#thinking about taking some actual classes for 3d animating + character rigging | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

queenangst · 5 years

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Do you have any tips for people who want to study animation and be an animator?

hi, nonnie!

so it’s not really a secret that i’m an animation student, but i also want to put a disclaimer that this is my first year in college, and also my first time really learning to animate.

for more information before i jump into it: i study an art & technology degree with a pathway in animation (with some game knowledge) at a public university. i will also say that animation at my program, because it is different from a private art school, i’m not technically in the animation pathway — it’s something that you learn foundations for the first three semesters, and apply to get into your desired pathway (animation or games) to focus.

i have learned a LOT since i started school, though, so… let’s go!

art school is not the only optioni thought i was going to go to art school, but i really couldn’t afford it without taking out a loan and putting myself in debt. please, please keep in mind that there are other options to learn animation - many public universities have related/similar programs, and i honestly wouldn’t go to art school if i couldn’t afford it. do your research.

there are going to be people who are better/know more than you. when i started off the year, i knew nothing about 3d animation or any part of the 3d animation pipeline. i’d never touched maya before, or any of the programs in my school lab. like me, there were kids who’d never done anything like this before (about ½ the class), and there were kids who’d been modelling and animating for years. there are kids who did animation programs in high school, or who had opportunities like having animation mentors. my school district did not.you’re going to feel behind. you’re going to look at these people with really cool projects, and who already know how to animate, and who do lots of crazy cool things. and you’re going to meet people whose relative is working in the animation industry. regardless of your skill level, there’s going to be someone who seems to be ahead of you. that’s okay. you’re learning.

don’t commit right away (to one job/focus).this is a big one. when you go in to study animation for the first time, there are going to be a TON of different positions and interests. don’t focus on one thing and lose yourself in it. try everything. try modelling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and compositing. there are people i know who are already like “i want to be a character animator at blizzard” and that’s cool, and totally possible, but don’t limit yourself! you might have a knack for environment design, or maybe, like one of my professors you really want to be a lighter but after you get hired, your supervisor goes “you suck at lighting… but hey, you’re really good at grooming do hair and fur instead.” don’t do that! there’s also a growing demand for generalists, which is something i think i might be interested in myself. being a cg generalist means you focus in one thing (ie lighting) but you have knowledge of other parts of animation as well. that means that when companies hire you, you might light a model, but then maybe they’re short a texturer, and then you can pop up and go “HEY i can texture!”

use your resources. please. once you get into college, oftentimes your school has stuff for you. that’s included in your tuition. use it! for me, there are whole courses on lynda and the linkedin e-learning thing. youtube. vimeo. books. find things that are available to you and squeeze every last drop out of it.

get involved. this is the biggest takeaway from being in animation. you could be a great animator, you could be technically really, really good. but nothing matters if you don’t put yourself out there. look up local animation events. i recently went to one, and i spent an entire day listening to industry professionals such as mark simon, the storyboard artist for the walking dead. talk to people! ask them questions! i actually connected with an artist at airship syndicate who was at the event - she’s the daughter of an art teacher i went to studio with for years, and meeting her and talking to her was really nice. and i have her number. and if you have the chance to meet someone, talk to them. don’t be scared. this is your chance to get your foot in the door, or your chance to get advice from someone who’s actually made it. talk. to. them.

join student organizations. my school has an animation guild chapter, as well as a game developer club and some other related orgs. JOIN THEM. pay the $30 or whatever membership fee. the animation guild at my school has given me, out of all the things that i’ve done, the most opportunities during the school year. i went to an amazon prime screening of Undone. a dreamworks skype call. discounted tickets for that industry event i mentioned earlier. and there is so much more to come. it’s 100% worth it.

try to make friends! this is something that i kind of struggled with, but it’s really important.having friends is going to be your lifeline. every monday you accidentally sit next to a new person in the animation lecture? introduce yourself. when you and two other people are the only freshmen in the labs at 11pm? there is no better bonding experience. having friends means you can 1) pester them for help 2) suffer together 3) get excited about each other’s work. these people are going to be your future co-workers. some might be your future bosses. also make friends outside of your major. you need a break.

making animation =/= watching animation. this is a big, big, big thing. don’t go into animation if you don’t think you can handle it. what you see on the screen is NOT the same as the work that gets put into it. when you’re an animator sometimes you’ll put in over a hundred hours a week. when you’re an animator you have to keep up with industry changes; every year the programs and tech change, and every year there is something new and different that you need to keep up with or else you’re out. animation is not easy. it’s up to you to put in the work that will make you successful: spend time honing your craft and talking to people. you will cry a lot. you will work your ass off. you will fail all the time. but you have to keep going because you love it. and if you can’t do that, don’t be an animator.

eat. sleep. take care. being an art student is not an excuse to not sleep. it’s not. period. you’re going to have friends who “haha i slept at 5am.” it’s not a competition, there is nothing for you to prove. with the rigor and the difficulty of being in animation you need to take care of yourself. set yourself a schedule every day - set aside time for you to eat THREE meals and sleep for at least 6 hours. treat those like work time. if you take care of yourself, eventually you’re going to look around at your peers who are struggling and suffering and you are going to be better off than them. because you had a meal at lunchtime. because you got more than two hours of sleep. you’re going to learn better, work better, live better. don’t skimp out. it’s really easy to forget, so i will set alarms/reminders for myself. i typically go to bed around 11pm-1am every night, so i usually get around 7 hours on better days. i eat. just don’t be dumb, okay? you don’t want to graduate and just fall apart because you worked yourself too hard and you didn’t sleep for four years. take care.

i’m stopping this post here because it’s getting a little long but i still have so many experiences and thoughts i can share. so anon, if you’re reading this - feel free to come back and ask more questions!

