September 11 Second Club- Final

I have to say, I'm really chuffed on having completed this animation which I had planned out. I know that may not sound much to you guys but, I never really though I'd be able to animate something like this a few weeks ago. Though clearly, there is much need of improvement, I'm happy with where and how far I have come from.

I know that I could improve this later on and make it look better but, I wanted to put myself in a restrictive deadline as though I can't improve and that, I've only got one shot at this. This way, I could put pressure on myself and try and remember all the skills which I had learnt, and try to apply it to my character. I could definitely now take a step back and look at, where I need to improve.

Another reason why I'm looking at this project from a restrictive deadline is because the deadline for this project is on Sunday, as it's a competition. I therefore won't be able to have anymore time to improve it as I've got work which I can't avoid.

A few things which I need to improve are like, lip syncing, the shape of the mouth for the dialogue, adding subtle animation principles and so on.

I'm not looking to win to be honest, though I may have it as a goal, when I've reached to a certain point with my animation skill. But, right now, I'm mainly looking for feedback and constructive criticism, as well as the animating side. So, I really can't wait to start animating my next project really as, I had fun with this project. See you next time.

AndyCodex Animation

September 11 Second Club Project

This is just a quick update on what I'll be working on in a very short period of 2-3 days. So, I had been thinking of doing the September 11 second club competition for quite some time during this month but, because of preparation for uni, I had to postponed it. I was going to decide to give up and continue on another project which I had already started. I then thought that this would be the wrong choice, as whether or not the animation which I'll produce may not be, up to scratch; it'd be good to get some feedback from the community.

Morpheus Rig

This would also give me a chance to review myself on where as an animator, I am at the moment. Like I said from a previous post, " I can't just stop and wonder, what I could've achieved and have pure regret, on the opportunity which I had missed out on'. Plus, I know that the only way to become better is to learn from my mistakes.

I think the hands are too big, but will focus on the animating side instead for now

The images which is posted with this blog, are some of the few blocked out poses which I had begun, for this September competition. I still got a-lot to do but hopefully, I'd would've blocked it all out by tonight and, begin breaking down the animation sequence and begin refining it, as I progress further on.

Blocking out each poses

I only have to the end of September to finish this, which doesn't really give me a chance to improve. However, it's a good test for myself to see how much, I've learned from the Digital tutors and apply theories from various of books I've read, early this September. I also think with this tight deadline, it will really bring out the best of my skills and show where I'm still weak at.

AndyCodex Animation

Final Year Begins

Hey there, I'm back to university for my last and final year, ecstatic and worried at the same time (chuckle). Before I return though, we were asked to write up a proposal for which we could negotiate with our tutors. This can be anything, from stop-motion, 2D animation and so on. If you've been following this blog, you've noticed that I've been trying to become a 3D animator and thats exactly, what my proposal will be based on.

For this project of mine, I'm hoping to be able to animate a character with an audio file, where I will try and put it in a situation, which it will try and overcome. At the same time, I really want to make the audience empathise with the character.

My tutor will elaborate further about this project, so what I'm typing up right now, may change but, I doubt it would change significantly with what I have planned out. So, my learning outcomes would be the following:

- to give a believable performance, through inner impulse emotions
- to produce a theatrical short with my character
- to be able to lip-sync my character very fluidly
- to make my audience feel empathy with my character

Over the past summer, I know I've struggled with learning how to animate and I still do; evidently my side project for the 11 second club. Though you can't be successful after a few tutorials as it takes time (years......), I realise where my strengths comes into play when working on an animation.

 I can analyse the graph editor which used to look like a mathematician would only understand and remove any dead keyframes that are visible.  I could apply most of the animation principles e.g. secondary action, anticipation to the character. Can't really think anymore with my strengths, as I don't really like saying what I do know, as though I'm boasting so...I'm going to leave it as that.

To ensure that I'm able to hit all of my learning outcomes, I'd need to do several things such as:

- continue reading on animation theories and look at case studies (previous animation)
- do a handful of small tests with audio files
- attend to live performances e.g. theatres so that I can capture real life situations of characters and see their expressions.
- learn more tutorials of how to animate in 3D software
- produce an effective storyboard for extreme poses for the character as well as live reference

Going to be interesting

Well, I guess thats it. I've been under the radar this whole month more or less, as I ran into a few problems, when I started animating myself for the 11 second club, for this current month. I then, knew that something was wrong with it, so I decided to focus on reading the books which I've purchased during the summer and it's definitely paid off, as it had helped me type this proposal up as well as planning on future animations. So, I'll see you next time!

AndyCodex Animation

Facial Animation

Well, I didn't get through as much tutorials as I would've have liked this summer but, I feel as though the ones I did really helped me to understand a-lot more about how to animate in 3D, in this case Maya. So, I decided to follow another facial animation tutorial, as the last one I did one, was quite a while ago, so I needed to do another, to refresh my memory. Plus this one was a-bit more complex, but shorter.

The tutorial I believe was a-lot shorter but, that didn't really matter when I was learning from this, as I kind of knew what to do, and how to refine each poses by looking at the graph editor. It was really encouraging when I just paused the video and just tried to sort out the problems myself, as my animation wasn't exactly the same as the one Digital tutors had produced.

There were times however which I felt unsure though, such as when the character shakes her head, or how to give a better arc when the head is turning. Resolving these problems took a-while, where trial and error was used over and over again.

Well, this was the last tutorial which I'm going to learn from Digital Tutors for a-while. The real challenge is to now try and animate myself. So, hopefully, I'll be posting them soon in the following week. With these tests, I'll be ready for my final year at Uni! (I Hope)

AndyCodex Animation