PPRD Essay

Looking back over the year, I’ve seen my approach to work and techniques develop further than I had imagined, considering 10 months ago I didn’t know how to use  any of the programmes, that I feel more confident on today. From my understanding of the course before we began in September 2009, options within and from the course were ‘open’ and there was always going to be a wide range of skills that I could learn, and consequently help me create opportunities for myself through project placements over the course and choose a career path at the end of the course. This year was all about exploring my abilities and character, progressing into a digital path through my blog (Appendix 1) and making the most of the opportunities put before me, such as my role as one  of the Student Representatives and becoming involved in extra courses, such as the  60 hour, ABC Maya course.

The Viral video was our first project of the year, and working as a group gently brought us together and developed our experience with working in groups. We were criticized early on for having a large group, which hindered our final mark but the efforts of each group member was shown through our planning via blog entries, but overall, every member did put in their full efforts and I think we justified having such a large group.

Obviously by having a large group, we often had disagreements, which saw us change our idea several times but the final concept of using a Riot shield in everyday situations satisfied every member as much for the group to function. I like the style in which we shot the sequences and I thought they captured the crucial elements of the shots and emphasized the comical elements. Our aim was to jokingly suggest how really annoying things and scenarios in everyday life can all by solved by a simple appliance of a Riot Shield (Appendix 2).

The 2D project was the first of the year outside my comfort zone. Obviously I was more than familiar with working by myself, but it was my first time using programmes, such as After Effects and due to my lack of knowledge or comfort with the programme, I basically ended up changing my approach to the unit ten days before the deadline. My original drawings matched my description from our preliminary assessment and I had originally intended to create a stop-motion animation, simply using drawings but it just didn’t look how I imagined it!

I was more than happy with the drawings and everything as I feel they proved my character and mind to our group but they just looked too static at their joints and I didn’t feel it was effective as it could’ve and should’ve been. From this, I decided to re-import the whole project into After Effects, after pre-production in Photoshop. Looking over how I managed my time, it wasn’t the best idea changing my approach a week or so before the deadline but I feel I’ve got a greater result that I would’ve using stop motion. I would’ve like to make my characters more flexible and maybe concentrate more on solo features and detail to really make the composition stand out, again using additional lighting and camera angles, but I’m pleased with how effective the single camera angle and natural composition of the drawing came into effect, but I would’ve liked to have created something similar using a 3D perspective, which will be my aim within After Effects over the next year (Appendix 3).

Ever since we began, I have had an eye for 3D and immediately became interested in the skill and ability within the category, leading to my participation in the ABC Maya course. Over the course of the year, I feel that my 3D projects have shown the most of my character and progression of the topics, despite necessary skills I still need to develop. I still find the majority of aspects within 3D animation challenging, such as the animation, but I feel that my strong point for the topic so far is my modeling. For my first 3D unit, I decided to create five monsters and have them yell, “Alan”, following my humor of the “Walk On The Wild side” series. Having  learnt the basics, my modeling and texture was fairly simple and although I was happy with the final production for the shear fact that it made me laugh, it had numerous errors that I could now correct and consequently make a better version.

After the first three units, I feel I began to find my place amongst the group and my skills within Digital Media. Due to my limited skills, the appearance of my work at this time was admittably simple and amateur, with textures being nothing than simple lambert layers. Considering I hadn’t used any of this software three months prior to our first animation deadline and before this course, I really had now idea, specifically, what I wanted to do, I’m very please with how I’ve progressed my technique, found new areas of interest, but I was most proud of how I had developed as a character, regarding my work and communicating with other people, which I feel can only develop through my role as Student Representative (Appendix 4). As Student Representative, I feel that I’ve been able to interact with course members and leaders alike and become more acquitted with the course. I’ve found the experience as a Representative beneficial as I get to let my voice be head within the course and I feel it has given me my course-mates’ trust and brought the group together whenever we meet and discuss sections of the course, before and after meetings.

The ABC Maya courser really helped when creating these creatures, especially in terms of adding shadow, using effective modeling and putting the creatures into onto a plane in a live environment, and I really do feel that the creatures look real within the environment, which shows to me that I have progressed  in my 3D technique and method, which was my initial purpose. I have no criticism of any aspect of the course, as I found every moment beneficial, as I consequently progressed my ability to produce 3D animations.

With regards to the Post Production project, for me, I wanted to improve my 3D modeling more than anything as that’s a path I would like to take and develop over the next couple of years. Admittably, I put more time creating my creatures and modeling more than my attempts to make the “Post-Production” effects but bringing my creatures into a ‘live-environment’ and adding their shadows and realism, through the ‘beauty’, ‘occlusion’ and ’shadow’ layers in Maya contributes to aspects of Post-Production.

