Applied animation - Evaluation

This has been what I would say is my most experimental module of the year because of the introduction of new software as well as the pooling of knowledge I have gained from my first year in animation. The module was split into two halves, one brief where we got to choose our area of focus from three different sub briefs, and a brief that focused on tasks to teach us the basics of Maya the 3D animating software.

With the three briefs to choose from, I chose the most narrative driven one where we chose a book and created a title sequence for said book. I wanted to focus on working towards narrative and stories so I was immediately drawn to the idea of working from a book, but I feel this led to my down fall. I chose to use the book ‘Eragon’ a fantasy novel that I had read when I was younger but had not read recently, I hadn’t read a book in quite sometime for that matter, and I chose it under the presumption that I could read it in a short space of time. I then had the fact I had dyslexia brought to my attention and told I read at half the speed of a normal person, I’ve always been a slow reader but after learning this I felt even more lethargic and I only read 100 pages. So I didn’t have enough backing from the story I felt in my research. And after this when I returned home over spring break I realized there were other books that I could of chosen to use and I could of created much more elegant animations based on new knowledge I had ascertained about the idea of using after effects, motion graphics and being more conceptual with the theme instead of having the characters and story practically there. I realize looking back that it felt very animesque, in the aspect of being very action oriented with fast movements and action shots and after it was too late I wanted to try and work from a book that would have allowed for something more elusive.

Maya has been very up and down for me over this module. Just when I think I’m getting the hang of it a new problem arises and I need the help of my tutors as I’ve learnt if there’s a problem in Maya, there are 100 possible reasons why. My worst experience was with the issue of saving my work, I had tried to save the scene separately but it had become a document and not a Maya file, which, essentially meant the work from that day, was lost causing me a lot of stress and panic. I’ve come to learn that when rendering in Maya you need to be doing it at the latest a week before your deadline. I found this out the hard way and had to render my animation unfinished due to time constraints. That being said I do want to improve in Maya so I am determined to first go back and complete my final animation for this module and secondly go on to practice further with Maya as I want to try combining 2D and 3D again in third year but this time by overlaying the two elements on top of one another like with Paper man.

While an extension is good in the aspect that I can get my work done I wasn’t happy to have it, as for me there’s something unprofessional about having an extension. In the industry I don’t feel there are second chances so I begrudgingly took it. I don’t want to have to have extensions again in future modules so I will endeavor to manage my time more effectively in future modules.

Applied Animation - final movie

due to time constraints i couldn't consider and take my time with the animation in the same way with this animation like i had with the others, in certain areas the timing is off and characters are almost missed entirely or move too slowly and the lighting is to strong and contrasting so it becomes over saturated with colour. After this module I'm going to go back and redo this animation so that the lighting and timing is on point because the parts that work look really nice and i feel i can make good use of both 3d and 2d in character movement and atmospheric lighting, if i could go back and improve it.

Maya - Modelling a Pencil

After modelling the maya truck we were required to create an object of our own choosing using thew skills we learned. I initially wanted to make a computer mouse but i wasn't able to get the hang of the bevel tool to make the curves so i quickly gave up on it.

I returned to it with the intention to make a pencil, but this one was a mechanical pencil, so it was simple enough with the cylindrical shape but the tip and end both had small details that might go on missed, specifically the indentations on the nib where you hold the pencil and the connecting parts of the pencil handle. This is a good example of me enjoying maya because i understand how to model simple objects and apply textures but it took a little bit of trial and error with the bevelling that i eventually got used to it and how it translates with the faces, vertices and edges.

Applied Animation - Sound

Because of the time restrictions i fell under and how i was so disorganised with this project i never pursued anything in the way of sound choices. i knew what the sort of music i was looking for, something that had pacing and felt like its travelling like the camera in my animation. I was intending to contact one of the students from Leeds college of music but i had never done this before so i kept putting it on hold as i didn't know how they would of responded or if there was a protocol for requesting help from the students there, but i never thought to ask about it. but i was going to have one remix and change the Eragon soundtrack from the movie so that it began and ended concisely but unfortunately this never happened.

So a week before deadline which was too late to ask for this request by then, my classmate made me listen to the ending of 'Civil War' from the Captain America vs Ironman movie and while i personally could care less about the movie (not my kinda thing) the last thirty seconds of the song could be used in my animation as it is a repetition of the same pattern of notes as they ascend in pitch gradually and like all super hero movies it obviously has an epic feel to it so i think it will do for going with my animation.

Applied Animation - Finalised First Scene and Maya died on me

So i finally have something finalised, the first three second scene of the egg being picked up. I love how this shot looks. For the entirety of my time using maya to make this animation I've been skeptical about how good it might look, but the sunlight in the shot looks amazing. Im really pleased with the effect the sunlight has caused on the egg with it being lit and shadowed by the sun and trees respectively. Im now even more eager to make a smooth and exciting animation in maya even with the circumstances.

So yesterday i was working on trying to get a camera to run along a CV curve in Maya struggling and failing but i needed to save the animation, i tried to save it as a separate scene set as mountains.mb-scene1 thinking the file had saved i logged out of the computer and when i returned the file was unable to open as it was a document and not a maya folder this undid all the work i had done over the day. Thankfully the exported jpg.sequence of the egg pick up scene had already been finished and the frames could be exported into premiere to be put together. This has caused me to be really concerned about making the deadline on time.