#anonymous #animation #art #asks #advice #annies advice #long post

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modestmuses-a · 5 years

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fifteen questions, fifteen mutuals.

① ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE ?

Yes. “Dr. Taylor” from a soap opera my mom used to watch. She named me Taylor because she hoped I would be beautiful, intelligent, and successful like the doctor in the show.

② WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED ?

Just today actually.

③ DO YOU HAVE KIDS ?

No, and with any luck, I never will. If I ever did have a child, I’d probably give them up for adoption, give them a chance to be with a family who actually wants them.

④ DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT ?

I wanted to say “yes” to this question, but the more I started thinking about it, the more I realized how untrue that was. I tend to mean most of what I say, and I only get occasionally sarcastic with close friends.

⑤ WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE ?

Whether or not they smile back at me when I smile at them since I tend to smile at most people I pass.

⑥ WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOR ?

Blue.

⑦ SCARY MOVIE OR HAPPY ENDING ?

Happy ending! I can’t stomach scary movies. I watched two Final Destination movies and was watching every inanimate object around me for weeks. I had a ceiling fan in my room at my dad’s, and I lived in mortal fear that it would just... careen off the ceiling and into my bed one night, killing me instantly with the impact. I also had to use an exacto knife in art class, and I was so worried it would get caught on something and fly up and hit me in the eye, haha! I was a mess!

So, it’s better if I don’t watch scary movies. Although I can handle shows like Criminal Minds and violent video games just fine.

⑧ ANY SPECIAL TALENTS ?

I have dabbled in many, many forms of animation. I don’t think most people can say they’ve built a working stop-motion puppet. Or done anything with sand animation. Or oil paint on glass. Or paper cut-outs.

I’ve modeled, rigged, and animated several things in 3D. I’ve used SAI to animate. I’ve done several claymation shorts. Both character and effect animation in 2D.

Oh, and I do some kinetic typography as well.

⑨ WHERE WERE YOU BORN ?

Indianapolis, Indiana. Lived there for the first three months of my life, but two years ago, I came back after two whole decades of living somewhere else.

⑩ WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES ?

Video games. Reading. I don’t think I can claim writing. Have you seen the activity levels on this blog?

⑪ DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS ?

Yeah, I have two cats, although only one of them is technically mine. The other belongs to my mother. But I’ll be taking my cat with me when I move out.

⑫ WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED ?

I played basketball in kindergarten. And I was terrible at it, but my dad told me, “Taylor, the one rule in basketball is that there’s no crying in basketball.” And even when I got hit on the top of the head with the ball, I started to tear up, but I didn’t ever actually cry.

So, I guess in that regard, I was really pretty good at basketball!

⑬ HOW TALL ARE YOU ?

5′9″. Or rather, just shy of 5′9″, but it hurts my ego to admit that. ;( So we’re just gonna call me 5′9″, okay?

⑭ DREAM JOB ?

Flight attendant.

⑮ FAVORITE SUBJECT AT SCHOOL ?

Ha! I started to hate school with a passion sometime during my sophomore year of college, and I skipped so much class that I came damn close to being unable to graduate.

Any class that was a low-effort, easy-A class (like the one where we just sat around and watched movies) was good in my book!

Tagged by: @turnsofate (indirectly)

Tagging:

do it

#sad sappy sucker [ooc]#dash games #//i will jump on any opportunity to talk about myself at length

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brandonk10 · 6 years

Link

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MOAmdC3rcX7WNTQMGAZaNS_FMNDZI7oD

Above are the Images I did this summer that I’m really happy with!

So as a TLDR for the post,

-Animation Compilation below, has OC's in it, whom are credited to the creators.

-My favorite images from this summer that I did, either for commissions or fun, are in the comments with an additional image showing all the character models I made or tweaked in the past year, which tallied to 68.

-I'm fixing the storyboards for Jade's trailer to begin production once I get to college.

-JADE is moving from Remnant to a new world of my creation. They aren't RWBY OC's anymore. Answers to any questions you might have are possibly located in the FAQ part of the post that I'm sharing.

-I'm not going to stop posting here, since it does not break any rules, and have spoken with an admin on a schedule. I will be able to keep my weekly schedule since it is only one post per week, and isn't diverting the group from it's primary focus. But if I do stop posting, then most likely I broke a rule.

Hello Everyone!

So I’ve reached the last week of my summer break before going back to College! So I’ve got a couple of things to get to.

First of all, I have compiled all the animations from this year that have been posted on this page, but not on my youtube channel. The finish date has been posted. I’ve also attached the 3 Commission Animations that I did for Recent Commissions!

https://youtu.be/h0iylBttnTY

Second, here is all the quality images that I have completed this summer! It contains plenty of OC’s that I did for either Commissions, or as fan art for my friends! The OC’s and their owners shall be listed below! On top of that, I did a tally image of all the models I have worked on, or modeled from scratch and rigged in the past year. That tally reached 68 Models. Now those OC’s will be listed with their owners below if they do not belong to me. Now if we were to count models that weren’t rigged I technically have over 100 models, because of some fun requests I did around a year ago.

Thirdly, I am currently working on fixing up the storyboards to be easier to read in terms of poses and action. I will be finishing up the storyboards over the next few days, and should be able to finish the animatic before going back to College.

