Week 1 (24/09/24-29/09/24)
This year I reunite with Andrea, Ellen and Nicolle from my Get A Grip project in Semester 2 of Year 1 in order to start a new animation. We brainstormed a few ideas – mostly focusing on Irish Stories, Folklore, local history, and the hope to present it in a comedic way rather than a somber one. We began by creating a Miro for our brainstorming and creating Discord categories to fill up with other research.
We also put early ideas on a whiteboard
Two screenshots from our Miro page – the top 1 outlined my story idea. We voted on which story to do, and we went with Andrea’s. She wants to create this story on Blender, and present it like it was a Stop-Motion Animation, similar to Wallace and Gromit.
After deciding on Andrea’s story, about the old man whose house is invaded by animals from Belfast Zoo during the Blitz of 1941. Which is inspired by stories told by people in Belfast who say they saw elephants and monkeys walking down the street in the Whitewell area. I’ve considered how to approach the soundtrack already. This tune popped up in my Youtube feed and I thought it could the perfect vibe. Especially if the idea of a Monkey diving down the Chimney is achieved.
Friday 27th Notes
After class, I went to Belfast Zoo on the Bus from Uni. The goal of this trip was to see if any of the animals we want to feature in our animation can be found. I was aware that the elephants had been moved to another Zoo – but I could at least look at Monkeys, Parrots and Penguins, which we all considered for the story. I managed to not only get photo references, but video references as well. There were numerous monkeys that could be the premise of the monkey character, and the penguins provided plenty of reference, just by walking, eating and swimming. The Blue McCaws were incredibly comedic. Like a bickering elderly couple trying to keep to themselves.
I decided to do some concepts of the animals that would appear. The McCaw would be easy enough. Picking a more characterized shape of a penguin was challenging, as was picking the species of monkey. Although I think the Golden Tamarin would be very characteristic – and certainly one that could go down a chimney as part of the shenanigans.
Week 2 (01/10/24 – 07/10/24)
We had a lecture with Mike on Storytelling, which proved to be useful when refining Andrea’s script.
Started to gather together some references of houses that are deliberately vintage, to get an idea on colours, patterns and assets. There is consideration of giving the Old Man a garden. A possible allotment (to fit in with the time period) that the animals could somehow destroy.
Week 3 (08/10/24 – 15/10/24)
Toon Time Tuesday. Our pitch presentation, happened today. Our feedback included, based on NIcolle’s notes:
It looks like we’ll be keeping the elephant, but not the other animals. Which means we will be creating three characters, not six. It will tighten the story and allow us to focus on environments more.
Went to the Linen Hall Library afterwards to look for books on the Belfast Blitz. It took a while to find references to Sheila the Elephant, as well as the White Well area, where the events took place. But I managed to get a photo of a street there.
I also found a video of a home that is deliberately kept in the 1940s by its owner. It gives us an idea on what Props we could looks for from that time period alone – assuming our Old Man is up to date with the times.
Week 4 (16/10/24 – 23/10/24)
This Tuesday’s class focused on creating a 3D Previs (with Alec) and an animatic (with Sarah). The following Friday We had a group meeting over Discord, after most of our group couldn’t come. I will clearly be focusing on Environment.
On Saturday I went to the Ulster Folk Museum and got loads of photos of old houses. The primary reason for this is because of the character of the elderly man. Though it is the year 1941, chances are, His House will be a melting pot of different decades. Based on stories I have been told by my elders, there were a lot of hand-down or inherited articles. Most items were carefully looked after, and designed to last decades rather than a few years. Items such as wooden chairs, tables and the aga cooker. While there I asked a tour guide about whether fifteens existed in the 1940s. She responded: “If they did exist – nobody had them” – simply because the conservation of rations made it rare to make anything elaborate. She pointed me in the direction of the War Memorial in Belfast in order to see a model of Rations on display. It’s right beside Ulster University, so I will go have a look at lunch time.
I’m also continuing to look at the music that I could somehow be inspired by or borrow from, including the Andrew Sisters and any playlist that was from 1941 – the year our story is set.
Week 5 (24/10/24 – 31/10/24)
Had a lecture on experimentation and R&D in the morning, followed by an exercise of organizing scenes based on a script. We received feedback for Andrea’s animatic, and well received it was. I also took the opportunity to get some photo references of the rations in the NI War Memorial Museum.
The display stood out in terms of label design, as well as the chocolate sponge recipe that probably required some conservation. A lot of sweets too.
