Major Project, scene layouts

These are the layouts for each scene. 

This is the hideout. 

The main scene 

The Robot

the running scene 

Final Major Project: Final Film

This is my final film

For this project, we had to create a final piece of work of our own choosing based around a subject of our own choosing, using an animation medium of our own choosing.

Because of my preference for drawing, I really wanted to focus on the conceptual side of this piece. I created a multitude of costume designs for the characters. I also created several designs for the robot. As a result, I feel that I neglected the animation a little bit, which is why the overall piece feels unfinished. It would have been nice to witness the models fully textured. It was because of this that I chose not to render my main scene. Nonetheless, I am fully aware of the changes needed and intend to rectify them before the show in London.

However, I feel that the concept work shows in the two parallax sequences. While they could have been edited better, the artwork is still quite solid, and the second one is very colourful, as a superhero film should be (in most cases). 

The Robot was also a very successful venture. I modelled, rigged, and animated that thing from scratch, and even though I feel the scene could have had more added to it, it did at least look quite crisp.

However, I feel that my work was hindered somewhat by problems that I had with the rigs that I used. I was unable to get the textures working in time, and several times would the rig’s body customisation options show up all at once, which took time to sort out a solution for. I should have given myself more time to animate as well. The running scene was a huge problem by the end, because the main character’s skin had gone completely pitch black, and there was no way to fix it, even after looking through the rig’s Hypershade.  

Another issue that could have been handled better was the sound. Music could have been used, and I could made the news scene more dramatic by adding more explosions and screams. I could have made the voicework more professional as well. However, the three voices I got were good enough to carry the piece. I decided to use my own voice for the superhero’s inner voice because I honestly felt that this would show itself to be a personal piece of mine, which it is. Anxiety is a very serious issue for me and I wanted to get that across.       

Major Project. Animatic tweaks

This is the animatic I created after Christmas. Following feedback I was given suggestions on how to change certain angles and increase the tension.  

I also tweaked the storyboard after I decided to add the robot to the film, though I felt an animatic would be unnecessary as the robot was replacing the fire as the news report, and the pacing and camera work would remain the same. 

final project. progress pass

This is the first progression pass for the film. It includes a scene which shows a newscaster, that ultimately had to be taken out. The animation badly needs tweaking but I'm only in the keyframe stage at the moment.   

Major Project: Character rigs

Because I felt I did not have time to model the characters from scratch, I spent some time combing websites for 3D rigs that I could use for the characters. As I had more than one character to animate, the rigs had to look more or less similar in style. To that end, I have decided to use the Morphy Rig, created by Josh Burton. Professionally created to serve as a character rig to any who need it, it's unique feature is the body and facial structure can be molded to fit almost any character archetype imaginable. Given that my two main characters are somewhat different in their body types, I felt the Morphy would be the best rig to use.  

This is the rig for my main character. As my character was slightly thin-ish, the main body had to represent that too. 

This is the rig for the secondary supportive character, Crimson Claymore. He is very much a stereotypical muscle-man, so the settings on his limbs simply had to be turned up quite high.
   

This is the armor and sword that I moddeled for the big guy. 

                                      These are the UV's created for the textures. Though I didn't completely finish them, this ultimately mattered little as I was unable to get them to work in time. 

Final Major Project. All Parralax images.

These are concepts for the robot scenes. I spent more time on the Team scene. 

Major Project, final videos.

These are the fully plablasted/rendered scenes from my film 

the script

major project: Robot

As I have already pointed out, I decided to add a Giant Robot to the film, as I felt that the piece might feel more fun, and have more of a superhero feel. 

I was initially against this idea, as I knew that I would have to model the robot from scratch in Maya, which would obviously take time, and rig it, which would take more time still, especially if if the rig developed issues. But after changing my mind, I ensured the model would be a simple design, with only a few details added. 

This is the model. I based it on one of the original six sketches of Robots that I did. It has very similar in it's mechanics to a AT-ST walker from the Star wars series.  

This is the skeleton rig. This is one of the things I was worried about because I am aware of how long rigging tends to take, especially the paint-weighting. Much to my surprise however, the paint-weighting didn't take as long. I did have to re-rig the model however. 

While I was able to get the leg joints working I had trouble trying to set up the knee joints. When setting up the initial IK's, I didn't set them to the right kind of solver, (they were supposed to be rotate plane solvers, when I accidentally set them to the single chain solvers). As pole vector constraints only work with rotate-plane solvers, I had to redo the entire rig so I could add the knee controllers.     

This is the scene I constructed for the Robot to run around in. 

         

3D Showreel

This is my 3D showreel 

Major Project. Extra character sketches.

Having completed the majority of the pre-production for my final film, I can soon start production on my animation.

However, since then, I decided to make some last minute changes to the story. So, I decided to give myself some extra time to refine some concepts and designs for my characters.