My original aim for the project as my blog, was to have “The Painter” to write in the light streaks before “The Sidekick” burps but with the tutorial I found on www.videocopilot.net, there wasn’t a specific part of the tutorial which instructed me on how to track the streaks with “The Painter’s” wond and it was too late to create anything dramatic, so my main disappointment with the piece is that I couldn’t get the wond to track with the streaks. Units such as the Post Production Unit I felt really progressed student characters and developed how they thought and approached a unit (Appendix 5).

My main criticism and disappointment of the year would have to come through the short form video unit. I enjoyed working on the piece, developing my technique with a camera and working as a group, but it’s the effect that it had on the class as a group. via the divisions caused by the diversity and narrowness of the project and individual ideas dampens the final product. I know the course expects and meets certain criteria but since the considerations of earlier units had been changed for varied reasons, I feel that the same approach could’ve been taken to ensure more student participation and motivation, having seen early protest to the unit from more than half the group.

Having said that, people did eventually come together and have produced some exceptional work from well-structured tutorials, but I feel that the process of the unit could’ve flowed easier (Appendix 6). The unit did offer each individual to show their potential, which i feel our group made the most of. I was responsible with the organization, preparation and filming of the project, producing storyboards to a higher quality than before and positioning myself into a more pre-production. From this year, I’ve become more asserted to seeing my work progress from the pre-productive period and seeing the idea progress.

After the practical units of the year, it becomes clear how a more mature approach should be taken in projects, both communicating and understanding the concepts of the unit. Although I’m happy with the final outcomes of the projects and what I’ve learnt through the more challenging experiences, I still know that I need to change my approach to units, or in a more specific way, manage by time better between planning and production. I can only hope to progress with my knowledge and technique through my work placement as the final unit to the year. I’m hoping to work within a 3D environment, where I can pick up techniques in how to create more realistic environments, textures and models to improve on my future projects. So Far I’ve looked at such Institutions as Framestore and FastFinger productions in London, from which I’d like to see how the amateur skills I have at the moment are transferred into a professional environment and profession.

Appendix 1 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com

Appendix 2 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com/category/viral-video

Appendix 3 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com/category/computer-graphics

Appendix 4 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com/category/3d-animation-and-film

Appendix 5 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com/category/post-production

Appendix 6 – http://samdubery.wordpress.com/category/short-form-video

My Animation for Computer graphics of Animation and Film

Below are my three edited versions of ‘Monster’s Ink’ animation, with three different camera sequences! I created different sequences to see which one would highlight the animated mouths of the monsters and capture the big monster’s ‘cuteness’. Some sequences capture the monsters and some capture the big monster so I’m not sure which one to choose!

Adding the camera and additional Monster movement!

After finishing texturing and positioning the monsters, I ran into a few problems! Basically I had added too many additional props on the ground which had created too many vertices, so rendering and saving the programme each time caused several problems to myself and to Maya!

Soooooo, I deleted several sections of the ground features but I feel this can consequently work to my advantage as the decrease in features increases the attention to the monsters as several people pointed out that the features detracted from the monsters, which are of course the centre feature of my animation.

Next up, I realised that my big monster was jointed, I.K handled and generally modelled incorrect so I’ve rebuilt him for his appearance in the animation but he is being re-structed and differed from the original design and model, but he’ll still be there! I had combined and smoothed the several different body parts before I had put the joints in place so every move at the tip of his hand meant the entire body moved as well, and sometimes fell out of shape, so I felt it was best to re-create him!

The screenshots above show how I inserted the camera and how it moves around throughout the animation, capturing the composition of the landscape and monsters!

Creating My Soundtrack

Before I began modelling the creatures, I created my additional sound samples before. I created seven “Alan” samples in my best Beaver/ animation voices and consequently chose my favourite 5, which eventually became four! I thought the small, purple monster worked better without a mouth, so he’s happily bobbing up and down whilst the others are moving and shouting “Alan”!

The secondary sound heard at the beginning of the soundtrack is a free mp3 from the ‘Freesound’ project. I thought an additional, naturistic sound would suitable match the surroundings The screenshots below show how I constructed my soundtrack.

You can see from the last screenshot how the soundtracks fits into the timeline, now syncing the “alan” yell to the monster’s mouth should be fun!

The BIG Monster! It’s here I guess!

OK, having made the soundtrack and looked over the monsters and their backgrounds several times, I decided to go for it and create a bigger, sixth monster but I’ve changed my concept and storyboard. Well, actually most of it stays the same but instead of the little guys shouting “Alan, Alan…” and then the camera pans around to see a huge monster mumble, “What?”, I’ve left the mouth of the little purple monster, so he’s just there looking cute and bobbing up and down. Consequently, the camera will move up  from the little guys and they’ll shift around, and see this bigger monster, do the final “Alan” in a high-pitched voice, with a slight pause in the audio. For the big monster design, I joined features of two of the little monsters and one of my original drawings as you can see below and this is what I came up with!

You can see from the scale that the bigger monster is not as big as I initially planned but I think this will add better diversity and a range with the composition and gives me the chance to use a camera in Maya! Right creatures down, skeletons and I.K handles in Place, time to add the camera and sort their stupid mouths out!

