Christmas and the rest of the Holidays

Hey there, hope everyone is enjoying the holidays so far. It's been a busy month and I'm really going to regret enjoying it, as I have a major dissertation that I have to write up which, I have to hand in more or less first week back to uni. But, hey, I'll somehow manage to get it done (fingers crossed).

So other than panicking on my dissertation, I tried to ease my mind on doing something creative and at least expand my knowledge on some 3D work. I then decided to go back to doing some Cinema 4D work and found this really refreshing.

So, thanks to watching a few tutorials, I was able to make this Christmas card.

Christmas in a few days!

Pretty neat, as I enjoyed the modelling side. It feels more complex to how I would model in Maya, but at the same time, really interesting to learn. I would like to learn more about Cinema 4D to be honest, as i really like the kind of work which is made used from it. But, it feels more of a hobby rather than something I would like to make a carreer of. But you never know, I may change my mind about that.

I also made the following image below, which I'm really quite pleased with. This was kind of accidental as I had been following a tutorial at the time. Soon, one thing led to another and I was able to make this.

The Beast

Before the holidays has finished and I'm back at university to start on my final project, I would like to work on a few more tests on my character animation, particularly the lip sync area. This has really bugged me from the previous animations which i had produced, as now and again, the animation would appear out of sync.

So, I hope everyone will enjoy the rest of holidays and I'll see you next time

Destiny Animation Part 3 Final

After more or less none stop working around the clock, I had got to a stage where I was happy enough to render out my animation. Below you'll find the final animation.

My Destiny from Andy mo on Vimeo.

I was content with what I had achieved, and noticed a real value when you focus on the character performance first, rather than on the lip sync. But, as much as I'm "content" with this animation, I've noticed a few moments in the animation where it seemed a-bit off. This is probably due to Maya, where I had just relied on it, to re-align the key frames from 24fps to 30fps automatically. Never a good idea.

I had shown this animation to my peers and they also suggested some improvements for my animation as I could've have made the body movements a-lot more simpler, rather than this all over the place the character was in. I then did a stepped animation in Maya where you can view below.

The only problem which kept coming up for me, was animating the slamming part of the audio. It was something which I couldn't really figure out how to solve. I then decided to leave this, as I was running out of time.

Overall, I've really enjoyed this project and hope to continue practicing my skills as an animator.

AndyCodex Animation

Destiny Animation Part 2

Hey there. So, after doing some video references for my animation, I then moved onto figuring out my key poses. I then looked at my video references and scanned through. This is a worflow of mine which I had been doing for the past animations.

I however, also then decided to take on board what an animator has suggested. He would draw out some of the poses from his live reference, where he could then later visually see his key poses, based off his drawings. I had then done this and have found it to be really effective and useful.

Blocked out pose

After finding out my key poses, I then decided to start animating in Maya and begin blocking out my key poses. This took a while, as now and again I would change the poses a-bit, as I thought it didn't look right.

I continued animating and then got to a stage where I needed to take a step back from my work and, ask from other people on what they thought of it so far. This is definitely recommended, as you could sometimes be missing something and not realise before it's too late.

I got my feedback from my classmates whom were very constructive with what they had said. So, there was no time to waste, and I just carried on animating.

When I neared to the end of my animation, I then rendered my scene. But, I had encountered a very big problem with my animation at this point. I had not realised this, that the audio, was running 30fps rather than 24fps, which I was animating on. I had at the time lost 3-4 seconds worth of animation. Luckily, Maya was quite forgiving and when I put the time-frame to 30fps, it kind of automatically placed my key-frames in their correct place, without me having to do anything.

Disaster Adverted

More work are going to be posted within a few minutes. 

AndyCodex Animation

Destiny Animation Part 1

Hey there, for my next animation I'm going to try and focus more on character performance, as the past two animations which i had done, wasn't exactly strong enough in terms with poses. Unlike the past two animations as well, I decided not to have entered the past 11 second competition from November. I could therefore focus, on one character rather, than two characters.

I had then chosen an audio from the series "Lost" spoken by the character "Locke". I personally chose this, as at the time I was feeling a-bit down with the animation feedback which I had receieved. So, I then went with something a-bit more dramatic and something more motivational.

I then just went with the usual process, where I analysed the audio over and over again. I then acted this out with the audio as well as a version, where I just read from the lines.

You can see the difference between, the two videos, where the one which I say the lines to, seems to have a much more emotional feeling. The reason for this was because, I had been reading the book called "The Intent to Live" by "Larry Moss", on which I had applied the exercises from his book, into my acting.

Though I was quite happy with what I had acted out, I still felt something was a-bit off. I then re-acted the scene over again, until I was happy with what I had got.

I'll be posting what I did next in a few minutes.

AndyCodex Animation

Showreel and Update

Well, there has been some radical changes to this blog as I feel I'd no longer, want to show past work from my 1st and 2nd year of university. That's really the major change. I've now set up a new domain website, which I'll post after I've submitted my work, in a few weeks time.

Anyway, I've made a really quick showreel above, but it'll soon be updated after I've completed a few animations, later on. Right now, it's a really good look on where I stand as an animator, and where I need to improve.

I'll be posting some work, on my final animation within a few days time. So keep a look out on this blog.

AndyCodex Animation

October 11 Second Club Competition Final

The past couple of weeks, has been quite a draining experience. I was really pleased with what I was then able to achieve, from brainstorming and annotating the audio file given, to the final end product, an animation. Below you'll find the final piece.

I was able to complete a first draft for my animation a few days early and get some initial feedback. However, the problem I then had with this was, I had University lessons conflicting, with what I could potentially have free time, to improve my animation. So a-lot of the points raised when I had asked my classmates and peers, about how to improve my animation, I couldn't add. I then instead tried to re-fine and polish areas with the limited time, as best as possible.

For my next project it'll be for my final animation for my university module, as I only have a month left.  , till my deadline. But, I will still be doing another 11second club competition for November alongside with the upcoming project I have planned, as I believe that this will continue to push my skill as an animator plus, it's a good way to learn and get into practice to working towards deadlines. So I'll see you next time and Happy Halloween.

AndyCodex Animation

October 11 Second Competition Part 3

Hey guys, it's been a while. I've just finished my first draft for this month's October competition, where unlike last time, I didn't have enough time to get feedback from people, so I can improve it. Though, there's not really much time to improve, however, I'm in a better position than I was, last month.

What I'm really hoping is that the people which I'll ask for improvements, can give me a fresh perspective on my animation. Therefore say for example, the facial lip sync is a-bit off, or how the character body performance isn't really smooth enough. These comments will really help me improve my final animation, when I'll render in a couple of days time.

It's been a long week but, I loved every second of it. Animating for this competition really felt like I have progressed a-bit more in terms with my, animation skills. I've learnt from my previous animation what to do and don't, and it's really rewarding how this month animation has turned out. Though it's not to say that I haven't nailed it. So, I'll have the final one uploaded soon. Bye.

AndyCodex Animation