This week we were introduced into the idea of the 3D Animation pipeline, that is the workflow and stages that you need to create a piece of 3D animation.
A general Previz workflow consists of the following:
So we are currently working through the Preproduction phase, designing our characters, environments and props as well as developing the storyboard. There is still a long road ahead of work to do but I think once we establish a timeline and progress through it’ll be a fun and organised process. By breaking it down into this and checking we have done each step, we ensure we can’t miss elements, as well as allowing us to break up the intimidating final outcome into more manageable and workable pieces.
The suggested Pipeline we were given to follow is:
Introduction to PrevViz:
This video was a very good tutorial on how to approach a previz project, breaking it down into stages really helps when it comes to planning so that I know what needs to be done before moving onto the next stage. The shortcuts and tools I learnt from this video were also very good, and they weirdly excited me for using camera work and lighting to create a whole shot, like film. The idea that I can walk about the scene like a game and use cameras like I am in the world is very cool. Learning about the blocking and camera work moving and keyframing in real-time, and then smoothing these automatically will also create a lot of time saves, but lose control so I will have to discuss with my group on how we should approach this idea.
I really liked how in this video the stages were broken up, and the workflow was a bit different. Focussing on how to achieve certain camera shots and moving the framing of the elements was more important, and should be tweaked before animation is started. As well as exporting individual images and working on timing these out in a separate blender file that is added to as you progress. I thought this was a very insightful video on the stages of production from previz, to layout, to final render. I also enjoy the look into the different environments and prop creation and how the pipeline of things tends to overlap as final designs are worked as the previz is being made, and how one scene can be advancing into layout stage before another is finished its previz.
This video is nice at showing how basic the models for previz can be, since it is just to show the camera movement and block out the frame and less about focussing on all the small details. This really helped to destress the task out for me, since I tend to get caught up in what I want the final result to be and not look at how to break things up for ease and focussing on refining movements first ( this particular issue is something I found that hindered me in my last animated module, so I want to take steps to overcome this). I would like to have a discussion with my group to set up a flexible schedule so we all can plan accordingly and set up deadlines.
Understanding the pipeline for animation is integral to learning to be an animator, as it structures and organises everyone tasks, even if they overlap, so that the production can continue running on time (as time is money in the industry). Organisation and Structuring my work is something I could really benefit from learning during this module to stay on track and get an outcome that I and the group is happy with so I am happy to be working on this skill!