2D Reference

During the week I referenced and animated my open an object piece.  I recorded it just outside my house by the riverfront which was perfect with a big open space.   I usually always reference for my character animation as I feel it gives me much better results as the movement is much more fluent and the overall anatomy is more correct even if my body type isn’t exactly the same as my character.  Live reference is usually used in the industry also, such as big film companies almost defiantly use it as well as some smaller advertising companies.  As I am more interested in the character performance part of the industry it is important I analyze and observe as much from real life as possible to apply to my art as well as making sure the timing is right. 

Here are some screens of my reference video:

I then storyboarded my sequence, although in the industry it is done the other way I sometimes have a rough idea on what my character is doing and therefore just act it out first then chose which one I like the best as I usually film more than one sequence.  I would like to maybe consider being a story artist as a career, as I am not brilliant at perfect clean drawings and I don’t really enjoy colouring as much as just drawing or doodling.  So with storyboards they are usually quite rough and quick sketches that only really need to communicate the emotions of the characters and story as well as what camera angles and movements would be going on in film.

For the remaining of the week I was animating the sequence in my room at Newport, I would rather animate in the studio but it is much more difficult living a bus ride away, and especially with late night access now no longer allowed it just makes everything I bit more complicated.  Although I cannot line test as much now, I expect to make full use of the studio when my course moves to the new campus just as I did last year.

Maya 3

This week the work load was finally on and time management was essential.  With Maya sessions clashing with life drawing which would be more beneficial considering the 2D specialist option I have taken I have to make sure my time is spent wisely and that the Maya sessions I attend are worth my time.  This workshop was rigging and it was one of the more complicated workshops.  I did roughly get the hang of it by the end but lots of re-reading the manual and asking Claire had to be done before that was achieved.  Rigging is one of the most important part of CGI, without it characters movements are distorted and de-skeletonised.  It is certainly something I would not consider as a career, I did not enjoy it but again found it interesting and you really do need a good understanding of how the anatomy works, perhaps more so than 2D, although a good understanding of anatomy is of course needed for all mediums of animation.  Knowing this I was to question why second years have not got any life drawing sessions of our own?  Although this year we are exploring more abstract and independent ways of animation world I still think it is essential to know the realist aspects, especially the moving human body, lots of books I read from professional artists say that to use the fullest of your imagination and the abstract is to first have full understanding of the real, which I think this semester is lacking of.  My rigging wasn’t completely complete, I had not joined up the ankle to the leg yet.  Except for it uncompleted I do count my rigged foot as a success as the overall foot did move the way a real foot should and the joints put in the correct places. 

Although the overall lecture was interesting and I know have a much better understanding on how CGI characters are made, I would certainly not pursue this line of work, although in CGI it is a most important part of animation it is not actually animating as there is no moving process, therefore not exciting to me.

The Return of Alix

Our first assignment was to animation a character trying to opening an object that refused to open.  I have noticed that assignments are a lot more open this year, with not as much detail on how the overall actions start and end, although this gives us more freedom to experiment with different emotions/situations/movements it also has the damage of overworking one piece so careful time management is again essential.  

Firstly that week I was trying to redesign my last year’s character Alix.  I first tried to eliminate the difficult and annoying parts of her design that were difficult to animate.  Her hair was the first thing that sprung to mind, so I have given her still a short hair style but with more of a bouncy bob.  Her overall dressing style I changed too, from a punk short top and skinny jeans to a long top with a poofy bottom, a much girlier take on my character which will be a interesting juxtaposition to her personality, which I will try to maintain from last year( a hot headed blonde).  Influence wise I looked at my cousin from England who has a much more middle class background from me so her fashion sense and hair is (I think) really interesting.  My cousin also is working her way to become a musician which is the same as my character.  So fashion sense wise I took influence off my cousin and personality wise I’ve taken off the artist/performer P!nk, I just like the way she presents herself in her music videos as well as seeing her live this summer I do want to maintain her no-bullshit attitude in my character.

Here are some reference pictures for my character, my cousin's hair and soft face with P!nk's sense of attitude:

 

Here are some sketches of Alix’s new design: