Project and Portfolio III

This class was very stressful this month, mostly because of the full swing of the holiday season and it starting the week of Black Friday. I was very excited to use a different rig and create my own animation this month, although it has a few things that need to be tweaked. I'm happy with the smoothness of translation, and completing this project has given me a greater understanding of the walk cycle. Here is the Link

I think that this class was valuable for helping me in discerning render time, learning the fine points of the walk cycle animation, subtle animation, and adjusting to new rigs and additionally new problems as they arise. It was challenging to say the least and I had many 5 A.M. nights this month. On to the next!

Shading and Lighting

I found an easier time in this course than past ones, at least in the beginning anyway. I really enjoyed getting to know the lights of mental ray and maya, as well as the powers of intensities and knowing what light relates to certain ambiances.

This was the final pass for our last week, and our job this class was to texture everything on the table (wineglass and bottle, place mat, cheese, knife, cutting board and bread). The hardest part about this class for me was misinterpreting how long render times can be. I had a few 5 A.M. nights.

Final pass for third week. This setup had multiple light sources to set up, and with various lights needing to be linked and unlinked to certain objects, I had some trouble with this one. My favorite parts of this are the eyeglass case and coffee mug. I like how those textures and reflections turned out.

This render is darker than I wanted. I had a lot of problems with the IBL and tweaking its brightness and color gain. I think problems with this ultimately made my scene darker than it should have been. Despite this, I like how this turned out.

The Cornell rabbit. Probably my most adorable project thus far, it was an excellent opportunity to study lighting and light linking. I very much enjoyed this exercise.

I had many late nights this class, as it was difficult to find the time to allow for rendering. I learned that it's much better to use low render settings to get the initial look of the reference, and then do a higher quality render when you think an aspect is finalized. 

3DA

How time flies! Second portfolio class, and an animation one at that. I had quite a few problems in the beginning with the rig, but through some troubleshooting and communicating with my awesome professor, I handled it. The lesson I learned though, is to always double check the rig before you keyframe. I had a totally different idea for my original animation, but due to a lack of time I had to do something simpler.

The first pass. It has a few breakdowns as well as keys. Looking at the difference in timing compared to my final is amazing. I owe this to the dope sheet in Maya and my new knowledge of it.

The final. I'm pretty happy with it, although it's still not as smooth as I'd like. Of course, my desire to strive for perfection could get in the way of seeing my actual progress. I wish I had more time to add some things to it.

BONUS: Original idea block out. This is where I was having so much trouble with the rig. It was set up differently then the rig from our previous class, and it lead to so much frustration that I had to go with a much simpler idea in order to have something to turn in. Oh well, perhaps I'll be able to experiment with it later, or rather, re-block it with different rig settings. It actually doesn't look bad in this clip, but that's only because for some reason Maya would interpolate it differently depending either on scrub through speed, or some other variable. Needless to say, the Euler filter didn't even help.

I very much enjoyed this class, and I love animating so much I'm switching my major over to computer animation. Through trial and error and determination, I survived and thrived this month. On to the next!

3AM

Words cannot express my excitement for this class. This was the class where all of my childhood dreams got a taste of realization, as dramatic as that sounds. The most difficult part of this for me was utilizing the graph editor, which I still need work with, but I'm getting the hang of it.

The classic bouncing ball. I actually had a much easier time grasping the operation of rigs and keys than I thought, and I feel I got a quicker handle on 3D animation than 2D. This will forever remind me of the importance of the squash and stretch, as well as slow-ins and slow-outs.

In the project titled "Super Smash Ball" we had to give the ball some character, and tell a story with it and the little star. There's always room for improvement, for example, I wish I would've held the arc of the final jump a little longer, but the nuances of the blocks and bounces help me love this.

Blocking for the walk. When I was doing this all I could think "wow, so easy" but the final week had a big surprise for me. I like this block and I think it conveys the action very well. I made many, MANY slight changes in the following week, but I can't complain. That's animation for you.

What had originally been just a walk turned into a snap, which had, in the end, turned into a gun. Yes, a finger snap into a gun. I wasn't happy with the timing of the snap so I added the finger gun after. I wish I would've added a little bit of trigger pulling and shooting towards the end but I ran out of time. I really enjoyed this, and the difference in flow from the blocking to this is phenomenal. Now that I compare the two, I'm amazed at my progress.

 Unfortunately, this class had to come to an end. My excitement with the career path though has only reaffirmed my belief in my choices, and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this blog as the months go by! This next class is another portfolio class where animation is the key. I think what I'll do is post my playblasts to this, that will help.

2DA

The first animation class of my time at Full Sail. This class covered the traditional style of animating. Well, for me, anyway. My tablet decided to stop working half way through the first week. I proceeded to do all of my homework on paper, and scanned everything in page by page. Patience, that it what you need to be animator. But lets get to the work.

First graded animation of week 1. I was thinking of Disney's Bambi when I made this, and I like how it turned out. My only change would be to hold the droplet a little more before it falls off the leaf.

The pendulum for week 2. I decided to take it a step further and give it some character. I've always wanted one of these clocks, so I drew one.

