Friday 13 April 2018

Year 2 - Unit 67: 3D Animation - Task 1 & 2

Unit 67: 3D Animation


Task 1:

Summary of the Brief given by James:

Scenario 2

3D animation is probably best known in the wider world due to the creation of animated films. Now is your chance to create your own Pixar style short film. Using the Pixar’s short film “Luxo Jr.” as inspiration you will create a short film between 20 and 30 seconds using you own designed, modelled and rigged desk lamp character.


Task 1 – Due 13th April

You will generate ideas and specification documentation for a trailer/advert or cut-scene using 3D animation software which lasts between 20 and 30 seconds.  It must match one of the scenario briefs above and your own specifications.

You will:
·         Create your own brief based on the assignment scenario
·         Consider and interpret the brief generating and recording ideas
·         Develop the idea carrying out pre-production planning for that while compiling a comprehensive development log evidencing your creative work.

Development materials include storyboards, thumbnail sketches, mood board, legal and constraints. You can use concept art from Unit 69: Drawing Concept Art for Computer Games if relevant.

Justify your choice of final ideas for implementation.

Brief:
  • A written document outlining what you are going to do, the purpose of the project, materials needed and the timescale.
  • Serves as a guiding document throughout the course of the project.
  • Brings clarity and focus to the project.
  • Starting a project without one would be a bit like proceeding to build a house without a blueprint.
  • Designed to help avoid and highlight potential problems\issues
  • Based on your chosen scenario you are going to create a 20-30 second animation. How many frames will you need?(24fps * 30=?)
  • Overview of the concept and story.
  • Objectives and goals of the animation.
  • Schedule(Set yourself goals and break down the steps needed to complete the animation. Completed by?)
  • Target audience.
  • Available materials/required materials(What models and textures do you need?)
  • Overall style/look.
  • Brainstorming – Mindmap, moodboards, notes.
  • Sketches of characters, objects and backgrounds.
  • Pre-visualisation (concept drawings, storyboards).
  • Scripts
  • Souds
  • Software


Task 1 - My Brief

For this assignment I am going to start task 1 off by brainstorming my ideas, I will do this by first of all by getting all my initial ideas down on a mind map and then transferring those original ideas to mood-boards to flesh them out further. Once I'm sure on my ideas I will then finalise them in a storyboard and explain the scenes in further detail. The purpose of this task is to create the plan of my animation that will be done for task 2. Materials I will need include physical objects like a computer, scanner, paper, pencils, pens etc. and computing materials that will exist on the computer like Maya, iMovie (or another video editing application) and access to the internet etc. My aim will be to create the basic mind map, come up with the actual idea concept and make this brief over the two weeks of Easter (26th March 2018 -  6th April 2018). Within the first week back after this and the last week with this project (9th - 13th April 2018) I will have aimed to have created my drawings, finish my storyboard and create a moodboard.
If I was to create an animation that lasted 30 seconds and averaged at 24 fps as standard I could need to create a total of 720 frames. My goals of this animation is mainly to expand my knowledge of Maya and animation but also to enjoy creating something inspired my favourite animals and love for them. My target audience for the animation would actually be for anyone of any age but mainly younger audiences of any gender. I will need to create only three models; two dogs and a tennis ball. The textures needed with either be fur or a solid colour to make it appear more cartoon like but I might create them myself in Photoshop to get the full personal effect. The background of this animation is noted further in my moodboard linked below. Scripting will only need to be very simple as it will all be animated by hand in Maya and sounds within the game are explained within my moodboard. Originally I decided to just model some German Shepherds (as shown on the mind-map) but I later decided when it came to drawing them I preferred to have two totally different breeds hence the change.

Mindmap of concept:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1um9Qdq7YLl0zsr7KUgCBEkUZ1kcg_T-H

Storyboard:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=114j9UJm6IzPSTLNHjmTA_aUDJQ1P82NP

Drawings/Concept art (Tennis Ball - left, Lady (mum) - middle and Scamp - right) :


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1G0sZQ78zf3ISuRhGNiTB7hKDvE--KMxi

Mood board:



Task 2:

Animation Link (File and video): https://drive.google.com/open?id=16yAqYFssHd5Okb7Lw8d365DP4OgVm5XF

First 2 dog models rigged and modelled
Lamp used in the end fully rigged and
modelled
I definitely gave myself way too much work right from the start but I can usually get everything under control in time, however on this occasion I definitely have not been able to do such. I spent over 75% of my time on either modelling or rigging my models. Once I finished these two things I only had a few days to finish the whole animation, but as I started I came across many issues that seemed impossible to resolve with the way my models were rigged. I realised I was in over my head and decided that I should probably make my life easier and go for a simpler concept. I resorted to my current animation idea of the dog passing the ball over to a lamp to play with instead, this would be much simpler to animate and control. I found a fully rigged and modelled lamp off of a website called 'Turbo Squid,' and used instead of creating my own model again and rigging it. The tools I used consisted of scale, rotate and move for the general animation part but when creating the dogs I used the different polygons to shape them and also the image below. When rigging I used the create joint and ik handle tools to rig and the camera tools to move a camera and create more depth to the finished product.
An image used to create the mum
Cocker Spaniel proportions.
Overall, I think its pretty clear my idea didn't work as planned and I'm not as pleased with it as I could be but the finished product works well enough for me to submit it. It does fit the brief of the assignment and has a wide range of techniques used showing a range of abilities so it definitely does me some justice even though I know I could've done better. I feel like although some bits of the lamp animation are a little out of time the actually look of the models used are intensely detailed and probably the animations best assets, especially the dogs which have all the joints and proportions almost perfect. It is pretty clear however that this is the reason for my animation not being a clean as it could've been. I still tried to keep with the idea of something playing with a tennis ball like in my plan so it didn't veer off target completely at the the end product. I've already been over this but my time management has been pretty awful overall and I am fully aware that it was my own fault even if helped slightly by the rigging issues within Maya. The lamp was something that was always in the back of my mind because of the brief we were given so it just made sense to apply my animation more literally to the brief with the lamp.















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