Week 13 Final Blog + Cultural Analysis - Animation Studio 3

Week 13 Final Blog

And so the last week is here, concluding my time with Animation Studio 3. It's certainly been an interesting time, with many highs and lows, and above all else it was important for me for my growth as a 3D artist.

While it was a shame that MUNIN wasn't successful the experience will be vital in preparing me for future projects and to help me avoid the traps that snagged me here. Having to assemble the showreel for this project was a tricky process as I didn't feel much love for the assets I contributed and didn't find them to be worthy of showing off, But given the lack of options they would have to do. The cultural analysis threw me off for a bit due to how it was described and at first I didn't understand the point of it. After asking about it though it made more sense and it wasn't as intimidating as before. Some parts were hard to describe about the project though and it left me with many moments of heavy thinking about how to answer it.

The Duo project was the main focus for this last week and it was definitely tiring to say the least with the amount of rendering and tweaking required to get our desired results. The sketch to Maya process went alright for the most part but the projection texture was a hassle as I was unable to figure out how to have it facing the same direction as the render camera. I connected the texture projection to the camera and found an option that looked like what I wanted but it was locked and looking online for help didn't get me results, forcing me to manually line it up, which in the end looked successful but on Thursday I found out it was slightly misaligned, which frustrated me to no end. It reminded me of how I really need to focus on improving my problem solving skills, especially if I pursue a freelancing career. I hated the feeling of uselessness that came with that dead end I ended up in and it makes me wish I could have done better. It also didn't help that I didn't feel much motivation for this project. Given the short time we had for it and its sudden appearance due to MUNIN's cancellation I just lost a lot of my motivation and I can't help but feel that my heart wasn't fully in it, not helped by other project's demands for my attention. I also felt bad that my partner had to do most of the work, while I knew the majority of the project would come from his 3D scanning I wasn't able to do much while waiting for the assets to sketch the textures for. Perhaps this contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for this project. Despite this feeling though we were able to finish it at the end of the day.

After all is said and done it has been an important 13 weeks for me and I'm glad i decided to return to this course. Hopefully I will take what I've learned here and apply it better for the next units ahead. I will also get a head start on my portfolio during the break and give myself some challenges to keep myself productive.

Cultural Analysis

The MUNIN project focuses on a sci-fi brutalist style within the thriller genre. There are many elements for consideration of analysis/modification for the intended audience.

The script is not only important for how a scene will look and play out but also in how its dialogue is handled. Choice words are important for conveying the intended plot and it is important not to include any lines that may be interpreted as potentially offensive. The script for this project was minimal so the main focus would be focused on the visual storytelling, in which the genre focus was vital here. In comparison to the Horror genre which goes for shocking via explicit content, thrillers downplay straight up violence for atmosphere, enhancing the despair of the situations and getting under the viewers skin. This is best seen during the pod teleportation scene as the main protagonist struggles in agony as the clone kills them off. I feel like there wasn't much needed to be changed script wise as it fit the genre well enough. The camera angles were appropriate, Sound was focused on emphasis of silence, and slow tempo, low key lighting is present and the location is on an isolated location, ticking the boxes of conventions of the thriller genre.

The brutalist aesthetic threw an unorthodox wrench into the mix however as its style is not usually seen in a sci-fi aesthetic so an appropriate combination was required to marry these two concepts together and to help enhance the themes of MUNIN. The rough, sterile look that comes with this theme complimented the themes of the genre and enhances the structure of the architecture, making the room a looming presence for those within them. Its cold, practical structure helps to enhance each room of the ship and the lighting to make them feel big, foreboding and atmospheric.

Representation comes in the form of the singular character Seija, filling the potential role of the main lead of this piece. Women representation can be a rather divisive topic depending on how it's done as they can carry the sense of forced implementation to them, and can become controversial if characterized with a stereotypical personality, overly sexualized for no reason or stuck in a stereotypical situation like the damsel in distress trope. The script was careful here and Seija's design reflects this with a gender-neutral outfit (the spacesuit) and head design, which are also appropriate for the space environment making it practical. 