Finally, next week I will be releasing a poster to announce the production beginning on Jade’s Trailer. Now with that will be a visual reveal of something that’ll change how the series functions. JADE is jumping ship from Remnant, and will no longer be considered “RWBY OC’s”, instead they are going to be characters in a world that I am currently creating. It isn’t fully completed in concept, but the events of Jade’s trailer will be easy to pin in this world since the concepts of this new world that’ll be present in Jade’s trailer have already been planned out. There are several reasons for me doing this, firstly, I really adore these characters and would love to make the series to it’s full completion, but unless I work for RT, they green light the show (Which their internship pages have illustrated that they are not looking for a new show concept, unless if you are a higher-up in the company, which is fair), and I’m given creative control on the project, I cannot create the show as into the future as I would love to, while being able to sustain myself without simply infringing on copyright. Which is, again, a fair point. Secondly, I am doing this because it would allow me to be more creative with the world, and improve my writing abilities by forcing myself to do research overload, a task I find oh so exciting. Thirdly, it would probably be more appropriate for the series in reflection, because all drafts of any script or outline for JADE since beginning making RWBY OC’s in general involved me conceptualizing new ideas for Remnant ranging from locales, cultures, aura systems, and aura abilities making those drafts’ only attachment to RWBY seem to be the color team name, aura, dust, and semblance.

To address some questions before they do come up, as they are fair points.

-I will be doing my best to separate JADE from RWBY as much as possible. In fact, their team name was never based on a color in it’s origin, it’s actually an inside-joke amongst them. So if I decide to keep the joke, I’ll keep the name, but if I don’t then the name will vanish. As a warning for the future of this update, I will be using the Remnant counterparts to the systems in this world.

-The “Aura” of the world, will not feature a primary defense mechanism, and is currently being conceptualized as an idea that groups people into various classes of combat, and life in general, since it can be used to determine personality. I’m going to try to enhance upon that so I can differentiate between this culture and Remnant’s.

-The “Dust” of the world, will not have lead to man’s creation, will not be explosive, will have additional types that will differentiate it from dust, and will need further tweaking to properly distinguish it.

-The “Semblance” of this world will not be based on a personality trait, but a flaw, since a theme of the story will be about self betterment, or achieving perfection. So the power is designed to counter-act that key weakness in their character, forcing them to begin to change, but not get the instant answer.

-The “Grimm” of this world, are different in every way I can imagine, as they were designed to, and will take on a more natural approach, as opposed to silhouette-like designs.

-Characters will not be named after colors, there will be birth reasons for it that aren’t related to colors. Sadly, this is an idea I only realized was an issue recently, so I will be making an effort to properly think this through so it won’t be subject to an accusal of plagiarism.

-All-in-All I’m going to try to make the world as far from Remnant as possible.

If you decide to stop supporting this project, I hope I’ve entertained you with my Animation, and that you have a fantastic life, and if you haven’t already, go watch NYON Episode 2, it’s just so much fun! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nXYbPGqVjA&t=447s

All OC’s to the best of my Ability from Left to Right in that Group Image:

From Left to Right (As Best I can):

Auburn Perrault: Aundreya Garcia

Avena Sharpe: Garrett Calvery

Noirie, Niya and Mella Mavros, and Jade Tengu: Gabe Chestnut

Ivori Levina: James Wright II

Dage: Nico O'Gorman

Marian Loreli: Kristopher Kernan

Venus Rosebind: Jayden King

Lavender Fairclough: Dre Taylor

JC Avatar: https://twitter.com/jcthedawn

Rocco Obsidia: Kyle Duffy

Kobolt Walthers: Michael Lopez

Rai Tempest: Jezreel Deity Tuldague

Artemis, and Yue Hinto: Demetri Li

Verdell Hydra (Also Chibi), Elroy Minos, Nigel Harbour, and Magenta Rachnera: EL Austria

Mourvédre Rolandé Vinvalier, and Regynt Richelle: Nico O'Gorman

Vera: Maevis Tobi Richardson

Silver, Lavender, and Violet: Scott Callahan

Mika Anuna: Christian Perez

Grey Korudo: William Raymond

Mallaithe o'lFreann: Sara Rhys Whipple

All Models were modeled, textured, rigged, and posed/animated by me.

All "Jade" Characters belong to me

I do not own RWBY, all ownership belong to Monty Oum, and Rooster Teeth Productions

If you're interested in seeing my Animations, my YouTube Channel is here:

www.youtube.com/user/StopMotio…

If you want to be updated on things elsewhere, such as WIP's and Progress, here's my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TeamJADEAnimation/

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zak-animation · 5 years

Photo

Fantastical Creatures: ZBrush Digital Concepts Review

Additionally to my modelling and sculpting experiments within Maya and Mudbox, I wanted to explore industry professional software ZBrush as a solution for my Fantastical Creatures assignment. Widely recognized as the go-to software for creature design and sculpting, I wanted to experiment with the program and simply play around with creature concepts. At this stage of the project, I’ve remained rather loose and open with my creature ideas and purposely haven’t settled on a final design. Here, I wanted to challenge my primarily mammal-based creatures and look at the insect world for inspiration.

In this independent development session, I began sketching from photos of various insect species to get a variety of ideas down on the page before jumping into ZBrush. Although these were just quick rough, explorative sketches, I wanted to take the time to draw a few ideas out first as a way to establish good sketchbook practice. Drawing is something I need to develop continuously, and it meant that I had an idea to respond to within a digital software.

With this, my focus was on creating a series of alternative digital creature concepts based on insect reference images within new sculpting program Z-Brush. This isn’t a software that I’ve had the opportunity to explore before, and it’s something that we won’t be taught in our first year. However, something I’ve learned throughout my time on the course so far is that experience is so crucial to the development of our skills, and having already experimented with the program now just means I’ll be ahead of the curve next year.

