Archive of ‘Animated Narrative’ category
For the summer I have been watching videos on Blackboard talking about the walk cycles from 2D to 3D. I will talk about the 2D first with two walk cycles I’ve done. For the 2D animation I had a small bit of knowledge with frames and different poses for the character when moving then being a still image. After looking on 2d animation on blackboard by Sarah and watching LinkedIn learning with animation tips, I became familiar with the walk cycle and tried doing two sperate work for it on Krita with the number of frames used for each pose like an animatic.
The first practise
The Second work
The first was a practise to working on the layers and movements from the legs where one is shown in the light and the other in it’s shadow.
For the next one I chose one of my original characters with the arms, legs, hair and skirt. The arms and legs where easy enough and doing the skirt was simple as I watched on LinkedIn learning tips for fabric animated. I also added in some colour for the skirt and nose as a simple practise with the colour as well for the skirt to show it flowing.
Now the 3D animation walk cycle was used on Maya with a rig from blackboard called the azui.rig. Totally different from the 2D animation cycle where we used 32 frames and we didn’t have to draw. Watching Alecs videos helped me through the process to understand about the curves, rigs and motion of the character when walking. I couldn’t get the texture colours displayed on the rig but everything else checked out perfectly in the end.
Throughout this semester, I have learnt new things and went through some ups and downs for some projects but managed to pull myself up again. Just like the previous assignment with the 2D animation project it was interesting about the 3D concept like the 2D with storyboards and animatics but had rigging and a pre vis to the characters movements as well as lighting in Maya. It was enjoyable with my group having amazing ideas on our project and how to make it better by editing some plot stuff out even if it was a 15 – 30 short animation project for this semester.
However, there was some issues with Maya in the topic of rendering as it took up the whole week to finish my animation and export it to after effects. As well as my team who had trouble in rendering the whole sequence throughout this week while asking for an extension to give us more time to finish it up. It was a struggle some times this animation course especially with Maya and its projects but I thoroughly enjoyed this year and how I learntΒ more of animation but I must say I still prefer the 2D more then the 3D.
But for the future, I promise myself that I will try to sort out myself when it comes to animation by doing the summer work and practise more with the animation on Maya or Krita by watching video tutorials and improve my techniques for next semester.
This project has been quite the experience with 3D animation, just like last semester with a previous project involving 2D animation during Christmas. But it has been time-consuming with this project and how software apps don’t work as intended too especially when it comes to Maya and rendering. But here is my work for the bee project from the beginning of animated narrative class:
Lightbulb Model Final design
Animatic Part
Bully Bee Model Final Design with concept art
Pre-vis part before models were sent out
Second Previs
Final version of Animation
For week 12, it was our last week before the Easter holidays where the lecturers would give their guidance for our assignments before submission in May. On Wednesday in 3D Literacy we were going over our models, for I was at the retopology stage when Henry gave some tips to do it faster by using a shortcut or just to do it manually. i decided it do it manually on Maya so there would be no problems with the software.
On Thursday I was not in but I had recorded my part for the PowerPoint presentation for my progress on models and previs. My team informed me what changes had to be made to my animation pre-vis part, the summer practise that was added onto blackboard and what we have to download for semester 2. Furthermore I am working on both projects up to early may so I may submit my assignments on blackboard.
For this week I have rendered an image, controlling the volume of light and making sure the Maya model is 100% rendered to look realistic. It was an easy process that helped me to understand and control light for a lightbulb that I have entered into my Bee sequence.
Lightbulb idea
For this week we have been learning about lighting within the environment especially for shots and scenes used in animation. We practised lighting on a 3D model in Maya using rendering to make the effect and controlling the volume of lighting to make it brighter. My lecturers showed me HDR images that can be used for the environment when using the aiatomsphere light option.
For our group project I have been working on a prop for the bee project which is an lightbulb for the main character.
This week the bee team took a call meeting on discord to see each other’s parts for the previs animation. Some of us were finished to show to the others while 2 people got confused for what should be done for theirs. But all was good in the end so we continued to finish ours before we sent them to Dylan to edit them and send them off to Alec.
For final designs and products are still a work in progress but won’t take too long to decide on final designs and finishing products in the environment. For my part on the 3D previs, is scene 3 in that order and here is my wip with no sound:
Just crying in the corner for a short second time before sees the DJ set which makes him happy and gets the idea.
This week for 3D Narrative since university was closed for St Patricks day, we watched videos for rigging, blendshapes, parent constraints and expressions on Maya. I took one of the exercises to do this week that was the parent constraints.
Apart from exercises I have been working on my animatic for my 3D project with my team.
I also worked on 3D modelling on one of the bully bees for the project.
For week 7 in 3D Narrative we were introduced to 3D rigging in Maya. We were taught on how rigging controls models and sculptures into puppets for movements of animation. We had practised in class with rigging with the a tentacle and Ferris wheel and learnt about the skinning and joints.
For my exercise I had to do a ultimate walker jump this week using Alec’s videos to help me through the process.
This week I had my one to one tutorial talks with lecturers Henry and Alec. On Wednesday Henry gave me pointers on my 3D windmill model when it comes to 4 sides to a polygon and creating other objects like a fence or a treasure chest to fill in the space around the windmill.
On Thursday Alec was seeing how our bee group project was going and if there was any worries this week or on the project. The discussion went well and I just said I would be focusing on assignment 1.
Here are the five models I had done this week and had picked one of them for my final product.
