PDF of my workflow/Research and Reflection:

Tree animation Reseach and Workflow

 

Full Final Animation is in Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cTvAYku7O_wHXRPWjTT_az-6l8Pbzysp

My Animated segment:

Tree_Model_Textured_New

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cTvAYku7O_wHXRPWjTT_az-6l8Pbzysp

Reflection:

When it comes to looking back on this assignment, i definitely would say there’s much i’d change and i wish i could improve, such as adding more to the dress and hat so that it didn’t look as plain as it is, perhaps design some textures on photoshop rather than finding pre-existing textures and simply applying them, it would have gave me more control over how the model would have looked in an aesthetic sense and would have allowed me to even practise at making textures, i also would have liked to design more of a set for the character to stand on to make it more of a scene rather than just the model, though i believe that, in blender at least, i achieved the style i wanted, a cell shaded ‘anime type’ look that fitted the design of the character well, all and all i feel like i’ve managed to wrap my head around blender well and gain a good understanding of the software and how to use many of its features.

Sketchfab Link:

https://skfb.ly/ouoB7

Textures/Model FBX/Blender google drive link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eIUZb94gq5Ifeb32WTJ4zX0CtSnBE0Rn

PDF of my workflow and research i done for this assignment:

3D cute charecter

Pre-Production/Sword and Shield Design

The pre-production of this assignment was probably one of the easiest, and more enjoyable areas of this task for me, when i was given the various choices of  things i could model, i decided to go for the Sword and Shield, as i thought i could get a interesting and cool design out of it than any of the other choices, i used wide variety of references for my blade, i wanted it to be a transforming weapon with an energy blade that extends out of it, so i decided to give the built part of the blade a sleek and metallic look, with a bright contrasting blue energy blade when it transforms. 

3D Modelling/Maya

Before starting this assignment i did a small bit of practise on 3D modelling using tutorials and other videos to help me understand a bit of the process, though i used blender for this practise, and even though some skills were transferable when working on Maya, when it came to the modelling process of my Sword and Shield, i found myself running into various hurdles that i could only describe as Maya not exactly being a fully transparent software on showing the user how things work, many times i ran into issues such as vertices not being able to be deleted, random faces and topology appearing on the model, which caused it to become non-manifold and constant crashes of the software anytime i tried to UV unwrap the hilt of my blade, most of these issues caused me to have to start modelling parts of the blade over again, since i couldn’t find out what was causing many of the issues, however in the end i managed to fully model the Sword and Shield as well as UV unwrap them both into a stable UV map. 

Texturing/Substance painter

Texturing and the use of substance painter was a slight breath of fresh air after the struggle and annoyance of working with Maya, despite it being the first time i used the software or even did any texturing for that matter, it was relatively easy, i was given a hand from a few people who told me some handy tips such as the black mask tool and the polygon fill tool which made the process a relative breeze, however i probably could have given my Sword and Shield a bit more detail to it, as i do think some of the model looks a little basic and too clean, which could of been helped with some detailing to give them a more distinct look, however i feel i had to speed through texturing as i spent so much time fighting with Maya that it left me little time for the texturing process

 

Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P1fL0KY_xtnsLeQvPI-8RkokyB8nqWc1?usp=sharing

Sketchfab Shield: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/shield-model-2d21dcd6ab4b4d808392a0d69d86b8f2

Sketchfab Sword (powered up): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/crystal-blade-powered-up-c38d67631eaa43b8a472a0b3d0b27304

Sketchfab Sword (powered down): https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/crystal-blade-5ee2cf9b97dd47d39258ef500f51ec1b

 

When it came to the early stages of joining this group, we began finalised the main plot of the animation that was already pretty well set up for us, we then divided ourselves up into four pairs in order to streamline the animation process, giving each pair a segment of the plot to work on, though despite being in pairs we’d still all talk among each other to keep up to date and get a general idea of how the animation played out, as i said, i feel like this was a smart way at dividing up the workload as well as allowing us to choose on what segment we got to work on, rather that sticking people with tasks and jobs that may not have worked to their strengths, we each equally had to work on animation, designing and editing for our own segments. 

