, completely finished with this project and I am so pleased with how far I've come, and how much I’ve developed my digital 2D animation skills. I feel I made my lip sync the best it possibly could be, but If I were to make any changes/alterations, I would add eyebrows to my character and have his head move up and down when he shrugs, though your head doesn't potentially move at all when you shrug, so in fact that may not be necessary. I could also argue that not including these features was beneficial, as not only does it already have a smooth look, but including these extra features would also add busyness to what is already going, so would draw attention even more away from the mouth.
This week I have definitely made progress on my Mythical Creature project, as I finished the UV and textures for the body and wings, I used substance painter again to paint the UV’s of the wings and eyes, and with help, I managed to eventually whiten my fur, which I then groomed so the fur would all flow in the right directions I wanted it to, until I was happy with how the rendered result looked. I am really happy with how my final creature turned out and I am so glad that I eventually learned how to create UV’s and import them into Substance painter, even though it took me longer than the rest of my course mates to learn this skill. I also managed to overcome quite a few problems, and even though I required help, I feel it was extremely beneficial as it means I learn for next time how to do these things on my own with more practice.
We also had to make a character line-up sheet which included other peoples creatures who could all live in the same eco-system to our own. I took control in putting together the character cast sheet for my group which was fairly easy because my peers also did creatures who could survive in cold, snowy climates, like myself. I had 4 people join me on my cast sheet; Tan with her Bwolf, Tyra with her Calathea Felis, Layth with his Sninky, and James with his woolly goat-like creature who he couldn't think of a name for, so I gave it the title of ‘Unknown Species’. Due to some of my group members, myself included, not having the 3D model completed in time, I was only able to make a concept art version of the cast line up for them, which fortunately was also acceptable so it was all well and good. Though due to my extension, once my friends had submitted all their work I managed to create my own 3D character cast with the creatures from my concept version which I was able to acquire.
Overall, I am super happy with how my final design turned out, and now all I have left to do is the Turnaround, and composite my creature into 3 different real-life environments.