Overall there really isn't much that needs to be changed from the original script, aesthetics and representation as they carefully follow the established conventions of the thriller genre, utilize the chosen aesthetic in an appropriate way that compliments each other and enhances the themes of the genre, and have a tasteful representative of a female character. If I felt like there needed to be any changes, I would suggest looking further into the genre's conventions to potentially add further refinements to the above and a possible experimentation with another aesthetic design to possibly find something that could work better than the Brutalist design. 

Week 12 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 12 Blog

With one week left to go before the unit's conclusion the deadlines are sneaking up over the horizon. With recent house moving tasks to do as well as other assignments getting in the way it's been rather awkward this week getting everything sorted out.

The report took longer than I would have liked as I found trying to write up a more formal analysis to be deceptively tricky compared to what I've done for these blogs, but thankfully I got that sorted out in time. It was good to have another self reflection to see how my thoughts felt compared to the KPI answers.

After some messing around I found a method for getting the sketchy texture designs I want for the duo project. I used my surface pro as a sketch screen by choosing a camera angle of the asset, locking the view and doing a camera UV, placing a sheet of paper over it and sketching out the outline of the shape, placing sketches of details where needed. From there I scanned the image onto my computer, brought it into Photoshop to layer over the UV map and link it to the asset in Maya. While a bit tedious it does the job and will be what I need to make the visual style that I want for the project. My teammate has finished with his scanning and his given me the assets to draw on which will keep me busy this weekend. Now that I've figured out a method to do the style I want hopefully it wont be too time consuming to get everything done in time.

Week 11 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 11 Blog

With the aftermath of the project's cancellation past us, I now have to focus on a new duo project using our remote practice skills to meet the criteria. Overall though it has been a slow and uneventful week and I can't help but feel like the motivation has been a bit lacking due to the sudden cancellation of our previous project.

It's hard to get invested in a new project after spending so long with the last one and given how little time is left it feels awkward to try and squeeze this new one in. But what's done is done and we have to do what we can do. I'm not sure how I'll go with the drawing aspect giving my current skill set but hopefully I can make something nice. While my teammate sorts out the 3D asset scanning I'll focus on figuring out how to project drawing textures onto 3D models in Maya. 

Week 10 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 10 Blog

And so we entered the storm, and in the end we were swept away by the crushing waves. With the project being cancelled, it lead to a gloomy Tuesday afternoon. It seems like it wasn't meant to be, and it was unfortunate that it ended up that way. I imagine some may be thinking of who to blame for the way it turned out but I don't want to think like that, in the end we all go down together, we shouldn't villainize each other.

The last client meeting we had definitely felt like a killing blow to me personally, particularly with the ship texture I showed to him, which was less than satisfactory. I felt gutted that it was such a damp squib to end it on and I was convinced that that alone would lead to a life lost (although with what happened it didn't matter in the end). I felt quite drained that after coming back from a hiatus where I had a failed project before that I had another project that fell apart. I guess it's just one of those things that you have to be prepared for, you win some you lose some. If there is one thing that I  will be taking from this conclusion is the factors to avoid in future projects.

The main feeling I felt in the aftermath was guilt as I felt like I let down our producers. Given all the hard work they put in to keep the project together and to organize meetings and sorting out tasks they did a good job with all that, I can't help but feel like I let them down. While they and the lecturer assured me I was doing enough work for the project I can't help but feel like I still could have done more, especially early on in the semester, heck my time sheet reflects that. When the time comes for me to do the capstone project I will take the mistakes I've done here and make sure to avoid them for that and other future projects. It has definitely been an important learning experience for me and even with the sad conclusion we ended up in, I'm glad to have gotten the chance to do a project like this. It has been vital experience to me and the most relevant unit I've done at SAE so far.

With the new duo projects assigned to us (which involves the remote study skills) I'll have to shift my attention to refining my drawing skills which will be put to the test as I have to combine it with photogrammy. I'm unsure as to how this will go and it certainly will prove a challenge but hopefully it goes well. Having to do a lot of house moving stuff this weekend I didn't get much time to look at it so the next week will be a grind to get that ball rolling, hopefully it won't be too stressful. The post project report will also be a good chance for me to do more self reflection on myself and with how often I've been reflective on myself lately I should be able to get a lot out of it. Hopefully with the above I can end the semester on a high rather than a low.

