Blocky Introductions

In preparation for New Designers 2014 in London in a few weeks I have been reworking my showreel. The first thing I have been working on is a new introduction scene. One major point about how I have done this is using blocking first prior to going into splined animation. In past work I have jumped straight into it and adjusted things as I have gone. This made the timeline very messy however and in some cases difficult to work with. Having just blocked out the key poses and added a second pass of extra detail I already feel that it will be a much smoother process to animate.

Research Project - Artefact 5

For my final artefact I wanted to explore the ability to convey character and emotion with a personified object. In the previous artefacts I had worked with humanoid characters that could closely replicate actions used by humans that convey certain emotions or characteristics. Having identified areas that seemed to be key for effective conveyance, I hoped to see whether testing the same methods on a character that lacked these areas would provide any new information.

Taking a simple cube rig I produced 3 short sequences of it feeling different emotions.

Showing these to the focus group it was clear that recognition of these was difficult and there was no conviction in the responses received.

To better understand why conveyance through this object was difficult I looked at a existing example of a personified object, Aladdin's magic carpet.

Taking 3 images of the carpet conveying emotion, I showed these to one group who were able to recognise what each emotion was with ease.

From past artefacts, hands had been a key signifier of a characters mood in several cases. The design of the carpet allowed the tassels at each corner to replicate hand gestures. Realising this I took these same images and, editing out the tassels showed them to a second focus group.

This group had much greater difficulty in identifying the emotions of the carpet, although had some inclination into the answer. This again seems to indicate that not hands, but appendages that can replicate hands are necessary in aiding emotion. Taking this further would be to research character design to see how it impacts the effectiveness of a characters ability to convey emotion and what existing methods are considered when developing a character.

Research Project - Artefact 4 Reflections

For my penultimate artefact I wanted to produce pieces that would begin to encompass the entirety of my initial research question - the effect of body mechanics in conveying a narrative. The clips I produced looked at showing a character in a situation that they were responding to.

The main key point of feedback from my focus group under consideration was that whilst the narrative was generally recognisable e.g. running from an overhead threat where staying low is safer, the specific details of the narrative weren't. This implies to me that body mechanics can be used to suggest a narrative, but without additional visual stimuli e.g. environments or props, the exact situation cannot be shown.
Other observations about the clips will provide other aspects to explore, one example being how one of the cycles featured the character hunched over. Rather than just implying emotional state as was intended it also had members of the focus group consider the environment as a confined indoors area. Another instance of this was the way in which a characters arms were spread whilst creeping. Due to them not being fully outstretched to aid will balance the assumption was made that what the character was walking on was not dangerously narrow, such as a tightrope, but still required them to be mindful of each of their steps. The fact that this minor alteration of the arms level of extension impacted the suggested environment in such a way gives light to the possibility that slight changes to a mere walk can have an impact on the overall narrative of the story, however without experimenting a comparison of a contextualised scene that utilises an environment and a non-contextualised scene, there is no clear way to determine the level of impact this has on the narrative.

Some final points related to the cyclic element of the clips was how in most cases, cycles of this fashion would be built for the purpose of conveying a particular story element within games or cartoons where they could be recycled when needed.

From the results I gathered from this artefact there are a number of other areas I could branch off into with further research. Looking more into the implications of altering a characters movement to imply an environment would be useful to gain an understanding into effectively showing a character within a specific landscape as well as the level at which how the character moves adds to the believability of a narrative situating them in a particular environment. Does this help aid an audiences understanding of the situation the character is in?

Client Project- Rigged and Walking

Client project character with his rig in. Still rough around the edges in some areas, but it moves.

Research Artefact 4

It is common knowledge that within a walk you can convey a character. Their posture alone can connote their mood or emotive state, age and self-esteem, along with other aspects of their character. The timing and pace at which they move can suggest a destination or importance of where they are going, but is it possible to convey more elements of a narrative within the confines of a cyclic walk animation?

Rather than focussing on telling the audience about the character, can you give them information into a narrative looking at the world or situation they are in, without the visual context of a scene.

To test this I have experimented with producing different walk cycles looking at aspects that could be conveyed such as age and intent of the character.

The final set I am working with (below) are a series of walk cycles featuring the character reacting to the world around them to see whether conclusions can be formed on the world itself and the characters situation.

Basic Sneak Cycle

Basic Run Cycle

Cycle 1

Cycle 2

Cycle 3

Run & Walk Cycles

So many cycles...

Rigs :http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/alfred
        http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/ultimate-bony

Research Artefact 3

For my 3rd research artefact I wanted to continue on from the context aspect of my 2nd, looking at how this can effect the overall narrative and inform the audience of events.

Hypothesis:

I think contextualization allows for more minor actions to inform the audience of the narrative and foreshadow its events.

To test this I have produced 4 small sequences featuring a character prepping to perform some recognisable actions, that has been slowed down to allow the audience time to consider what is happening in the sequence. 2 out of 4 of these sequences feature objects or environment set pieces that are key descriptors of what the character is about to do.