What is ZBrush? ZBrush is an industry standard 3D software used for modelling and sculpting characters, creatures and anything we can imagine. It is the most advanced 3D sculpting program out there today, and what separates it from similar programs is that ZBrush mimics traditional sculpting techniques digitally on a computer: it’s like working with a digital ball of clay. Instead of working in polygons and smoothing from there, the software allows me to shape and build form as if sculpting by hand.

Artists can create more organic and detailed models using the program, and often arrive at the finished product much faster than with other programs such as Maya or 3Ds Max. Typically, the software is used for sculpting high-resolution 3D models.

We can pull, push, squash scrape and manipulate the digital clay as if we were working on the real thing. By manipulating the virtual surface, artists have the ability to create detailed features and textures on the model such as scales, wrinkles or tears in animal skin.

After researching into the program further, I found that ZBrush is a common tool for professional film and video game studios around the globe, with examples such as Star Trek, Rango and The Lord of the Rings using the program to blend live action with virtual effects, relatively seamlessly. Unlike traditional modelling software, we aren’t manipulating individual polygons and instead sculpting with digital clay. The program allows artists to build all kinds of models ready for rigging, or final production. Since it’s publication over a decade ago now, ZBrush has ‘firmly cemented itself’ as a major piece of software in the 3D animation universe.

It’s this intuitive approach to sculpting, that focuses on organic model making as opposed to blocky, box models like Maya, that really appeals to me. After researching into the software further, and finding out that this is the industry standard for creature modelling and 3D animation as a whole, I delved into ZBrush and began developing some concepts based on my initial insect sketches.

The Process With this, I was simply going off the bulbous, circular shapes found in my initial drawings and the long, spindly legs characteristics of arachnids. Through following several tutorials that I have linked below, I was able to create a series of 3D models that represent some interesting concepts. Initially, however, I did struggle with the software.

ZBrush can be an extremely intuitive software once artists have grasped the basics, but upon opening the program I had to follow a steep learning curve. The basic interface doesn’t follow the same line of logic as similar programs such as Maya, and it’s only through iterations and trial and error that I managed to get a grasp of the basics. To begin with, I focused on building a creature using Z-Spheres. This was the recommended process for artists new to the software and entailed me creating a model through virtual spheres. Using the edit tool, I could then move, shape and manipulate these spheres to build up my model.

In comparison to the box modelling method in Maya, I actually found this much more intuitive and responsive. I was able to build a series of models in a short period of time and explore various concepts through virtual three-dimensional models. With the move tool, I could rotate, pan and move my model around the three-dimensional space and see how the creature was developing. From here, I could change these models into mesh sculptures and see how my creature was developing.

Having the ability to quickly experiment and explore different iterations of the same creature in three dimensions was much easier in comparison to Maya, and I was able to generate a series of concepts that I then composited into design sheets in Photoshop. Using screen capture software, I was also able to document the process visually, demonstrating my quick workflow.

Obviously, there were some real challenges with learning the basics of ZBrush: it’s a program like nothing I’ve ever used before, and the main difficulty of the session was simply getting to grips with the interface and basic principles of the software. It varies largely to something like Maya or Mudbox, but I feel it’s much more easy to use and produce models to a higher quality. As a result, I will be continuing to explore ZBrush as a solution for this project. Having spoken to a tutor about this, I’ve been given the go-ahead to build and sculpt my creature using the software and I will be exploring the potential of ZBrush further in my own time.

Having produced a series of creature concepts here, I want to briefly speak about a few of these designs: the thought process behind them, and what I want to do next.

Bulky & Bulbous Insects Firstly, I want to discuss my initial few designs responding to the body shape of a bulbous scorpion and a louse creature. Going into the session, this was my initial idea for the design: a bulky, intimidating insect beast with a gruesome silhouette. Whilst these shapes are interesting, what I find the most interesting about these first set of designs is the head. The insect mandibles and sharp antennae present a dynamic and sharp silhouette to the audience. There’s some real appeal here, but looking at the creature front on there is a lack of an organic quality to the shapes. Everything feels very structured and blocky, even with the addition of the scorpion tail. I need to work in more curves to the design as a way to really embrace that organic, insect body language.

One element that I did like from these designs, however, was the bulbous area under the head. Inspired by the large red neck of the Frigate Bird, I think there’s an interesting concept here that I took further into my latter series of designs exploring a more arachnid, spider-like creature.

Four-Legged Arachnids These designs present more potential to me, I feel. Instantly, they evoke the same horror and unease as actual spiders do through the combination of a thick, large body and thin, spindly legs. Each of these designs has some interesting ideas, but it’s the circular body shapes mixed with the tall, intimidating legs that appeal to me the most.

Having shown these concepts to peers, I found that these spider-like designs were the most effective for a few reasons. Firstly, there’s a real visual contrast to what the rest of the class is doing, as I’m approaching the assignment from a monster creature perspective rather than an anthropomorphic character, who happens to be an animal. It’s this embrace of creature design and animalistic visual language that I wanted to explore for this project, so I’m happy that focus has carried over to this work.

Finally, the silhouette and concept simply seemed to resonate with my audience and it was here when I realized I needed to have the confidence to move away from my initial Trypoclawth idea and design and towards a more insect-like beast. These arachnid-inspired designs present a dynamic, sharp and unsettling silhouette that screams ‘spider’, and the bulbous circular body shapes present an appealing contrast to the spindly legs.

