Reflections Friday 8th May

Update

The past week, I have been under a lot of stress with the final modules which determine my success over the past two years on this course. On top of actively improving past work I have also started producing new pieces of work to add more bulk to my portfolio and to adhere to the brief more successfully.

With the majority of the work done of this module earlier in the week, I am just left with some time today to finalise my work and hand it in later today. As for my past work, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting back to leisurely, recreation animation which is without academic gain and is not adhering to any brief.

Additionally I intend on working on more briefed work to help develop my animation and to help with the flow of ideas. Although I am uncertain as to if I am going to actively pursue animation for the rest of my career I still think its a good idea to develop my portfolio and self branding just in case the opportunity of decision comes around.
On top of this, the final show is a few weeks away and if I actively animate in my free time, my final animation will be interesting and entertaining for people to watch.

Targets

This week in 3D I will try to

• Create varied walk and run cycles for my show reel and portfolio
• Develop the wolf animation into a complete scene 
• Model and animate a new character

This week in 2D I will try to

• Design the new character for 3D work
• Attempt some 2D animation, perhaps using a traditional medium such as paint or ink
• Create some plans for a stop motion animation

NCI410 Digital Skills Acquisition - Update 3rd March 2014

Update

The past week, I have successfully rigged the majority of my character in Cinema 4D but have yet to produce controllers for the left leg and torso. I have also created sliders using Xpresso tags for the foot roll of the character and the opening of the umbrella/head. Soon I hope to attach the 3D model of my character to the rig and create a walk cycle which, this early on in the week could mean that I have time to add textures to the model.

As I have been working on my 3D work, the 2D work done the last weeks still consists of 3 uncolored turnarounds in Adobe Illustrator, a character backstory and a layout plan for the final model sheet. With the color scheme of my character being relatively basic, I should not need much time to complete the model sheet. Just as a failsafe however, I will try to complete this work before Wednesday the 5th of March to free up more time for corrections on my written work.

Targets

This week in 3D I will try to

• Complete the character rig
• If time is free, work out a way to easily rig up the hands for basic movement
• Connect the rig to the character 
• Briefly research textures to apply to the character provided the work is completed on time

This week in 2D I will try to

• Finally decide on the coloration of my character for the concept page
• Make a digital storyboard to use if time allows a more complex animation
• Create concept pages showing my characters expressions and dynamic poses

This week in Written Work I will try to

• Complete my 1500 word essay for review
• Check previous written work for errors
• Complete development file

NCI410 Digital Skills Acquisition - Update 24th February

Update

The past week, I have successfully modelled my character in Cinema 4D and have tried rigging my character at home. However after transferring the model to the college work environment, due to backwards compatibility issues, some of the model and all of the rigging must be re-done.

With the basic character concepts and developments complete, I have decided to turn my attention more towards the 3D work, as with previous experience, I have noticed how time consuming the 3D work is. The only 2D work I will really focus on this week is the process of creating a physical concept page which could be presented in conjunction with the written and digital work.

With the deadline for this module being on the 7th of March, It is at this stage in development that I should make sure that the bulk of the work is complete. Having attempted walk cycles in college before, I know that they do not take up a very long time and can probably be left to the final week to do. The idea of adding textures and extra details to the 3D character, although non essential, has been researched this week, just so that it is visible that I have considered their application and so if they are added, the thought process can be viewed. 

Targets

This week in 3D I will try to

• Rig the main body for example, Torso, Arms, Legs and Head.
• Attempt the rigging for the fingers of my character
• Look into Xpresso Tags and the use of controllers for eventually animating my walk cycle
• Briefly research textures to apply to the character provided the work is completed on time

This week in 2D I will try to

• Finally decide on the coloration of my character for the concept page
• Create the finalized layout for the character concept page including pantone reference etc
• Make a digital storyboard to use if time allows a more complex animation
• Add the character backstory to the concept page

This week in Written Work I will try to

• Write 300ish words on Mixed Media animation
• Write 300ish words on 2D animation
• Try to do 300 words on 3D animation
• Document the rigging process and the research into Xpresso Tags and other 3D techniques

NCI410 Digital Skills Acquisition - Update 17th February

Update

This week in college I made a rig for an extremely basic character so that I could hopefully understand the rigging process better for my character. This included learning how to create rigged joints for segmented and also "Spaghetti Armed" characters in Cinema 4D.

In the lesson I used some of the basic sketches for my character to experiment with linework in Adobe Illustrator. I also attempted a black and white image which I had planned to laser cut into a material to create a print helping to create a more physical representation of my progress in learning Adobe Illustrator.

As far as the written work is progressing, I wrote the brief study on pixilation for my animation research but have not yet started on the essay due to focussing on the 3D work.

Targets

This week in 3D I will try to

• Complete the 3D model of my character so it is ready for rigging
• Try a basic character rig to see the practicality of my characters model
• Learn a new effect in Cinema 4D

This week in 2D I will try to

• Complete the basic final outlines for my character sheet
• Create the outlines for my character expression page
• Work more on the black and white vector work to potentially make a print
• Think up a backstory for my character

This week in Written Work I will try to

• Create a basic plan for my 1500 word essay