Character Design and Creation

In this class, we were tasked with blocking out multiple characters then choosing two of them to finalize throughout the month. In this project, I found that using ZSpheres worked best for blocking out characters and establishing their silhouette. Dynamesh did not work for me in the block out phase because it was a lot more difficult to establish solid and smooth forms.

Asset 1 Reference and Block Out

Asset 2 Reference and Block Out

Once the basic silhouette was established, we had to separate objects, create clothing and push secondary forms. This was a lot harder for me than it should have been because I already had major clothing edges in my block out which caused me to get odd-shaped extractions. What I will do differently next time I model a character is make sure that my block outs don't have excess detail so I won't have to backtrack and smooth the shape when trying to extract clothing.

 Asset 1 - Secondary Forms

Asset 2 - Secondary Forms

Finally, the last two weeks of class were spent working on secondary details, props, and hair. The only major issue I encountered was towards the end when importing Asset 1 into Maya. After decimating the pieces and importing, some pieces of the hair had black spots due to back-faces overlapping with front-faces. I attempted to fix this by building up and moving the back-faces, but unfortunately this would ruin the entire object since there was not much thickness to it. Fortunately, I avoided this problem with the Asset 2 hair by extracting thicker pieces.

 Asset 1 - Final

Asset 2 - Final

Besides the black spots in the Asset 1 hair (which is only a problem in Maya, not Zbrush), I am surprised and extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish in this class. I see small issues like rugged edges and facial features that could have been shaped better, and the hair detail is also a bit blocky. Overall though, I think this was a successful project and I hope to avoid these issues in my future projects.

Project and Portfolio 2: Final Project and Reflection

Here is my final project for my second portfolio class this month:

REFLECTION

After a month of working on this animation, I can say that I have learned a lot and I am proud of this work. Right at the start of this project, I instantly began to learn new techniques that have aided me in improving my craft. In the first week, we were told to focus on only planning and creating reference for what were were going to animate. I found the amount of time given to complete this to be a bit much and I began animating in the middle of creating reference. This turned out to be a bad idea because most of my key poses were not strong enough and needed tweaking. This obstacle was a valuable learning experience for me because I realized the importance of reference and thoroughly planning before animating. Another aspect of animation that I learned during this month was how to convey weight in poses. When I came into this class with only a month of animation experience, I did not realize the importance of contrapposto and shifting weight during movement. After finishing all of the key poses and breakdowns, I noticed that my character was stiff but I did not know how to fix that problem. The instructor then pointed out that the hips did not move enough nor did it show enough weight to be a believable pose. He then showed me how to improve my breakdowns by moving the hips and getting his whole body to move during the actions. With the help I received, I was able to significantly improve my animation and succeed in making my character believable. If I were to scrap this project and start over, I would plan out my actions more thoroughly and pay closer attention to the weight shift of the character. All in all, I learned a great amount this month and these new lessons have helped me create an animation that I can be proud of.

3D Animation: Final Basic Walk

For the final project in the class, we had to build upon our walk cycle and create a moving walk plus a simple action. In order to do this, we learned how to import out walk cycle and make the ant move in space by adjusting the graph editor. We also learned how to plan a simple action and how to utilize overlapping action to make the animation not seem robotic. By using what I have learned throughout the month, I was able to create a convincing walk and a solid simple action.

Blocking out the key frames

Final Animation

3D Animation: Walk Cycle

Final Animation

In this project, we had to create a walking cycle for an ant character. For this project, we learned the poses of a walk cycle and how to have good curve progression in the graph editor. In this project, I learned how to utilize the graph editor to my advantage and it helped improve my walk cycle significantly.

Contact and Passing Poses

Contact, Passing, Up, and Down Poses (Stepped)

3D Animation: Smash Ball

Planning

Final Animation

In this project, we had to animate a ball in a video game. For this, we had to learn overlap, drag, and follow-through as well as apply what we've learned from the bouncing ball project. In this project, I was able to figure out how to create a convincing roll on my own by rotating the ball and keying specific frames. This helped my animation look more realistic.

3D Animation: Bouncing Ball

In this project, we had to animated a ball bouncing and slowing to a stop. In order to complete this project, we learned about squash and stretch and built upon the principles taught for the previous project. We emphasized timing and spacing in order to create a realistic animation.

3D Animation: Car Race

In this project, we had to animated cars moving from one side of the screen to the other at different times and speeds. In order to complete this project, we learned about anticipation, timing, and slow-in/slow-out. We also learned the basics of animating in Maya which included how to key frames a create Maya in-betweens.