5/11/15 - Blog Update

Here is the progress since the last time I updated this blog, I forgot to post updates heh..

Here's the animation test for my rig after I completed it, testing out the limbs with a short animation.

This is the video for the blocking of my animation.

This is what my scene looks like so far, I haven't added that many details but will do so as my animation gets closer to the finished product..
I will add some details such as some textures to the blackboard for writing, some smaller details for around the classroom such as some more posters on the walls that will be visible in the shots for my animation.

22/09/15 - Rendered Character

Here's the turn around for my character smoothed and with lighting. 

27/07/15 - Props UV'd and textured

I finished UVing and texturing my props for my scene, now to move onto the character!

25/08/15 - Props and Character Model Turnarounds

Here's the turn arounds for the models of my props and my character.

24/08/15 - Character Model Progress

The 3D Model of my character should be finished today, I have not been able to make as much progress on it as I would have liked to since I have been pretty sick over the past couple of weeks so I have been trying to rest up at home.
Here's the progress on my character model. I would have liked to finish it faster but I was not expecting to be sick for so long.

Was fixing up the hand topology this morning so that there are enough edges to connect to the arm. Surprisingly took me a lot less time than I thought it would. 

All I have to do really is just connect the parts together and do the turn around once I finish the hand and the face. 

12/08/15 - 3D Modelling Progress

Here's the progress so far on my 3D Modelling for my props and my character from the last week.
I had been spending a lot of time helping out class mates with Maya since it can be hard to learn.

02/08/15 - Storyboards

I finished my story boards for my animated sequence. Included are camera angles and movements I would like to use. If there is time at the end, I would like to add some 2D animation effects over the top for things such as the zoom in on the second panel, and the first panel of shot 3.

28/07/15 - Storyboard sketches

I drew some sketches to get a feel of how I would like my character framed/posed in my storyboard today. For the first panel i was thinking of two different angles, so i drew them both, which are the top two sketches. The third sketch will be the next shot where Mr Mann furrows his brow, and the third is where he raises the fail stamp and says his lines from lord of the rings.

26/07/15 - Prop Design

Here are the designs for Mr Manns prop (fail stamp) and other things that will be in the scene.

Mr Mann will be at a desk marking exam papers.

26/07/15 - Poses and Emotion

I drew up some sketches to help show Mr Manns emotions and personality.

Most of the time he has quite a neutral expressions, using his eyebrows and raising or lowering his mouth to show his emotions.

26/07/15 - Texture Swatches

Here are some texture swatches I gathered for a few of the things in my scene that I think need textures such as Mr Manns shirt and pants, and the desk he will be sitting at.

26/07/15 - Completed Turn Around + Colour Swatches

Today I finished drawing up my turn around today for Mr Mann. After checking it over and making sure it looked right I went ahead and drew the final outlines for the model sheet.

I also tested out some colour swatches for his design that I made up on Friday. I decided to go with the first option because it reflects his personality, the blue and the red match his temper. Most of the time Mr Mann is calm and collected, but once something happens that sets him off, he snaps hence the red tie to contrast the blue shirt.

23/07/15 - Model Sheet Feedback

I received some good feedback this morning for my model sheet. I will be making some changes to my character design, in particular the structure of his arms and the shape of his head in the front view. To help it flow better I need to change the arms so that they get smaller on the way down so it matches his legs and will hopefully create a more consistent design.
The teacher said that overall my model sheet looks really good, I just need to do some small changes and start thinking about the framing of my shots.

22/07/15 - Character Turn Around Test

Today I drew up a test model sheet of my character, Mr Mann. 

I ruled up lines to make sure everything lined up correctly with each view of him. I will need to ask for feedback from my peers tomorrow to see if they can see any faults, and I will also talk to me teacher for some feedback. I changed his design slightly, giving him more rounded lines. 

I designed him so he's an in-between mix of straight, pointy lines and rounded lines.

I got inspiration from the Disney Pixar movie, UP. Carl Fredricksen, the old man in the movie goes through a series of events throughout the movie, after the summary of what happened to him beforehand, he is quite the straight, hard edged looking character and by the end of the film he looks a lot softer and rounder thanks to his friend and companion Russel.