Week 9 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 9 Blog

This week was not pleasant to say the least. With another pressuring deadline to make for next week that's put another life on the line the heat is on and I can't afford to slip up now. And yet I can already feel tensions building in the group as tasks aren't met and obstacles block our progress. I have to admit even I'm starting to feel uneasy with the situation and fear things could escalate if the next meeting doesn't go well. This is no doubt a make or break moment and how we end up after the meeting will determine that.

The above along with the struggles I had in Thursday's class to focus made me feel nauseous that afternoon which was straight up unpleasant. Honestly I'm surprised I was able to walk to the train station that day after all that (It felt like Hell). With the added pressure to memorize all the nuke functions to make up for our lack of refinement with the program doesn't help with the matter and is another distraction I just do not need at this point. Monday's waste of time of a subject also factored into my frustrations as it ate up my whole Sunday which could have been used for the project but were instead forced to meet the requirements of another bloody mundane presentation for an already redundant unit. The all nighter I pulled on Monday didn't help with my mental stability as I felt like a zombie throughout all of Tuesday, with even a small bit of light making my eyes twitch.

I think it's safe to say that after all this I will never want to think about brutalist designs ever again, trying to get that aesthetic down with these designs has been borderline aggravating, going through rejection after bloody rejection. I'm sick of it! I just want a fucking design to get the greenlight! Thankfully the ship design seems to be getting there, hitting the right middle ground of patterns we were looking for, the rooms on the other hand still throw trouble my way. Having to reconstruct the gym and eatery from the ground up didn't help things and trying to find influences for the gym was near impossible given the fact I could barely find anything similar to the subject matter online to help me craft it. Are futuristic gyms really that niche?

The UVing process was straight forward with the props and didn't give me too much stress...the same could not be said for the lab room and that damn hole in the ground. It was a stretchy UV nightmare and I had no option but to cut it from the ground to try and get it looking natural which in the end it couldn't match the scaling of the floor. To add a cherry on top when submitting it to the producer, the damn cylinder representing the wires on the back got in the way as I forgot to take that into account. I should have deleted that damn object then I could have saved that embarrassing moment and talk down from said producer.

Speaking of which I have become concerned with the leaders attitudes towards us in feedback. There are signs of underlying irritation in their words (red flags popping up with their image feedback's on UVs) and I fear this will lead to internal conflicts within the group. I don't want to antagonize anyone (I'm not someone who enjoys conflict) and I can understand the stress they are under with what they have to do and their other commitments, but I can't help but get nervous about their attitudes towards us and how sour it could potentially turn, and all it will take is one badly timed comment or an absent member on the worst day for it to knock the pillars over and bring in disaster.

Compared to last time when we had a life on the line where I felt more optimistic about our chances I can't help but feel anxious about it this time. If we do avoid the loss it will keep us afloat....if otherwise then god only know's how the atmosphere is going to feel after that blunder. If I start to feel a pain building in my stomach...I'll know things have gone south...

Week 8 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 8 Blog

And so we enter the beginning of the real meat of the challenge of the project. With vital deadlines coming up and daunting tasks coming over the horizon, I'm going to have to gird my loins and brace myself for the grinding session. Not too much has changed attitude wise to these weeks but a few notable things have popped into my head that are worth expanding on.

The first being the tour of the jumbla studios, which we all attended on Thursday. Given how many courses I've done at this point I had no interest in their offered courses, not helped by the focus on motion graphics which I have no interest in and the rather underwhelming presentation. Seeing the inside of the studio was alright and reminded me of how their kind of setup would be ,y ideal workspace given its layout and spacious feel, rather than tight cubicle setups. Overall though it was mostly a waste of time and I didn't get much from it.

On the work side of things I can't help but feel a sting of frustration with the direction of certain aspects of the project, particularly the ship and lab designs. Ever since we lost the life over the decision on ship design I can't help but feel like I've not been able to bring much to the table in those asset's directions. While I understand we needed something to present to Rikki and the given design's have been fine to work with, I feel like I've failed in the design department. Having to use the lecturers designs makes me feel like I've contributed less to the design and I am just adding to it instead, which is rather demoralizing. I should be able to get ideas on the table and yet trying to get the ideal design has been nothing short of trial and error frustration.

