I chose to make animatic to show my animation idea because I could not run Maya on my laptop without it crashing or freezing. However, I will finish the animation in my free time to put it in my portfolio. I changed the animation plot in order to make it shorter and more understandable; The fox was cut out of the animation as it was not necessary to the plot and may even complicate the plot. I also modified the end so it would make sense, mostly the part where the tied rope is preventing the hunter from catching the whale. I could do more research on the harpoon machine and learn its mechanics to find a better way to end the animation.
I am satisfied with the 3D model of the whale. But, I could improve the texture if the model to make it more realistic, for example, whales in nature have a parasite living on their skin called barnacles. Recreating the parasite pattern on the whale model could help it look more organic. For the kid model, I need to make the re-topology again, since it is very messy, and it was distorting the textures as well. In the animatic, I chose to leave the google on the kid's eyes since the fox is no longer in the animation. Therefore, the dark room is not showing either. Another thing I could fix is the hair because of the way I sculpted it; there are layers of polygons inside the model which made the UV mapping difficult. After fixing those, I will make the facial expression for the kid, and then I’ll rig both models. I also need to make 3D environments and 2D backgrounds. The deck is going to be 3D while the icebergs, the hunter and the harpoon will be 2D.
In the future, I should improve my time management as in this project, I spent a lot of time in one stage, and that created a delay later. I need to break the project into sub-projects and give each one a deadline. Another thing is to start with the narrative first. Because I struggled to come up with a story, I started making the characters first, which might have been a great way to progress while I was stuck with the narrative. But I also wasted time moulding a character the did not make it into the animation.
(Music: Childhood Memories by Julie Maxwells)