Having decided to focus on this type of creature, my focus will be on experimenting and developing this concept further. For this, I’ll be stepping away from ZBrush and developing illustrated sketches of a refined creature design based on these ideas. Although I want to embrace the medium and develop the creature through experimentation of form within the 3D software, I want to have a clear foundation of my design through a refined design sheet and potential poses of my creature, taken from reference images of actual insects and arachnids.

In this independent development session, I took it upon myself to learn the basics of new 3D sculpting software ZBrush and develop a series of digital concepts for an insect-inspired response to creature design. These models represent a more interesting and exciting response to the assignment, and I will be working from and developing these into a final creature design sheet next week.

As a solution for this project, I also plan to return to ZBrush to build my creature model and explore the potential of working within the software to complete the major aspects of this task. This will be a completely independent study outside of university hours and tutelage, but I’m ready for the challenge.

Next, I plan to go back to the drawing board and develop a refined creature design based on these arachnid-inspired concepts here. With this, I hope to create a revised creature design sheet exploring posing, style and shape language in preparation for modelling. Whilst this is ultimately a different design to the one explored in my maquette, I’m happy with the way this project has evolved over time and has allowed me to explore a range of ideas.

References:

Sculpting from the Imagination: ZBrush. (2016). 3D Total Publishing.

What is ZBrush. (2019). Concept Art Empire. https://conceptartempire.com/what-is-zbrush/

#ba1b:fantasticalcreatures

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mi5016caryslewis · 5 years

Text

Reflective Essay

When people used to ask me why I wanted to go into animation, my answer would usually be pretty straightforward, “I love drawing” or “I like telling stories”, and while those answers were perfectly true, over the past 2 years I’ve discovered it was a lot more than that. Animation has been incredibly present in society for a long time, not just in entertainment, but in other things like advertising, education and even science, and I think this diversity has been what sets it apart from other industries. This can be overwhelming for people going into it, and it was for me, because although I thought I had the skills to become an animator, I had no idea where I wanted them to take me. In this essay, I’d like to explore the research I’ve done on the industry, as well as my personal journey, and the future I see for myself.

Something that I knew quite early on while studying the subject was where I’d like my work to be presented, and that was in film. As much as I understand the reach that television has, and the persuasion advertising can have, I feel as though going to see a film is a much more personal experience, and that’s what draws me to it. A person will choose to go to see a film and be willing to sit in a cinema for a couple of hours, instead of flipping through channels and seeing something there. During the Research module, we’ve had multiple guest speakers discussing advertising and TV, and I didn’t feel the same sort of connection as I’d felt when I’d seen speakers discuss their work on films outside of university. A huge part of what pushed me towards the industry was seeing animated films, the most impactful being How to Train Your Dragon (2010), because of the emotional reaction it evoked. I found the fact that people could be so emotionally invested in these animated characters and their lives was so powerful, and that it was amazing that someone could be brought to tears by it. Thinking back on this now, I’m not surprised that one of my goals as an animator has become creating pieces that bring on an emotional response.

Another aspect that I believe very strongly in is the teamwork and community that goes into the animation industry, not just in film. I feel as though I’ve developed my interpersonal skills a lot being on this course, especially in the second year working with my classmates during the Animation Performance module, and it’s pushed me more in the direction of working for a company, instead of working freelance. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I work with other people, be it designing for a project that someone else models, or modelling a character that someone else will texture, and I believe that quality will be advantageous when it comes to working in a company with other creative types. Doing my research on animation companies that I’m interested in, I believe that starting out in a smaller company, such as Animade, Seed Animation, or Passion Animation, would be better for me than diving headfirst into a place like Framestore and MPC. I think that because it’ll allow me to build my experience working with a team even more before I move on to become a smaller cog in a much larger machine.

Something I’ve been struggling with during this module is what I want to be. Whether I want to be a generalist, or a specialist, and if I do want to be a specialist, what do I want to do every day? I knew that character design was something that I’ve enjoyed for a very long time, because it’s fun to create a being without any limitations, and last term I realised how much I also enjoyed modelling them and animating them. It brought me back to how I felt about film, and how a character that’s just been created from software on a computer can bring on the same reactions as watching an actual human being. Because I felt like this was something I was interested in pursuing, I brought it up during my personal tutor meeting, and we talked about how I needed to make sure I wasn’t limiting myself as I have skills in many things. This stuck with me for a few weeks, and I had to think about the job of being something like a character animator, who works on creating a few seconds of polished character animation every day, and the job of a generalist, who could be doing different things daily.

My branding was what solved this for me, because I’m someone who needs a plan. I wanted my logo to be a character, as I felt like it would attract the most attention than some vague shape or just my name. During my mid term presentation, I showed the class some logo designs I had, and the one people liked the most was a drawing I’d done of one of my characters from the character design module. I was told that the image would look strong and noticeable on a business card, and that was another push in the direction of being a character specialist. Going off the feedback I got, I started to use that logo as the base for everything else I did, taking the colours from it and turning them into my brands colours, putting them on my website design and CV. I feel like these colours work well as there’s a single strong colour, being the orange, and more muted colours like grey and off-white to compliment it.

An important part of being an artist or creative type in this generation is building connections. I set up my LinkedIn profile a while ago, but really tried to use it more during this module. I was very careful when I went to connect with people, and unless I knew them personally, or had met them, I’d always check their website or portfolio before sending the request. I wanted to build a network of people who had work that I found interesting and relevant, instead of sending connection requests to anyone in the industry. Another way to gain an online presence is using online portfolio sites like Behance, which I now use to post my work often. I find the layout and the way my work is presented on the website is very professional, and I wanted to use a website specifically for portfolios instead of another social media site that has anything on it. I also saw that multiple people I connected with on LinkedIn used Behance, as well as their own website, so I started looking into ways I could build my own one as well. I’m currently in the process of designing my site with Wix, making sure I stick to the colour scheme and branding that I’d already decided on with my logo and business card.

