The main task this week was to complete the animation section, which was also assigned, each person had their own shots and animations to produce. My assigned task is the animation and shots of the gate and the carousel.
Animation and shot of the gate, part of the animation of looking and walking.
Animations and shots of merry-go-round horses, part of walking and jumping animations.
This week, continue to summarize and provide feedback on the progress of the previous week’s work.
Feedback: The animation of this scene is changed to two people standing on the ground, holding hands and facing each other, then rotating.
Feedback: The character in the previous scene is on the left side of the camera, so the character in this scene should also be on the left side. And add more time again.
Feedback: Add more time.
Feedback: Jumping animation can refer to anime characters, choose a suitable action.
This week’s task is rigging. I am responsible for the rigging of all models. I use adv5 to bind the bones of characters in Maya.
During the process, I encountered many problems and troubles, such as the mouth of the face of the model could not be bound to the weight; the cloth doll weights consistently go wrong, difficulties being fixed etc.
In the process of solving the problem, I asked my classmates and kept trying to find out and solve the problem. This is a process of continuous exploration. After trying and finding solutions. Fortunately, I finally solved this problem.
One-to-one targeted summary and feedback in class on the content of the new week’s animation assignments, and feedback on work/worries.
Feedback:
Add another animation and shot of holding hands and circling with a girl.
Feedback:
Add another animation of a girl raising her right hand and pointing to her left hand, increasing the time of this animation and the camera.
Feedback:
Increasing the time of this camera.
This week’s work focused on modelling characters and scenes, with our team members dividing up the work according to the tasks assigned. I was mainly responsible for modeling the main character. And each person is responsible for one scene, my main task is the modeling of the gate.
This is the final version of the hero. During this period, many tests and color attempts have been made in other versions, and finally this model has been determined.
This is a rendering of the scene modelling, all of which is done in constant adjustment and modification.
Timely team communication is also very necessary. Everyone should express their ideas.
Establishing your ideas clearly using what you have been taught so far along with simple camera shots/timing.
The previous action has already started turning to the right, so when the next camera angle is given, it should already be looking to the right.
The camera zooms in towards the eyes and transitions to the next scene.
The boy moves forward slightly towards the underground to create a sense of disappointment.
This week, we prepared a mid-term progress presentation for our collaborative project and presented and shared our progress and content to our classmates in Lecture B. We received good advice and comments from our tutors and classmates.
It was a very interesting experience. I visited the Tate museum with my classmates and appreciate the artworks, we would talk and understand the meaning of the artworks together and enjoy the content of the artworks.
Tate Modern Museum is very large, many art works about history, environmental protection and special ideas. I am very interested in Piet Mondrian’s art works, because I heard of his works very early. He created the “Neoplasticism” with three primary colors and geometric figures as the basic elements of painting. He uses abstract modeling and neutral colors to convey the concept of order and peace.
For my story script, I needed to build two story characters, one is a shy and bashful boy with glasses and the other is a confident and attractive girl. The interesting things that will happen between the two of them.
Why establishing characters is an important part of the process?
It is important to establish the character’s image to make it easier to feel the emotions of the characters and the atmosphere of the story, helping the audience to understand the story directly.
This is the pre-design part of our collaborative project, and the process of pre-design exploration:
After we determine the Gothic style animation, we look for relevant character pictures on the Internet as a reference for character design.
1. This is our first character design sketch. We have designed five different images.
2. This is the supporting role of the first story version. Considering the workload, we updated the script and deleted these roles as part of the exploration project.
3. Finalised character design image.
4. Other colour versions of the main character setting.
5. Character design of a rag doll as a prop.
6. Other versions in the process of doll design exploration.
7. Design of rabbit doll.
We wanted to create an animation of an amusement park, so we found scenes of amusement parks on the internet and wanted to create a dark, gloomy and scary atmosphere.
1. We designed four versions of amusement park gates.
2. The design drawing of the gate, the project explored in the preliminary design.
3. Design drawings of amusement park gate.
4. Design drawing for a carousel in the amusement park.
5. Design drawings of doll house in amusement park.
Pre-design in animation is a very important part of the whole production process. The core content of animation is creativity, and in the production of animation works, the concentration of creative design is the animation pre-design stage. The pre-design is the main content of the animation production process and is the main support for the whole animation work. Only when the pre-creation part of the work is fully completed, can the subsequent production process be guaranteed to proceed smoothly. The pre-design is responsible for character design, scene design, concept artwork, storyboards and sub-camera design, which are also the main part of building an animation work.
We determined that the project we want to do is the type of game promotional film, and then published our content on Padlet, hoping to find other students who are also interested in it. Soon, two students majoring in 2d contacted us and expressed interest and willingness to cooperate.
We discussed and watched a large number of videos of various game promotional films together, and we finally tended to produce short and exquisite game animation content. After we discussed and determined the Gothic style, we began to work together. After that, we began to search a lot of reference pictures about Gothic characters and scenes. Through these reference pictures, we can design our protagonists and scenes faster.
We initially wrote a more complex script and then drew the storyboard. We showed it to our tutor for advice and tutor helped us to analyse and understand the script in depth and felt that the content was too big and difficult to complete in the limited time available. This was a very helpful tutorial, which helped us a lot. And then We re-set the story script and re-drew the storyboard, and after taking it to our tutor again, we finally decided on the current storyboard.
A good script and story setting need to be constantly revised and improved by seeking the help and feedback from tutors.
Animation script story setting is the main body of expression of the theme of animation works. The most direct and main way to express the theme of animation works is the story content and plot narration. A good story setting is the source of attracting audiences, and a good storyboard will contain ways and methods that are suitable for telling a good story.