Shizra's Animation Blog
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Author: Shizra Manzar

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Advanced & Experimental T Week 16 Theory with Nigel Thesis

Week 16: Tentative Table of Content

Introduction

This week I started writing my thesis proposal and the first step I did was to write down the table of contents so that I can have a clear plan.

Research Question

Belonging, Inclusivity, and Diversity in Pixar Films: 

Is Pixar succeeding to achieve this goal?

Tentative Table of Content

1.Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Literature Review

4. Representation of Diverse Characters in Pixar Films

4.1  Analysis of Gender Representation

4.2  Analysis of Race and Ethnicity

4.3 Disability Representation

4.4 Exploration of LGBTQ+

5. Exploration of Marginalized Themes

5.1 Personal and Progressive themes

5.2 Identity and Belonging

5.3 Mental health and self well-being

5.4 Environmental Awareness

6. Future Directions and Challenges

6.1 Authenticity in Representation

6.2 Further Exploration of Underrepresented Groups

6.3  Continued Awareness among people

7. Conclusion

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3.2 Week 20 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 20: Artefact-Rendering

Introduction

This week I added finishing touches to the artefact project. I rendered my scenes, compiled them in after effects, put vfx and sfx.

Rendering

I rendered my scene with Arnold using Render Farm. It was quick and saved me a lot of time.

SFX

I have gathered some copyright free audio scores and then compiled all of them to make a unique beat and sound. I personally enjoyed a lot doing the sound design and I feel like it brought a lot of life in my animated scene.

Final Render

Final Render of the Artefact

Takeaway Points

This artefact project helped me in following ways:

  • Helped building project management skills.
  • Better understanding of camera movement and animation
  • Helped me to understand maya lighting pipeline
  • Increased my command on the Maya software
  • Learnt Render Farm
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FMP & Thesis T Week 15 Theory with Nigel Thesis

Week 15: Research Design, Objectives and the Golden Thread in Research

Introduction

This week we studied about the research objectives, aims and golden thread in research and how all these elements help us to structure our thesis.

Research Objectives

The research objectives take the research aims and make them more practical and actionable. In other words, the research objectives showcase the steps that the researcher will take to achieve the research aims.

Golden Thread

The golden thread simply refers to the collective research aims, research objectives, and research questions for any project . These three elements are bundled together because it’s extremely important that they align with each other, and that the entire research project aligns with them.

Importantly, the golden thread needs to weave its way through the entirety of any research project, from start to end. In other words, it needs to be very clearly defined right at the beginning of the project (the topic ideation and proposal stage) and it needs to inform almost every decision throughout the rest of the project.

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FMP & Thesis T Week 14 Theory with Nigel Thesis

Week 14: One to One Progress Meeting

Introduction

Research Question

Exploring belonging, inclusivity and diversity in Pixar Films: A review of Last Decade

This was initially my research question. I was planning to explore Pixar films and analyse their inclusion of unique themes in their films. Upon discussing this with my teacher, he suggested me that I should narrow down my research question as the current one is to broad and it might not be a very helpful research topic.

After the discussion I tried to shift my topic to a more specific question. 

New Research Question

Belonging, Inclusivity, and Diversity in Pixar Films: Is Pixar succeeding to achieve this goal?

This research topic is very specific and will talk about the Pixar inclusion in animated cinema. This research will also compare the studio with other studios and will discuss if Pixar become successful in achieving the goal.

Bibliography

Haidt, J., & Rose-Stockwell, T. (2019). The Power of Pixar: Exposure to Animated Diversity Influences Children’s Attitudes Toward Outgroups. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 19(1), 53-75. 

Babbitt, L., & Johnson, J. (2018). Inside Out and the socialization of emotions: Animating children’s understanding of mental states. Developmental Psychology, 54(9), 1685-1698. 

Carter-Sowell, A. R., & Tien, L. T. (2019). Gender representation in animated films: A content analysis of children’s movies from 1937 to 2018. Sex Roles, 81(9-10), 581-597. 

Cheng, H. W., & Tong, S. T. (2020). Portrayals of female leadership and decision-making in Disney and Pixar animated feature films. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 64(4), 579-598. 

