Week 12 - 9th Dec 19 (P.a.C.):
Behind the Scenes Video
Reflective Evaluation
We were asked to come up with a short story idea and the brief was very open so we could do whatever we wanted. There were however, a few suggestions provided such as, adding a gag to the short story, or a conflict between two characters.Initially I felt quite nervous about this work because the brief was so open and did not provide more specific guidance. Also as we had to produce an original story, I also felt anxious because this is an area which I do not feel as confident in and therefore not a strength of mine. However, I did seek assistance from a friend of mine who is quite good at coming up with story ideas.
I shared some ideas with my friend such as, the exercises which I have learnt from university and I also asked them to include a funny aspect to the short story idea. My friend did come up with an idea which involved two characters; a father and their son. The father is depicted running up to a brick wall, climbing up and over it and then landing on the floor on the other side, straining his ankle. When he looks behind him the walls has graffiti on it saying, ‘the terrible two’s.’
The father also finds their son on the other side, skipping around joyfully and asking him if he could play a game of catch. The father replies ‘I can’t right now, as I have hurt my ankle.’ The son turns around, very upset and this leaves the father feeling guilty at what he said. He changes his mind stating ‘wait, wait, wait.’ The son is happy again when the father says ‘okay, but not for too long’ and they play ball.
However, later on during the production of the animation me and my friend decided that the characters should age and as they age, their voices and body’s change accordingly which demonstrates this process.
By the end of the production of the animation time was running out before the feedback session the next day. I decided to shorten the animation because it was too lengthy, and because there was not a lot of time to produce more animation. Furthermore, the sound produced some issues and I decided that the audio needed re-recording. After a few attempts it still did not sound right, so I then stuck with the original sound.
Following the animation being shortened it changed the story theme completely from a father and son perspective to an overcoming obstacles story instead.
I received feedback from the Maya technician/teacher on the 9th December which highlighted areas for development.
James told me that I needed to animate the arms separately so that the arms did not look like they were pulling the character’s whole body up and over the wall and so that the movement looked like it was going through the whole body rather than just the arms. Another point related to body movement of the character was to work on making the characters whole body move faster when they swung their legs to get over the wall.
James also drew my attention to my characters feet not moving correctly. One area highlighted related to the character’s feet which were too symmetrical when climbing the wall. This was particularly evident when the character climbed the wall; the feet did not appear to show much effort in pushing against the wall to push the character up and over.
James also discussed the use of textures within the animation, highlighting that one of the character’s arms was a different/darker shade than the other which did not appear natural.
On evaluation I acknowledge the feedback received and in relation to the points regarding the characters arms pulling the body over the wall and the feet being too symmetrical, I am now aware that this would need to be animated in a different way. Therefore, I would now animate the arms separately by clicking on the control to work on one of the arms at a time rather than copying the placement of the first arm with the second arm. Williams (2001) highlights the importance of ensuring the characters arms and legs move independently and that animators avoid ‘twinning’ whereby limbs are doing the same thing, which I am now aware was how my character appeared. Therefore, I would ensure that in future animations, in order to prevent ‘twinning’ I would delay one of the arms or hands, or legs by 4 to 6 frames (Williams, 2001). This also reflects James’ advice.
In relation to the character tempo when swinging their legs to climb the wall I agree with James that it would have been more beneficial to speed this up to make the character’s movements more natural and that in the real world a person needs to gain momentum when climbing objects such as walls to get over the top of these. Therefore, I would adjust the speed settings in Premiere Pro first, however, if this did not work I would speed the animation up in Maya 3D software until I obtained the desired effect.
On evaluation I also agree with James’ comments regarding the texture within my animation. 3D-Ace (2018) state that texture is an assortment of colour pixels that form images. Within the animation, it is apparent that the character’s arms show differing textures which affects the overall aesthetic of the animation of the character. It is acknowledged that a lot of 3D artists experience issues with texturing, whereby 3D objects stay flat and plastic-looking despite texturing being carried out, consequently, proper texturing techniques are essential within animation (3D-Ace, 2018). I am now aware that in future I will need to ensure that the texturing techniques that I use are more professional and care is taken within this element of my work.
At the moment I feel that I do not need to focus completely on the aesthetic style of my 3D animations at the moment as I am still learning the techniques, however, I am aware that I will need to develop this area of practice to prepare me for the industry.
In relation to the character tempo when swinging their legs to climb the wall I agree with James that it would have been more beneficial to speed this up to make the character’s movements more natural and that in the real world a person needs to gain momentum when climbing objects such as walls to get over the top of these. Therefore, I would adjust the speed settings in Premiere Pro first, however, if this did not work I would speed the animation up in Maya 3D software until I obtained the desired effect.
On evaluation I also agree with James’ comments regarding the texture within my animation. 3D-Ace (2018) state that texture is an assortment of colour pixels that form images. Within the animation, it is apparent that the character’s arms show differing textures which affects the overall aesthetic of the animation of the character. It is acknowledged that a lot of 3D artists experience issues with texturing, whereby 3D objects stay flat and plastic-looking despite texturing being carried out, consequently, proper texturing techniques are essential within animation (3D-Ace, 2018). I am now aware that in future I will need to ensure that the texturing techniques that I use are more professional and care is taken within this element of my work.
At the moment I feel that I do not need to focus completely on the aesthetic style of my 3D animations at the moment as I am still learning the techniques, however, I am aware that I will need to develop this area of practice to prepare me for the industry.
References
3D-Ace. (2018). Texturing. Retrieved from https://3d-ace.com/expertise/technical-expertise/texturing
Williams, R. (2001). The Animator's Survival Kit: A Manual of Methods, Principles and Formulas for Classical, Computer, Games, Stop Motion and Internet Animators [PDF](pp. 346). Retrieved from http://index-of.co.uk/Animation/The%20_Animator%27s_Survival_Kit.pdf