References that Andrea provided. She also provided some early concepts. Especially of the living room.
During the week I decided to build a 3D prototype for the layout of O’Malley’s House, including Living Room, Kitchen, Stairs and Courtyard. I was basing it on Andrea’s animatic. I then had to switch it up to suit the concept art that existed before. Moving the fireplace from the back to the right. After adjusting that I proceeded to do linework over the rendered image, and started to play through with colours and patterns. The first living room was based on the colour scheme of Amelie’s bedroom in the 2001 film Amelie.
After that I started to base it on AI Art wallpapers that I generated, based on the keywords “1930s wallpaper”. It led to some interesting colour palettes that I then used in 2 other images.
My idea on the kitchen design is a little more fixed, with an emphasis on browns, creams and greens. Much like many kitchens in those days.
I personally like the green and white floors.
Some AI generated wallpaper ideas. I was considering whether O’Malley would have Art Deco as part of his style.
A wallpaper design made in photoshop.
I’ve based the house designs on 2 factors: One being the older terraces house that would be found in different parts of belfast, and the other being the green-window framed designs that were seen in the likes of Wallace and Gromit.
The exterior of the house was based on a street of terrace houses. Primarily an end house near Meadowbank Place. Once again, creating linework before adding flat colours. The goal was to present it during the day, at dusk, and during a foggy evening/morning. So far I think it has generated some good results.
Week 6 (01/11/24 – 09/11/24)
Had a lecture on Blog writing. Later on I had a tutorial to suggest the direct we need to go.
Couch design based on the one in the living room of the Banker’s house.
We haven’t decided whether the aga cooker will be against a flat wall or in an engrave.
Creating a light design based on the style.
Mackeral Style Floorboard styles. Real (left) and illustrated (right)
I used Corel Painter to create painterly flowers from photographs.
After Andrea put together her Animatic, I decided to recreate the soundbites she created, for future reference.
Week 7 (10/11/24 – 17/11/24)
Pre Production Presentation
Created a Previs for the first quarter of the Film, using pre-made characters from Unreal. Andrea provided the layout.
Week 8 (18/11/24 – 25/11/24)
finishing off the 3D Previs so that we can start working on Production (Modelling, Rigging, Textures, Colour, Lighting).
I decided that O’Malley would store his fifteens in a Christmas Tin. Perhaps it was a gift from people in the neighbourhood, and He is enjoying them specially. Research has shown that the Tins of the day were very painterly
Curiously, I went to an AI Art website to conjure up a 1930s style Biscuit Tin. The one on the left was one of the results. So I decided to do a 2D version of it to have as a texture.
Week 9 (26/11/24 – 03/12/24)
Refresher lecture on how to animate in blender again. Found a rig of an old man that could be used as future reference when rigging the characters.
decided to try and model a shop from reference.
I struggled to get this wardrobe properly textured. To the point that it had to be remade and broken down into more basic shapes.
Andrea showed me how to make a cushion
a first draft radio model
Week 10 (04/12/24 – 11/12/24)
I was ill, so I worked from home. Presented the Rocking Chair and China Cabinet through Discord. Created the Aga Cooker later on.
Created the sweet jar by using the screw modifier on a single vertex, then extruded faces from there.
Week 11 (07/12/24 – 12/12/24)
There was less happening as I was focusing on my dissertation.
Week 12 (13/12/24 – 20/12/24)
January 14th
Had a voice call meeting with Andrea to see if my models were okay. Some notes included: making a pillow (subdivide plan, extrude, physics, graph, pressure, gravity 0%, pressure 0.5, then play animation to puff up) for the rocking chair and reducing the stems that make up the back of it and broadening the 2 that held the head of the chair. Also to make the mirror simpler, add more shape to the radio, desimate geometry in china cabinet. Create a barbed wire wall. Add grime and rust to the bin. Finish the Rosary and picture frame, and possibly try to make floral tea cups.
I decided to craft an ornamental dog. Due to time contrants, and how small it is in the scene. I decided to keep the finalisation simple.
January 19th
Groups meeting. We looked at the work that was already done. I added a feather duster, fruit bowl to our assets. We discussed possibly changing the elephant destruction. From the house morphing with the chaos to a shadow puppet animation style. Where a light projects the shenanigans onto a wall or curtains.
