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

“The Painter and The Sidekick” Animation

So here it is, enjoy!

“The Painter and The Sidekick” – Overall …

With the project finished, I’ve looked back at my progress and see what I’ve improved and where i’m still lagging. For me personally, the project was a huge improvement from earlier projects, as I feel I’ve developed my techniques further and i’m gaining experience everyday.

In regards to the project, for me I wanted to improve my 3D modelling 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 modelling 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.

The ABC Maya courser really helped when creating these creatures, espeacially in terms of adding shadow, using effective modelling 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.

My original aim for the project as my blog, was to have “The Painter” to write “I<3UX” 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 Painter” wond to track with the streaks and the actual thing now has a different influence, and it does look a bit random but “The Painter” does connect with some strokes of the streaks which look effective, as if it’s a personally created piece and I  think with the music, it works and creates the comical factor within the animation.

From how it looks, the way the light streak are created, It creates a kind of electric Jackson Pollock which automatically expresses “The Painter” mood, and as I’ve said , “The Painter” does connect with the streaks when they shoot into a different direction. Admittably, yeah it’s is more random placement, I created the effect and then altered the animation to make it fit the best I could but when I saw it, this sprung to mind!

If I had more time or came back to the project, I would like to use an additional tutorial and track the light streaks with the wond and create a better and extended version of this animation, possibly played around with the direction and intensity of the shadows (I would have liked them to have been less dense, and more transparent to show the texture of the desk plane). My main ‘iffy’ with it is the streaks and the video is a bit jumpy but that must be in the rendering unfortunately. Again, later on in the year or over the summer, I would like to re-render and create a longer version with other effects  and see what I can add to the animation.

Pre-render and effects test 2

With this test, I have a second version of my animation where “The Painter” paints a random sequence, but the pattern is quite hard to predict and follow so depending on time, I may create a different version where “The Painter” just flicks his brush and patterns begin.

Tutorials For Effects – Smoke and Light Streaks

Below is the ‘short’ smoke effects I will possibly apply to “The Sidekick” after it burps at the end of the animation. The tutorial was simple, where the effect was simply created on a plain background, through ‘particle playground’ in Adobe After Effects, and I simply had to edit the opacity, velocity, depth etc and create a simple piece. I know it’s not eye-perfect smoke but it’s a blurred type that I could imagine “The Sidekick” producing.

The second tutorial to create the light streaks was a bit more tricky, using the third party plug-in from Adobe After effects, ‘Trapcodes Particular’. I produced, again, a short sequence for my animation. I origionally wanted “The Painter” to write, “I <3 U x” but I couldn’t create the movement how I wanted so I pre-produced a pattern and will create a second version of my animation where “The Painter” creates this pattern of strokes, before “The Sidekick” burps!

Below are screenshots from my attempt at the tutorial and a finished light streak pattern.

Shadow Render tests

Below are screenshots from tests of shadow renders. I wanted to check that the shadows cast by the ‘point’ lights in Maya were casting effective and realistic shadows, that followed the characters, projected onto the characters and followed the planes acting as the desk and board.

Testing the effect with a pre-render

Below is a small test I did to see how the effect would look with the animation. Note, none of this is synced, I simply put the effect on top of a small section of my animation to see how it looks. I couldn’t get the light strokes to remain orange as they were before, but either way i’m happy with the effect on top of my figures! Due to the speed and variety I can get from the effect, I may scrap the idea of having “The Painter” write “I <3 u x” and simply have him doing a ‘swirly’ piece of art, before “The Sidekick” burps and ruins the piece!

Pre-renders of my Post-Production Animation

Below are two pre-renders in the ‘Beauty’ render layer of my animation. The first video is of the creatures climbing up the desk whilst the secons is of their walk to the board, the painting and the burp!

The camera angles are two of four cameras in the animation, yet of course, I still need to add shadows! After adding the Post-Production effects, I will import the footage into premiere and decrease the frame rate.

Animating “The Sidekick”

Due to his body structure and the way I had modelled “The Sidekick”, it wasn’t as simple to make him walk as I thought it would be because of the small structure of his legs and large area of his feet so I began to think of ‘other’ ways in which I could make him walk, so in my childlike mind, I began to think of penguins (from Madagascar) and had a look at how penguins walk. Below is a video I found of Penguins at Edinburgh Zoo, from which I adapted my own style of ‘pengiun’ walk and applied it to “The Sidekick”.

The Screenshots below show how “The Sidekick” feet work throughout the animation.

Painter Animation Screenshots

I still haven’t rendered stills using Mental Ray but here are some screenshots of my progress. This is “The Painter” on his own, during the animation!

I’ve included shots from all four cameras used within the animation, as well as several from the free perspective camera in Maya.