Author: bourke-e

The first term felt the basics were covered well, especially 3D, which I had very little knowledge of, but I wish they had spent more time on specific things like storyboarding and character designs. I also struggled with time management a lot during the second term and how much offsite and independent work within this work compared to the previous assignment. The individual focus this Semester left more freedom than last I also found the animation theme of escape than the style of Hotel Transylvania. That isn’t to say studying Hotel Transylvania wasn’t effective for my development in the course. It taught me about using art style for storytelling.

Something I didnt realise until the 2nd Semester was the importance of looking at stylistic references, which I worked on during the break between semesters 1 and 2 (See rough work Blog section), but I found it best when doing the project for group work being able to use and realise our own style for the animation especially using style to aid the narrative.

During the second term, I found the focus on 3D exciting and learning more about it quite interesting. Surprisingly, I found a strong interest in creating environmental effects, which I didnt expect to find. I found a lot of the work quite stressful however found motivation in how much I had improved since last Semester with my comfortableness in 3D which created a better foundation for learning more 3D. Within 3D, there were some improvements I ideally would’ve made but realised too late. Some of these were using uvs more effectively(prioritising resolution in some areas) and more constraints within my rig which would’ve allowed me to damped tracks more effectively on the hair and bones for eye movements, which would’ve been a simple improvement. I also wished I had more consistent quality within my model due to learning so much from when I started working until the end of the Semester.

Generally, I wish we had looked more specifically at certain things however, I understand there are time limits in the course, and it’s my responsibility to look at work outside of it. I specifically wish I had looked more at the development processes of modelling clothing because I used a mix of two different techniques, which caused conflicts within my models’ topology. However, I think a lot of my issues come from uncertainty when working, which has definitely improved with experience

Throughout the year, my ability to create interesting stories using genre, narrative and style to create a compelling story improved primarily on my confidence to do new things, such as the overarching plot of the dicey dungeon, along with the learning that within group work, ideas will always be stronger.

While I improved my character design skills throughout the year, I discovered that simplifying my character designs was often more effective than complex designs. However, I struggled with creating multiple versions of the same character, and I would have preferred to work within one art piece instead.

During the Animated Narratives module, I found an unexpected interest in 3D this year.

The modules taught inspired me to improve my creative work in different areas, and feedback on marked work was always very in-depth and super helpful.

Overall thoughts

I also found the university discord super helpful for communication, managing course-related content, and even all the new people I met this year. It also provided great industry from some of the graduates and students from other years.

Over the course of the year, I have experienced significant personal growth, particularly in the areas of independence, self-motivation, and time management. Throughout the course, I had a love-hate relationship with the blog as it defiantly improved my ability to communicate my work which I tend to struggle to express especially in this style of work, comparitively I dont have too much problem writing an essay on a subject until it  comes to my own work. 

While managing a busy schedule has been both tiring and stressful at times, I have been motivated by a strong sense of responsibility to myself and to my group work commitments. I have felt a deep sense of obligation to keep up with my university work which my part-time job made hard to schedule. However, later in the year prioritised my work more and improved my scheduling issue. With this looking ahead, I am excited to continue building on these experiences, developing new skills, and learning more about 3D.

 

 

 

 

 

After presenting our animation https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h2p3AhreegF0bPh4SWdZBXniaabsJlISC7IAWAok1d8/edit?usp=sharing

I had actually already made quite a few small changes to the work as the renders used in the presentation were from earlier in the week but the feedback was still helpful, I went in and edited my lighting from this advice

The same shots before and after feedback

Dugeon Section 1

Before

After

Dungeon Section 2

Before

After

Dungeon Section 3

Before

After

Dungeon Section 4

Before

After

 

Specific Lighting fixes

Before

After

 

 

Before

After

 

Models and Maps files ect

Storyboard Work

3D Previs Scene

My Previs Section

Originally I blocked out everything after the first 11 seconds of the Previs, mainly I was getting in everything on the storyboard(I did this independantly as the lack of communication in groupwork at the start was worrying most issues resolved over time), later it was updated by other group members

Pre vis model

Blocked out version

Total Previs I worked from 11 to 23 seconds of the final animation

Assets

Dungeon Walls, Floor, Presure plate and Sliding Door

I made the walls curve inwards to create a claustraphobic effect

Embedded dice to complete the collection of dice hidden around the animation

Torch + Fire

Flame Animation

 

Model + Reference Art for Model

Character sheet layout for group

Intial art, Simplified Design, A pose, Side profile for modeling

 

Lighting

Using Point lights to emmit the majority of my light, I then used planes set to lower wattage to emmitate bounce light creating shadows, allowing me direct the lighting to create shadows of the characters for example.

Ambient lighting wasnt providing enough control for lighting So I used two Suns, one that added the strong blue hues I wanted in the dungeon and the other to create the impression of moonlight

Map of light layout that demonstraits use of point and plane lights

Animated Light sources as the characters approached them mimicing dnd spell casting

I also wanted to create emphaises on some of my group members assets and props, for example in the shot above I created rim lighting on the doorway as well as in these shots were I emphaised the form of the dragons head and Meineken

In alot of shots I have light inentionally giving Toris model a slight backlight or rimlight to help it stand out from the walls of the dungeon

My Character Animation Work only render

Due to concerns with deadlines and certain group members finishing their models at different times as a group we decided to only focus on our own character to avoid people failing to meet deadlines effecting other members of the group. I’m aware this isn’t a traditional pipeline but it worked quite well for our group members, as Chloe finished animating, I started, then Tori, then Kori bar some tweaks to the animation that were needed.

