Professional and University Experience
My Work
Introduction
My hobby to create videos and my interest in CGI and VFX lead me to the 3D Animation course. After the first year, my plan was to select the VFX option of the course. However, during later times, I became more interested in the design and animation aspects such as character design and animation so opted for the character design option.
Throughout this page I will explore some selected work thought my time in university both early and later work.
Quick Photoshop Test
During my first year in university, we were tasked with drawing a object and having it merge into something else. Even though I have done some frame by frame animation before in college, this was the first introduction to it with no warning and a limited time of the lesson. I wasted no time picking an object. I had a computer mouse in my hand, and I thought it looked slightly like a snake’s head.
The change from object to animal I wanted to be linked. I wanted the part to come from other parts in the first form and keep morphing to a minimum. This exercise was extremely useful, introducing the class to in-between frames and rough animation with limited time and warning.
From 2D to 3D
Video Link:
It did not take long before we were having ago at 3D animation through quick tests. This clip is one of my first attempts at 3D animation. I remember being proud of the movement in this clip however, the timing is completely off with the character moving way to fast during the animation and also having some parts left completely still at time. This rigidness and fast speed make the animation look really unnatural.
It is clear my knowledge at this time was greatly limited with the timing and fps of animation. Maya was not like other software I had used before. Its choice to run on frames instead of seconds caused confusion for myself when first starting to use the software. However, I still think a second timeline would be far more useful (with fps selected when rendering) than the current frame one they use.
Extra Example: https://youtu.be/B6NLu21tDCY
Another test was done close after this one. The timing was far better than the first but the animation was not complete in time of the end of the lesson. However, it is still far more realistic.
Colour
Colour was also one of the quick exercises in class. This would introduce us to how colour can affect a design and also the hysterogram. Mine I decided to only use colours from a peacock as I wanted to limit myself. After this point people understood the importance of colour when designing characters. After this I started to use less colours for my future characters and also colours that showed the intent of the character. E.g, red being a un-trustable or evil colour and greens and blues being trustable or innocent. Although I like the colours on this dragon, they served no purpose, they were just colours used that I liked at the time.
Design
During my “Project Rocco” assignment, I explored colours on a deeper level. Also, along with exploring colour. I also explored designs even designs I knew would not be used in the final project (e.g the pirate design). Time was not managed well here as this assignment failed to meet its deadline in the state I wanted.
With Bandit (the raccoon) I decided his fur to be black and white. This black and white colouring a then decided to use for the hole animation with only key colours being used throughout. The first idea involved items Bandit was to take interest in to be in colour with the intent of guiding the viewers eye. However, it was later decided his eyes would be colour green or hazel to show him as innocent to the viewer. And the tracking collar (from the pest control) having the red light on it.
Storyboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK8g5t3q2Vc&feature=youtu.be
Character Animation
Animation was explored in greater detail during the second year. The animation had to apply by 3 emotions. So, 3 small animation with a set emotion. As this was an assignment and not an exercise, more time was available. With this opportunity I decide to push myself, I didn’t want to animate the same model with each emotion. Instead I opted to use a different model for each. A human, a quadruped and a dragon. This would allow me to experience different model types and get more out of the assignment.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTLTbNnUt44&feature=youtu.be
More Character Animation
At this stage I was becoming comfortable with animation with Maya. Although the use of a frame key system within Maya to animate still annoys me and I am still looking for a way to animate by defining key time keys instead and selecting a fps on rendering like all other video editors.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/SPDh5tLcd_0
The Future
Read more: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1br2QMl38l-ENNoWkwDwgtBsyUAXsmajJ
(Link is to assignment one for Critical Review-This links to what the page talks about but should not apply to assignment 2 marking)
Time management is still a problem for me with in 3D Animation especially when having to create the characters first as I tend to focus too much on the character design over the animation itself. I will need to be careful of this in the future.
I also hope to improve my drawing skills over the summer when my work load is reduced. I have also bought courses from Aaron Blaise https://creatureartteacher.com/ who worked on “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion king”, “Brother Bear” and other classic 2D animated movies. These courses I hope to finish by the end of summer. I also hope to revisit “Project Rocco” and complete it to the standard I was aiming for.