The feeling would still haunt me as I got assigned to the texturing task of the ship. Texturing has not been a specialty of mine and while I've gotten my head around UV mapping, making textures is a rather daunting task, especially making one to match our chosen aesthetic design. Once again it felt like trial and headaching error to find out worked and trying to paint detail that doesn't look obviously painted on was not easy. I tried looking into it in Substance Painter but my lack of knowledge on the program proved troublesome and I didn't get far in the end. I'll have to do more investigatin with this throughout next week.

On the remote study end of things I have been dedicating more time into that after my embarrasing display last meeting. Given my furstrations with my approach previously I decided to look at new sources to try my hand at and I decided to focus on the Mark Crilley book "Mastering Manga", which focused on Anime styled drawing, going through the basics parts of the body. I like this style in particular and with it's more simplistic approach to designs compared to realistic styles it will be less difficult in comparison. The book has many step by step tutorials covering different parts of a character and I started from the beginning with eyes and heads (front view and 3/4 view). The eyes went pretty well and after trying the tutorial I tested it with other designs to see how they would go. The head took a bit more focus to get right as getting details like the hair right was more challenging in comparison. But I managed to follow along alright and did it again with a different design.

My eye/face sketches

After the late nighter I had on Monday going into week 9 for the models, I'm expecting an uphill battle from here on out. No doubt the pressure will be on now that production is around the corner. I'll have to do my best to remain vigilant and not let the stress keep me down.

Week 7 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 7 Blog

I'm a little unsure as to how this week went down overall. There were some good things accomplished but at the same time I still felt anchored to the usual flaws which got to me on Thursday and Friday.

The most important thing for me this week was no doubt the KPI as it proved to be a good reflection on my progress as a whole and out of all semesters I definitely got the most out of it this time. In my time away from studies last year I became more self relfective of my life which made the KPI more relevant to me compared to previous classes. Animation studio 1 I didn't feel much for it and Studio 2 It felt a bit empty as I was doing solo stuff, which made co-operative questions irrelevant. This time however I felt like I had alot more to work with and with the many ups and downs to come from this unit I went to town on the questions, going into as much detail as I could.

The meeting with the lecturer was also good as that allowed me to further expand into my answers and to see what his views on me were compared to how I saw myself. I've felt more confortable talking about myself to others in recent years so I find these to be good in getting my thoughts straightened out. For the most part he agreed with my self assessment and added onto various others which were certainly familiar to my mind, from my outlook on the given tasks, my general anxiety,the frustrations I've had with communication and other familiar issues I've had in the past. It felt good to talk about them with the lecturer and I found what he added to be useful to my self refletion.

I'm doing a bit better with the Nuke stuff now that we've gotten the heavy math stuff out of the way, which early on was a turn off for me for this program. I do well with this node system of connecting things together as it's visual design is pretty straightforward, only getting a bit out of hand depending on how the layout goes with the connections (which mine did get a little bit messy at one point). I also finished modelling and UVing the assets needed for our scene which thankfully didn't end up taking too long to refine.

Thursday and Friday were a bit of an off day for me though which came from two things in particular. The first being the rejection of all of my lab designs from the lecturer, which while I know these things can take time to nail down It was still demotivating to have to go back to square one on the design yet again. My patient with this rpom has started to thin and I just don't know how many more attempts I can do before I chuck my hands into the air and say "F**k it!". It also didn't help that we still don't have a ship design pinned down yet even with all the stuff we made. I fear that if Rikki keeps asking us about it and we still don't have anything to show him there we could end up putting doubt back into his mind and I would rather we avoid that at this point.