Applied Animation - Eragon

Ergon was actually more difficult to animate than i initially imagined. this was because he was essentially a turn around so i had to consider the depth of feel to him. The turn around itself is very simple and is set up on double time while his bending over has more in-betweens for the smoother action. I really like is gaze in this shot like he's staring directly into the camera.

His legs don't actually move and this is because the shot will start on the top half of his body then zoom out revealing the rest of him so any animating i do on the legs would be pointless and unseen.

Applied Animation - Saphira

Saphiras movement was interesting to animate as she wasn't human, or even or creature that exists but it wasn't difficult to imagine how she'd move through the sky. I imagined it to be very smooth a straight like a snake or a dolphin swimming so i drew out the body neck tail and head first and added the wings later. I found that the wings weren't moving much at all they were just kind of there and so i went back and added more in-betweens to her wing flaps to add a little more life to her. as the animation goes along and she gets further away the frames are gradually staying on for longer because she is becoming less clear to the naked eye i felt i could get away with this and the focus would of then shifted to the title shot which will appear underneath her as she flies up, this will be added in post production.

Applied Animation - Shade

Ugh. I hated animating the shade as his movement wasn't necessarily complicated but his design was, especially when combined with the movement. His body shape, height, weight of character and design felt and looks all over the place being really loose and scratchy, it just doesn't look clean or finalised. After the encroaching deadline is handed in i want to go back and redo his animation entirely and really take my time considering each aspect of it because right now its only key frames with a couple of rough in-betweens, but like with Arya, time constraints are playing a large part in this being poorly animated.

I do however like his flexibility in the sword, while this is also in part because of the deformation of his character it is also because of the stretchy, bounciness of the sword that his actions if they weren't just key poses would look so much nicer.

Applied Animation - Brom

Im rather on the fence about brows movement as its quite simple but the animation itself is the cleanest of all 3 of the sword play shots. He had simple sort of waddling movement with a sword going back and forth moving into a lunge which was inspired by the sword play of knights, but from side on it just looks like he's wiggling his sword back and forth (haha). As well as this his walk cycle can look a little confusing in the sense that he looks like he's continuously stepping forward with the same leg and it makes his movement rather comedic.

Considering all the above though his shape and form didn't fluctuate or break and his shape was held nicely for the duration of the shot creating really nice movement in that respect. his beard had to be redrawn as it was originally much longer and flowing out the back but it looked like really dumb hair so i had to change its placement.

Applied Animation - Arya

Arya made use of quick and fluid movements across the screen. The sword play was light and quick so her animation was very speedy. when it comes to the shape and form of the character its very in consistent with its shape because as she moves her head deforms, eyes fluctuate and her hands and arms don't have a solid base shape, feel this has been because of time constraints that i am under so i would like to go back and redo her movement so that its smoother and her form is more on point.

What i do like however is the fact her sword has this glinting, follow through effect where it leaves a swooshing line behind, in some places it doesn't quite make sense where there is a glint on both sides of the blade but on the other hand its a great way to get a line of movement from the sword.

Applied Animation - Movement references

With this animation there are multiple times where the characters perform sword play. i initially tried to come up with these movements on my own by just free hand animating it but this was fruitless as the characters actions didn't have any direction and they didn't seem real enough because there wasn't any knowledge behind them.

So my sister and her colleagues from the stunt acting course acted out and performed several types of sword play taking into consideration the weight and body type of the characters as well as their actions. What i hadn't considered was that the characters would of had different swords, Arya, a lighter sword like a rapier that could strike quickly, Brom a much heavier broad sword with simple swings for slicing and stabbing and finally the Shade a cutlass like blade that is flexible to move around. I really like that this was brought to my attention as it means that more character and individuality has been brought to the characters.

Applied Animation - Moom walk cycle

Just when i thought id gotten the hang of Maya. 

This is Moom a rigged character for us to practice animating in Maya with. We were required to create a walk cycle with key poses.

The walk cycle took me four attempts to get right, this was because wight the first three attempts i wasn't following the tutorial at all or entirely. After properly following the tutorial i realised that i made a mistake wight he legs movement in that the actions of the legs switched so i had to swap them around. The hardest part of the walk cycle was making the legs do the same thing but in the opposite direction this meant i couldn't just copy values straight into the other leg or arm but instead add a minus element to it. The two videos below are two versions of rendering to preview (play blast, the top video) and exporting and rendered the lower one with quicktime.

To try something extra i tried messing around with mooms face opening and closing his mouth and giving him an angry face, he looks so dumb! but it was interesting to try and do the mouth movements even if it was just up and down.

Im not a large fan of animation in maya because of all the components that had to be considered but the end products turned out quite nicely

Applied Animation - Maya truck tutorial attempt two

Last time when i made the Maya truck i didn't follow a tutorial because i was very disinterested in it but i wanted to redo and make a much better truck. I initially found the tutorial really confusing and became very put off the idea of it but i went back and carefully listened and watched what our tutor said. Its all rather basic but once id done the cab i was able to make the lorry really easily, because i was starting to understand it. When using maya its really easy to get overwhelmed by all the features and buttons and its just makes you say 'Nope' but when you realise you only need a certain selection of buttons for a certain task it becomes simpler to wrap your head around and I've found that the more i repeat an action on maya the more i get it however this does result in a lot of questions for Matt. With the lorry i learnt to duplicate (Cmd+D), Assign new materials, learnt what the hyper shade is, apply light and shadows and bump mapping to add textures to materials.