Calendar (Updated)

With the pitch presentation drawing near, we felt now would be a good time to break down our milestones for the next few months into a more detailed list of tasks. The dates chosen are rough estimates of course, but the plan of action is solid.

Calendar as of Jan 31

Project update

This past weekend our team participated in Global Game Jam, so we had a few days break to just work on a game, which turned out pretty successful. We are currently working on finishing the modelling and rigging of our characters, so that we can start our animation work in the next week or so. On top of that we are working on all of the documentation for the project, including our Pitch presentation which we have to present to the class tomorrow. The prototype and design document is due in the next couple of weeks and we have made good progress on both of those so we will be able to get those out of the way and get right down to the core work. I (Colin) am planning out any VFX for our animation and this week I will be working to get some of the shots up and running.

Movie Poster [variation]

Movie Poster for 'UPROOTED' (by Colin Grey)

When it comes to design, simple is good. With these poster ads for our short, we can definitely create multiple variations for it. We want to work on some 'marketing' design work so that once we create our official website for the project, we can have a good basis to work from. Also, these posters will give me a creative way to show off all the cool materials we are working on! As you can see, our cute fuzz-ball character here will have a generous coating of soft blue fur.

ZBrush Robot [general form]

Robot Character Model - First Form in ZBrush (by Colin Grey)

I've gone into ZBrush and modelled out the form of our robot character based on the concept art I produced. The basic shape and structure is all there, so I will now bring it into Maya so that I can start laying out some of the armor and further build out his shape. I will most likely jump back into ZBrush at some point to model out a few of the more detailed pieces of armor such as the chest-plate, but for now I will be building on the main structure and working on materials for this big guy.

Maya Practice #2

Today my goal was to begin modeling, and to learn the basics of Maya. The model is based on the references done previously of Herbil (the blue creature). Below is the first model I have ever created, it is still in progress as there is no face or ears but it is a start :) While modeling I found it challenging to determine if I should model limbs as separate pieces or extrude them from the model. I modeled the arm multiple times as a separate model but it was not looking the way I wanted it to. I took the advice from a more experienced modeler and extruded four faces from its side to form the shape below.

By: Tegan Scott

Storyboard

Today we finalized the storyboard for our animation, but you don't want to spoil the surprise, do you?

Spoiler warning!

Progress Update

Tonight, we worked hard on the storyboard and got it pretty close to completion. The story has turned out great, and we figured out a lot of great story/shot set-up during the storyboarding process. We're feeling really good about the progress we are making with the short thus far. We have all of our concept done, and have started tests with models/rigs and materials, such as fur tests for our fuzzy little guy. The next week and a bit will be dedicated to the modelling of our characters, rigging of both of them, and to make some progress or have completed our materials. While we are doing this, we are also figuring out some major requirements such as how to populate our forest environment properly and with various models. I (Colin) have also been working on particles for a few of the shots, including falling dirt/dust and whimsical forest fairy   particles. Our design document will start to take shape this week as well and we will sort out everything we need to do straight through until April. We have a whole lot to do, but we are working really hard and are really excited to keep pulling late nights in the lab and making this all come together.

Robot Concept Design

Below are some silly concept designs for the large robot. We had created these after 10 hours of drawing in the lab.

By: Tegan Scott

By: Sean S. LeBlanc

Maya Practice #1

In preparation for the hard work ahead, the team decided to take the weekend to individually work through various online tutorials to hone our skills. It's very unlikely that any of the assets worked on will be used; the goal of the sessions was practice, not productivity.

Tree Concept (produced by Sean S. LeBlanc)

My personal objective for the first practice session was to create a model resembling this hastily drawn tree concept. Of course, before any real work could be done, the basics had to be covered. Maya's interface can be quite daunting, but after a couple of hours of walking through the various tools and concepts, I felt ready to start modelling.

Rather than follow any predefined workflows for this model, I decided that it would be a good idea to try and develop an intuition for this sort of thing, and improvised the process as much as possible, only relying on tutorials when I stumbled upon mechanical issues. Some fairly large errors were made, and the end result wasn't quite as complete or polished as I would have liked, but I learned a lot from the process. Subsequent attempts are expected to go more smoothly (and involve a bit more forethought).

Failed Tree Model (produced by Sean S. LeBlanc)

Calendar

This is our basic schedule based on initial discussions.
We will flesh it out more and make changes as we go through the process.

Concept - Character #2

Concept: Herbil (produced by Sean S. LeBlanc)

Here's the concept for the second character.
Once we had decided that this was our thing, it moved on to the reference stage.

From here, Tegan and myself developed reference drawings of the creature from different angles in a couple poses. These designs give us all a solid image on how our character's body and motion translates into 3 dimensions, and will be used in later stages to help with the modeling and animation of the character.

Rotations: Herbil (produced by Tegan Scott and Sean S. LeBlanc)

It also lets us make silly gifs.

Concept Designs

The images below are some of the concept designs for the "cute character."

By: Sean S. LeBlanc

By: Sean S. LeBlanc

By: Tegan Scott

Concept - Character #1

Initial character concept: Behemoth robot (produced by Colin Grey)

This is our first concepts of character #1. The overall feel of the character is achieved to our liking, so the next process for this character is to flesh out 360 shots in preparation for modelling.

DS1 Animation - Project Summary

Design Studio is a course which entails taking on a team project for an entire semester, implementing tasks and goals and completing it to the best of your ability. Our teams project consists of a full 3D animation short. The three members of the team include Colin Grey, Sean LeBlanc, and Tegan Scott. We will be using Maya to produce our animation, and After Effects for compositing.

The scope of the project entails..
Main objectives:
-Concept art for two characters
-Storyboard
-Character Models
-Character Materials/Texturing
-Character Rigging
-Character Animation
-Basic Environment
-Shot set-up, compositing
Additional objectives:
-Modelling Detailed Environment
-Modelling Props
-Visual Effects
-Additional shots

As we progress through the next four months, this blog will be used to update our team development progress, from the concepts straight through to the finished product. Any success or challenges the team faces will be posted, along with any progress or testing. The goal of the blog is to keep the team on track and to have a fully documented process to view the extent of learning, commitment, and achieved success through the term.