The second being my remote practice and the lack of it I did for the meeting. With the project being top priority and my roadblock from my last attempt at head designs I ended up pushing it to the side and having nothing to show for the meeting. To be honest it was embarrasing having to admit that to the group and it was the main reason I didn't even bother to go next when it was brought up. I knew this wouldn't be easy given my current skill set, troubles with motivation and my general issues with short attention spans but it did feel terrible to not give it a proper shot this time. I ended up in a bit of a slum throughout that day and I had to take the day to get my mind back in place, which thankfully I did for Saturday to resume my work and to catch up on lost time for the remote study. I decided to look for different tutorials related to that subject and have decided to check out two books that may help guide me back on track. The first book being Betty Edwards "Drawing on the right side of the brain" which has been recommended by many artists, and the second being Mark Crilley's "Mastering Manga Vol 1" which has nice step by step exercises to get me started and tackles an aesthetic style I quite like and want to do. I will give these books a good read through and see if they can get me onto the right track with what I want to accomplish.

Along with that I will also go back to the drawing board with the lab design and hopefully get some interesting designs out this time. Perhaps I could try them out with the shader to see which ones go well with it. Who knows, it might make certain designs more interesting.

Week 6 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 6 Blog

Well...Week 6 certainly got off to an interesting start. It's hard to describe how I feel about this week overall as it was quite a mixed bag of positive and negative aspects. Along with my usual mental thoughts its been rather odd to assess this week overall.

To start off with the positives we've definitely got Rikki on the positive now with the projects current direction. Compared to previous weeks we've definitely been on the rise with him and needless to say his latest feedback was very useful. It helped to nail down exactly what he wanted aesthetic wise for certain elements which made the week easier to tackle in terms of how to tackle the tasks. Given the team's rather nervous position on certain elements it was surprisingly nice to hear him praising them and giving us the thunbs up on them.

On the other hand it seemed like the possible fears of losing a life weren't too far fetched as we did end up losing one due to failure to confirm ship designs to show to Rikki. When the lecturer showed his designs to Rikki over the stuff we did I did feel quite off about that and with the life taken away it confirmed my suspicions. It was a shame we couldn't prevent that from happening, but at the same time with the positive reception we got from Rikki, I couldn't help but feel the loss of that life as a challenge to do better. Instead of focusing on the negative, dragging us down further, we needed to look at the positives in front of us and use that to push forward to the next phase of the project. I have to admit with the communication issues that were had on the weekend I was a bit nervous about the meeting, it certainly was one aspect that we needed to improve on as moments of waiting for feedback from others turned into a days worth of being stalled on progress as I had no idea which design to hone in on.

In fact, that was one of the biggest issues I've had at the moment. If I need feedback on any tasks I've done to see which direction to go in I've only had 2 members actively give me feedback, everyone else has been absent the whole time. I cant deny that it has been rather frustrating having to deal with this issue and at this point I've started to lose my patience, particularly with the constant tweeking i've had to do to find the style that we need. When I think surely this time I've got something that should do the job, it doesn't seem to meet the futuristic specifics we need and I jsut don't know how to get around this issue. I try to follow what Rikki has liked, the style guide and the references I can find relevent to the look and yet I just can't get a design that the team can give the thumbs up to and there's only so many times I can redo these designs before I end up going in circles. This has most likely contributed to the motivational issues I've still had here and there as I can't really put the time into something that has hit a dead end.

The struggle for motivation definitely hit me hard in the remote study as trying to tackle the head tutorial reminded me of the motivational issue I have when trying to learn new things like this. I watch videos relevant to it and give it a shot, the results aren't impressive and the urge to do something else increases. It's been absolutely frustrating dealing with this and today in particular it bit me hard. This issue has really got me wondering about the possibility that i might suffer from some form of ADHD (something my lecturer told me about when I talked to him about my struggles here) and having gotten a referral from my GP to see a psyciatrist I've been thinking about when I could see them to do the test to solve this mystery and given the struggles from today I can't deny I've been tempted to resolve this mystery to see if maybe I've had a mental blockage for a while now and never noticed it. Although it's hard to say and whether I have it or not I know in the end it's gonna come down to self motivation and disipline to get through this mental blockage.

After talking with Georgie last week about my current state I've been wondering if I should get into the habit of writing down my thoughts in a journal/diary, whether it would be benefitial for me or not? It could help me put my thoughts into perspective and could contribute to problem solving if I just can't figure out which direction to go on a situation.