January 23th
Notes from Meeting with Andrea:
Download add-on called Blender Kit. Which are royalty free precederial textures. Unwrap the China Cabinet. Do a navy wall/gradient for outside. Have it look like a miniture. Use big textures. Work on featherduster – perhaps make a new 1. Possibly look at Da VInci or After Effects in post-production. CTRL + A + Scale to scale everything. Right Click on objects can move to collections. WHere would an Air Siren be? Add a stand for it. Shape Key. Unparents them. COnsider doing 50% Procedurials and 50% custom textures. Procedurial works for simple things. Bake procedurials before rendering. Adjust camera angles so that they aren’t asque. Key shape Air Siren animation. O Malley’s ‘house’ will be detached so your cameras can fit.
January 26th
Group meeting. Sadly it was half a house tonight. I made some models, including a bookshelf, frying pan, a 1930s style art deco mirror
There were some texture issues for this that didn’t seem to have a satisfactory outcome with.
I had mesh problems when trying to create a grandfather clock, which led to Henry designing one (right) to try and solve some geometry issues.
SEMESTER 2
Week 13 (January 28th – February 4th)
We had our progress presentation and started our Creative Futures Assignment. It was well received.
Andrea wanted lights for her living room, so I provided a small range. The light was created by making it glow.
Week 14 (February 5th – February 12th)
This week I focused on texturing the kitchen again, after the previous file kept crashing. I applied Mike’s advice to hide layers that weren’t in use. It definitely helped.
I had some issues texturing this.
Week 15 (Feb 13th – 20th)
This whole week was just baking and baking again. The process is getting easier. But it remains a hit and miss affair.
Out of intrigue, I decided to google elephant flower to see if it existed, and got one. I then took the image, put it through corel painter, and then applied it as an extra shader on top of a porcelain texture on the tea pot and tea cups..
I struggled to get the textures correct for this radio – to the point of accidentally damaging the procedurials beyond repaire when I baked them.
I spent many days trying to texture the kitchen. Sometimes the wood grain was wrong. Other times the textures would be lost. Other times I would lose the textures while trying to bake them in order to create new space on the file.
Decided to buy a huge Fifteen from Sawers to photograph it, and use it for fifteens textures.
I decided to try an AI website to create a new biscuit tin, and this was one of four results. I thought it had great colours and composition, and it could be tidied up more and made better.
Week 16 (Feb 21st – Mar 1st)
I more or less finished the kitchen, and plan to keep updating it over the next few weeks, with new assets and/or textures. I struggled to create FBXs for every item. Some assets, even after using apply transform as suggested, didn’t want to be whole. Some, even after about a dozen attempts, remained rebellious in their display. Especially when it came to how the UV Map was baked onto the item. After a while, I felt that I was wasting the group’s time, and decided to upload the blend file while choosing to ‘pack resources’ as a way to transfer both model and textures within the same file. Since we are keeping our project within blender, I think this may be the simplest approach to everyone receiving the same properties.
Week 17 (Mar 2nd – Mar 9th)
We have good news! O Malley is now ready to animate with. Nicolle wanted to make sure He was easy to use.
We switched strategy in order to start animating sooner by getting all of our models, all UVed, ready for a final scene to animate from, with new or extra props or textures to come later. There will be no replacements of props already in scene.
March 7th Meeting Recap. We’ll have 3 people blocking out animations, 1 for quality control and environment (that will be Andrea). I could add frames while Ellen and Nicolle block out the animation. I could do secondary and/or in-betweens. It will be important that I can make them as expressive as possible. We’ll also need to add the featherduster. Also, we’ll need to decide on O Malley’s Scale compared to his environment (Is He tall enough to sit in his own chairs, or does He have to stand on his toes?). We will also be animating in 2s.
I decided, as a way to bring down the polygons, to paint some planes, which included planes on a rectangle as books in a shelf (rather than individual book models in a model shelf). The main adjustment I made when presenting it was to brighten it up and make it more colourful.
continued to create more models for the background.
Week 18 (Mar 10th-17th)
Continued to add props, Texture, UV Map and Bake. Started to make more designs – including for the Biscuit Tin, food cans and shop front. It has been suggested that I take on the responsibility of cameras and rendering. The goal being to find the sweet spot between picture quality and the amount of time it’s going to take to finish rendering. Due to the fact that we have about 700 shots, it is possible to take a whole day to render 1 frame of film. Which is something we’ll have to be careful with.
I found a way to make an animation flow at 12 fps in blender (which doesn’t go lower than 24 fps). Visually it works well, but I have yet to figure out how to speed up the render in cycles.
