Production Diary TB2

Ideas

Decided to create a pair of robotic legs. Inspired in part by Iron Man in design. Cityscape scene seemed obvious and fitting as well.  

Modelling

Because of the complicated layers and armor, modelling took quite a bit of time. Made heavy use of the Extrude tool to create the armor layers. Would have been better off creating armor seperately and then parenting it.   

Rigging

Following tutorial made rigging easy enough. Paint-weighting however was not a simple task, and legs don't look completely solid. 

Texturing

Wanted to keep the design simple, so I used some simple materials. Used Phongs because of their metallic sheen. Also gave a blue color to make them more heroic.  

Animating 

Proved to be harrowing to begin with because I couldn't animate a walk cycle properly. Wasn't until I figured out I had to move the knee joints forward that I actually got somewhere.  

legs rig

                                                 These are the legs fully rigged and modelled  

sketches for legs

Below is a series of sketches for both the scene of the legs, and the nature of the legs themselves

Intro scene. 

Walk cycle, and layout of scene

Layouts and poses for legs

Production Diary TB1

Chair

As first modellings go, didn't turn out too bad, need to make less complicated in process though, could use extrude tool instead of constantly making square after square. 

Dodging box

Works quite well, stretches a bit much though 

Anticipation 

Could be better, but the anticipation works rather well, and the timing on each obstacle is alright, gives a foreboding feel.  

Dynamic Parenting

Timing works quite well, but the stretch on the box should be improved, could try and fix it back into solid form as well.     

Chain 

Had serious problems rigging this. Didn't always stick together. Could prove difficult in animating in it. 

Squirrel 

Needs more work on the smoothness of the tail, should consider longer animations as well. 

Pose renders  

Very well done. Pose works well, could consider trying another pose as well to compare.  

Legs walk cycle

                                                This is the walk cycle for the legs

Secondary motion

For this exercise, we had to create a lever, and animate it moving wildly across the screen. Setting up NURBS Curves was also one of the first rigging exercises we did.

Chain

                                     We had to create a chain using polygons and NURBS curves. 

Squirrel tail

We had to animate a box with a tail attached to it, this was a test of the tail movement. Should make it more smoother next time.

Dynamic parenting exercise

We had to create an elavator scene in which a box jumps onto a moving elavator, using a technique called dynamic parenting. This involves parenting two objects together, but only at a certain time or keyframe. So I parented the box to the elavator at the point it jumps on to it.  

Anticipation box jump

Using maya, we had to create a box and then animate it jumping over a series of obstacles. I don't think it turned out too bad, although it could be improved by making it more smoother, and the timing in the squash and jumps could be better as well. The anticipation as well needs work.    

Critical analysis of animation principles teaching block 2

For the 2^nd teaching block of this unit, we have progressed to more complex animation techniques and principles, although it felt as though we were learning the same kind from term 1, but in much more advanced circumstances. Weight and timing were certainly explored more though. I also learnt a bit more of the more professional half of this unit, such as showreels.

Following through from the original walk cycle, we had to animate a second walk cycle, but one that had to show a distinct personality in its walk. I chose to show an eccentric walk. Although it is rather clunky, the personality shines through. However, the proportions could still have used some more work. I could have added arms to the character as well.

Next, we animated a simple limb making its way across the screen. My robot arm was very smooth, and the timing on it was rather good. Once more however, it could have still been improved in terms of weight and proportion. I do however consider it to be my best exercise of this term.

We next had to create a character and have him/her react to being given a certain weight. While I think the weight reaction is quite good, I think this one was the weakest of my exercises because of its proportion issues and could have be improved. I should also add an extra action next time, such as the character throwing the rock away into the air.

Finally we had to create a showreel that would show our work produced across the entire unit. An intro and outro clip also had to be produced. The intro in my opinion would have to be the better of the two, because there is more going on, and it lasts longer as well. The wizard’s expressions are shown quite well, and the rising block with my name is surprisingly smooth. I think as a result I spent too little time on the outro, and it shows in its lack of content and time. The wizard’s face needs more frames focused on it and the contact details need a few more frames on them as well. The showreel itself, while nicely timed, needs to be edited better next time, as the intro and outro clips go by too quickly. I need to ensure the quality is better as well.  

If there is anything this part of the unit has taught me, it’s that I need to be much more organised with my time. Because I was trying to focus on other units as well, I left quite a few exercises too long and because of this, many of them look rushed and unclean. I need to be better organised with my time in the future. It has also shown me that straight-ahead animation is not always the best course of action and careful planning would be very beneficial in the future as well. Consistency is still somewhat of an issue as well, and I hope that I can improve my drawings and make them less messy. 

Term 2 sketchbook drawings

                            These above pictures are initial storyboards for the intro

        These storyboards were done for the intro, once I changed the idea to the old wizard. 

This is a quick run-through of the strength sequence. 

Final Showreel

This the final showreel for this unit. Had I more time I would have edited it so the intro and outro could have been focused longer. The pixels on the bouncing ball can be a tad distracting as well. However, I feel I have done a good job with this, and the music suits the video well. 

Showreel

As part of our final exercises, we had to create a show reel of all of our work that we had produced this year. We also had to create an introduction and ending for the showreel, each of which had to be just under 5 seconds long. I animated a wizard for these clips. 

This is the intro for the showreel. I don't think it was too bad, the timing on the character's expressions and the rising of my name is quite good, however it needs to longer, and the linework could also use work.  







This is the outro clip for the showreel. Admittedly I don't think I spent enough time on this, and as result the timing suffers. However, I think the wizards expression is focused on quite well. I also need to hold on the end frames just a little more next time. 

Strength animation

For this next exercise, we had to animate a character catching an object and reacting to the weight of it. I chose to show a superhero catching a boulder.

Both of these are very different in terms of timing and content, but I think the first draft may be better than the final simply because the character does more with the object by lifting it up. However, both of them are quite messy and the proportions could certainly use some work. Next time I could probably animate the character throwing the rock as well. 

Principles Arm walk

                   The original reference. I filmed myself moving my arm across the table. 


For this exercise, we had to animate a single limb or pair of limbs walking across a screen. I decided to create a decapitated robot arm limping across. This one was very tricky, because it was hard to keep the arm solid when it bent. I also had to redo some frames as a result because the arm got longer as it progressed. However, I think it retains its shape just enough.  

Principles: Personality walk

After completing the first walk cycle, we had to create a second walk cycle, but it had to be one that would show a certain personality. It could be any we can think of, so, inspired in part by the ministry of silly walks sketch in monty python, I decided to do a simple eccentric walk cycle.

                                    The ministry of silly walks sketch from Monty Python.  

This is my personality walk. Although it is a little clunky I think it comes across as eccentric quite well. I think I should probably make it more cleaner next time.