While some tasks have been a bit hard to get into I have had success in other areas. The UVing process for the props was pretty straightforward, especially since many pieces were smal enough that I could get away with an automatic UV there. The only hiccup I had with that was the jarring UI change in 2018 Maya compared to 2017, which I find awkward to use as the toolbar that use to be above the map area is now gone and now i have to work with a clunky toolbox which isn't as intuitive as the previous design. I got through in the end but I would rather go back to what worked before.

I will have to continue to reinforce positive mindsets as week 7 comes around and witht the KPI meeting coming up I will have the chance to do some self assessment and the one on one with the lecturer will no doubt be important for this process. Hopefully I can continue to get through the tasks given and we can prevent anymore lives from being taken off.

Week 5 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 5 Blog

With no meeting with Rikki this week, the focus went to knocking off tasks on the trello list and with this weeks meeting we had to confront the issue that some tasks had fallen behind of schedule. With how we decide to approach this situation we could either fix this problem and keep everything on schedule or we could spiral into a downward spiral of deadlines not being met and the potential risk of losing a life on our 3 lives system. That potential damage is a worry and I won't deny that I feel a bit uncertain as to how we will go from here. One red flag that has definitely got me concerned has been the lack of communication on the slack channel this weekend. With the urgency we require, have very little feedback on my stuff to work with has left me stranded at the crossroads with the lab design not locked down while the shader testing has been messy, with no direction to go with to finding out how to get the look we need and plenty of Maya crashes from random value testings. While I was reminded of the availability of certain members for these days I was hoping that more would at least be aware of the chat rooms in case of urgent feedback but that didn't seem to be the case. I don't like the feeling of being stuck on a task when I have to wait on others to move forward as I feel like I can't contribute anything else at that point. I know it's something I can't really alter but it's something that niggles at me and makes me feel like I'm not contributing enough.

On the plus side I got my ship block outs done and ready to share and the assets assigned were finished in time. But I am concerned with the lab design and the shader testing as they have not been so smooth. When some members felt certain that we'd lose a life I didn't want to fall into that mindset as there's always a chance that it could be avoided and overall its a negative mindset to be in and would hurt morale, but I can't help but feel uncertain myself now. I think this Tuesday we'll need to do an emergency meeting to discuss the urgency of communication as that has been a major issue that cannot be ignored at this point.

On the independent study side of things I have started looking into specific tutorials on character designing related stuff and I decided to focus on specific things to start off with. To start with I went with Eye designs after watching a video talking about the best way to practice drawing, using eyes as an example, focusing on how it's best to focus on a task until you can do it efficiently rather than doing it once and then moving on without a second thought.



The above was my attempt at making eye designs on paper which turned out decently for my 1st attempt. I'll have to try this exercise out digitally as well to see how that fares and figure out which of these designs I prefer to draw. From here I think I will look for tutorials on making heads which can also be used to expand on the eye stuff as I can try drawing them at different angles.

When Tuesday comes around things will definitely go in a different direction depending on how we go with our current deadlines. Things will either even out or go all over the place and hopefully it won't be the latar.

Week 4 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 4 Blog

After last week left me feeling rather shakey about the project, this week has definitely been a push in the right direction. While I was a bit anxious having to present the pitch this time it went alright apart from one slide hiccup due to google drive issues. Rikki seemed to be more optimistic about our artistic direction, although he's still unsure of our technical direction. Compared to last week though we definitely have a better direction to go now and with the crucial feedback he gave us it helped with knowing what needed refining and what could be scrapped.

The ship will need to go for a redesign given the feedback to make it more like a civilian ship and the amount of crew members it will support. Reading the magazine Phil gave me helped remind me of Maya tools I haven't touched in a while and the steps of basic construction. Sometimes it's good to go back to the basics to see how things are done.

Productivity has been a bit all over the place, not helped by the dreadful heat wave which made working on my computer unpleasant and the house inspecting I still have to do. Regardless of that I have soldiered on, getting the assets list sorted, starting the new ship models and continuing with the independant studies. For the independant studies this week I continued with the exercises I started last week, focusing on the ghosting technique to build up muscle memory. Given the limited time I'll have to start looking for character drawing specific tutorials to start looking at now that I've had a workthrough of the basic drawing techniques. I plan to also try those exercises on my surface pro to see how digital drawing compares to the traditional drawing. I expect it to be a bit harder given the different surface to draw on, physical feedback and the various tools digital has to offer. With the first meeting coming up on Monday morning week 5, I will compile my progress on a powerpoint to show to the group.

