I found the minor project to be a really fun experience,
from early on I knew that I wanted to make an animated short over the minor and
major project. My initial plan was to be completely ready for animation by the
end of my minor project. However, I realised that to create four characters to
the standard that I wanted would take longer than planned. I put a lot of
effort into creating the characters and I am disappointed that I couldn’t get
the last character created in time for the minor project submission.
Throughout this project I’ve come to realise a few things
about myself, one of them being that I find rigging and skinning to be a
massive challenge. When I was rigging the boy it felt as if I wasn’t making any
progress even though the project was moving forward. I think this step of the
pipeline is one that costs me a lot of time because I always want to push
myself and do the best I can, so I try to do slightly more complex rigs.
Although it was time consuming I believe that it was a very practical use of my
time, as I was able to get a good translation from concept to CG. I’ve also
learnt that my knowledge around lighting and rendering is lacking, when
creating the turnarounds, I struggled to get them lit nicely and unfortunately
I over exposed the Mum turnaround with the rim lights. This is something that I
really want and need to improve on, as it is extremely important that my
animation is well lit.
I am happy with how the Boy and Parents turned out, I think
that the boy is a very successful translation from concept to CG and I am very
excited to move on with the Major project and to begin animation. I noticed a
few things that need improving with the Boy as I created a test animation. I
need to add a control which can move his mouth texture, preferably position and
rotation so that I have more control over his mouth. Another very important
thing I need to add is animated phoneme shapes, I’ve spoken to Alan regarding this
and it is something that will be developed very shortly. With the Mum I need to
re look at her dress rig, as all of its deformations are a bit lumpy at the
moment. Lastly I need to finish off the Bed/Monster, I was having a hard time
translating it from concept to CG. So far it isn’t where it needs to be and
that is one of the first things I will do moving forward.
I think it is important to mention that at the moment I don’t
think I am achieving the animation style I want for this project. It’s getting
close but not one hundred percent there yet, I will make sure that I do a few
more tests and get something I am completely happy with before committing to
the animation for the short. I keep watching Jelly Jamm and similar styles to
pick apart their methodology, this is something I want to make sure I get right
as I want to sell myself as an animator.
Overall I am happy with how the project went, I feel as if
I did as much as I could in the time I had. I am very happy with the Boy and I
am very excited to create some rich animations that can be added to my demo
reel. I feel like I am in a good place to go over into the major project and I
will make sure that I quickly and efficiently get to the animation stage, so I
can give it all the care it deserves. This project has largely been successful
in my eyes and I think that being in University most days has really helped me
to stay on track and to be motivated.