The Near-Final Structures Of My Monsters And Background

Ok, I’ve made my monsters, I’ve added all the I.K handles and skeletons etc, the background are in place and things seem dandy, so here are a few screenshots of the monsters in their glory…

Looking at the screenshots and everything, I’m considering making the ground and backgrounds bigger so I can spread the monsters out and have room for the possible sixth, BIG monster but more room would be good, then I can add more rocks and spikes on the ground! I’m also going to add joints and I.K handles to some of the rocks so that they move around slowly throughout the animation, which could be quite fun!

What’s left to do? I plan to make my animation short and sweet, so I’ve created a 30 second or 720 frame timeline so I now need to add the sound to the timeline and then lip sync the sounds and the monsters mouths! And decide whether to create my big monster, but i’m still not sure!

Bye Bye Big Monster!

Just a small little post to say that in all likelyhood, I’ve decided that I won’t be creating a REALLY BIG monster to accompany the little guys as shown in my initial concept and storyboards!

I really like the idea but I couldn’t create a ‘new’ structure that wasn’t similar to the smaller creatures and I wasn’t happy with how they turned out so I’m aiming to concentrate on my smaller creatures and if all goes well with them, then I may change my mind…..

Adding The Skeleton to my Monsters

From an earlier tutorial, you can see how using the ‘joint tool’ effectively creates a simple skeleton within any polygon and from that, a ‘preferred angle’ can be set, followed by ‘parenting’ and applying an I.K Handle to synchronise the joints, then the polygon can be moved simply, demonstrating the simple motion I would like to create for my monsters.

The screenshot with the pink ‘wireframes’ of three creatures is from my current animation. This shows where and how I have applied simple skeletons within the monsters’ composition which are bound with the skin (wire frame) of the structure, which will consequently allow simple movement within the animation.

The Background For My Animation

The background for my creatures and the animation was another choice over which form of texturing to use within the layer! I wanted to initiate a form of ‘space/ outerly-word’ yet peaceful scene around my monsters so I built a series of rocks and spikes, to create a form of ‘space rock’ and try to create a humerous and inital form of horror, the whole “ARRRRGGGGHHHH, Alien monsters, the grounds all spikey (human screams)” but the juxtaposition is that they’re all cute and cuddly and not harmful in anyway, but all this has to be achieved through appearance.The simple space background represents space…. but the part i’m not sure on is the actual floor itself!

This is an odd thing to say but basically, I tried to create a layer of grass using a 3D texturing tool but there was so much to the actual texture that the programme on my laptop couldn’t handle it and kept shutting down! so whether it be permaneant or temporary, I have applied a simple ‘olive green’ floor but that may well change to grass or lava, but I guess we’ll see!

Progression with ‘Monster’s Ink’

My monsters are slowly coming along, and I like them! From my original concept and storyboard, they all look how I’d like them too! Several people have yet again pointing out that one monster looks like a poo (I can’t explain that) and apparently, one, similar to my 2D ‘Nightout’ project, looks like a phallic image but I’m happy with how they’re turning out so I don’t really intend to change them!

Ok, I’ll briefly sum up why my monsters look how they look! The primary concept behind their structure were digimon characters. The wings, the BIG eyes, the funny structures, the cuteness etc, it was all digimon but similar to how my mind switched from other influences, such as watching a film in my 2D project, I changed small things! Take “Monsters Versus Aliens”, great film and I love the ‘B.O.B’ character, hence the small little purple guy, but the main two that caused a fuss where the red and brown monsters (A.K.A the poo and phallic monsters!).

I wanted to imitate the long necks of the seagulls from ‘Finding Nemo’ so that came behind the red monster’s structure but when i came to ‘merge’ and ‘smooth’ the shapes in Maya, it took its’ current shape and I rolled with it thinking it may add humour to my future animation. As for the brown monster, digimon influenced the shape but a mixture of a scene from our viral video and a character from the vampire film ‘Blade’ just sent my inspiration flying!

You can see from the top left screenshot of the brown monster, highlighted in maya before adding colour, that they are constructed of various ‘Edge Loops’ and then smoothed as you can see although they are simple creatures (from simple polygons) trying to build and structure a complex shape took alot of work and balancing.

As for the creatures and their features, it was again a simple case of creating a range of polygons and re-directing them to where I wanted them and applying the necessary colour! I ran into a rookie mistake when colouring! I tried using ‘Lambert’ as a colour setting which eventually ended up with every polygon the same colour! So obviously, I applied ‘Phong E’ as the colour setting which enabled me to change and colour any and every polygon I wanted to and change their colour accordingly.

I have been asked whether or not I was going to add fur or a varied form of texturing to these monsters, such as fur, but looking back at the simple structure of my digimon resources, I was alot happier using a simple, ‘flat’ colour scheme on them, mainly because I didn’t like using fur on the polygons but I thought it was more catchy and effective in terms of my origonal concepts.