C.G modeling- Ponch

I was excited to start modeling my characters. I had previously drawn turnaround poses so that i could model from a front and profile view. This is generally considered an easy alternative to creating small maquettes of my characters however in most cases the desired effect of the model is rarely achieved in the drawing and in my case i felt as though I was tweaking the design of my character when modeling in the Maya software to get the desired look. In industry, the larger 3D studios such as Dreamworks and Pixar have a large collection of actual 3D clay models and drawings for the C.G modellers to ork from, in some recent cases C.G models have been created by scanning a maquette into a computer however the polygon number is extremely high making the C.G software run at a much slower rate. I have had quite little experience modelling characters. Last year I had to model three squire characters that all looked quite similar, none of the models were particularly complicated and I didn't have to think about facial or body topology which when building my Ponch and Chique characters I most definitely would. Facial topology is essential when modelling for animation. It allows the rigger to easily control the movement in the characters eyes, nose and mouth and create expressions that can later be controlled as blend shapes. I had no previous experience with topology and struggled for a while to grasp it. I searched the web for images or diagrams that would better explain to me what facial and body topology looked like. After finding some very useful images I began rebuilding my characters face round a shape that I had created that resembled the basic shape of Ponch's Head. I started by extruding the faces around the left eye of the character. I then began inserting edge loops so that I could achieve some good topology and decent eye deformation when creating my blend-shapes for the character. After i created a decent enough eye i then duplicated it with an 'instance' special attribute that would mirror what ever I done on one eye to the other so that i would have a perfectly symmetrical face. In my case my characters are both quite simple so symmetry works well in however in most other cases it is better to make some slight alterations to each side of the characters face so that they appear more realistic. This can be done by altering the topology or vertices's on the face in Maya or later when creating Normal/ Diffuse/ Bump maps in Mud Box. If I have enough time I would like to add some minor bits of detail to the model of Ponch especially on his hands and clothes where creases in the cloth and skin will be needed.
After modelling the eyes I had grasped creating facial topology so creating the mouth and nose wasn't too difficult. I joined the faces together creating Ponch's face and head. Unfortunately i had been concentrating too much on getting the topology correct that i had ignored the exact shape of the Characters head. When i smoothed the model there were wrinkles and dents in the face from where the edges were too close together. I began fiddling with the position of the vertices's, it became very frustrating and time consuming. I experimented with creating the basic shape of the head and clicking the make live command which meant i could drag out my vertices's to snap into place creating the correct shape for the characters head however I wanted to move the vertices's in one axis but couldn't so it made positioning them very difficult. Eventually i discovered a tool that i had forgotten about, the 'smooth' brush and 'pull' brush. By playing around with these handy tools i was able to get the perfect head shape for Ponch.
After I had completed the Face the Body wasn't to difficult. I needed to make the body quite simple anyway so that the n cloth 'poncho' would react well to it. The upper body and lower body are separated by a pair of pants so i didn't have to worry too much about joining the topology between the two. It is important to consider how you want the character to move. I added edge loops round the places on the body that are most likely to bend e.g shoulders, fingers, elbows this would hopefully make painting weights easier in the rigging stage.

The images are examples of Maquettes used by studios and example diagrams of facial topology.

animatic

After spending a long time perfecting the story of my production I began designing a storyboard. I wanted to use a variety of shots. Because of the scale of a festival to minimise modelling too many background elements I decided to use quick close up shots to emphasise the comedy. When putting together the animatic I carefully timed the shots to what i thought would give perfect amount of animation time combined with the comedic effect of the shot. Producing the animatic gave me the opportunity to play with sound a see how sound could be used to create comedy effect.

Pitch major project

Pitching my idea to a panel gave me professional experience for the future. I used my wow image and photographs taken for research to create a short video with high impact. The panel made it clear it was important that the relationship between the two characters must be obvious for the audience to engage with them.