The sit to stand. I edited this one a bit, which was very tedious because of the redrawing, rescanning, re-editing process I had to do to get it where I wanted it to be. But whatever it takes, right?

I can't help but laugh every time I see this now. He's doing such a whimsical, loose, unnatural walk. Like he's strolling through down town on his way to the theater when something catches his eye. Anyhow, maybe I should give this another go in the future.

With 2D in the bag, and my tablet still out and being fixed, this class was great fun to be a part of. I enjoyed every minute of it although tedious. I think that's the rub with traditional art: it's much more time consuming and tedious to complete and fix, and that's why this class has given me even more respect for the older ways, and has also underscored to me their importance.

ART 2

          This compilation is for all of my work in ART 2. I have to say, I enjoyed this class much more than ART 1, probably because it had more assignments that revolved around characters and the human form. That's not to say I'm not thankful for ART 1. But I digress, presented are a few of my pieces from the past four weeks,

These are the line of action poses from week two. These were especially difficult to complete because during week two I was on a vacation, and had to use random people and my boyfriend as models. Like I said, difficult, but still very rewarding and fun. This exercise really helped with learning anticipation and weight, and how to draw it properly.

I'm very proud of my drawing for this. The assignment was to pick a human form to study and redraw. The image I used is from pixelovley.com. I chose it because it was interesting to me in all aspects, and had a nice range of value to attempt. Before this class I wasn't too great at the human form, but now I'm very comfortable with drawing it.

The height and width studies for week four's character concept. The character I thought of is an eighteen year old living in 1945-1946 after being kidnapped by Nazi SS Officers for Project Lebensborn in the 1930's. This was helpful in height referencing and will be good for referencing my future characters.

The turn around for my character. I changed the opacity on the jacket so as to see the underlying clothing, making him easier to model as far as width of body goes. I hope to get some time to model him, because now that I can draw people it's the next step, and it's always been my dream to make my characters come alive.

          This month was crucial to my skill-set as an artist. It really helped in understanding the human form and the steps necessary to create a professional and efficient character design to pass down a pipeline. I still have work to do as far as practicing realism, but I've come a long way from when I started, and I'm excited to learn more.

       

Project and Portfolio I

I was very excited for this class. Of course, the entire time I was thinking I was going to do a single prop. But guess what? If you got an A in 3DF, ART1, and MCR you had to pick an advanced model to block out, i.e. a whole scene. Yep, I got to do a whole scene. At first I will admit I was a little taken aback, but with no challenge comes no reward. After the month, with our projects due on Friday instead of Sunday, I realize a regular prop would have been too easy for me- and how exciting is that? Just a few months ago I was spending 4-6 hours on single props that only take me minutes to do now. It's so satisfying to see that kind of progression. My edge flow has improved, my mapping skills have improved, and my overall modeling skills have greatly improved. Hard work does pay off.

 I learned how to put a model on a turn table. I couldn't keep the brick walls and glass up, but here is the scene in finality for turn in. This scene is a compilation of about 20+ hours of work, just because I had some duplicating issues with bricks. I'm so happy with it, and a regular prop would have been too easy for me.

So many UV's! I had no idea what I was getting myself into when it came to UV's. The plants were probably the worst part, because they came with their own but I had to remap them and position them just right. There was a lot of single mapping and duplicating involved in this, and I also learned how to bake normal maps in ZBrush, which it turns out is far easier and more efficient than baking in Maya. Looking at this brings me deep anxiety (the memories) but also pride in my accomplishment.

Some plant detail. I painted them in and then converted them to geometry. I'm pretty happy with how they look.

This month held many stresses for me- too many polygons, random Maya shut downs, triangle and UV issues, the graphics card in the mac not being compatible with rendering certain things. Delightful. My hope is to find time to throw some ambient occlusion on this and mess with the lighting. I'm very happy with my final product

            

ART 1

 Originally, I was not aware that I had to make a post for this class. Needless to say, it really helped me refresh my drawing skills, and made me realize I'm capable of much more than I thought I was with a pencil and a piece of paper. The following post is a compilation post of the things I did in ART1. Although it's not modeling or game design, I feel the traditional art style is absolutely essential to a successful modeling career. Many studios require skill in the traditional method, and those that do not practice or take the time to learn the skill might find themselves less than desired for the work place. Of course, the only problem with the order of these classes is that first was 3DF, then ART1, then Model Creation. That gap really gave me a rough start in MCR, but it's all about adaptation. Anyway, the pictures.

This is my still life drawing from week three. Before this, in week two, I had experimented with a wacom tablet and originally had it drawn on the computer. Of course, being new with the tablet and not quite sure how to get the full range of value, I had to trace it onto paper and shade it traditionally. I'm actually very happy with how it turned out, and it took me quite a few hours to do. But, I expected this class to be full of late nights, just like the other ones.

We had to draw the principles and elements during our week one. I had to carry around a little sketchbook with me everywhere I went to get the projects done for this week. I was rather surprised with myself when I started drawing texture, and at first I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew. But I stuck with it and it turned out okay. Kind of like school. But anyway, I found that for all of these drawings I was using a mechanical pencil, rather than the set that the school had sent me. It wasn't until the later weeks that I started using the 6B and 2HB pencils to draw and shade my pieces. The things I learned in this class were seemingly small but good for my skill-set as a whole.