Networking was something that I thought I’d struggle with, as I’m a bit of an introvert, but it’s going much better than expected. One of the main ways I’ve been networking has been talking to people in person. When I tell people I’m at university, they always ask what I’m studying, and telling people I do animation always brings on an interesting conversation. When I think about networking, it reminds me of what Sam Blain, the guest speaker from Alchemy studio, said about “It’s what you know and who you know” and that quote has really stuck with me. Recently I had the opportunity to talk with Angus McKeown, the owner of Made in Colour, a smaller animation company in London, and that came about because of my family speaking about what I do, with other people. We had an informal chat about what his role in the company was, and what they do, and he really encouraged me to think about my future and what I’d like to spend my time doing. I found the discussion incredibly helpful and inspiring, and continued to talk to him over email. He told me about sites that I’d find interesting, as well as projects they were working on, and we eventually organised for me to come and visit the studio in the Summer. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and it would never have come about if I hadn’t been confident talking about what I love to do.

My showreel was probably the hardest thing for me to figure out during this module, as it’s one of the biggest ways to show my work, and what I want to be. Although I found the content of the showreel hard to manage, what stumped me the most was the title. What did I want to call myself? This brought me back to the battle between 3D Generalist, or Character Specialist. In the end, I decided that right now, I need to market myself as a 3D generalist. I’m still learning and developing skills in multiple areas, and I want to keep an open mind. However, I’m also practising my character animation using pre-rigged characters in my own time, because I would eventually like to go down the more character-based path. Something that I’ve talked about with my classmates is maybe combining the two roles, as I feel the most confident working in 3D, but I also love all things character, so in the future marketing myself as a 3D Character Specialist may be the correct way forward.

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smasheverythinggame · 5 years

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Smash Everything Post Mortem

The most important thing to remember is that Smash Everything is a game made by students. It’s a unit, and it’s graded. As such, levels of involvement, commitment, and effort vary. Some students invest great amounts of time, some are looking to do bare minimum. Which is not a complaint, merely an acknowledgement of differing priorities and circumstances, and it is the most important thing to figure out early and manage.

Despite internal issues, the project was well-managed and, although the game is not complete, turned out pretty well for a group of people who had mostly never done a project like this, who were just taking their skills learned at uni and putting them into practice.

Things that went well:

1. Character Concepts

This was the group’s first task at the beginning of the semester when motivation and interest were still high, group members were keen, and everyone still had time. We were fortunate that from the concepting there was one idea that we all liked and agreed upon.

2. Smashing

We had a prototype up and running early in order to help us decide on a definitive direction as well as test out our core mechanic – smashing - to ensure that it felt fun. This is a great way to test and prototype mechanics – make sure they feel fun on their own and then build around them. The smashing didn’t really change from its early iteration.

3. Enemy Concepts

After some struggle to get other concepts and group agreement on other aspects of the game, enemy concepting had the benefit of being streamlined based on the knowledge gained from previous pitfalls. There was a simple template made that displayed exactly what was wanted from it: 4 empty boxes, asking for a sketch in each and one potential ability that this enemy would have. All the sketches were gathered and put into a Google form to get voted on by team members. Ones with the most votes were implemented. This could have potentially gone poorly had the group liked wildly different designs, but thankfully while there were some outliers most of the votes went into the same designs.

4. Enemy Models

By the time we got to this stage, we were a bit behind in the development process from where we wanted to be and decided to simplify our enemy models to save time. It worked out really well. Rather than being detailed models with texture maps, they become blocky, solid color shapes that were still surprisingly cute and worked well within our toy theme to seem like little plastic toys.

5. Animation

There had been 2-3 weeks allotted to animation, with another 1-2 weeks as a potential backup, as we had at least 7 models and 2 animations for each enemy and 5 animations for the main character planned. Enemy animations were smashed out in a week; they were simple, but they worked and looked great. Animations for the character took a couple weeks, which was within the budgeted time, but hit a couple snags (problems with the rig, some redos, and some animations were cut entirely).

6. Music

Some groups were lucky enough to get a sound student on board for their projects, but we were not such a group. I think that may have worked out a bit in our favor regarding music, as we were able to include several different songs from a cool royalty-free library. Deciding on the style/genre of music for the game was a breeze – we all agreed we wanted something upbeat, maybe techno or K-pop-py – and song selections were spot on.

Struggles:

1. Communication

A surprisingly big issue, despite using Discord, Trello, and having in-class discussions. This issue existed for a few reasons: disagreements on the second item on this list �� the vision for the game, missed information, a lack of clarity and notes. The missed information was frustrating, as there’s no easy fix for either willfully or accidentally missing information – documents not being read was a big culprit, as they tend to be dry and boring to read, even if they do contain important information. Meetings likely would have benefitted from minutes and better note-taking, and definitely from being hard-copied and shared with everyone. Disagreements are harder, as communication is only going to continue to breakdown until everyone can get on the same page, and they aren’t necessarily easy to solve.

This could be a very long dissection of each communication issue, but instead here is how to try and avoid it: many students are shy or uncomfortable sharing with relative strangers – don’t be or force them to talk by specifically asking for their opinion. That being said, this is a course comprised of a lot of gamers and some of them have been molded by toxic communities – remind them to be respectful and considerate. If the team can’t come to an agreement, it’s up to the project manager to make a call – if the team really can’t abide by it, take it up with a higher authority, otherwise suck it up and move on, but still try to incorporate ideas from every member where possible.

