Animate!

So in our tutorials we started learning rigging. This week we placed the joints and created control shapes and the lesson is going to continue next week with skinning and blend shapes. We learned where to put the control shapes and how to place them so they would make sense for animation. We also put IK and FK handles on the arms so that we could switch between them.

So today we had a quick tutorial on after effects. I have used it before for little things but I haven't really done much with it so this was really useful for me. We looked at how to key out green screen, how to rotoscope (which apparently we will be doing a lot of in entry level vfx positions), how to camera track and how to insert a 3d object into a scene or an object into a 3d scene.



I'm actually quite interested in compositing, I might try some nuke tutorials over the Christmas break if I have time to try and get a feel for it.

So I have started trying to model my character in 3D. I think its going ok so far but it might just be too early to tell. I have been using some digital tutors tutorials as well the the class tutorials to help me with the modelling.






I'm not very happy with the head at this stage, I'm thinking about restarting it but I will keep working on it and seeing if I can improve it for a little longer.

Here is the model sheet I will be using to translate my character into 3D. I have redrawn a few bits to make sure that the body is symmetrical so hopefully this will work for modelling. 

Next I need to finish up my model sheet and get started on my storyboard and my character model.

For our research module we have to create a poster showing what our research for the year is going to be about. Phil showed us some examples of bad poster design and gave us some tips on how to make a good academic poster. I'm kind of worried about how my poster is going to turn out as graphic design is really not my strong suit. We had a quick tutorial on how to use InDesign which was new for me, it looks really good though I'm considering buying the student package of Adobe Creative Suite so I will get to experiment with it more if I do that.

This is the result of the tutorial. We were basically learning how to use columns and images properly and how to make sure the poster is high enough resolution for printing etc

After accidentally taking a week off to sleep in last week (oops) I went back to life drawing today. (One day I will actually scan these instead of taking a photo with my terrible phone camera)

Then we moved on to the bit I'm bad at - modelling the face. We haven't quite finished it yet we are using the start of next weeks class to do the final parts.

So after doing all my outfit options I started to narrow down the bits I liked from all of them to try and pick a final look.

I now have the basic outfit I want (it has a hood and its not to drapey I hope) and an idea of what accessories I want her to have. Now I'm working on a new turn around. Here is a Work In Progress version of my turnaround. I haven't decided on a colour scheme yet, I'm still playing about with it, and I also haven't drawn the accessories yet.

I should hopefully finish this up on Wednesday, unless the feedback I get means I have to make more major changes, then I can do some expression sheets and my model sheet for Maya.

So over the last few weeks we have been learning the basics of uv mapping, texturing and lighting in Maya. What I have stupidly done here is not saved any pictures of my UV mapping or texturing process but I do have lighting pictures. I have never actually been shown how to use the lights in Maya before so this class was extremely useful. I always just used to throw an area light or two in and be done with it but wow scenes look a billion times better if you actually light things properly.


This is my final lit scene.


Here is some of the progress test render as well so you can see how the lights were built up. (Quick note none of the textures in this scene are mine, mine were in another maya file)

I have started going to the 3rd years life drawing class on Monday mornings! Its been a few years since I have done any proper life drawing so I'm a little rusty but its really good to get back into it. I think I have let my 2D drawing skills go a bit with my current focus on 3D and I should really be trying to maintain both. So here are a few of my drawings from life drawing today. We did a lot of quick 1 minute sketches and a few 10/15 minute drawings. (Apologies for the bad angle these photos are taken from I don't have a scanner.)

So I got most of the way through making a character turn around before I realised that I had basically given my character a lot of clothes and hair which would be very difficult to model. Showing my character to Phil he agreed so I'm going back to try and redesign what she is wearing and maybe put a hat on her or shave her head, haven't decided yet.
This is some of my brainstorming for her new outfit. While doing this I have discovered I really like drapey jackets that will be incredibly hard to model. Despite knowing this I seem to have drawn 3 of them. I'm going to do a sort of second draft with all of my favourite bits and simplify it down a bit and add some accessories.