 

Storyboarding began and started pretty well for me, though a good bit in my PC had a few issues that left me without it for about a week, by the time i got it back i decided to simply use what i had and start animating, as i already felt behind, though in the end what i had put together was all i needed, which was a relief 

 

As i began to work on the animation i had a bit of a slow process, with a mix of PC troubles as well as trying to find a new animation software, i eventually began animating, i feel as tho from my last animation project last year, i did have an easier time getting started with planning out the timing and flow of how the animation would playout, though my first issues arose when i struggled with working on the animation of the main character, i spent a lot of time on them so that his movement felt as smooth and fluid as i could make it, though this more time spent on that may have left certain aspects such as the background to be desired for, i also wanted to try new poses and shot angles as to give a small sense of variety within the scenes without making them all seem static, though this all came at a cost of simpler background designs and no colour. 

 

One big issue came when i was finalising my animation, realising that it was around 25 seconds long, i tried to rectify this by simply slimming down scenes and making the animation go slightly faster, though this wasn’t enough and meant i had to cut two separate scenes to bring it down the the fifteen second mark, though luckily it still played out just as coherently as it would have if the other scenes were included. 

 

All in all i believe i have improved a little sense my last animation project, i’m able to create somewhat fluid minions and have a good grasp over timing and how a scene could play out, however my biggest issue is speed and consistency, by not being able to illustrate and animate at a decent pace, mainly due to speed somewhat causing me to lose art quality, i dragged out my project leaving me with little time to refine and add the necessary detail needed to really make the animation pop.

 

Animation:

https://onedrive.live.com/?id=E382178F07D4D958%213640&cid=E382178F07D4D958

Presentation:

https://onedrive.live.com/?id=E382178F07D4D958%213645&cid=E382178F07D4D958

I probably Character design the most out of all the tasks, as it’s one of my favourite aspects of designing, being in the angel capitalism group i already had a pretty solid idea of how she might look, so i developed a sleek, well dressed office attire angel girl, with her clothes lightly given that angelic sense to them with crisp white primary and a soft gold for a secondary, i also tried to give a small design choice to her halo, rather than simply having it be a large circle, i made it so that it was essentially being orbited by small magical orbs, nothing massive but something small to make her stand out. I gave her a mature look as well as short hair that i simply felt fit her look. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly though when it came to giving her a more a bit of character, i didn’t really have the time to sit down and come up with something satisfying outside of one note surface level quirks and moods, i might develop the character further for my own sake as i really enjoyed designing her and would feel pointless if I didn’t give her some form of personality.

character sheet

As a first task of the semester it was a fun and relaxing exercise that got me back into illustrating after a light break from it, it was enjoyable to breakdown these characters and find out what shapes built them up, I decided to pick a variety of different design styles so i could see how different styles use different shapes and methods of building the characters up. 

 

For my first character I decided to go for Mordecai from Regular show, as well as being from one of my favourite shows growing up, i always admired the shows use of noticeable shapes on the characters, with mordecai being mostly comprised of soft edged rectangles and a circle for his head, 

 

 

 

For my second character i chose ghost freak from the Ben 10 series, i always thought this design stood out to me, as among many of the well designed aliens in the show, this one had such a simple design yet seemed to look the most unique, with his body basically being one large oval with limbs and wispy parts coming off him, i feel that most of the iconicness comes from the distinct cracks running through his body as well as his noticeably magenta eye, showing how creative design and the right colours can make a single basic shape into a recognisable character 

 

For my final character i chose a much more complex type of character design, that being an anime character, using En from Dorohedoro as a reference, this character had a much more anatomically correct body shape, and when broken down it was comprised of all sorts of shapes, from rectangles to make up the chest, to cylinders for the limbs and even triangles for the joints between the limbs, there’s definitely a lot more that goes into designing a more anatomically correct character, but i feel it’s definitely a skill worth learning