Research Project: Artefact 2

The four finished animation clips for my 2nd research artefacts looking at applying context to reinforce a characters conveyance of an emotion.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 4

Research Project - Artefact 1

As my first artefact for my research project I am looking at the conveyance of emotions through static poses, in particular, what elements of the body are the key indicators used when discerning specific emotions. I've produced a series of images using a faceless character, posed in an attempt to convey different emotions. Using a focus group as well as some other minor groups I will ask for peoples opinion on the specific emotion being shown and what gave them this idea.

The 14 images made for this project using the MooM rig (http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/moom-v4-0-3-by-ramtin) with a slight alteration to conceal the face:

Research Project Artefact Concepts

With my research project I have been considering my first two artefacts to produce. The main factor I want to focus on with these is the conveyance of emotions from a character, solely using body dynamics.

Looking at existing examples that focus on this concept such as the ‘Animation Mentor’ courses that have character posing as one of the lessons, producing strong, static poses conveying an emotion effectively as well as a research paper looking into the perception of emotions through static postures (http://staffwww.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/D.Romano/ShaaraniRomanoACII07.pdf), I intend to produce my first artefact following on this line of static poses, feeling it to be a good starting point on understanding the basic elements of body dynamics.

My first artefact will consist of a series of images having a simple character, lacking a face to focus purely on the pose, being set into a variety of poses to convey different emotions. To get strong results I will mainly focus on key emotions e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, but also include other more vague emotions to see how effective it can be at conveying these.

Some examples of static poses produced from the Animation Mentor Courses.

In terms of my second artefact I will want to evolve my original concept of conveying emotions through static poses into an animated form which will allow me to gain an understanding of how motion aids in giving of different emotions and also compare this with the effectiveness of how well they are conveyed in a static form.

This artefact will follow a similar vein as my first in producing a number short scenes each intent on conveying an emotion, again focusing on much more common emotions whilst also including less obvious ones.

I feel like the combination of these two artefacts shall be useful in understanding the effectiveness of body dynamics in how much they can be used to convey a character and their feelings to an audience as well as look at if the form in which they are placed alters the effectiveness of this.

A Quick Jump

Having worked on and off over summer on a full character rig with facial animation and morphs in 3DS Max, I decided to take a break and quickly edit it to just focus on body animation so I could do some tests to reacquaint myself with things before getting back to uni.

Also this simple rig will help me produce some examples to coincide with my research project on body dynamics.

This is just a quick jump animation I made as a test.

Dojo Fight Scene

Late as this is, this is my finished piece for my final 2nd year university project, recreating the Matrix dojo fight scene.

From working on this I have a much better idea to focus on timing and weighting in my animation as it has a major effect on the whole animation.

Rig Used (Eleven Rig): http://elevenrig.blogspot.co.uk/

In The Style Of - Finished Animation

 For the past several weeks I having been working on my second, second year university project, producing a trailer for a reboot of an old childrens animation - Roobarb, using the style of Studio AKA's Lost and Found.
Whilst I really enjoyed this project and learnt a lot about organic single mesh rigging and animation I am sad that in trying to achieve the style of Lost and Found, I spent more time focusing on modelling the character and environment, reducing the amount of time I had to actually animate it.

Having a challenging character, a quadruped dog, as my first experience with using the CAT rig and its animation tools was another drawback that took away from this project for me a little. Tinkering with the rig envelopes constantly during that stage, trying to find the balance between each bones control zones was difficult and in the end still resulted in stretching and/or clipping of areas in the final animation.

 Although I don't intend to work more on this project as I feel I have learnt what I can from it, I wholly plan on working much more on this, most likely starting with a simpler bipedal character to better get to grips with the basics.

 Commenting on my final animation, I am happy with the finished result and even with the very noticeable clipping issues, I have learnt from this and will be able to put more consideration into my characters requirement at the design and model stage to allow for a much smoother rigging and animation process. I'm also glad I was able to include audio into this animation because, even though subtle, adds a lot to it when watching it.

And finally, my finished animation.

Walk Cycle Test

Started to do some extra animation work when not doing my university project.
This is a simple walk cycle I made using a pre-rigged model available here: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/ultimate-bony 

This being my first ever attempt at animating a walk cycle or doing any animating in Maya, there are some details that will need work on to improve them, however I am happy with the general result.

In The Style Of - Final Idea and Character Designs

Whilst not having posted anything over Christmas I have made good progress with my latest university project.

The project titled 'In the Style Of'' requires me to produce a 1 minute promotional trailer for a revamped version of a children's cartoon in one of three styles.

The choice of cartoons were: -Paddington Bear;
                                             -Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and

                                             -Roobarb and Custard.

Having the least knowledge and personal experience with Roobarb and Custard I decided to choose this one as it meant I could approach it in an unbiased manner and focus purely on what I found in my research.

The styles we could choose one were based on animations produced by Studio AKA and Passion Pictures.

-The Lost Thing

-Lost and Found

-Varmints

Of the three styles I loved the look and feel of 'Lost and Found' by Studio AKA. 