Character Design, Concept Art

A design Bible and good portfolio are the key to getting an idea off the ground and noticed by studios. I felt it was important that I had neat copies of character designs and poses as well as concept art. Concept art would be key in pre production stage of the animation. The colour scheme, style and mood of the piece should be reflected through the concept art. Although my production will be in 3D I painted concept pieces and character designs in Photoshop. I plan to then build my 3D models from the initial drawings and measured turnarounds. Because of the festival theme I decided to focus on a greenish colour scheme with exception to novelty festival props and lights from the stage. I watched the Pearce Sisters animation and really liked the green colour scheme they had decided on for the characters and inside their home. Ideally would of liked to produce an animation using a similar technique to the Pearce sisters, a mixture of 3D animation with painted frames giving it a 2.5 Dimensional look.

click link to watch The Pearce Sisters

3rd year Major Project: Initial Ideas/ Characters

At the end of the second year I presented a below average idea to a panel. I understood that the storyline was a bit depressing.I felt that the symbol of death following human beings caught up in the drug culture was a bit cleshai and the panel believed that the script was weak and needed to be changed. Instead of tweaking this idea I completely changed my story and characters and decided to take a more comedy approach to my third year major project.
My interest in music festival and the festival lifestyle drove me to create an animation based on two characters experience at the beginning of a festival. I originally wanted to focus on the two characters struggling to build their tent, this way I could get humour out of the accidents that occur and misfortune of the characters. The animation is going to be around 90seconds long aimed at being shown as a short to promote the broadcasting of a music festival on a certain television channel. From previous work I feel it would benefit me most by creating the animation in 3D. Certainly the characters would be modelled, rigged and animated in the Maya software but considering the scale of the project I have began to consider using 2dimensional backgrounds and using depth of field and effects in a comping package to create the illusion of a 3D background. Props and foreground elements will be created in Maya but to avoid waisting time i will seek the help of modellers from the second year to create different tents.
When designing the characters I wanted to get across that one of them was a regular festival goer while the other one was having his first festival experience. The relationship between the two character is comparable to that of laurel and hardy. With one who believes he is superior but annoys the other character who could be considered the more sensible of the two however is hindered by his friend. I need to consider the characteristics of the characters so that the 'comedy duo' effect is successfully achieved otherwise the characterisation will fall apart and the relationship between the two characters wont be clear resulting in the story failing to provide any comedy at all. After watching some Pixar shorts I realised that the audience needs to feel some sort of empathy with the characters so that they can relate and be taking on a emotional roller coaster throughout the animation, drawing the audience into the piece.

Developing Ideas for 3rd Year

I am looking forward to working on my project next year. This year has taught me the importance of time management and organisation. A group production would mean that my third year project could be longer and more detailed however from experience it is apparent that group work is more difficult to organise and unfair when work load is distributed. I hope that next year the motivation to get the animation complete will spread across the whole group rather than individuals working harder than others. This means that if I were to work in a group the idea and workload would have to keep the whole team happy throughout the course of the year to minimise stress and build a friendly team environment.
I have recently started developing ideas. I originally wanted to produce a controversial artistic piece of animation that would hopefully get noticed nationally for its explicit content and underlining meanings but I have no narrative, character or ideas to represent. I began looking towards what I already knew and thought about the characters in the real world, researching social groups and music. Eventually I ended up focusing on locations like Brighton, Bristol and Camden. I started developing my original first year character 'Bobo da ASBO' t5o use as maybe one of the characters in my third year animation. I hope to be able to work with mixing live action and Computer animation and create a something similar in controversy and graffiti style to Ralph Bakshis 'Heavy Traffic' and 'Coonskin'.

Knights Project: Lighting, Rendering, Comping

When the animation was complete the C.G team had to focus on lighting the shots. Originally we were going to use the mental ray sky feature to light are scenes because it would avoid problems when matching the lighting in the 2-D backgrounds to the 3-D animation but there were problems with the shadows and it would be bad practice to use the feature. Instead I carefully placed directional lights with different intensities into the scene and created good lighting and shadows based on the light direction in the storyboard. When Rendering I needed to create layers that included the lighting on the models (beauty) and the shadows created by other models (shadows). Because the 3D is being placed on top of 2-D it was important to render out shadows on objects that wouldn't render out for example the floor. The software renders out the shadows and beauty separately so that they can be edited in comping.
I originally wasn't expecting to do any compositing but I couldn't resist completing the shots I had created. The Art Director ( Justin) wanted the shadows to be less harsh because although the lighting looked good the shadows suggested the wrong time of day needed for the shots. Finally shots were being finished so we dropped them into the block through so at least the team had evidence of our work.