Posing Character in Dnd Room and Credits

Dnd Thematic

Writing this I am not sure how relevant this is to the work, but this seems the most fitting place for it. I was intially quite hesitant of the idea of using dnd so much for our plot and tried to lean into the idea I had originally said as I know I was the only group member with prior dnd experience. However as the idea developed this is the path it took, and I just wanted it to be known I put alot of work into trying to ensure the group was familar with iconicography such as dice, races and classes and even breaking down character creation and character sheets ect

The Final Production

Additional Information on our animation can be found here The Creation of Our animation, Presentation

Development Process

During a group call over easter, we discussed how we to split the animation up, initially, we were going to split it up just into sections, but we released it because certain parts that are a lot heavier in character animation we would have to split it up differently to be fair to each group member. We decided to split up the work of blocking out sections among the group, but specific character animations would be done individually. An added bonus was that people would do most of their animation on their own rig.

Splitting it into 5 Sets of shots that after they are blocked out by the person in charge of that section everyone can do their own refined work with rigs in that file

 

I Blocked out the third Section shots 6-7-8

Blocking out section to match previs using group models I had access to (the cubes replace peoples models who arent yet rigged)

First Draft of full block out

Second Draft improving timing

Third Draft that has additional actions and fixed clipping of models along with grouping different characters.

Final Work on this Section with my character and blocking out fully finished.

 

Working on refining my character during 9-10-11-12

The animation was too fast during this

Due to a large part of this section being rendered separately without my model there wasn’t much I could add and with the lack of close ups the amount I added kinda goes unnoticed which I shouldve realised sooner, that facial animation were unnecessary

Working on Refining my character in Section 3-4-5

Section 1-2

Draft 1

Full Animation Rough Draft

 

How I felt about this weeks work

I’ve been very stressed managing university, and work and wanted to get a start on the animation work as soon as possible this led to a lot of stress with some group members being further ahead or some behind. I was also worried about falling behind and started animation in sections before group members had actually finished blocking those sections. I’ve found little time to manage my blog, so I have opted to do this style of big updates rather than concurrent updates. I worry I might misrepresent the work I have done in this format.Onto actually animating my work, I was quite nervous at first, but as it went on, I had a lot of fun, especially with the poses I created in the pose library, I had some issues with IK not behaving as expected, which I resolved when I was trying to make the character fall into the wall in section 9-10-11-12. Overall I quite enjoyed animating. However, I wish I had been present for the group putting together the draft animation, which will be used on thursday, since I had work I could’ve put in. One last point I was kind of annoyed to see due to the time constraints and lack of close ups alot of the more subtly character animation I did goes unnoticed such as when they fall into the wall I used shape keys to create a pained expression and then scared expression. I didnt feel I did it effective enough except for the throwing the staff away part.

It was decided quite early on in concept that I would focus on lighting for the group, So I experimented with different torch designs and lighting options in blender.

I tested out how the torch holder would look in the dungeon first looking at using a base plate or having it straight onto the wall and decided to opt out with the base plate after communicating with the group

Using the offset value to delay the beginning of the torch and keyframing light points power I was able to have the torches light up as the party approaches them mimicking the dnd spell prestidigitation. To reduce stress on peoples files the animations will only run for 200 frames from their start points which should be enough for all shots, however if it needs tweaked I created a guide on how to set up the flames here!

and a guide on how to get the flames going in the file if its disconnected due to file sharing (the process is very similar to linking up textures)

Using light points I can cast shadows by putting them behind my flame mesh for the far shadows on the wall and then in front for the shadows on the close wall to create more dynamic lighting.

along with the torches I also set up the ambient lighting in the dungeon trying to match the orange blue tones created in the concept reducing the ambient lighting to almost 0 and adding replacing it with a blue ish tint sun to mimic light refracting in the dungeon and then a plane light and spotlights to create the more open lighting before the party enter the dungeon, I also use a lot of low powered spot lights to mimic how light refracts and create more interesting lighting.

Original environment concepts (Sketches with pink background were created by Chloe)

Testing Adding Torch Flicker

Using Noise and a step limit I created a flicker for the torch in a separate file

I liked the idea of this but after attempting to implement it I thought it was too much and removed it from the file

Quick test within the file, I felt the flashing was too much and slightly headache inducing, however I do plan on using this technique again but in a full fire loop which isnt the purpose of the animation

Torch Render

Setting up Rig

Had to weight paint most of the model due to innaccurate automatic weights

Creating Expressions

Rig

Secondary Action of moving hair to Character Rig using damped tracks

Using influence the hair moves with the rest of the rig as seen in dicey dungeon animation.

connected to the head so any head movements cause the hair to move as a secondary action.

 

Rig testing

 

This post is kind of going over created the models for the dungeon I was responsible for.

Intial dungeon modeling

(first dungeon floor plan I made with chloes props included)

Intial modeling of character

 

base colours from intial time in substance before starting the painterly style

Mistake I made during substance where I didnt prioritize resolution correctly while doing my UVs I corrected this by creating a smart mask of my models textures, Updating UVs slightly then increasing the resolution of my substance projecting and finishing by applying the smart mask and doing some touch ups. I did the same with the dungeon model to add extra fidelity

Vs the same areas after touch ups

Process screenshots

I was moving textures in and out of substance to match up the textures and see them in the settings lighting

This video was sort of the style we were going for as a group, with some influence from borderlands and titles.

References (put image here)

 

Final model

Dungeon (Doors and props modeled by Chloe except D4 and torches)