Easy Way To Make Your Animation 12fps | Blender Tutorial
I put the Biscuit Tin into Corel Painter and made it more painterly, with the opportunity to personalize an AI Art piece by changing around assets, correcting mistakes and keeping what worked well. I then decided to add planes on top by shrinkwrapping them to the surface and adding a procedural rust texture from blender kit. The feedback to this decision was amusing but accurate.
I then put it into substance painter and got a more suitable rust texture.
On top of this, the fifteen I got in Sawers was used to texture the beveled cubes that were put in.
I thought I was asked to do a bar or a cafe that was closed, which led to this obscure design. I was then told to do a shop interior.
I thought it was a good result. But they wanted a shop after all, and gave me a line drawing with perspective on what it should look like. Around this time, my Dad went into Hospital, so I was distracted on what to do. I decided to put the line drawing into an AI art generator, and I asked for it to give me one that has a Stop-Motion animation look. I thought it looked okay – but when I presented it in the meeting, it was clearly not what they wanted at all. All they wanted was a dark shop window with fruit and vegetables on display, like in Wallace & Gromit, The Curse OF The Were-Rabbit.
So I went in a different direction. I made some crates in blender, and at first I tried to add planes of fruit that were given a painted looks. But it wasn’t giving me the result I wanted. So I just added fruit textures to spheres, then rendered an image and put it into corel painter to turn it into a painting. The result was much better received by the team.
To go along with the bins I made for outside, I decided to also make some litter.
Week 19 (18th-25th March)
I have been testing methods that have been used to cut down the time needed to render our animations.
Through the PCs in Uni, the first render test took about 22 seconds for each frame. At 60 frames (2 and a half seconds) in blender, it took 1320 seconds or 22 minutes.
After taking out collections that didn’t appear in the scene, the render time was scaled down to about 18 seconds per frame. Which is 1080 seconds or 18 minutes
Changed the container from mattroska to an mp4, made the output from medium to high quality and started encoding speed to real time. It did little to speed it up.
brought resolution down to 95% from 100%. No difference. at 90% is brought it down to a consistent 16-17 seconds a frame.
Switched the encoding time back from real time to good. Still getting 16-17 seconds per frame.
Bringing the resolution down to 80% has sped the process up to roughly 13 seconds per frame. If our film is 2 minutes long, that means we’re saving 48 minutes of render time.
Changed max samples from 10 to 8 and changed the resolution from 80% to 75%. Brought it down to 9-11 second range per frame. between 9 and 11 minutes to render 2.5 seconds.
(Vid 6)
Brought the Max Samples down from 8 to 5. I’m now getting it at 8-10 seconds per frame. Only 9 seconds. Although I’m seeing a bit of pixelation in O’Malley’s face when He moves.
Vid 7
Trying lossless output quality, switching from good to realtime encoding and from mp4 back to mattroska. Switching viewport max samples from 8 to 5. Once again it’s at 9 seconds per frame. It wouldn’t open in the Uni PC. It might open on mine.
Vid 8
Switched back to MP4 from mattroska. It runs at 9 seconds per frame consistently. If our film is 90 seconds long with 9 minutes for every 2 and a half seconds, the rendering will take 5.4 hours…which is better than what it could have been (13.2 hours if it was 22 seconds per frame). The video once again doesn’t play on the Uni PCs…I think it might have something to do with the lossless quality.
Vid 9
We’ll switch from lossless quality to high quality and see what happens. Still running at 9 seconds per frame.
vid 10
Week 20
I decided start working on the sound while the keyframes of animation were being produced. First I decided to play around with AI generators for inspiration – which included one that took a tune you are whistling or humming and change it into an instrument. That included trying Audimee and Kits AI…It wasn’t very good. After this I started by going into Garageband to try and create a sound design similar to an old-time radio. As it turns out, the bare-minimum adjustment I had to make was to turn the EQ from Stereo to Mono, and it completely changed how we heard it. This would include voice and instrumentals. For the voiceover I decided to imitate a radio host from that time – the kind that are a bit too Hammy and cheesy for some people. Some of the dialogue is conherent, while some of it is jibberish or tongues, to coincide with the desire to possibly make it as universal as possible by not using a real language.
As the team member who decided to take on the responsibility of doing the sound, I have also decided to at least attempt to create some original music material, specifically for the radio.
