Due to the ongoing strike for this Wednesday’s class, it was cancelled even if it was for a half a day. But next week’s class will be open again and get a proper introduction to Animation Discourse and know our lecturer will be Yuan for this semester. I quickly read our assignment’s for this course and had seen a presentation due for this month in February which will involve the theory of animation with the methods of researching and writing with the animation discipline. Also involving each members team peer assessment on how well the others had done for the project.
For our other assignment we have the choice of choosing an essay or an industry report that we must write out from our own research interests or animation practices. With the essay being 2000 words and the report being 1000 words with supporting evidence and surveys and interviews on the topic we choose.
Starting our Semester 2, we were quickly introduced to our course Animation for the CreativeΒ Industries. There our lecturers introduced us to our work for the 12 weeks, lessons we’ll learn, our assignments and finally what groups we’ll be in with the game designers to create our own game. For our assignments there are due April 28th and May 12th which involves the game and our individual animations whether it be 2D or 3D.Β
So for our first week we back we immediately went to our groups, for me being in group G I met the following members of group G which included 11 other members including me making 12.Β
For my main role in this group project is prop modelling and textures with minorΒ roles such as animation, visual effects and character sculpting/modelling.
Once we re-located into our groups we then went into our sub groups of 4 people so we would then come up with our 10 ideas with the main theme being Isolation and Connection and make it into one where we share amongst ourselves and turn it to three ideas. In my sub group I was joined up with Alex, Nicole and Dominik. We had interesting ideas involving family, friends, robots, war, animals, puzzles and Wi-Fi. For our sub group we narrowed it down to our first person perspective lighthouse with the goal on trying to keep the light lit.
Once our time was up we were all back into one big group again and heard each others main idea. The other two were a vampire trying to survive and become human within the end of the game and the other is the telephone idea where the person collects calls and tries to figure out the mystery.Β
We quickly moved onto Miro and get our ideas. For being part of animation and artists here is the concept art and inspiration for each of our tasks.
MiroΒ Β
Overall it was a fun activity to be apart of and helped with giving us ideas on the game before our pitch presentation.Β
At the first 6 weeks of semester 1 we were all focusing on our group projects for our assignment 1 as well as our professional practise assignments. It was until at week 7 we were introduced to our assignment 2 in animation strategies. Our lecturer informed us that will be three parts to the assignment which will involve a run cycle, a walk cycle and a mechanics cycle and of our choosing of style, type of walk/run and whether it can be 2D being hand drawn or completely 3D using Maya, if we wanted it that way it was entirely our choice to choose for this assignment.
Seeing that three of our assignments would be due in the same week before Christmas and this one would be after the holiday would give us enough time to complete it in between the other assignment and go ahead with the planning and choosing of the cycles. For me I found myself divided between the 2D and the 3D style of the assignment so I waited to see the full lectures of the cycles during class so I may decide what I am doing for this assignment.Β
Continuing week 7’s class we had done exercise’s during class with Alec’s 2D run cycles and 3D rigs with both missing a frame in their sequence that we had to complete. That’s when he presented us the frame count and poses for run sequence and that there is always a contact, up, down and passing pose for each sequence for the character.
The Run Cycle
Analysing the run cycle and understanding the poses of contact, passing, up and down for the character running. As well as the arms and legs going opposite to fit for the front view in the lighter side and the back view in the darker side. Especially the body movements and height when running in the one direction.
Week 8 we had moved onto walk cycles, which like the run cycles but much slower and has more poses to fill out. Same like week 7 we had to complete the exercise’s by filling the blank space of the sequence. We then viewed different types of walk cycles especially the 16 different walk cycles which includes a skip, zombie and robot walk and etc. Here are some examples I found and some blackboard for assistance.Β
Here is the key poses of the walk cycles below. Looking at them like and comparing them to the run cycle with the contact, passing, up and down pose. However, they have less poses and less movement with the arms and legs as they don’t need a wider space to separate themselves from the body. The head still goes up and down and the movement is still slower with the tips of the feet’s still making contact with the ground.Β
Then for weeks 9 and 10 we finally moved onto to the body mechanics animation which the cycle is from blocking to the polish with smooth animation, which can be a specific action then just walking or running. It can be jumping over an obstacle or just the jump in general, boxing between two characters and finally moving or lifting a heavy object all across the way. It can be anything as long as everyone can have the right references for these actions. We also did six exercises with Alec and were introduced to tweenmachine script, a tool we used to help with our exercises for in-between frames and break the poses down as is it quick to make animations down faster.Β
Here is the six exercise’s I’ve done in class with using tween machine to help support me through these class tasks. As well as the Jill jump which came in handy for one of my upcoming assignments as it served as a extra bit to do.