The nuke stuff has still be rather mediocre with it still feeling rather heavy on the maths stuff. Perhaps last week's impressions are still rubbing off on me, or I just don't find this stuff interesting in general but regardless I'll try to continue with this stuff and see if it can gauge my interest next week.

Week 3 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 3 Blog

This week definitely shook things up for the progress of this project. With the client popping in to look at Pitch A I have to admit I was quite nervous, even though I wasn't presenting. I must say you definitely feel the weight of pressure when you have a client to please, especially one that is very passionate about their project. His blunt feedback was very much a double edged sword to me. While it certainly help us to figure out what direction to go with the design of everything and to wipe the elements that he straight up rejected, it also generated alot of pressure as it also came with disappointment on the clients end. Hearing him describe the pitch as "3 presentations in 1" and how he went from being interested to losing it was rather cutting. I felt fluttered for the whole afternoon and thankful that I didn't have to show pitch B to him as I am certain he would have torn it to shreds (especially when he described the design of the teleporter pod and my design was nowhere near that).

I knew that pressure was going to be back for me in this unit but I suppose seeing that unfold it's something you cant really prepare yourself for. It certainly added more pressure not to fail him next week as I get the feeling that we could potentially lose him if we don't deliver the concept this time. It would be a really demotivating crisis if we were to lose the client and I'm crossing my fingers we can pull through this time. I did learn the importance though of how important it is to nail down a theme and trim off the fatty parts. To me it really emphasized how crucial it is to get the concept down and locked in early on to secure confidence for the client. I certainly need to keep a cooler head in these situations as I don't know how I would have gone if I had to follow up after Pitch A, but I imagine it would have been a disaster.

I think my emotional state after that session affected my progress for the rest of the week as Thursday felt like a slog to me. While Nuke at a first impression didn't seem to bad and I had no issues with the node structure, the math behind all the colour functions just made my brain hurt and the thought of having to remember all that to be a competent composition artist makes me not want to pursue that particular path. At least stuff like the shuffle mechanic seemed straight forward enough, going for a multiple grid match the X's setup. To describe it in a less dry way it's like matching chart data in an excel spreadsheet, spread out amongst multiple tabs of charts each affecting a particular setting. It's certainly powerful tech and I can only imagine how neat it would be in the right hands. But with how distracted I was it was a hard sell to me, and I don't know if I'll be keen for next week's session.

With that and the house searching cutting into my time it has been a jumbled week for myself. The ship design still seemed incomplete and I have to admit coming up with a ship design from scratch ain't the easiest task. Knowing when to stop adding more details or when to add more alterations is a tricky balancing game and at times I felt like I had to add bits here and there just for the sake of complexity. But I suppose this is the process of creating a design from scratch, nothing is absolute and it is good to get feedback from others to shape it up right.

Deciding to do the independent study over the interdisciplinary requirement was definitely the best choice for me as now that the workload for Studio 3 is getting heavier the last thing I need is another project to work on. This option also gives me the option to give a skill I tried learning in the past another shot, Drawing. In particular after talking with my lecturer I decided to hone in on character design in particular as that is a skill I did want to learn for professional and hobby use but due to steep learning curves and confusion to where to start kept me at bay. This is a great chance for me to take another stab at it and get my head around it proper.

For the journey to start however I need to get to the basics, the bread and butter of an artists techniques. While I have looked into this previously with drawing techniques such as drawing from the shoulder rather than the hand and exercises to do before drawing which ranges from basic line drawing repeatedly to box drawing, I imagine there is more to it that I missed first time around. By the first meeting I aim to have a log of my progress of learning the fundamentals of drawing for both traditional and digital.

I feel like it's gonna be a bumpy ride from here on out with the pressure on from our client and this will be a real test for me having been away for half a year. If I can pull through and pass this unit and make something good, I will be confident in the next stages to come. If not then I will have to reassess myself and get to the root of the problem.

