BSA326 Advanced Animation-xGen

Proposal

In Practice

I tried to use Zbrush a little while modelling the rat character, but because I didn't really know what I was doing I quickly decided it would be easier and more efficient for me to use Maya.

I tried to use Houdini also when going to begin doing the hair, but again, I didn't really know what I was doing and I thought that xGen was working well enough that it made sense with me to go with that. I built up a few different layers within xGen in order to try and make the different layers of hair (short, fluffier hair on one layer/long, straggly hair on another layer to be the top coat). I found the xGen controls quite easy to work around and use. I followed an online tutorial to get a larger understanding of how xGen worked. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7ijzPEtIyY)

I had an issue with weird square patches showing on the fur, I managed to mostly get rid of them by bumping the fur density up a ridiculous amount. I think this is what made my renders struggle a lot and there were a lot of errors during rendering, so I'm probably going to regret it when I get to rendering the rat out in more complex scenes... but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I followed a tutorial to make the whiskers with xGen too. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo9n_lYO0wQ). Although the whiskers are sort of working, and initially seemed to be working with the blendshapes within the render window, the connection seems to have broken since and the whiskers are no longer animating with the blendshapes. I can move them using the blendshape window, but I'm not sure how to animate them at the moment. It's all kind of weird. I'm not too worried at this stage though, it just might mean that the rat is less expressive than I was hoping, but I feel like it's not the most important part to focus on right now. I was hoping to have the rat rigged and weighted in time for the proposal so I could see how the hair worked when he was moving, but I didn't have time. I did have time to test out how the hair moves with the blendshapes on the face of the rat though, and they moved well enough. I think. The hair was sticking to the geometry well and it seemed to work. My main concern was how the hair would stick to the ears seeing as they had the most movement, and the hair stuck to them well.

Here is the final breakdown of the look that I made using xGen, and the blendshape test I did along with it.

And here's the final presentation I made for it...

Comments

BSA126 Gump walks.

Gump Side Walk The side walk for Gump. I tried to make him seem as if he is a bit of a sloucher-almost as if he drags himself along the ground a bit. He's a bit of a lonely sad guy so I didn't want him looking too perky and happy. Gump three quarter walk I tried to do the same slouchy, sad walk for the 3/4 walk animation, his head is bowed and I hope he doesn't look too happy. Gump front walk I tried to experiment a bit more with the front walk. My initial idea for Gump would be that although he walks upright, he resorts to a four legged walk at times because he is ment to be a bit primitive in his actions and appearance. I wasn't entirely happy with how the walk turned out and it could definitely do with a few tweaks but I'm happy in the sense that his four-legged walking style gives him a bit of personality. I'm still not fully satisfied with the character design of Gump but I am getting closer to figuring out what I want and what ...

BSA126 Bird, Cat, Dog, Horse.

Exporting in quicktime stopped working again because the videos export with a black background for some reason and this ment that you couldn't see the animations as they are drawn in black. Bird My bird flight featured a flying seal, I'm not sure why. I enjoyed making the bird fly, although I had to do it twice because the first time I animated him flying backwards-or something weird. Dog I used a reference to animate the dog walk before adding hair which made him look more homeless and mongrel-like. Then I felt a bit bad for the poor dog, it's probably a good thing that uploading it as an animation didn't work out, it's too sad. Horse The Horse was fun to do because I like horses. I animated the walk first and then added in a cart because I had some extra time. The man on the cart was done a bit lazily and he sort of shrinks and grows with each frame, but it's not really about him anyway so I don't mind. The horse himself...

BSA106 German Expressionism.

German Expressionism in film came about after WW1, after Germany lost the war. Germany wanted to revitalise the film industry and to create a better impression for the country. The German government subsidised the UFA (Universum-film AG), whose studios were the largest and best equipped in Europe. This became Germans golden age of cinema. German Expressionist film lasted from 1919 to 1933 when Adolf Hitler came into power. Unlike other Western films of that period that focused more so on creating realism, German Expressionism distorts reality to create an emotional effect. Expressionism films employed stylised set design, elaborate costuming, shadowy lighting that emphasises bold contrasts of dark and bright highlights and unnatural make-up. The settings are typically distorted and exaggerated, with key themes being madness, criminality and fracturing of identity. German Expressionism was a huge influence in developing the horror genre. They began to tell the story ...

Nina

Search This Blog