Here are a few designs for the characters in my character's team. As they are only appearing in one vision, I see no point in developing them two much, so only a few costume designs are necessary.

I felt it would be worth dong some quick redesigns for the main hero character as well. While I kept the colour palette the same, I experimented with different patterns and designs.

The most significant change I made was to add a giant robot to the narrative. I have done this because I felt that the film would have a more comic-book feel, which might be more fun. To that end, I created several robot designs. I had to keep in mind that I would have to create this robot myself, which would indeed take time. My ideas ranged from  humanoids to a more insect-like design, which I am quite fond of.

Finally, I worked on some more designs for Crimson Claymore. I've tried to create a balance between the red and black, with a little bit of grey added. The more armoured look may go against that.

Major Project: Final Film

This is the final film. Overall I think it turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Although, I would have tried to make it more detailed, especially where the 3D is concerned. I would also have tried to make the 2D less solid. I could probably have added a song to it as well. However, I think the timing on it is quite good. And I think the colors at least work well together. And I think the colors at least work well together. I used yellow for the energy because I wanted to evoke a sunny feeling.          

I also used two sound effects that can be found here. 

https://www.freesound.org/people/fridobeck/sounds/191694/

https://www.freesound.org/people/cydon/sounds/268557/ 

I also had to add the REACT logo at the end, so I found a logo and added a grey background to it. 

Major Project: 2D breakdowns and reference

These are the reference videos I filmed for the 2D 

These are the keyframes from my 2D sequence

These are the final coloured sequences for the 2D. 

Major Project: 3D scenes

These are the 3D scenes I did for the Film. 

This is the first scene. I based it on one of the street photos on the moodboard. 

This is the second scene. I based it on some syrian architecture but decided to make it more like towers building on top of one another. 

Major Project: Animatics

These are the animatics I created for the film

The only major difference between these two is the buildings. The second one has more refined buildings.  

Major Project: Moodboards

These are the moodboards I gathered together during the course of this unit. 

For my concepts, I took a great deal of reference from the top image when designing the street in the first scene, and I have modelled the 3D scene based on it as well.  

Major Project: Concepts

These are the concept drawings I produced for the project. 

I initially went for a more cartoony look for the character, but ultimately went with the kind of look on the right.  

A cityscape concept

These are designs for the boy grown up as an architect. 

How I pictured the final scene would look. 

Some turnarounds for the grown up 

More finalised designs for the boy character. Towards the end I was inspired by the Gobelin’s film Grand Central, and its simplistic designs for its characters and backgrounds.

A quick turnaround for the boy. I would later change the t-shirt colour to red and use the blue for the book instead.

 

Major Project: REACT Initial idea and storyboards

For our first major project, we had to create a 30-40 second animation for a charity called REACT. They are group who primarily focus on providing education and shelter for refugees. 

I at first found coming up a story based on this difficult, primarily because I haven't much experience working toward a brief, but also because I knew very little about REACT or their cause. But eventually I was able to come up with an idea. I decided to focus on REACT's goals of providing education to refugees.  

My basic idea involves a little boy studying in a classroom. Floating behind him are words that one would associate with hope. Then suddenly an explosion occurs, and the book he is reading, and the words are blown away. The camera then pans around him as he stares aimlessly into space. Then, a book floats down to him, he opens it, and the words return.  

Following some feedback, I changed the story a little so it would begin instead with an explosion, as i felt that the story would have more impact if it were to begin more tragically. The boy still finds the book, but instead of inspirational words, a city pops out of the book, and the pan shot then shows the boy has grown up as an architect, a result of the education that REACT was able to provide.  

This is the same story as before, but I have changed some of the buildings to make them look more Syria. I have also chnaged the ending of the scene so that the perspective is more dramatic. 

Pre - Production Methods: Alternate storyline Animatic (Final animatic)

Using the storyboards for the alternate settng storyline, I created the third animatic. The Narrative here is very much the same, with the hero having anxiety over whether he causes more harm than good, with images coming in showing things going horrifically wrong. The hero's teammate then enters the hideout (which may need explaining) and then reminds him that he is a hero, helping him to regain his confidence and then go out and save the day. As the story is the same I felt that it would make sense to keep most of the shots from the previous animatics. However, the changes to the setting, such as the shadows and the light coming from the TV screen; do a great deal to increase the drama and tension, particularly at the beggining. 

Given the improvements that can be found in this animatic, I think that I consider this to be the final animatic. However, the only things that I think could be improved here, is the ending, and the lack of audio. Overall I think I spent a bit too much time on visuals and narrative rather than audio and the video does suffer for it, as it still doesn't resolve whether or not the visions are memories or the character's imagination. As I personally feel that anxiety often involves worrying about what could happen as opposed to what actually happen, something I have done far too often, I feel that it would be better if the visions were figments of the character's imagination. Therefore, a voiceover by the character's inner voice would do a lot to make things clearer. The ending is also still somewhat quick, and I may need to rethink it a tad during production. I also need to consider the 3D techniques that I will use to make the short, as the hideout, and props such as Crimson Claymore's sword will need to be modeled from scratch. The only other thing I'm having a problem with is coming up with a name for the main character. While I initially had Powerman in mind, the name has been used a lot by Marvel, and quite frankly it sounds too generic. 