Among the songs I wanted to research included 1934’s Midnight, The Stars and You, 1938’s I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire, Anything Goes by Cole Porter, and Tom Waits’ song “God’s Away On Business” from 2002. I also looked a little at Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley, which, along with Waits’ song, would be out of the timeline. The reason for looking at these songs in particular is to see how to draw inspiration from all of them and make a new song or 2 out of it. I particularly wanted the Tom Waits’ bassline, the waltz of the older tunes, and potentially the vocal melody of Blue Christmas.
ANYTHING GOES CHORDS by Cole Porter @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
GODS AWAY ON BUSINESS CHORDS by Tom Waits @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
BLUE CHRISTMAS CHORDS (ver 3) by Elvis Presley @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com
Midnight, the Stars and You | Chords & Melody | Guitar Tab
The Tom Waits tab more closely resembles a blues scale.
Looking also at some jazz chords within F Major. Including Gm9, C7, Fmaj9 & Dm7. Also studied the Tartarus theme from Persona 3 and the theme of The Last Of The Summer Wine. I want to see how these chords could be used to “create heart” in the overall sound.
Soup Tin design, based on Campbells soup and full of jokes that might be found in The Simpsons.
Week 20 (26th March – 2nd April)
I just found out that I will be animating the last part of the film. Which Ellen created a block out for. It is mostly still camera frame and some of the poses are off. But we will give it a go. I’ll also need to get used to some of the workshop layout, which includes camera choices that may not suit what I’m looking for.
Investigating the score for Pixar’s Up! As well. I may look at changing it into a different mode and time the notes differently, but keeping the root vibe.
Created a fire animation in photoshop and saved it as PNGs.
Week 21 (3rd – 10th April)
We did our final presentation, which included changes I had to make for it. Due to possible corruption with textures for “PJ O’Malley”, I had to switch him out with Regular O’Malley, and copy and paste his keyframes, and locate him as accurately as I can. I also lost the textures on the old Postman, and ended up importing the new postman with His textures, and spent the weekend reanimating him for that final scene.
FINAL PRESENTATION APRIL 15TH
Based on advice given by lecturers, my main focus will need to be on the animation quality. Aesthetically, most of it looks great. However, I will also need to match the continuity of the previous shot, which was Andrea’s. I need to move the small table to it’s side. The elephant hiding under the rug needs to be in front of the fireplace rather than to the left of where the Rug was, and O’Malley needs to receive fuzz on His tank top and cap. I realized that moving the elephant around is actually quite complicated, especially when the rug, which used a cloth physic, became distorted when I moved it, and for some reason, meshes were disappearing when the PC crashed and I had to load again. It is quite disheartening. But it is possible that I may need to change the scenery or simply not render while youtube is on. UPDATE: I solved the issue with the rug by simply applying the cloth modifier.
I came across an animation audio website through instagram called Animationaudios, which looks very promising.
21st April
April 23rd
I realized that Nicolle had already sent back my blend file, which contains PJ O’Malley. Which will mean copying and pasting some of my animations/poses into those rigs, or redoing them. Adjustments she made to it included:
- Linked new weight paint, when O’Malley raises shoulders, undershirt no longer clips.
- Added PJ Malley and linked material, mats should now be working. PJ Malley was using an old mesh without updated UV.
- Carpet was pink, linked mats so this is fixed.
- Re-imported Postman textures, strange application behind head when rendered now fixed.
- Organized some folders. Street collection should now contain all street objects.
I took it as an opportunity to find other ways to animate this, now that I have gotten used to the rigs.
An issue I had included the creation of new locations for the characters. Whether it was a new position or rotation. Upon rotating the elephant for the final shot, it ended up changing her Position throughout the rest of the animation. Which was quite frustrating. A way to solve this problem was by duplicating the characters, both in mesh and rig. I would then do the new locations with the duplicates, and disable the original meshes and rigs in render for those particular frames. The results would allow changes to scenes without disrupting how they look in other parts of the film.
I decided to borrow from old simpsons episodes by inserting this photoshop edit as an in-between. Even the eyes are similar. Purely to create emphasis.
Andrea wanted to make O’Malley’s tanktop and hat fuzzy (like yarn), which included her own tutorial on how to do it. I did everything right, except pick the right material, which made the results pink. Andrea is still wondering why the floor is black. Need to figure it out soon. 
I then tried again, and assumed I got it right. But then She said it was grey, and had picked his shirt material instead.
The third attempt worked out.
I had 2 different sets of O’Malley and the elephant, with the Tea Toast being specifically for the duplicates. However it ended up being more confusing than it needed to be.