For the last two weeks of the semester classes leading up to Christmas, I had mainly focused onto the other assignments since they were approaching very fast ahead before the end of the year. But in these weeks I had still picked, planned and researched ways for my animated walk/run/ body animation during the group project and our CV in our class professional practice. Through my classes I had planned on what I was doing for my assignment to see what I can do efficiently and what path and style I would go. I decided to do two of the cycles (Walk and Run) in 2D style on Krita and have the mechanics in 3D using Maya, as I’m doing a bit of both since I enjoy both 3D and 2D animation from this year in ulster university.Β
The Mechanics Cycle – JumpΒ
For the mechanics animation cycle I chose the jack. Rig for it to be completely 3D animation for this assignment and selected the action which the jack. Rig would then perform of my choosing which would be a simple jump, but mostly a jumping over an obstacle in it’s sequence.Β I used one specific reference for my jump and the other as a back up sequence which can be found here.
Here I used this reference for my Maya character to jump over an obstacle (a cuboid block), matching the arms and legs of the person from getting into position to jump (anticipation) and then lifting himself up from the ground from his feet with his boost (jump contact) from his feet and jumping over to the other side of the floor (mid-air) landing and positioning himself quickly up again for his contact pose which is after the last pose (recovery pose) then just like his pose in the beginning shot. It was a good idea to go for the jump and to use this video reference as well as going for the 3D route for this part of the assignment.
My Walk Cycle – The skip
For my walk cycle, I looked at the ’16 types of walk cycles’ with different attitudes and personality even if it’s entirely 3D or 2D these where my references and inspirations that came from this video. Watching the video and every walk type, I chose the skip cycle part for my character to be a kid (a little girl) and for her to travel and to be happy and cheerful while skipping to demonstrate her personality as a child. As well as the other below as it is completely in 2D for reference.
I also found a tutorial website to breakdown the skip cycle frame by frame. It also give me quick tips on the skip and the poses I should focus on and what to do and not to do so the arms and legs are following the movement and I’m able to identify the contact, passing, up and down poses. Using this website and the animation breakdown by Amid Amidi from Cartoon brew had been a great help to my decision for the skip cycle and is what I should be aiming for in my animated walk/skip cycle for this assignment or any other animations I will be doing for the future whether be 2D or 3D.Β
Then finally my run cycle, which I got inspired by other animations and references for my character who is an cat-adult running and used these videos to help support me through the Run cycle animation on Krita. I also looked at the videos on blackboard from Alec’s videos from the class sessions to aid me for my animation cycle and what I am looking for to complete it in no-time. For my character I wanted them to run a serious manner as they are reaching for a goal in the end or chasing someone else to match their personality and character.
I quickly went to work on my animations which was the 2D animatics first for the run and walk/skip cycle. To get the hang of the bodies and to quickly see any improvements that needed done before moving onto the rough, eyes, clothes effect and finally the clean-up. For the 2D we didn’t have to colour them in completely or have detailed backgrounds for each animation as they gave us the choice since it might be time-consuming for us to get everything done in time for the assignment submission. Then done the mechanic jump afterwards using the references and doing the animation timing on Maya. Here are my first WIPs of the animation assignments.
Reflection
Throughout this course I really enjoyed this semester 1 with the animation cycles whether it was 2D or 3D related exercises or just lessons during our lectures given by our lecturers Alec or Henry. I liked going back to the roots of frames/poses and experimenting the animations on Maya or Krita as I enjoy both versions of software which I know my way about. I’m also glad that there were people coming in some days to show of their animation guides for pipelines and what they had worked with as it gives me ideas and opportunities I may be looking forward to in the future.
However, there had been some hiccups within the course this semester one. When it came to the other assignments like the 3D environment, CV and showreel it had been time consuming and I had little time to focus on the animation cycles. As well as getting references and deciding what I was going to do for the cycles while thinking of character designs. Well I was relieved that assignment 2 was due for after Christmas and new years for January as it given me more time to focus on the other assignments and more time to complete the assignment 2 after Christmas.Β
Reflective research for myself and others when looking for my future job and how to prepare myself with a CV, Showreel and a cover – email to meet their requirements.
