Introduction
Our assignment for this module was to create a 30 second animated short centred around the theme of “Escape”. Each member must create their own character, but the characters are not allowed to have legs. I thought that this was a rather interesting premise and was excited to brainstorm with my group about what we could do with this limitation.
For this assignment, I grouped up with Eoin, Kori, Chloe and Katrina. I had previously completed an assignment with Eoin, Kori and Chloe the semester before so I was already familiar with how they each worked. This was the first time I had met Katrina though, so I was looking forward to getting to know her better on this assignment.
To help us keep track of our ideas, Kori created a link to a canvas that we could all draw and doodle onto. Brainstorming this way was rather fun and I think it helped us break the ice within the group. I’m not very confident in my drawing skills so I stuck with making a list off to the side of possible things we could base our animation on.
Our idea went through a couple different iterations before we found one that worked. We originally were going to go with an escape room themed board game where the pieces are trying to find a way out. A piece would then fall off the table and reveal it was all a game the whole time. We then took this idea, and modified it to be more of a table-top RPG with the pieces being a DND party making their way through a dungeon. We would still use the reveal from the last idea where the viewer finds out it was a game the whole time. We then created some concept art based on this idea and created a presentation for it.
When we presented this idea to the class; we were met with some constructive criticism regarding the reveal. They suggested that we play into the board game aspect and incorporate real life objects into the dungeon scene. We were also told to lean into the DND theme more and changed our character designs to fit. I thought this could be fun and was excited to try out different designs based on DND races, however, I was a little concerned at how complex this would then make our 3D models.
Moodboards and Inspiration
When we were originally going with normal game pieces, I created a moodboard of possible stylised pieces we could take inspiration from. These pieces were obviously chess pieces from the looks of them, but they were stylised in a way that made them different from the norm.
Chloe also created a mood board based on game pieces, these had more focus on table-top items and dungeon environments.
These mood boards were created when I was exploring the different DND races and classes that we would use for our final designs. For the first moodboard, I wanted to stick to a theme that I was more familiar with to make the modelling phase easier for myself. For the second moodboard, I wanted to try out a design that was outside of my comfort zone and try to push myself to create something that I wasn’t used to doing.
Character Designs
Since we moved onto the DnD theme rather quickly, my first character concepts are of small animal groups. I rather liked this concept as I felt that these could translate rather well into 3D, plus the large robes would fit with the “no legs” restriction while looking cute! I did end up using aspects of the healer in my final design.
Since we had received feedback to base our characters on DND races, we had decided to each create 3 different designs based on a different DnD Class and race. I unfortunately only had time to create two designs but I was rather happy with them and felt that they fit in well. The first design I created was a human fighter, I wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone with this design as I haven’t modelled a full working face at this point. I also wanted to try modelling some armour as I’ve always admired 3D armoured models and wanted to try my hand at it. The second design was a Satyr druid which was more within the confines of my comfort zone as it is similar to a design I had created for another assignment. I still wasn’t too confident modelling faces, especially around the eye area, so I wanted a design where I could hide it away. I was honestly more interested in modelling the Satyr and she had a better reception in the group chat.
Storyboards
The storyboards shown above are for our initial idea of the animal characters walking around a dungeon and a reveal at the end of the animation. My group recognised that I wasn’t very confident in my 2D skills and decided that I wouldn’t have to create a final storyboard for our updated animation idea.
Previs
Once we finished our storyboards, we began working on our previs models and previs animation. I created my previs model out of simple primitive shapes and parented them together like we were shown in class. I then uploaded this to our Discord/Onedrive so it could be added into the animation file. We were meant to split the previs into different sections so each of us would have a turn animating but it ended up being only Eoin, Chloe and I. Eoin and Chloe had done most of the work and asked me to help with the last half, when I received the section it was mostly blocked out but seemed rather awkward. Rather than struggle with their keyframes as I was getting rather frustrated with it, I ended up just redoing it myself.
Previs Video (Edited By Chloe)
I started animating around 0:24 and finished around 0:38.