Asked Andrea for Quality-control related feedback in terms of the animation (rather than aesthetic). She sent me a response in a video, which was helpful.
I remade the background plane for the tea cup toast.
After rendering it, I realized it needed to be brighter
The view with characters in it.
April 29th
Remade again with rosary on the picture frame.
Today was an opportunity to get my blend file uniformed to the quality specs. By this time, I was blind to what more was needed, so Andrea offered to update my scene to fit her vision. When I received it back through One Drive, there were some issues that had to be restored, which included appending the cameras from my previous Blend file into this new one.
Rendering Time
As before, the Floor kept coming up black. Which was something that had to be addressed in our Sunday night meeting. Apparently rendering is fine on Uni PCs but not my own. It was even suggested that I went into Uni and had it rendered there. I searched for a solution, and thankfully, found it. A change in shaders brought the floor back into view on Cycles. Link below.
Render and re-render
Along the way I had to fix a lot of mistakes. Some times I would forget to turn off every layer in viewport, which would crash the PC. Other times I would find new problems that would arise. Such as floating assets, gliding assets and assets that were meant to be turned off in the render for a few frames.
texturing – Texture becomes black in Cycles – Blender Stack Exchange
Putting It Together
I decided to try 2 avenues to edit my PNG sequence after rendering it in cycles. It’s important that I do this first before editing the sound into it. One approach is After effects (which includes freezing frames and time stretch), and the other is clip studio paint, which keeps it uniformed. For the latter, I decided to save duplicates of several frames that I wanted to hold on, such as the Radio right after O’Malley and Sheila become friends. The plan is to hold it for 4 seconds. In fact, there are several frames I would like to hold for a few seconds. This method involves a Batch import that takes an incredibly long time.
I had to re-render some frames. Mostly due to misplaced assets or jittering.
I considered cutting out the fire in the fireplace, because when I attempted to add an mp4 of it into my blend file, all of a sudden it would keep crashing when I tried rendering it. I ended up turning the video into a PNG sequence, then included about 20 frames to be animated in 2s. This result was more pleasing.
May 9th
Everybody but one has submitted their PNG Sequences and After Effects files. I’ll be putting together the music for it. But without Her files, it will be more complicated. I may need to resort to music that can be a little more open. Such as jazz drums and bass. I may also rely a little more on sound effects for hers. UPDATE: We will be submitting our individual work, and I can edit the sound into her work later.
Now to finally do the sound…In 2 days. Andrea gave me an edited version of the whole film (which included the second quarter as a viewport video/animatic mix), for me to add music, sound effects and voiceover to. Much like what I have picked up so far, there were methods to create this. For the voice overs I decided to create recordings that lasted the entire film. One recording would focus on O’Malley and the other the Postman. After this I would record some sound effects that were at hand, and got the rest from Pixabay. For the music, I would put everything into Garageband. Because Garageband has the facility to create the mono sound of an old radio. Some songs were created using an AI Music generator. This was mostly used to either create a foundation to build upon, or to have a sound available as a safety net. Normally I would try to figure out the key and play bass over it. THrough garageband I would also transpose the track a little. Another method is to use loops in garageband, which can be interchangable, depending on the time signature. They are easy to transpose, which leads to chord changes. I used this for the somber music in my scene when O’Malley decides to befriend the elephant. Another method, which I used for the (final) opening scene is to doctor a previously existing song enough to hide what makes it unique. In this case, Fit As A Fiddle by Annette Hanshaw. I removed the vocals, transposed it, and focused in on a part of the song that could be anything. The Elephant sneaking through the streets was inspired by “The Butler’s Sneak” from the Disney movie The Aristocats. I originally had a slightly aggressive Indian Drum tune for the showdown between O’Malley and the Elephant, and I end up with an AI piece.
Final Reflection
I went into my final year with the plan to create a 2D film on my own – with the possibility of creating 3D backgrounds for it, to keep in line with some movies I enjoy that do both, including The Prince Of Egypt and Demon Slayer Mugan Train. Instead, I made a 3D film with a team that I worked well with before. While I would have been comfortable working on my own, it is possible that I would not have grown as much as I have. It started well. I enjoyed gathering research. I also enjoyed the development of the ideas. It was clear that I was surrounded by team members who could help when I needed it. At times I struggled with face count in models and attaining good texture quality. But I learned a lot this year and it pushed me to be a better team player, as well as 3D Artist.