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.