Kimberley Davis: Major - Submission Post: Final Animation, Reflective Statement and Links

Final Reflective Statement

When starting the Major Project, there was still quite a lot of work left over from Minor for the planned final animation. When reviewing the workload and looking back over the animatic, a decision was made to leave the rigging for the “Pipe-Dwellers” until a good portion of the animation was done. As animating is my main area of interest as a career pathway, I wanted to try and create some good solid animation rather than rush everything and run out of time. The animation itself was quite a challenge and took more time than I had originally allocated, but seeing it develop made me want to keep pushing forward to try and get the best results I could. Although I did use some referencing for the extreme movements, I did struggle to stick to them due to the “Stealer’s” rig limitations, meaning most of it was freestyled. Looking back on this aspect, I would have liked to have improved the rig first before animating so I could really incorporate the references into the animation like a professional would have. As a result, I feel that I had managed to achieve the animation I set out to create to a high standard and am quite happy with the final outcome.

Another area that I felt went well was the post-compositing stage. Taking on my tutors and peers’, feedback of using rendering layers worked out to my advantage in the long run. Utilizing the render layer system meant a reduction in rendering times and gave me the time I needed to start rigging the “Pipe-Dwellers”. Rendering layers also meant I had more control over areas such as colour correction/ saturation and re-rendering any individual components. If the rendering was done as a whole scenes, some would have taken a day or two to complete, whereas using this method took only a few hours. This is a lesson I intend to take forward with me when working on my own projects in the future.

Although the “Pipe-Dwellers” did not make it into the final animation, looking through a few different tutorials enabled me to learn a new way of rigging a character. Relatively similar to rigging a biped, IK’s seemed to have a much greater involvement when coming to quadrupeds due to grounding 4 legs. This was very helpful as it taught me how to successfully use colour blend nodes to incorporate an IK/FK switch (this was placed in the tail rather than the legs due to time). Also, as the “Pipe-Dwellers” have hand like paws, creating a separate control allowed for more movement in the fingers/ toes. Using a spline IK in the spine along with some scripting produced stretchy joints and permitted for some more exaggerated movements when posing the character. Even though this ability wasn’t really used, it was still an invaluable lesson to learn. I’m quite proud of this outcome of this character, but sadly I was unable to place corrective bendshapes due to rigging the skeleton before skinning. This problem makes the character not suitable for animation but works well to capture its cheeky personality when placing into animated poses.

Referring to areas that could have been improved, I found lighting to be very challenging even with some lighting style references and tutorials. Each scene had to be lit individually and then transferred to the next scene to be modified. At first this was working out ok, but I found my patience quickly running out towards the end. This way of working caused a lot of fiddling around and some scenes ended up being too dark or too light, leading to a couple of re-renders. However, I did learn a lot when it came to using the light editor and light/object linking, making sure that the “Sock-Stealers” lighting affect only it’s geometry and not the room. If I was to approach this project again in the future, I want to try and make sure the lighting is correct before attempting any animation, making little tweaks only when needed.

Overall, I feel that this project has had led a successful outcome and like the previous ones, I have learnt many valuable lessons to take forwards with me into the future. One of the biggest being to make my models a complete mesh and use texturing to create stylised aspects, such as stitched seems. Using separate meshes should only be used when necessary or in areas that will hide seems well, such as scarfs and baggy tops. Although being an animator is the path I would like to pursue as a career, I want to keep expanding my knowledge in multiple areas of the pipeline so not become tunnel visioned, continuing to create my own stories/characters/worlds.

Reflecting over the last three years, a part of me is happy to be completing my degree and a part of me quite sad. Happy to start adventuring out into the exciting path ahead but sad because going to university has been, although difficult at times, an enjoyable time in my life. There has been a range of life changing experiences, from a world pandemic and personal challenges to fun times chatting, laughing, and learning with my peers. I have met many creative and inspiring individuals in my time at university that I hope to meet again in the future, hopefully to work alongside with. These experiences have made me feel a little more confident in who I am as a person and even though I know I will continue to get anxious at times, I know it will all work out fine in the end.

Links

Jacket Rigging

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/01/major-jacket-testing-01.html

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/01/major-adding-rivets-to-jacket-and.html

SFX and Room Rigging

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/01/major-twinkle-maps-and-curtain-movements.html

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-moon-render-experiment.html

Animating:

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-opening-scene-01.html

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-opening-scene-plus-musc-02.html

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-animation-progression-01.html

https://kimberleydavis32.blogspot.com/2022/02/major-animation-progression-02.html