2. Vision

Not being able to agree on a clear vision for the game was a long struggle that made progression a bit of a slog; unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy solve since there was no majority, just a lot of different ideas. In the end, a few different game concepts were drawn up and the team just had to pick one. It wasn’t possible to please everyone, and trying to was ultimately just wasting time.

3. Character Design

Concepts went so well it was a shock that the actual character design wasn’t smooth sailing. Once we had the concept we liked, a character turnaround came in, and suddenly it was clear that there was a big problem because the turnaround looked nothing like the concept art. There were two problems here: we didn’t have a definitive art style yet and we had skipped over some crucial steps in the design process (as going from concept to turnaround is generally a big no-no, there’s meant to be iterations in between to decide on a final look). This actually took weeks to resolve with character exploration, nailing down a look, color testing, and outfit designs. It was worth it in the end to have spent the time to do it right – no skipping steps! – as we had a character we and others really loved.

4. Levels

No one on the team was really a level designer, and our level concepts weren’t as clear as they could have been. That meant the whole level design process ended up being longer than it should have been. Concept art seemed to go better with some explanation text. Started looking at toy shop layouts and the kind of stuff that would be found in them, but realized that putting in shelves was going to be a bit problematic with our camera angle. Ultimately this was solved with a new/tweaked gameplay concept that ultimately ended up scrapped, but it introduced jumping and platforms and that stayed.

5. UI

No one on the team was really a designer or a UI designer, not even the person assigned to be the Design Lead. So we either fudged our way through it or left it really basic, where functionality exists but it could definitely use a makeover.

There was also some contention over how to structure the in-game UI. Early playtesters thought the game was something they had to do as quickly as possible and we wanted to try and correct that perception. Suspecting that the timer countdown being in the top center and therefore at the top of the visual hierarchy may have been a contributing factor, the score got moved central and the timer to the side. Players were no longer trying to speed through, but now some weren’t noticing the timer at all. This may still be solved by placing both items central, and using size to indicate hierarchy importance.

Problems, Failures, and Scraps:

1. Pipeline Processes

As mentioned earlier, students tend to want to put in the minimum amount of work required, and so one of the things that got lost in the process was the process. Workflow follows the same structure, if not always the same order, but generally looks something like references, moodboards, concepts, iterations, design polish, turnaround, final model. References and moodboards were rare to nonexistent for concepts and animation, as were iterations, polish, and turnarounds. Even enemy designs went straight from concept to final model; they turned out great, but that was truly just fortunate, and it could have gone very poorly.

2. 2D

Before Smash Everything had any kind of real identity, one of the things to decide was whether the game would be 2D, 3D, or some 2.5D mix. We had really only learned about 3D modeling and animation through our uni course, so there was good reason to go that direction. The downside being is 3D modeling, texturing, and animating can be quite lengthy – we obviously trimmed that work down to make it work. But before that was an idea, 2D was a fair solution for being quicker, especially for the amount of stuff we wanted to include. The downside being is that it meant learning new processes and software.

Compromised on 2.5D, a 2D sprite in 3D space, but ultimately it didn’t look great so 2D was scrapped altogether.

3. Enemy Behavior

Enemies were going to have all kinds of cool abilities when we were still young and naïve, like AoE slows, charges, stuns, whirlwinds, etc. That got cut pretty quick at the implementation stage, generally sticking with simple melee or ranged attacks.

One enemy had to have some drastic changes and cuts, the Snail, as originally he was meant to leave behind a trail of gas – that maybe dissipated or maybe lingered – that initially did a slow but since slows were gone it was just going to be another damaging ability of players ran through it… we just had no idea how to do it. So now he’s just harmless hammer-fodder that does his best to run away from your hammer. Slowly.

4. Skybox

This is one of those things where there is a surprising lack of tutorials on how to make one of these. Made an early skybox that was meant to be temporary as it was a bit of a fudge – made it seamless just by making a repeatable texture rather than through any skill, proper technique, or software.

5. Saving Scores

This was something mentioned in a previous blog post. Score counter, no problem. Saving scores and names, apparently not so easy. No one really knew how to do this, but for this there are tutorials, and so it should have been okay from there. Except it wasn’t. Unity allows input fields and character limits on them, so creating an input field with a 3-character limit for initials was no problem. Rather than use JSON, which may have been a bit out of our depth, went with saving scores and names in player prefs and then allowing the high score list to read from player prefs and adjust accordingly. And it worked… in the Unity editor. Once it was built, though, it was broken. Sometimes the score would save and write, sometimes, and names definitely weren’t being saved and/or written. Tried to even hardcore a cheeky fix in, but to no avail.

Not having scores save properly was a big disappointment, as scoring was kind of a big deal.

6. Smashables

Early in the game design process, Smashables were something that existed. Before we knew what we wanted to smash, it was just going to be a slew of items and inanimate objects. Even after we decided to include enemies, the Smashables idea persisted... until it didn’t. It just kind of slowly faded out of the game design as enemies were implemented, made a brief resurgence, and then just disappeared completed. No one missed them, they didn’t feel necessary, but they are one of those things that could easily fit back into the game - perhaps as a future addition.

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mukyoucom · 7 years

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Crash Bandicoot: The N. Sane Trilogy Spins to PS4 Today: Behind the Scenes with Vicarious Visions

From Playstation Blog USA

The team at Vicarious Visions are so excited that the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is finally out! And what a fun ride it has been so far. For this article, we thought it would be fun to focus on the bosses of the N. Sane Trilogy. We know that these baddies are fan-favorites, and we wanted to share our developers’ commentary about working on the characters and delving into their battles.