What’s makes a good/clear CV and makes it stand out?
To have a good CV is too have a clear, concise and to make every point necessary without waffling about other stuff in my life on one page which should only include what is relevant and not include things that are not related to my future job career. It is beneficial for any individual if they have listed their past responsibilities on different work experiences they had gone through as well as any volunteer work they have worked in for the past few years. The CV should include our most important part’s of our lives which is contact information that are the following: home address of where we currently live and our postcode, mobile and home telephone number so we can receive calls andΒ email address which should be a professional account, so we can receive messages from the company.
The CV should be clear with our typed writing with no grammar mistakes present as we should always proof-read our work and look out for any punctuation mistakes as well as to avoid any repetition of the same words, so we don’t repeat ourselves over and over again. It is practical to remove any outdated information which is no longer needed for our CV as it would not be relevant for our future and remove information which is incorrect or entirely false for anyone who is lying about their qualifications or experience. Everyone must write down in full honesty on what we are familiar with, what we can do and where we have worked before and accurate dates in which these accomplishments have taken place. The CV should not be long or be many pages to fill in relevant information for the selected company, it should only be 1 or 2 pages but mostly 1 for our CV is not a novel or essay just a piece of paper which identify the whole area about ourselves.Β
Cover Email
Before moving onto the cover email I would have to list more stuff onto our CV, apart from just detailing my responsibilities as the organisation would be more interested in the skills and the software I have knowledge of doing. The form should have at least 3/4 quarters long of text to fit the one page and should not be completely filled as the organisation will get tired of it while reading it from top to bottom. I would have toΒ add in my achieving results from my school years such as their grades I had passed and accomplishments in each of my classes from the past few years. The CV itself should have clean and simple spacing for text, a consistent layout and font size for the employer to read off text with no problem of the size and the highlight of the job I am applying for.
When applying for any future job, I should talk a little about myself and tell them why I would want to work for that one particular studio as I would want to know why I chose them and where have I heard of them before or which of any of the advertisements have caught my eye e.g., commercial, interviews or from a friend. I would then explain why they think they are suitable for this job and the role I have chosen for myself can be beneficial to this studio, as well as meeting their requirements e.g., 3d animator, 2d animator or a professional at rigging.Β
When checking the studio for the specific job I want, I must check over the job’s description for the type of recruitment for what they are looking for and if they don’t have any openings for my specific job role, I would simply move onto the next job career when searching for a similar job that will suit my chosen role. I should also mention the work I have seen from their organisation like games, short films or any commercials they have to promote a specific product. Then I must tell them why I liked them that made anyone and me want to apply this studio.
In the middle or at the very end of the Cover email everyone should most importantly input their links to the CV which will then directly take them to their showreel/portfolio to present their work from the past year and how it has evolved. It should tell the their specific company what they are working with in terms of animation whether it be 2D or 3D and their work in progress (WIPS) to their final stage of the project. The showreel should be nicely edited with background music which would give the video an upbeat to it, for the viewers to watch and not turn away from it with sound doesn’t fit in or completely unmuted.Β
At the opening of the email I should avoid putting in ‘dear sir or dear madam’ as the post for the job could be sent anonymously so instead the individual should open with ‘dear hiring manager’ and to use a professional email account so any individual can see only my and their work from a specific website e.g., Artstation or Syncsketch. Which then showcases our work is on what we think is our massively best to present our work to this selected company and has what they are looking for within ourselves.
InterviewΒ
If the company had seen the person’s, CV, showreel/artwork/animation and cover email and responded back to the individual saying they want to arrange an interview for any day with the individual for their final task to getting into the company and getting their assigned job role. First, I must arrange with the responder on what day I am free or change it if something had come up during the week. Once the date and time is sorted out, the I must figure out what I must wear to the interview that should be neat and tidy and nothing to flashy. For I must wear professional clothing like suits, dark jeans and flat shoes or small heels, mostly clothes up to date which do not look out of date and are comfortable to wear. For everyone must avoid low cut tops, anything revealing or too short which is not acceptable to wear and flip fops with hats with brands on them.