Gray, K. L., & Thompson, C. P. (2019). Empathy and diversity in Pixar’s Inside Out. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 438-450. 

Hsu, J. L., & Oh, S. (2020). Inequality in 1,200 popular films: Examining portrayals of race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, and disability from 2007 to 2018. Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, University of Southern California. 

Purnell, S. (2018). Cultural diversity in Pixar films: An analysis of Coco and Inside Out. Animation Studies, 13, 46-60.

Vazquez, K. C. (2020). What we talk about when we talk about Pixar. Popular Communication, 18(4), 348-361. 

Turning Red (2022) Domee Shi [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Soul (2020) Pete Docter [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Disney Plus.

Luca (2021) Enrico Casarosa [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.Inside Out (2015) Pete Docter  [DVD]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

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3.2 Week 19 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 19: Acting Spline

Introduction

Spline 1

Video showing acting animation in progress

Spline 2

Video showing Acting animation in progress

Spline 3 (with feedback)

Video showing acting animation and feedback received
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3.2 Week 19 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 19: Artefact-Lighting

Introduction

This week I worked on the lighting an figured out how to achieve monochromatic lighting setup with glow.

Lighting

I wanted to do monochromatic lighting in my animation short with the theme of blue and black. For that, I used a combination of directional, sky dome and point lights.

Atmospheric Fog

When I added the lights in the scene I felt that the scene looks very flat. I researched some ways to add volume in my scene so that the scene looks fuller and visually pleasing.

After some RnD, I finally found a way to add depth in your lighting and it was done by Atmospheric Fog. Atmospheric fog adds volume and depth in the scene by decreasing the air density.

After putting some lights and atmospheric fog that is how the scene looked.

After adjusting the atmospheric fog settings from the render settings I finally got my desired render results.

Stylized Look and Feel

With the monochromatic lighting and low poly environment models, I was able to carried out stylized look and feel for my scene.

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3.2 Week 18 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 18: Blocking Plus

Introduction

After finalizing the blocking last week, this week our aim was to do blocking plus of our shot.

Blocking Plus

Video showing blocking plus
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3.2 Week 18 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 18: Artefact-Research Work on Lighting

Introduction

This week I worked on research for the maya lighting techniques and how to make the scene visually pleasing.

Renderer

I am planning to use Arnold Renderer to render the scene.

Lighting References

Categories
3.2 Week 17 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 17: Blocking

Introduction

This week we worked on creating blocking of our Acting shot. Our main focus was to create blocking for the body first.

Blocking

This was my first blocking pass and I made some mistakes. Upon receiving feedback I got to know that I should add key-poses first and key all the controls. Right now the body parts are keyed separately.

Video showing blocking of animation

Blocking Revision

After the last feedback, I fixed the blocking. Here is the new blocking pass of the animation

Video Showing blocking of animation
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3.2 Week 17 Advanced & Experimental Term 2

Week 17: Artefact-2D VFX

Introduction

This week my focus was to make the 2d VFX of explosion for my animation sequence. For that I watched several reference videos and then created some sketches to get a rough idea. Later on, I painted the explosion frame by frame in photoshop.

Idea Work

Ever since I have watched arcane I always wanted to create a 3D Animation with 2D VFX in it. So, now that I have got a chance I tried to give it a shot. I have watched a lot of reference Youtube videos to help me make the explosion animation.

Reference Videos

Reference Inspiration
Gif showing reference of smoke explosion

Sketches and Animation

I wanted to make a huge explosion which starts as small but then covers all the screen in the end. For that I made rough sketches first and then I made 2d sketch animation for the explosion.

Here is how the animatics look.

Explosion 2d animation Work in Progress

After making the 2d sketch animation I put it in my 3d scene to see if it matches the camera and perspective. It looks fine at this moment. Once I will light my 3d scene and color my 2d explosion it will make more sense.

Final Look

After the sketches I added colors in the explosion and that is how it looks now. I will do color changes and compositing later on as well when I will integrate it with the 3d animation scene.