21/07/15 - More character design exploration

I sketched up a few more designs with reference to my visual research from earlier. 

I spoke to the teacher and decided to go with this character design for my teacher, but I need to make a few changes to it and the props, and I will be ready to start drawing up some turn arounds. 

21/07/15 - Comedy Genre Visual Research

21/07/15 - New Character Design, Profile, Summary of Story, & Description of Genre

I drew up some new character design/sketches of the teacher for my animation. 

For this design I gave him a large torso with a figure that grows smaller/narrower as it reaches down to his feet. His posture is very straight and strong to match his physique.

I want him to look like he is gentle but stern when he is normal, but when he is enforcing something or someone did something wrong, his look changes to look quite scary or dominating and strict. 

I want to show a big contrast between the normal side and the strict, side of him marking a student with a fail. To do this I want to try to use extreme perspective with the teacher in a pose ready to mark a student with a fail, if that doesn't work I will try my best to replicate it.

I will be supporting this perspective with a strong pose and good line of action, I will work on that pose more soon, I just sketched out my idea to get a feel for how I want my animation to work.

For the environment I will be using illustrated backdrops, and the props will be his desk and chair, the exams he is marking and the fail stamp.

New Summary of Sequence:

A teacher is sitting at his desk in a classroom, hunched over and marking his students exams. Suddenly the teacher furrows his brow and the scene is cut to a shot of the teacher with a 'FAIL' stamp in his hand as he yells "You shall not pass!"

Character Profile:

Teachers name: Mr. Mann

Mr Mann is a big, strong man with a gentle nature but a strict side to it. When it comes to enforcing his teaching or marking a student with a pass or fail, he takes his job very seriously. When he marks his students with a pass, he is overjoyed with glee and happy that his student passed. Mr Mann takes pride when he knows his students are listening to him and learning. If he finds out a student hasn't been paying attention to his classes, his strict side emerges and he gives no mercy. He puts his everything into teaching his students to set them up for success, so when someone chooses to not listen and learn in his classes he gets mad.

Since I will be changing the genre to comedy, and the art will be quite stylized compared to the original which is film with a more serious note.

Comedy can be portrayed in an abstract or goofy looking art style in animation to enhance the show. With characters that can be animated quite freely and with little restrictions to the laws of physics, comedic animation can be enhanced. Taking examples from Warner Brothers animation where the characters sometimes completely ignore the laws of physics until they realize it, or are injured in ways that shouldn't be possible and then are fine the next moment, this allows for many situations to animate things that aren't possible in reality.

20/07/15 - Summary Description of Sequence

You shall not pass! -> Comedy Genre

The original genre my chosen iconic sequence is from The Lord of the Rings, and the genre of this film is action/adventure. I decided to change this to genre because it is quite different from the serious tone of the original genre.
Action/adventure genre is quite different from comedy. Action movies require a lot of action scenes which can sometimes mean that the protagonist and other characters are involved in a lot of fights, or other dramatic physical activities. Adventure means the protagonist entails on a journey usually to find something or to defeat a villain.

Setting: Classroom
Character: Teacher

Story: Grumpy teacher is marking students exams. Teacher approaches a students desk and slams paper on desk exclaiming: "You shall not pass!"

20/07/15 - Visual Research

I completed my visual research today as inspiration from various artists whose styles I like and admire.

The works from rawmushrooms and CreatureBox both use colour schemes which I really like.

15-07-15 Ideas

Today I narrowed down and finalized my film and genre idea for the first 3D assignment.

I also started to think about possible character designs to go with the situation/mood/theme of the scene. The first idea I had was to make the character a small child, either as a stuck up snobby rich child hogging a playground or something, or a small bully like child. But as I was drawing and thinking of ideas I realized that these ideas weren't that funny. So then i went on and started thinking of something else.
For my next idea I thought of making the character as a grumpy old male teacher, so I used lots of sharp, straight lines and a straight posture with expressions to match.