Monday class
Today we will be going over anatomy and monster theory. Henry showed us a bunch of pictures of skulls and muscles to help us better understand anatomy, he also explained colour zones in the face (forehead has yellow base, cheeks red, chin blue.) We also learned about action units, I found this pretty interesting as the creator was a human lie detector, and I think that’s pretty cool. Henry told us about Anatomy 360 and how we can use it as free reference for body types and anatomy practice.
We then learned about monster theory. And about how to change characters to be different enough to be able to claim creative liberty. An example was Dracula and how he was changed for Nosferatu. Then we looked at how some animal skulls created mythical creatures, like how an elephant skull created the cyclops myth.
Henry talked to us about zbrush and hoped it would be fixed soon so we can actually use it. But for now we will be using zbrush mini. Henry talked us through short cuts and what the brushes do.
shift to smooth
shift f to see polygons
We played around in Zbrush mini and I actually really like it its pretty fun
I started making a face. I really should have looked up a reference but i’m happy with how it turned out, I need to figure out how to do eyes, though, as they are a problem I got them to a place I was okay with, but I think I would need to turn off symmetry to make it work better.
I then realised the stamps wheren’t just ears and that there was mouths and so I replaced the mouth. I also realised there were also eyes and noses that i could have stamped on which would have saved time but I and happy with what i was able to sculpt.
I then added some lines to the horns, but I think I liked it better without them. I am really looking forward to working with zbrush more,
I talked to henry about my character/creature design. he liked my idea and told me to look into types of foxes and types of mushrooms.
I debated doing a more humanoid design vs a more animal design, so I sketched out some silhouettes of more humanoid fox designs.
I got really strong dancer type vibes I tried to make versions of the more armored fox design (top left) then the more ghostly fox design by adding flowy semi opaque fabrics, and then I did a design of my mushroom fox.
I did some more sketches, and then I also did a more refined piece to get an idea of colours.
Mushroom research more mushrooms I did some more research into the specific mushrooms i wanted to use for my creature design.
and then for fox i’m doing a mix of darwin’s fox and a red fox.
Thursday class
Aodhan was teaching us today he talked us through walk cycles, ad then left us to make one in toon boom.
It exported really fast but luckily someone posted a fix in the discord so I was able to get it to the speed I animated it in.
Its a little bumpy since im working on a pen tablet when I am used to a screen tablet, but I am happy with it. I did have to change the display settings to make it so the two screens on the uni PC’s were mirrored instead of extended cause my tablet wanted to stretch across the two screens which made drawing very difficult. However, once I made it so the tablet was only influencing one screen it was much easier to draw.
Aodhan talked us through the fundamentals of a walk cycle he said we should keep different body parts on different layers so we don’t get confused when they overlap. he started with the body and the legs, then added the arms.
After lunch Rachel Dixon came to give a guest speech. I was really looking forward to this, cause Rachel actually taught me before when I was in NRC.
Rachel talked us through FK/IK switches in 3d animation. and Preston Blare walk cycles short cut to flip (crtl shift v)
alt r alt g to reset rotation and location.
we made a walk cycle, I used the rain model. It was really nice talking to Rachel again, I hope she comes and teaches some more classes.
Need to remember= contact, down, (in-between), pass, (in-between), up, Repeat.
I used Preston Blare’s skip walk cycle (shown above).
I started the secondary action test in harmony. I used a skipping reference by Preston Blare.
Added the secondary action being the hat and the broom, there would also be hair that i would have to animate.
I refined the lines, to get rid of the sketchy layer.
I then added the broom and also played with smear frames. I like it but I think it moves a little too fast or too much. I am happy with how smooth it looks though but I think something is wrong with it or missing from it.
I only just realised there was more to the walk cycle, than I originally found. This does explain why I had to add one of my own frames at the end to pass the back leg behind the front leg to loop. I might re-do this as I am not fully happy with it.