Sunday, 30 March 2014

animating test shots and time line

Ok so in this post I have finally found the images of my efforts doing test animation


here is a selection of frames selected I have been trying to work out how to move brow, lids and mouth at the same time with a puppet that dousnt seem to respond. Im definately learning alot though about getting used to the characters face and learning about timing whilst trying to ballence the controlls.


a preview of the render...

something I find particuarly awquard is when animating, the time line seems to get very clutteres with red lines and it is extremly hard to workout how each movement effects the next etc... I find it quite confusing.


Quite a ways in whilst working out kinks an getting the face to move. this character is very facially driven so getting it to move around in expression has been rewarding so far but I have so much to learn about the timing in a 3d space to make the movement more believable. particuarly when basing it on human esque emotions.


character rigging and decisions


now at this point in doing the back up hydro character and Mummy girl I was making decisions on what more to change about this character before animation ie warts, jewelry detail and colours etc

Finally I have learnt how to rig the character! Very excited that I am so much closer to animating the character now for the 2nd animation.

different viex further on in the process etc.


here she is after the skin binding process which baffled me a fair bit to be honest.


sorting the joints andtrying to understand how to move the character and not have the face warp to the arms or legs when it moves.....more later.

little pink baby Mummy without wrappings

here is the mummy girl post continued before her eye and flower get some colour.

side view showing her little pinkness.

 back view and her lille bum. I will continue to model this character as she is not ready to animate yet.


from this angle I just wanted to see how she would look with an ornament on the far side and how the sillouette would look.

Right this is the furthest I have got to at his stage and the following images in this post. she is a funny little character and she reminds me of our new born babr who is 4 months old... 


side view of the character in colur with semi symetrical feet


Back view





Face close up. I liked the three teeth especially and the gaps around the eyes. even tho she is dead and rotting she still looks friendly. sort of.


lower view showing the in-turned feet as she hasnt been lwalking long when she was mummyfied along with her family.


A three quarter view. She still has quite a way to go and Ill be making more changes in forthcoming blogs. my bigger animation(2nd Maya hand in) will feature her propperly modelled and moving about in her own scenario.
Next post Im back to the green witch character and Ill be uploading test animations of the aspects of the face.

sketch design and Mummy girl model progress


so here is an idea for Mummy girl before begining the 3d model complete with beatle broach and frizzy hair in a t pose.


The one eyed hydro character needed a lot of work to make him fit my personality alot more so I had this idea to make him a voodoo character/ witch with piecings so I have begun to change and modify it in the right direction....



So here is mummy girl begun, I have found it quite a chalange to get my head around this project making this character in 3 dimensions as "a shell" rather than first making an armature to build on as I would do traditionallly. I am now aware that in Maya the armature/skeleton comes later etc


close up uf the foot having another edge loop tool added... toes later


brought the head in as a sphere to be modified in the next part...

body now has two feet. - The adding of the other side to make sure it is fairly symetrical.


head now more oval and melon shaped....needs to be bigger in comparrison.


Trying to figure out how to make the sockets took way too long but after looking through tutorials etc I got to the stage bellow...

mouth was added and pushed inwards ready for teeth later...

googly eyes really helps the characteristics... I couldnt just have the hydro character I needed to show that my knowlage of Maya was bigger than that...




once the teeth were added there was an idea to add a flower to her character but I decided against it as it wasnt practical for the time frame I have.... I will see how she progresses as I learn.
This whole project has been a major challange to learn and come to terms with personally and creatively.


started to test colours on the character just to see how she may (might) look.

more in the next post....




Friday, 28 March 2014

test face expressions

This is the first time I have screen shots of facial expressiond using the image blender tool.
A few faces including sinister, happy, worried, discusted, naked off and gormy.... just to tes the controlls before I finish the build.

seems a little sinister like the character means business.






sticking his tongue out to check for rain...







here is the discusted expression in which I imagine the character has just come accress some stray dog poo on the street.






This eye brow that raises up on one side seems to be good as it is full of life and movement...






Ok so in this post it is the begining of chancing the hydro character rfom the red one int something more my own such as a witch or goblin one eyed character... still in a can shape but with some additions....


Here he is in a close up considering the change in his tone etc...




the last time we see his yellow cap thing before I delete it after highlighting it.




from a sphere I worked out how to make a ruined top hat by extruding and bending the flaps, hollowing it out by deleting the bottom faces and waring the vertexes... I would not have known that without all the cool things learnt so far...





Once shaped I chose purple for a colour. from a box I made a nose,added end coloured it green like the rest of the face.




Here is a shot of the ears beeing added. made from flattened warped boxes which were extruded inwards to create the indents. you get the idea... I have learnt how to warp and build shapes now which was a real challange before... I would be alot more likely now to use Maya in future than I might have done before.... My prejudices towards this program have lessened greatly.

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Here are three screen shots from the "mini mart" that I started to make for the Reap shopping animation.
There definately needs to be alot more research done on buildings, props and lighting before I continue...

A wide shot from above of the shop lay out. Im sort of building it piece by piece like a dolls house....




slightly closer shot showing shelf areas and single till stand.




from the opposite angle. each element  of the build is a seperate one so that it can be changed and modeled untill it looks right.


Sketchbook scans from the maya sketchbook...


Earlyer in the year here is a design of Reaps front angle in a T pose from my sketch book. I wasnt sure If I would rule out building this character bone by bone and the eye designed seperately and placed in the socket for its own animation.

Reaps back view and possible christmas hat sketch in T pose.



Reap side view. I havnt ruled out using this character for my end of year submission but it is an old idea... which led me to.....

Mummy girl! which changed and warped into the marquette posted elsewhare on this blog. here she has a flower as part of her design which helps with her design which wasnt included on the concept marquette so I began thinking... what else could she have to feminise her apart from eye lashes as she is a walking corpse... the flower would be all wrinkled and unapealing so perhaps a scarab beatle broach on one side of her head...? she is a strong character and I may work this design into a maya character for my main maya character this year....

Christmas designs and concept ideas of Reap who has no christmas tree so these are concept images of her with a corpse made to look like a scarecrow which is all lit up with light bulbs and christmas lights to help with the christmas spirit... its pretty Burtonesque but I like it and its vibe. I didnt get chance to turn it into a Maya character but I havnt ruled it out as a future project.

a three part sketch of the basic christmas scarecrow intro as use as an aid for story board.


here is my idea of making the skull and an exaple arm that would need to be modelled in maya as every indervidual bone....theory and concept.


here is a rough story picture layout of Reap at the general store collecting items into her basket. It shows her childlike random nature and the scale difference of her and the shopping trolly...


Two one pannel commic ideas; 1 of Reap shoppingin the super market (see last image) and 2 Reap at the beach wearing her bay watch swimming costume going surfing for the first time


drawing of an alt premise for the supermarket as she scares a security guard by hiding behind the shopping trollyand pretending it moves by itself.


Batman character idea i drew inspires by the computer game Arkham origins.... cant use this idea as it is not my own original creation.


Reap, the grim Reaper and Audry the receptionist as characters. I wish there was time to animate them this year but I need to ballance my other projects and focus on one character.


before I understood how to screen capture (shift, cmd +3 on a Mac) I thought I would try to be clever and write down the alt Maya menu that you get when you hold space bar to try to remember some of Mayas contents.


Random note page from a sketch book. Its pretty fascinating learning the difference between Nurbs and Pollygons. Had no real idea what any of this meant before this course.