Modelling
When the team started into Production we all decided on what we wanted our main focus to be as well as choosing some secondary tasks. I decided to focus on modelling the environment and some props and later set up one of the environments with Danielle.
—Props—
Using the depth chart guide I created, Danielle created some coral and a coral wall while I made some rocks using this tutorial. I later UV Unwrapped them and sent them to Danielle to texture them.
*Coral created by Danielle* *Rocks modelled by Nicole* *Rocks textured by Danielle*
—Environment—
When all the props were modelled by Danielle and I, we were tasked with assembling the sets that would be used in the final animation. I took on the anglerfish’s cave (Set 2) while Danielle took on Set 1. Once the scenes were assembled, with Michael’s seaweed, Sarah’s lighting was added.
I really like how everything for the sets came together and gave us a glimpse of what the final product could look like. I think the contrast between the soft and colourful upper ocean contrasts the sharp, dark deep of the Anglerfish’s cave look great and I’m glad the change in mood between the sets is clear.
*Seaweed created by Michael* *Coral created by Danielle* *Starfish created by Danielle, Meghan & Sarah* *Squid created by Oisin* *Anglerfish created by Nicole*
—Characters—
Danielle modelled and textured the starfish so that Meghan could create the rig, then she moved onto the environments with me. While we set up the environments the rest of the team focused on modelling and rigging the other characters like the Squid and Starfish and adding blendshapes to the eyes.
After finishing the environment setup I got tasked with modelling the Anglerfish. This wasn’t a job that I had expected to get as I don’t have all that much experience with modelling characters, especially not ones that need to be able to be rigged and animated but I was up for the challenge!
Using my turnaround, I translated the Anglerfish into a 3D model and sent it to Danielle to UV Unwrap and texture. Once it was sent back to me I placed all the teeth in the mouth but came across a large problem after rigging it…the teeth didn’t move with the rig.
After a talk with Sarah and Mike, our tutors, they gave me some useful feedback. Sarah suggested that I make the anglerfish’s antenna a smoother curve and taper it better and Mike advised me to create a full ‘skeleton’ for the rig instead of just the mouth to help it deform a bit less as well as joining the teeth to the model so that it will move as one piece.
After trying the fixes that Mike suggested it mostly worked! Some of the teeth still came loose as well as one of the anglerfish’s eyes kept coming off the body. I had a talk with Rachel, our part time tutor, and she suggested that I weight paint the teeth to keep them in place. I got this to work using Mike’s tutorials on Blackboard on rigging and weight painting and with a bit more adjusting and feedback from Mike. The Anglerfish rig was completed and ready for animation!
*Textures by Danielle*
I’m really proud of how the model and rig came out! I don’t have much experience in character modelling and rigging so I think it turned out great but if I had more time I probably would have adjusted the skin weights for the teeth a bit more as I think a few still separate from the mouth a bit but it isn’t visible in the final animation, so that’s good.
—Animation—
Once all the environment were done Rachel advised that Danielle and I create a linked scene of the environment to save on processing power so we followed this tutorial:
After this was done Danielle and I were tasked with adding camera sequences to the scenes for the animators. Finally, I uploaded the whole set up to OneDrive so that the team could access it and I wrote some instructions on how to use the sets and the naming conventions we should be using.
None of our group has ever used this method before so a few problems did come up like the textures being missing from the scenes or even the set being missing fully but the team messaged Danielle and I with any problems and we got it all sorted as quickly as we could.
Once everything else was done we moved onto animation, during a meeting I created an excel sheet with all the storyboard panels we had and broke them down into sections that the team could pick from, once everyone had their assigned scenes, the animation began.
To begin, I animated a few motions to test out my Anglerfish rig that wound up being used in the final short. I wanted to create an idle and snapping jaw animation as they were some of the few movements that the Anglerfish does and I knew that whoever got those scenes could build on top of the animation if they wanted.
-Idle Animation-
-Snap Jaw Animation-
After showing my animations to our tutors, Sarah and Rachel, I received some feedback on the snap jaw animation. It needs more of an extreme when it opens its mouth fully and the close needs to be snappier. Due to deadlines coming up I was only able to adjust the timing of the jaw snapping shut before passing the animations onto the focus scene group. Overall I like how the animations turned out but if I had more time I would have exaggerated the mouth of the anglerfish more.
-Block out Scenes-
For the final short I choose these scenes:
*Storyboards created by Michael*
Due to time restraints and other deadlines, I was only able to get a very basic block out for my scenes of the short. I know they could have used a bit more polish but they are only just a block out and if I had more time I would have done a few more passes to smooth out some of the walking and used Meghan’s walk cycle that she made for the Starfish.
– Set 1 Scene 1-
– Set 1 Scene 2-
– Set 1 Scene 7-
– Set 2 Scene 1-
-Set 2 Scene 2-
Overall, I’m happy with the block outs but I do wish I added a bit of lighting to the set 2 scene 1 to help show the transition between the sets better. I also wish we could have added some fish silhouettes that I designed into the scene and the bubble particle effect Danielle created to add a bit more life to the scenes but we ran out of time so they got cut. Apart from that though, I do like how my scenes came out and the overall sets!