For any particular interview, any individual should make sure to know what they are bringing with them to their interview so they can prepare beforehand and not leave anything to the last minute. So everyone must be able to bring their current and a copy of their resume incase the interviewer would want to review it during the interview or there being two interviewers for the session. Body language is very vital for face-to-face discussions as when the two are communicating with each other the person getting interviewed should have a good posture and stance are straight but relaxed and not to cross your arms or legs as they will think the individual is closed off or being a defensive state. But we must be entirely focused on the person face to face or online zoom as they will be looking at your facial expressions as they will see if were making non-verbal gestures during the interview.Β
I must always remember to research the company beforehand as they will ask myself significant questions relating to the company. I might have to research the origin of company, who is currently running it and any current or past employees who had left a while back along with any announcements they have recently posted. Then I will be asked why I want to work here, where have I seen or heard about their company from and what role am I looking for to work here? I must give reasonable answers for these questions, answer truthfully and give answers on what my knowledge carries for specific technology and it’s limit.
When I have arranged an interview with the employer they will either meet me at random or a he or she will be instructed from the letter, telephone call or by email message as they will meet me at that specific time. It can be beneficial to know about that person before the interview like their role in the company and what makes them stand out, as any person an I being interviewed can prep questions of their own to the interviewer about their position. That way the interviewer can talk about their experience with their position, give an insight to current events to the field or bring up a common interest outside the workplace but only one thing so you don’t go off speaking about something else for the entire interview and waste time.
When talking face to face with the interviewer and getting the achievements, work experience and answering their questions about the workplace, they will ask about myself about in person then reading off from the CV. It is also good to research the total salary in which the company makes because I or anyone will get asked about our salary expectations as it will be a trick question so anyone will be caught off guard if I haven’t researched their salaries.Β It’s always good to go for the average pay with everyone else within the company itself.Β
Another great way for everyone to prep themselves before their interview is too do a mock interview. It’s great way to ask for a family member, a friend or a partner to play the interviewer which then they would ask serious questions which at a high rate would likely come up during the interview, which the person including I will come up with the most appropriate answers and be easy for us to remember ahead of time when practising.Β Β
Through my course of Animation Strategies, with the last 12 weeks of working with animation and introducing us to unreal engine, while I played a part within a group project that was simply marvellous this semester. At first it seemed much of what we had done within our first year with animation group projects with 2D and 3D especially with the software Maya we have used from last semester. But it was the start with Unreal Engine and how it can be used for such stunning environments with 3DΒ along with 2D walk, run and mechanic animation cycles.Β
There was difficulty with group members not coming in the University for the course or being absent from the group project thinking they’ve abandoned it as well as having issues with software such as storage related items and only able to do the dungeon part. But the UV, modelling and texturing on substance painter was not too bad since I have been through them before and used Alec’s and Henry’s videos on blackboard to assist me through this project. The only issues I faced was trying to apply the models and textures into unreal and apply my video into my blog, but I soon overcame this obstacle on my own and with others.Β
In a group of 5 there was Mary, Jack, Charlotte, Charley and me Lauren who participated together in the beginning week. We had various ideas for the concept of our 3D environment project and decided that the project should a have a twist to it. At first we had different ideas what the environment should be like robotics, nature or something terrifying. We somewhat followed one of the themes of nature but wanted to have something magical and make it more alive with vines, gemstones and glowing lights.Β Β
For the planning of our team project we had grew with different ideas until we came with an idea from the success criteria suggestions on blackboard. The ‘Faerie Dungeon’ which comes with two levels which has the upper floor which is full of light and magical energy and the underground which is full of darkness and creepiness. It was our group plan to talk about what will be included within the project, such as props and the layout pf the environment of the levels, the art style we were going for and colours along with the model’s textures.Β
We talked about the art style first on how the environment should look like for both levels and what style would we able to get inspiration from to fit into our project. We searched through different art styles and selected a frenzy cartoonish look that would be seen innocent and cute but then afterword’s terrifying and creepy like. The art styles we had referenced too are the following:
Zelda and Link
Β Β Β
Animal Crossing
Sprite FrightΒ
The theme of our project is supposed to start off with a sweet, magical world of fun fantasy which quickly becomes a horrifying glimpse of reality and how deadly it can be to crush our dreams of fantasy. The inspiration for our group project was a few movies which covers the 3 acts of the setup, the confrontation and the resolution. The films that inspired our project work were the following; Coraline, Pan’s Labyrinth and a short film known as Sprite Fright which it all starts with a happy fantasy world and later become dark and despicable. These helped us on what route we were going through for our project and how we would we plan it out for the shots at the very end of the project.