            This class, as I said, was kind of badly placed. I wish It was before 3DF so that I could have that right before model creation. Anyhow, It was still a valuable class to have in that it was a refresher for my drawing skills as well as my knowledge in the arts, and it helped me reaffirm my aspirations as a modeler. This class was filled with many late nights, and the classes ahead of me will also be filled with such. I just hope I can find the time to keep this up, so I won't become another victim of a "dead blog". As I get deeper and deeper into the program, the more I learn it's about grit, perseverance, time management, and self motivation. It's not just about skill, but having the confidence to put your work out there and keep going, the struggle might be real sometimes but so is the dream.

Model Creation

This month we blocked out large and small assets, and used the "3" method to smooth out edges. That is to say, rather than beveling, like 3D Fundamentals, we placed our own holding edges around our props to improve edge quality. This was more difficult to achieve at points because, with complex shapes, if you have extra faces or vertices the insert edge loop tool doesn't work all the way. This makes things difficult at times, but can help you identify illegal geometry. The hardest part about this month though was that for some reason my append to polygon tool wasn't working, and this made it extremely difficult or impossible to make a lot of the props. Upon doing some research, I only found two threads discussing that problem, and neither had answers. After we blocked out four assets though, we put them in a final scene. 

This is table two of my large prop designs. It has 24 different screws on it, and the metal supports on the bottom go through a hole in the wooden support like they would on the actual table. This week helped me learn the importance of modeling realistically and with pieces, like how something is made. Each prop took me at least 3-5 hours to make, some over two days because of my retail ob. But I'm happy with all of them.

This is the final scene for this week. It has the two tables, the chair, and a shelf. Next week we'll be making smaller props to place as a still life on our larger props, and we'll also be UV mapping them for textures. I'm really excited to get started this week, and hopefully my geometry is okay to map.

This is the final still life for this week. The pen and inkwell, horseshoe, and knife. The knife was really fun to make but challenging to UV because of the swirled handle, and even then my maya file didn't save right and I ended up turning it in with messed up UV's on accident. The horseshoe was the easiest to make, and I'm actually pretty proud of it.

The horseshoe and it's UV's. This maybe took me an hour and a half to make and an hour to UV. It's one of my cleaner assets, and Maya shut down on me while I was making this, just as I was finishing up with the modeling. The force quit took me back to when I was putting the very first holes in the horseshoe, and for that I was kind of furious. If you don't learn patience by modeling, I don't know how you ever will.

This delightful little shield was easy to model, but the baking for normals added way more time onto it's production than I would have liked. for modeling and UV's, this only took me an hour or so, but the sculpting in ZBrush, plus making the alpha of the lion, probably tacked on a few more hours. I found a lot of my time is used by trial and error rather than actual modeling. I decided that for this week, I'd do an easy prop, an intermediate one, and then one that seemed difficult in some aspect to me.

The snake candle was my "difficult" prop. Mostly because of the snakes and getting them to correctly wrap around their base. for the snakes though, I used the create CV curve tool on the front orthographic view, lined up the curve to the reference, and then tweaked it in perspective to wrap around the candlestick which I had already modeled. Then, I duplicated it and scaled negatively to appropriately match the other side. This prop, plus baking, took me four to five hours because of tweaking.

This is Edward's sword. Who is Edward? I don't know, but his name is engraved on the blade. Modeling was about an hour, Zbrush maybe another. I loved modeling this sword, mostly because instead of placing some boring little swirly shield alpha on the ball at the end of the hilt, I sculpted a little unicorn in the shield instead. Probably my favorite part about this week's props.

 The little vase was fun. Joe helped me out with learning how to create smoother topology and edge flow with this, and especially with the guitar. This vase took me about an hour as well, and a half an hour for ZBrush. The handles on the sides were good practice for cutting my own UV's, and the body was good practice for obtaining the illusion of texture with ZBrush. I'm pretty happy with this one.

A picture of the most interesting view of my final scene. I chose this view for the chandelier, picture frame, and overall view of the props. You can't see some of them, but that's okay. This week was the first week that I had all of my weekly props done before Sunday since I started this class. Like I said, shout out to Joe. Anyhow, besides forgetting to rename one piece of my guitar, and forgetting to center the pivot on one group, I'm really happy with it. I spent my entire Sunday placing assets and arranging this scene.

            So I got an A+ on my final scene. Which, I am completely elated about. Of course, upon looking at my next class, this means I'll have to do some advanced modeling. But, I'll take this victory of surviving model creation. I will say that if you have a habit of procrastinating this class will break you and force you to work. This class has taught me not only that, but also that networking is important, as well as peer feedback, smooth edge flow and clean topology. The other nice thing about this is I'm seeing the progression of my first modeling class to now and it's some great motivation to keep going. Professor Bagsby was always saying that we'd get to where he was some day and I feel like I'm on the right track. This is an amazing experience.