Senior Portfolio Fall Week 7

Senior Portfolio Post 7

10/18/2018

For this week, I have once more continued work on the fight sequence.  More holds and time overall have been added to the scene.  Once again, the impact of interactions between the two characters have been a point of challenge.  However, I think the extra time added has helped me gain a better understanding.  There is now more emphasis on action and reaction, and the ending sequence has been updated.

https://youtu.be/G1y9xgbqABo






A new project I have begun planning out is a showcase for messages made out of Lego pieces.  These animations are being created to be shown off at a convention in a few months.  The goal is to really push the use of Lego characters and objects and get closer to official marketing material.  This will eventually become multiple scenarios with different messages, but the concept overall is the same.  Characters will build or interact with a large-scale message in the scene.  More objects may be brought in as further progress is made.  So far, I have only set up the scene, bringing in the objects to be primarily featured (as far as I have planned) and given the most attention.  More and more objects will be brought in to make the scene more final, that will come when necessary.  This project won't be the main focus of my work for quite some time, but I wanted to get started early so development is not rushed.

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 6

Senior Portfolio Post 6

10/11/2018

This week, I made progress on the previous weeks' project featuring two Lego characters fighting. I have continued to spline and cushion the movements throughout the scene.  Specific impacts and non-impacts between the characters have been a bit of a challenge conveying to the camera, but suggestions from the past critique have helped.  The camera itself has been shifted around ever so slightly to find the best angle of viewing the animation.  More work is also being done to create a definitive beginning and end to the scene.  So far, the scene is open to have more actions added in, but whether or not such will happen depends on how the initial animation reads.

https://youtu.be/Q8hVShp-YFg


I have also done a quick test to see how the scene works while animated on twos.  There is not much of a difference, and overall it seems choppy without some tweaks.  I may play around with this idea in future incarnations to get closer to a more stylized movie.

https://youtu.be/_UtHS5dIClE

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 5

Senior Portfolio Post 5

10/4/2018

This week I have begun a new long-term animation.  This animation projects involves multiple Lego characters interacting in a scenario.  One is a brief fight scene where two characters are interacting directly.  I feel the big challenge here is emphasizing the motions and impacts, as well as making the contact between objects seem realistic.  There is a lot more to keep track of even with two figures as simple, as their movements are.  Tricks with the camera may come into play here.  Overall, this is the next step in testing the waters with this style of animation.  This project will take time and development for some weeks, hopefully rounding out into a good showcase of skills.

https://youtu.be/98zPtQ3Yu-4

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 4

Senior Portfolio Post 4

9/27/2018

For this week I went back to basics of animation and focused on a basic walk cycle.  I wanted to see how familiar I was with controls in Maya, seeing if I could add more finesse to a walk in relation to cycles I have made in past years.  I thought this would be a good starting point if I decide to do more animations of the same style for future entries in this class blog.  I continued to use the Jack rig, and plan to do so for at least the first few string of weekly animations.

https://youtu.be/Oiipoe-vLeE



I continued to build up my idle animation with more fluidity and tweaks to make things more readable as well.  I may do slight variations with the same base.  That way I can stay consistent overall, but also pull from different references.  This first idle animation doesn't quite follow any reference.  This second idle is made to look wacky and sways much wider than the first.

https://youtu.be/iB95WAsa7j4

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 3

Senior Portfolio Post 3

9/20/2018

For this week I have worked on another short animation with the same style of Lego based characters from the past few weeks.  The first animation features a landing sequence following a brief flight sequence.

Version 1

https://youtu.be/LY4MYyaouqM




Version 2

https://youtu.be/U-0eD7A2eH4



Another shot animation I have done work on focuses more on humanoid game animation.  I have put together a quick idle animation.  To balance out my experimentation with unique character animation, I plan to also do short game animations.  For these animations I am using the Jack rig from the BodyMech rig pack.  For future reference I may also use other rigs from the pack.

https://youtu.be/e46YhM1BizI

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 2

Senior Portfolio Post 2

9/13/2018

This week I've primarily focused on making sure the character models I described initially work properly.  A considerable amount of work was put into stress-testing these semi-custom character rigs.  I've made a few more videos demonstrating certain actions and capabilities of the characters. The first video is a simple animation of the Lego character throwing a shield with a bit of flair.  The second is a landing animation by another character.

Shield Throw

https://youtu.be/3sXOAoLVx0U


Jump Landing

https://youtu.be/zEZ4UBqWRbA

Senior Portfolio Fall Week 1

Senior Portfolio Post 1 

9/6/2018

For the first week of portfolio work, I put together a short animation clip exploring the initial ideas I had for the semester.  This short clips show off a few Lego characters demonstrating movements.  The main challenge here is animating dynamic and effective movement with respect to the limited movement of a real life Lego character.  While there are fewer parts to animate on a single figure, it also means a tougher way to convey more complex animation.

https://youtu.be/C-pLzJb4Mpo



In addition, I have compiled a selection of animation projects form previous courses in the CAGD major.  Overall, I think the best course of action to take while filling out my portfolio this semester would be to experiment within scenes, game animation, and other types in between.  Practicing in both fields and having variety in my animations is key.

A box weight lift
https://youtu.be/NbM9z-tDVrQ



Quick Game Animation Compilation
https://youtu.be/ILbfovN2Wmk