Character modelling & Texturing
After we finished our previs model, we began working on creating our actual models. Chloe had posted some poly-modelling tutorials into the Discord that we could use as a guide when modelling. I used this technique when creating my model and honestly found it quite enjoyable and prefer it to sculpting, however my topology is still quite messy and I will need to work on perfecting it.
I kept all my meshes separate as I felt as this would make it easier for when I had to take it into Substance Painter.
Texturing was something that I was really nervous about doing as I’m not the best at drawing and my group had decided upon an Illustrated style. I tried following along with the tutorial that Chloe had posted into the server but most of the screen that I needed to see to follow along was cut off so I only managed to get the lineart done. Thankfully, Chloe offered to help me out. I’m so thankful that Chloe offered to help as she broke down the process in an easy to digest way and gave me pointers as I was working on the model, I think my textures for my character came out really nice thanks to Chloe’s help and guidance.
Rigging
For the rigging of my model, I first created a humanoid armature which I was used to doing thanks to previous experience. I then created automatic weights to apply it to the mesh. Once that was done, I made sure to go around any problem areas and sort out their weights using the weight painting mode. I realised quickly that some problem areas were mesh that wouldn’t even be visible in the animation, like the underbody, so I simply deleted this to save myself too much headache with weight painting.
Once the basic rig was set up, I added the tilt control that was posted on Blackboard to my rig. I found this rig super cute and fun to mess around with!
I then began adding the Ik rig which was easier than I thought to set up. I did find it a little awkward to use and don’t think I could’ve gotten much out of it considering my character moves rather anxiously and stiffly but I did enjoy learning the process and will be experimenting with it over the summer.
Something I did struggle with was the blendshape drivers. I repeated the tutorial many times but just couldn’t get it working on my model, the closest I had gotten was having a bone move the wrong shape key and none other despite being set up exactly the same. I decided that I would just animate the face using the shape key menu as I was running out of time and didn’t want to stress out my group members any more than I had.
DnD Room Modelling
I’m not very happy with how the DND room turned out. I completed this room very last minute as I was more focused on getting my character model done and animated so the room ended up being very low poly. Granted, the room is not seen in the animation, but it still would have been nice to have something that I could be proud to show off. The texturing for the room is very rushed and simple which I’m not proud of but given the time limit, it was the best I could do at the time.
Animating
Animating this assignment was very stressful as the way we had organised sharing the files was a bit awkward. Thankfully, I wasn’t affected too much by this until the end when everyone was trying to fix little mistakes. I tried to give my character some personality through her movement by showcasing how nervous and quiet she is through her reserved movement. We had also discussed how our tilt-controls would show our character personality through it so I decided to go for a slow side to side movement as opposed to a quick hop or bob. I found that my IK was not the most suitable for the movements I wanted my character to make so I ended up just switching to the basic rig to animate on.
Other than my character, I had animated the D20 dice that bounces across the table. I had received some feedback to make the dice quicker during a presentation to the class, so I started adjusting the timing of the dice roll but couldn’t quite get it how I wanted it.
I posted in the group server for some possible feedback and Chloe responded quickly with a good suggestion. I messed around with the graph editor for a bit but still couldn’t get it how I wanted, thankfully Chloe offered to hop in VC and help me out a little which I really appreciate and don’t think I would have understood it without her.
Lighting
For the original lighting for the room, I used a warm HDRI to give me some basic lighting and then used a mixture of area and point lights to give extra lighting to areas of interest.
When we were doing our last presentation, I was given some feedback that the lighting in the room needed adjusting and the shadows needed work.
Soft Shadows
Hard Shadows
While we were in the vc working with the dice animation, we also took a look at the final scene with the DND room to mess around with the shadows/lighting to adjust it to fit the comments we received during the presentation. Chloe gave me a bunch of tips on the lighting and really helped me understand what certain lighting options meant. We ended up switching our shadows from soft shadows to hard shadows as this helped them show up better in the render.
Final Animation