Kara Massie, Producer at Vicarious Visions: What is the favorite Crash Bandicoot boss that you worked on?

Paulo Dionisio, Lead Boss Designer: The Crash Bandicoot Cortex boss fight, because of the layer of the Aka Aku v Uka Uka battle on top of the Cortex battle, and the three stages of their fight. This makes each phase feel different even though the base mechanic is the same. And in later phases the auto-aim gets turned off, all of which makes this battle feel fun and varied.

Danny Williams, Character Modeler: Papu Papu. Our rendering engine allowed for enhanced butt technology!

James Weir, Character Modeler: Cortex, of course. He’s iconic and has such fun shapes to work with.

Cory Turner, Character Modeler: Tiny Tiger. He has crazy proportions (don’t skip leg day!) and an insane amount of fur. He’s very fluffy.

KM: Which updates did you make that you are happiest with?

Chad Hamlet, Character Modeler: N. Gin’s mechs. I added an actual cockpit so now N.Gin is actually doing things during the fight. And there are tons of details added, like whirling turbines, missile pods, and other things allowing for secondary animations.

JW: It was especially fun and challenging to work with the animators on Cortex in order to deliver what they needed to give him great facial animations. The originals mostly featured him all-teeth and snarling due to technical constraints of the time, but now we can really dial into a bigger range of performance.

PD: The Tiny Tiger fight in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped. There are a lot of lovely small moments and details added to this fight, because it was clear that Naughty Dog would have done it if they were remaking these with today’s tech. Like when Tiny grabs the trident, we made it more physical as if it really was being grabbed. The audience has reactions to the fight, for example. Note how they do the wave when the lions come out; and when Tiny gets defeated, they throw tomatoes.

You can take your frustrations out on Tiny at the end of the fight as well, that’s new! There’s also a little Easter egg for those fans that know about the sneaky exploit from the original. Also, listen closely to the lions when you jump on them.

KM: Which boss fight is the hardest to beat?

PD: The original third game’s Cortex boss battle. I mean, this is the last fight so that’s to be expected. But there are a lot of layers of gameplay and during each phase, they change. Interestingly, the fight is hardest at the middle, but the tension doesn’t decrease.

KM: What makes Crash Bandicoot boss fights interesting?

PD: They don’t necessarily have any conceptual or mechanical tie back to the levels just been playing. Which makes them feel like a nice break, and you can see that Naughty Dog really wanted to make them feel cinematic.

KM: What sources of inspiration did you draw upon for creating the boss models?

DW, JW, CT, CH: For one, the original designs. And with these, it was trying to understand if shapes and angles were due to limitation in polygon counts, or were intentional. We looked at the original concept art to try to get an idea of the intentions. Promotional renders were also a source of inspiration. You play and watch the battles as well. I mean, how else do you know what you need for details, range of motion, what needs to destruct or spin or whatever.

We also watched animated feature films for inspiration and to look at some archetypes, especially for facial studies. We studied other remasters/remakes, particularly ones where there was a long(ish) break between the games. We really tried to understand that point at which you’ve gone too far from refining to re-inventing. We also reviewed each other’s work, as a team, because we learn a lot from each other.

You’re having a party at your house. Which Crash boss do you invite over?

JW: Dr. N. Brio, because he could mix up some tasty beverages. CT: …and Dingodile because he’ll bring his own BBQ. CH: Dr. N. Tropy seems like a snob. He’d bring good food, I bet. PD: Dr. Neo Cortex, because I bet he has a lot of crazy stories to tell.

Which boss is most like you?

DW: Papu Papu, because we share the same silhouette. JW: Koala Kong, and ditto.

The original Crash Bandicoot games came out in the mid-to-late 90s, what were you doing back then?

PD: I was in high school studying hard. I wanted to be either an aerospace engineer or a video game designer. JW: High School! I moved around a lot, but I always drew and I always knew I wanted to get into games. I was taking a side class in AutoCAD and teaching myself 3ds Max. CH: I was in art school studying how to be a comic book artist. I had a mohawk, and I was a manager at a Taco Bell. CT: I was in middle school when the original Crash Bandicoot games came out. My best friend had a PlayStation so we’d hang at his house and play it. I was into drawing mascot characters, even back then. DW: In ’96 I was in college trying to learn how to do this stuff. In ’97, I dropped out to work at an animation studio, to learn how to do this stuff. And from ’98 until now, I’m still trying to learn how to do this stuff!

KM: Who would you like to give some shoutouts to?

DW: Big props to our riggers for being open-minded and willing to experiment with the rigging tools. This was so key to help us nail the cartoony silhouettes. They worked really hard on getting the facial and eye rigs to work for what we all needed. And also our rendering engineer, Ace! JW: Bless Ace! We gave him such a hard time in order to get the fur working right. Each time we’d ask for a new feature he’d nonchalantly say, ‘Hmm…’ and come back the next day with it working. CH: The fan reaction to the boss video was cool. CW: Yeh, I love it when they notice all the little things. Like the fact that Tiny has tighty whities!

The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is now available on PlayStation 4 as a physical disc or a digital download, and we can’t wait for you to experience it! We hope you have as much fun playing it as we did working on it. Thank you for being such a huge part of what we do, and let us know what you think about the game!

activisioncrash bandicootcrash bandicoot: the n-sane trilogyPlayStation 4playstation games

The post Crash Bandicoot: The N. Sane Trilogy Spins to PS4 Today: Behind the Scenes with Vicarious Visions appeared first on Ship 2 Block 20.

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