Culmination, sort of

Below is a link to our short that culminates the end point of our semester’s work on the Dreamscape Project.  We ran into set backs which caused us to create playblasts.  Next semester we plan on creating full renders for the short.  I created the Nhair, paint effects, and Nparticles.  Together Ashaundei and I worked on the animation, water, and video editing.

 

Below are some rendered stills we created to show our character.  The model we used is the Andy Rig.  The hair you see in the google slide shows her Nhair which I created in Maya.  We rendered the stills using the Arnold renderer, which sadly does not display the Nhair as it is intended to look.  When we do finally render we will be using mental ray.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16tDUZCEMFlLJY9aTd4ZAprVrfQ-dTTS6T3d5xD5tj3M/edit?usp=sharing

 

Check out Ashaundei’s blog: https://seandeecreative.wordpress.com/

 

Blooper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-XYniZCWEKnvM-PZrH4WUhO2EqfXIBjk/view?usp=sharing

 

nHair

Recently I have been working on the Andy rig for my project and developing hair.  I decided to use nHair since I have worked with nCloth and nParticles in the past.  I found the best way to start is by using the Curve Pencil Tool and drawing in the splines.  So far I have created splines for the bottom row of the models hair.  Below I have created a link to a slideshow showcasing the front, back and side views of her head.  After I have completely finished creating the splines I will convert the polygons into nHair follicles.  This will allow me to create hair clumps and make a full head of hair.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XjeBF_A2E2OzhnsT2oG_d5cxZuU7KAzG_75zFQTtLRs/edit?usp=sharing

To see what my partner Ashaundei is up to with the modeling part of the project.  Go to https://seandeecreative.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/project-update-nov-02/

Ocean Texture Deformer

The playblast below showcases an ocean texture deformer I created.  It was created in Maya 2017 and will be used in a guided Bifrost simulation.

Water Simulation Dry Run

Below I have demonstrated a basic water simulation created with Bifrost.  Bifrost is a plug in for Maya that creates water simulations.  The one you see below is basic with just an emitter.  I also added a collision so the water didn’t fall through the container I set up for it.

Thesis Statement

Films both animated and live-action alike rely upon a balance of dynamic storytelling and cinematic techniques to provide their audience with meaningful entertainment. This balance is often elusive, as many films fall short of this balance, over-reliant on gimmicks, star power or special effects, while an exemplary few, e.g. Disney’s Moana and The Shining, excel and become instant classics.  It’s the masterful use of setting, camerawork and great storytelling is what earns these films distinction. Our intention is capture that balance and create an animated short that showcases how visual effects and the camera can become characters in their own right.

For a link to my partner Ashaundei Smith’s blog go to this link:

https://seandeecreative.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/back-to-the-thesis-return-to-415/?frame-nonce=431b8f71c2&preview=true&iframe=true&calypso_token=68c47e19-d45c-40b9-ae2b-e371bdc08784

The Journey Continues

This semester I will be working on collaborative animated short with Ashaundei Smith.  We will be creating a short based off of the semiotic square shown below.  A semiotic square helps artists to figure out their ideas for a project and become the beginnings of a thesis.  Together this semester we will work to create a short which will include a rig, nhair, ncloth, a water simulation and an environment among other skills.

Check out Ashaundei’s blog at https://seandeecreative.wordpress.com/ .

Demo Reel

My demo reel took a semester to complete.  As I create more animated shorts I will reconfigure the demo reel, putting my best work forward.  The work shown in this demo reel features Jail Break, Seasons and a Walk Cycle using the Andy Rig.  Creating a demo reel is a long process that requires an artist to look at their own work critically.  You want the reel to catch the attention of whoever is watching.  Your work should speak for itself and show the 12 principles of animation.

Jail Break

Jail Break is a project that I started when I was first learning how to use Maya.  The project was very basic.  I decided for my demo to elevate this project and in a sense almost redo the entire project.  I started storyboarding and thought of a new way to bring this project to life.  Some of the work I kept like the models, rig and environment.  I did however, have to redo the animation and change the how the keys walked.  The way they walked didn’t look natural.  In the end I am very happy with the result.  Below is a video of Jail Break and a playblast of the rig for the keys.

 

Walk Cycle

Below is a video of my finished walk cycle.  This was honestly one of the hardest animation projects I have encountered.  Walk cycle are difficult.  I am really glad to have created one.  It helps you to understand the 12 principles animation.  I used the Andy Rig version 1.4.6.

 

Urban Playground

For my final project I was tasked with making a video in Adobe Premiere.  The directions for this project were to make it interesting, meaning I was to find something that could be seen as boring and make it interesting to the viewer.  I decided that I wanted to collaborate on this project with a peer in class.  We came up with urban playground.  The video is in a link below.