We used Pinterest to get ideas for the environment on how magical it can be to get some references and then moved forward to the layout of both environments. We then planned our presentation for Week 3 to give a brief summary of our project to the audience.Β
References for wings and both environment.
We picked out our colour schemes for both levels to fit within the genre of the upper and lower level and what colours we should try best to avoid so they don’t overlap with each other but have lighter vs darker shades of colour where one or two are the same but in darker and lighter presence.Β We then went through different layouts on how the floors should look like and what should be included within the areas like furniture, lights and tools.Β
Block out
We then did a block out of the two floors on how they would look like in Maya in it’s first draft of design. Both similar with the circular walls, while shaped like a cylinder to fit all the props within but the props may not all be included within the environment but their only there for ideas on what should be included.
Assets
We had then finally discussed about the assets and props within the environment and what would be included within the floors so we don’t go overboard with the materials within the two floors. There were 4 sections and each section would a prop and then assigned to that person or they have chosen it because they want to. Since there were 5 of us within the group we broke down the sections of the floors and then went through a checklist on what we would be doing for those floors. For me I mostly did props for the Faerie Dungeon/BasementΒ with the others taken a bunch from each category for that was weeks 1 – 3.Β
For weeks 4 – 7, just after getting our assigned tasks we had started modelling our assets within Maya and watch a couple of videos to help with our modelling and take shortcuts to get them done faster with high quality.Β I have done the bookcase, the fairy body, a set of roots, two jars and the dissection table with extra models as the tools, cutting board and the bloody vase. We would then try to import them into substance painter for texturing and update our progress through the weeks. We had modelled, topologized and sort out our UV’s just in time to import them into substance painter for texturing. During those weeks we had went Unreal Engine and where our projects would be exported too for our cinematic.Β Here is the following models and their UVs which wasn’t to complicated for this course.
Here is some references I used for some of models while the rest was on blackboard to follow along:
Week 7 was even the start for our second assignments which involved the run, walk and mechanics animation. But are main focus was the 3D environment by then. Here is my objects that I have for their baked mesh maps and textures.Β
After I had successfully done applying the textures onto the models, I exported the models as FBX and exported the textures into my documents so both would be ready for unreal and my OneDrive.Β
Jack as well shared his OneDrive with everyone’s assets included but here is only my assets.
For Weeks 8 – 10 while applying the finishing touches onto the models as well as doing other work for our professional practice we were ready to export them into our unreal project. It was easy at first but there were tricky parts with the translucent glasses and sorting out the textures in material mode for each mesh model that wouldn’t appear for no reason. Also making sure everyone was up to date with their models and if there was any worries we would help them. We shared our models and textures onto OneDrive so everyone would know what to add to their scene for the final cinematic.Β
I was able to add my models into Unreal and other models from my group members to fill out my own layout in the faerie dungeon. With two floors I only chose the bottom since I had the most models for it and I had to watch out for my storage space on my laptop. But since we can do it individually we took 30 secs each for own environment with our own shots for own cinematic and chose our own music for our final cinematic.Β
Here is photos of the environment itself.Β
Final Cinematic (Due to the size format I moved it Syncsketch)Β
We had watched Alec’s and Henry’s videos on blackboard to help with our assignments especially with the camera angle, lighting and rendering our scenes for our final step within our 3D environment.Β
I had my one to one feedback with Aodhan during class time. We had went over my CV, Cover – Email and my wip of my showreel. For the CV form, nothing too bad but here I to arrange a few of the skills, about me and some of my contact information for this.Β
For my Cover E-mail I also had to arrange a few of the my paragraphs, add and delete some sentences and to make sure it crosses over with the CV form so everything matches up. Finally my showreel, the music I added was good enough but had to make sure it bounces at the same time of the beat. As well as cutting out some of the animations but clipping them at separate moments. It’s also important to add in the opening my name and contact details.Β
We learnt about rendering and using the camera which would be our last step into our cinematic movie how we would be able to render it and export it as an animation.Β
For our last couple of weeks we have been doing good with the unreal as I exported all the models into unreal and was able to sort out my files onto OneDrive to share between each of us and our progress is almost done as we are now setting up our environment, pick lighting and finally render out.Β