Week 2 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 2 Blog

The second week was a step forward in the development phase for our planning. Now that we got the chance to meet the creator of the project and find out what he wants to see in this animatic, it has given us the direction we need to refining our original pitch and get across the ideal visuals.

With that said though I am still a little nervous about how to approach the pitch for next week. While I did get positive reception for my initial pitch, I still can't help but feel like it was a little under cooked and it's just something that's not my specialty. A feeling that continued when I got started with the 3D concept modelling as modelling a ship from scratch is not the easiest task. Having gone through my research I've decided to try making a few varied designs that we could focus on based on different aesthetics.

So far I've made 3 different designs we could hone in on, one inspired by traditional battleships (In particular looked at Space Battleship Yamato's designs), the second one going for a more boxy design (This one I might build upon as thinking about the scene I want the ship to be a big looming figure and this kind of shape seemed appropriate), and the third one being a more rounded shape, similar to something like a zeppelin. I'm also considering doing some concept ideas for the Munin logo that can be placed on the side of the ship in a design similar to WW2 planes. I will have to do some research on logo fonts and images based off of the origins of the term Munin.

Thursday's class was certainly a substance filled one with the Nuke program being the main focus this time. Having looked at a few tutorials beforehand it didn't look too intimidating with it's focus on visual node structures and straight forward button setups. It's certainly a powerful tool and messing around with the robot chase footage was neat, it's just a shame that we can't use it properly at home due to the commercial/non-commercial incompatibility.

Now that the project is kicking off I've got to get back into the productive mood and make sure to get some progress done each day. The required amount of hours to do a week seemed rather large and I have a feeling I'm not going to make that number in the early stages. Once the heavy stuff comes in no doubt more hours will come in but at this point I suspect it will be gradual. I am a bit anxious about how to approach the next pitch now that i have to narrow it down to a specific visual design, but hopefully with discussion with my teammates I can get the right direction for it.

Week 1 Blog - Animation Studio 3

Week 1 Blog

With the first week of Animation Studio 3 coming to a close, I've been absorbing everything that has been laid out in front of me of what's to come from this particular unit. Now that I have returned from a half a year break the time has come to get my mindset back into work mode. This no doubt will be a challenge and with the power of hindsight I will have to be careful not to fall into the pitfalls that caught me off guard last semester. 

First impressions of the class were good. I was quite surprised at how small the class was. After doing Studio 1 and 2 I expected another moderate sized class but this one was much more compact with only a handful of students all put together to work on a major project. I feel more comfortable with this situation as it will be less hectic and easier to communicate with the lecturer on any issues that may arise.

The main project being a short animatic got my attention as it is something I haven't done since my time studying animation at Deakin, where I made an animatic with 6 other students. My only concern will be with getting back into the flow of things due to my absence and the potential difficulties to come with this kind of project, especially with only 12 weeks to do it. Time management will be crucial this time as a lack of that last semester lead to my downfall in that unit and I will do whatever it takes not to let that happen again. Unfortunately with another unit once again acting as a distraction on the side I will have to deal with that unit alongside this one and I will have to make sure I don't let it distract me too much this time. I was hoping to jump onto that unit's assignments to knock them out of the way early but due to them being group and week oriented I am unable to do so. so that could be a potential problem.

Even though I have the above concerns I do feel a bit more optimistic about this unit. Compared to previous ones this one seems like more of what I was looking for and the smaller group focus is much cosier then previous setups. I also think we can make some cool stuff with the given script, with it's focus on sci-fi horror. I was having images of potential scenes flashing in my head as we read the script and I'm hoping to bring some of them to life in te upcoing weeks.

The element analysis on the other hand was rather overwhelming. It is certainly one of those things that looks simple on the outside but is actually quite complex once you start to look closer. Just thinking of the word 'Unity' now makes my head hurt as it's quite difficult to really analyse something in such depth in it's basics from line to form to texture. Hopefully as the weeks go on I'll have a better grasp of it because right now it's definitely something to work on.

But for now all my attention needs to go into research for this animatic and with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo example to look at I'm going to have to really think hard about the approach to this project and to my particular pitch to the group. Honestly I'm happy with whatever we decide to go with style wise, as long as it's achievable within the time restrictions and our current skillsets.