Pre-Production Methods: alternate storyline

After some feedback, I decided that a different setting would aid the narrative. So I changed the setting from a cityscape to a cave-like hideout that our hero would use a place of solace. 

The story begins with the character watching a news report about a fire breaking out. In the darkness of his hideout, he begins to feel a great deal of doubt over whether he can truly help. He then hears a familiar voice and he turns around to see his teammate standing behind him. Once again the teammate (who I have now named Crimson Claymore) speaks words of encouragement, and the hero expresses his doubt.  

These shots show the hero expressing his doubt, I added some inbetweens for the shots, both to save time, and to get a better idea of the timing of these shots. After remembering his friends, the hero once again feels his confidence returning, and this time I have given him a less angry look on his face and rather a more determined but still cheerful one. The only lighting that I wanted for this scene is from the TV, as I feel it will make the scene more dramatic, and I feel that it give off the feeling of doubt that our hero feels. 

I also did some quick thumbnails for the hideout. When I was doing these I had in mind superhero hideouts such as the Batcave, but I also had a look at some of the hideout selections from the superhero videogame Champions Online. Along with creating your own superpowered character, you can also choose a hideout for that character, including hideouts that resemble basements. I felt that a basement or underground hideout would better suit someone whose anxiety would prompt solace and isolation. 

Pre-production methods, 3D rig, and visual lighting styles

As I am going to be making this film using predominantly 3D methods, I will of course need to consider 3D production techniques. First on that list is 3D rigs. Although I was open to creating a model and rigging it from scratch, the amount of time that it would take to do so would potentially drain out time for animation. As I prefer animating to modelling and rigging, it would be easier to use rigs and texture them to suit the character. Fortunately, I managed to find a rig called 'Ray' that would suit the thinner physique of the character. What really appeals to me about the rig is that it has a lot of facial controls, which for the shots involving the characters anxiety attack will prove invaluable. The only problem that I forsee is the fact that the character is clothed already, which means I may need to remodel it, which I would rather avoid due to the fact this was a pre created rig. 

 

I had a playaround with the rig and I think the controls work really well, especially the facial controls, and I was thankful that the arms had more controls in them than the body mechanics rigs we used in our 2nd year. 

 On a similar note, I have also taken a look at several examples of the kind of lighting that I would like to try out for this film. I think that I will try and use realistic but still cartoony lighting, as I think it will suit the general design of the characters.  

Pre-Production Methods: Animatic 2

This is the second version of the animatic. Once again, I have used the storyboards from the previous animatic, but with the added inbetweens and the changes involving the friend of the hero coming in give him the encouragement he needs. The most important improvement here is that the good memory of the hero and his teammates/friends is given a trigger, and is now less sporadic. The timing also works again, but some of the shots hold a little too long, such as the memory of the friends. The second character also works in my opinion as the two characters are very contrasting, both in costume design and size. What I think needs to be thought about now is the distinction between memory and imagination in the visions, as it still isn't very clear whether or not the visions actually happened.  I will also need think about the designs of the other characters.    

Pre-Production Methods: Storyboard additions

These are inbetweens that I created to fill in the gaps in the first animatic, as well as get a better sense of timing for the overall piece. I added three extra shots to the flying scene, as I don't want it to be overly long. I did the same for the landing scene, as the landing needs to be quick. Other additional shots show the hero in an idle state before he notices the danger, and inbetweens show him preparing to jump from the building. 

I also decided to add some extra content to the story. Initially, I was simply going to have the character remember a happy memory involving his friends, which would then make him regain his self confidence. However, I later felt that such a change would be incredibly sporadic, and thus, a trigger was needed so the sudden confidence would make sense. So I created a new character. He is more of a brawny and confident character, which would serve the main hero well in reminding him that he is not a complete failure. He enters the fray by placing a hand on the hero's shoulder, and he is revealed in a low angle shot, which I felt would emphasize the confidence of the character. He speaks of how he is a true hero and he has friends who love him and think of him as a good person, which is enough to snap the hero out of it. After the hero snaps out his panic, the bigger hero then draws his sword, and the two race off in a long shot, which I used because I wanted to show the two heroes in action.   

I also did a quick sketch of the two characters. I feel that having the supportive character be a big strong and confident hero would work well as he serves as an encouraging and friendly foil for the main hero.   

When designing the strong character, I decided to look at stronger and more confident superheroes such as Ares (though he isn't as brutal as Ares) , Captain Marvel, and Minotaur, from the Actioneers, a team of heroes who appear in Image Comics' Wolfman series. 

Minotaur is the character with the axe in this image.