Introduction
This week we transferred our animation from blocking to spline.
Spline Pass
After working on the feedback I received on blocking last week I transferred the blocking animation to spline. I faced some issues in the rolling animation but then I went on 2s and 1s to make the roll nice and smooth.
In the spline I added some moving holds and deleted some keys that I added in blocking plus because they were creating jerks.
Feedback Received
Introduction
This week I worked on populating the environment in the 3d scenes. Apart from that I also worked on completing the 3d models of the environments.
3d Model and Texture of Temple Stone
For the opening scene I am showing a temple stone ruins in the middle of a forest. I have modeled it in maya and sculpted details in Zbrush.
Environments without Lighting
As I have completed the asset modeling last week, this week I focused on the world building of this animation.
Animation Test (GWEN Rig)
I have also done a quick loopable walk cycle test on the rig to see if everything is looking fine. The animation still needs a lot of improvement.
Introduction
This week we were supposed to get feedback on the blocking and blocking plus of our animation.
Blocking and Blocking Plus
As I was still on the blocking stage, I refined the blocking poses and added some in-betweens to make the blocking better and a bit smooth.
Feedback Received
I have received the feedback on adding some more frames in the beginning of the animation to make the landing smooth
Some anticipation and nice arc need to be shown before the rolling animation. Need to add overlapping action of head after the rolling ends
I need to show weight shift and adjust the spacing of these shots
Critical Reflection
This blocking exercise helped me to understand that it is always better to make your blocking as good as possible. If the blocking is good the animation will be good and we do not need to put in more effort in spline pass.
Introduction
After doing the planning in first two weeks, this week I did modelling of the scene. Apart from that I also worked on selecting the rig I will be using.
3D Models of Environment
Populating the Environment
Rig Selection and Modifications
For my animation, I wanted to use a rig that will be good for doing the body mechanics. So I decided that I will work on the GWEN rig and modify it a bit so that it works for my animation shot.
Rig Selected
This is the GWEN rig that I am going to modify visually and then I will use it in my artefact project.
Rig Modifications
Here are a few rig modification that I have done.
Modelling the Bag
I first modelled the bag with the help of polygon primitives. I made a bag pack so that it sticks to the body of the character and it is suitable for running.
Binding the Bag
After modelling, I adjusted it on the body and selected the joint hierarchy and bind the bag with the rig.
Weight Painting
When the bag was successfully attached to the rig, I painted the skin weights with the joints.
Final Look of Character
After all the changes in color, textures and addition of bag, this is how the character looks.
Introduction
This week we started blocking our animation shot. We already have the thumbnails of the key poses so this week we had to block them in Maya and set up the timing and spacing.
Blocking Pass 1
I blocked the key poses this week. In the process, I tried to keep nice timing and spacing.
Feedback
Introduction
This week I collected moodboard references from the artefact project. Other than that I made storyboards and analyzed the challenges that I might face during the process.
Project Details
I named this animation short, “Enchanted”.
The artstyle will be low poly and stylized. It will be 3d but it will give looks oof 2d environment and I will incorporate 2d effects and magical elements in it.
The color theme will be dark, glowy and magical.
References of Environment
I have collected a few references for my project. I have always been fond of the dark environments with glow and magical themes. This is the same I want from my project.
Storyboards
This is the tentative storyboards for the project. I might change it during the process.
The story starts with a magical orb in the centre of the enchanted forest, a thief comes in the scene, steals it an runs away. But we see that there are ark spirits of the enchanted forest chasing her an taking the orb back.
Challenges I might face
Introduction
This week we started working on advanced body mechanics. The main agenda of this week was to plan the shot.
Planning the Shot
Planning of a shot consists of multiple stages
Recording a Reference Video
Video reference in any animation shot contains a huge importance. It is necessary to plan your shot wisely and shooting a reference is very helpful to animate the shot. If the reference is clear then it makes the task of animation relatively less complex.
Reference videos does not mean that you have to match the exact timing from the video. A video reference gives you some nice key poses that can help you block the animation.
So, for the body mechanics assignment I had a rough idea of what I wanted to achieve in my mind. I acted out most of the reference myself and used the splinter roll reference from a youtube video.
Making Thumbnails
After I got the video reference I was all set to take some key poses out of it. From the reference I took multiple key poses and drew them as thumbnails. The thumbnails have some exaggeration of the key poses I got from the video.
Animatics
After I had the thumbnails I aligned the drawings into animatics. The main purpose was to have a rough idea of whether the key poses I made will turn up into a nice animation shot.
This planning exercise we did this week helped me a lot to understand the process of animation better. The pre-planned shot will definitely help me to achieve better results.
Introduction
We have started working on the artefact project from this week. This week was mostly around planning and finalizing the idea of this project.
Reason and Expectation from this Project
For the artefact project, I am planning to make something that adds up to my skillset an to prepare me for the Final Major Project. Currently, I am having a major setback in lighting and rendering an that can create hinderance in achieving a visually good Final Major Project. I will push my limits in this project to create a visually pleasing animation which has a unique 3d artstyle.
Concept
A thief steals the magical orb from the enchanted forest and runs away, little did she knew there is no way to escape.
Objective
Timeline
I have made a tentative timeline for this project by dividing it in milestones.