More Cinema 4D Experiments

A few animated sequences made in Cinema 4D using a combination of different effectors as well and cloners and metaballs.

More Cinema 4D

Experimenting with the 'Displacer' Deformer, 'Cloner' tools and Depth of Field in Cinema 4D with a bit of post production in After Effects. Think it looks pretty funky with kind of medical simulation look to it.

Jumping Into Cinema 4D

Having seen a few pieces made using it and watched a few tutorials I decided to dip my toe into Cinema 4D and found I instantly love it. In comparison to other software I have used I find it rewarding much quicker with simple effects or modifiers having a huge impact and producing something visually interesting within a short space of time.

Here's just a couple of simple images I made using the 'Explosion FX' deformer and messing with transparent textures:

And here's something else experimenting with the 'Emitter' and 'Rigid Body/ Collider' objects.

New Designers = New Showreel

In preparation for attending the New Designers exhibition next week I've re-edited my showreel, adding in some new scenes including my latest short animation I made following a blocked to spline process and a new flashy introduction.

Flashy Timing

For most of my projects I always try and work out a way of effectively planning timing and posing of a sequence. With my limited drawing abilities the poses are normally a very rough concept that is then reinforced using reference. To try and produce a better idea of how actions are going to work with key poses on exact frames, I've used my rough sketches and then pulled them into Adobe Flash, sequencing them with an approximation of the frame numbers. Doing this means I can test different timings for actions and its relatively quick to add and alter in flash.

The next thing I want to work on is producing stronger pose drawings that I can incorporate into this and use as better reference for when I jump into Maya.

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.