The bright colour tones and painterly look makes some of the scenes really vibrant and the general emotive way the music and story work together drew me towards in when I was choosing.

Whilst the visual style might not be as abstract as the other two options I like the fact nothing has straight lines in a scene and each element has its own unusual look to it that takes it away from fitting into the normal world.

With both initial choices made and research into them completed I did a lot of deciding for a suitable story or route for my animation to take. Originally working with the concept of having both the dog and cat characters with a much more humanoid look to them, designing them with this in mind.

Even though I liked the look this character had to him and felt he was very defined, after furthering a suitable story line I had to redesign my characters with them being quadrupeds  having my story being a prologue to the cartoons of Roobarb and Custard being a puppy and kitten.

New character designs with them as quadrupeds.

Initial Model of Roobarb Character

Steampunk Project Progress

Over the last week I have put the majority of my time into my website project with that having a much sooner deadline, but with that now finished I have jumped right back in to 3DS Max and got back to work on my robot.

I am now at the stage where my robot is almost complete with both arms rigged and just some final touches and finger attributes needed to be added to the left arm.
One adjustment I have made to my design was the left arm. After looking at more of the video tutorials provided and experimenting with some rigging myself I have altered my left arm from have two sections, an upper and lower, to three, giving it much more flexibility and possibilities when it comes to the animating.

As well as finishing of my main robot I have almost produced its opponent, a simple damaged hand robot.
The main challenge that this robot will produce is animating it. I intend it to walk on its fingers with the wrist and lower arm section that remains positioned vertically above it, similar to 'The Thing' from Addams Family.

To get it much more smoother animation effect and more control over it I have given each finger an IK solver that will let me pose it and move it in a much more precise manner, over applying standard attributes like the main robots fingers.

Below is a quick test to see how it looks animated and planning out timing for how it shall move around.

Steampunk Robot Shoulder Joint Experimentation

For my Steampunk robot project I have been looking at a lot of means for each element of it to connect to each other. After a number of sketches and different ideas being tossed around I looked at Portal 2, in particular the robot 'Atlas' for how his arms have been attached to his body.

His arms appear to be attached by a set of tubes or hydraulic pipes that would most likely allow it to recreate more realistic shoulder movement.
From this I decided to incorporate them into my own robot with it having pipes connecting to the arm that would both allow for a realistic movement as well as passing fuel or other product down the towards the arm if it were in fact a fully functional robot.

Upon deciding this I then had to work out a way to animate this correctly with each of the pipes moving realistically with them deforming and flexing slightly like really pipes.

With some help I came across the hose tool which would allow me to make just what I had intended with each end of the hose being attached to a 'Point' helper object that would in turn be linked to the shoulder segment and body.

Having done this I produced a few viewport grabs to ensure it worked correctly and gave the intended look.

Even though I am happy with the final result I intend to still experiment with a more effective way of creating this effect, looking into what I can achieve with linking and other tools.

Steampunk Chess Robot Project - Iterative Development

Over the past two weeks for this project I believe I have organised my work in a way that will benefit my work for it later on. In past projects I have been keen to jump on the software and get modelling or have one idea I love that clouds my vision of any other possibilities.

With this project however I have took an aspect preached to us in the first year of university to heart - 'Iterative Development'. 

Rather than like previously where I ran with a single idea, I have considered several different ones and sketched out simple designs that showed the concept I was going for.  I don't think it was until the end of the first week that I actually opened up 3Ds Max and began modelling an idea and for this I am pleased. 

Whilst I don't have as much solid progress to show in the form of models and the like, I am highly confident in the stage I am currently at and am comfortable enough with the software that I will be able to produce my final model quickly using reference from sketches I have done and inspiration images I have gathered.

There were a several different aspects I had to consider when designing my robot character including its size and how it would move.

Through toying with different ideas my final idea is to have a character suspended from a rail that it can move along similar to 'Wheatley' from Portal 2, with large bulky arms that hang down below it and are heavy for it to lift, and a cage like body that has metal plates over it with some of the internal mechanisms exposed, adding more detail to it.

Simple sketch similar in style to tutors example.

Sketch considering a design for robot hand with 'furnace' and vents on back of palm.

Idea for exhaust vents or chimneys to be located on the robot.

More detailed sketch of a static arm incorporating the hand design and other steampunk elements.

Robot with body with an arm reaching over the top, back exhaust pipes, and exposed front mechanisms.

More complex design for a robot with an arm that extends out of side panels, switching between each side for each move. Exposed front mechanisms and back exhausts incorporated as well.

First suspended robot drawing.

Much more advanced suspended robot drawing incorporating several previous design elements.

Robot Tutorial Model

Following a tutorial I had found, I produced this 3D robot character that although simple, allowed me to learn a variety of different tools available in 3Ds Max, enabling me to consider how to make complex shapes and structures from a single, simple shape via the implementation of said tools.

I hope that from further experimenting and tutorials I will be able to produce much more complex things and continue to applying textures to them.

Non-Manifold Geometry

The non-manifold geometry issue I came upon whilst modelling.