Creating smoke. Here's what we have so far...

Just a wee update, there's a lot more coming soon!

Arianna: Rigging

Now that I have the low poly model, I have began rigging the little girl. So far I have just put in a basic skeleton, and a couple of controls on the arm.

I have also been looking into giraffe skeletons. I have found a couple of good resources. Looking at the actual skeleton of giraffes has been really useful, as well as having a look at Dr. Stuart Sumida's notes from his guest lecture.

I would describe our bump with the following tags:
energetic, chaotic, playful, wonderland, imagination, creativity.

Ruby: Pre-Production, Stage 1

Began character design work while we were still figuring out a visual style, so our main character went through a few changes other than the original base, which I felt was solid and appealing.

Started to get more of an idea of the style we wanted and the age of the audience, (5-6 years) and started tailoring the design for that. Looked at the proportions of young girls for inspiration but didn't adhere to them too rigidly - wanted an exaggerated feel ie. very large head, short limbs... Below are some examples of the research I did and my interpretations.

 

Child Rapunzel (2:09-4:07)
Dia de los Muertos
Child Merida (1:40 onward)

I tried not to go off of other people animation too much and instead drew mostly from life, as has been advised to us by numerous lecturers.

Timelapses of children growing up:
Lotte
Vince
Natalie

This is the design that got ok'd with advice from the lead modeller, I played with contour-less legs for a more 2D style feel but it was pointed out how badly that would deform, so I went with slight definition instead.

Katie: Blend shapes and balloons

In the second half of this week, I focused on the technical aspects of my role. I did a quick test using blend shapes to create the transition from normal houses to 'wacky' and found it worked well.

The limitation with this method is that the topology of the two house designs must be the same for it to blend properly, so I will have to find other solutions in order to create the more detailed aspects of the houses. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fcNZ_Jx_S4&feature=youtu.be 

Until I have a finished model to test, I cannot do much more on this topic so I decided to move onto my balloon script for now. I decided to use a script for this aspect of the bump as it is the easiest way to create a large number of objects. I started by making a list of properties that the script must have, such as edittable speed, start&end points, number of balloons, and most importantly that all aspects are slightly randomised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBi3zwKAXg

This image shows the motion paths of the balloons. I started by settings them out in a grid and then randomising their starting position and the points on the curve. I think this technique will work very effectively for the bump, although if I was planning on showing the balloons high up in the air I would have to consider wind etc.

Finally, I put together a rough schedule to follow for the length of our project. It is not finalised yet but it gives us a good indication of the overall pipeline and deadlines.

Katie: Reference gathering

This week I worked on a few different tasks. I started by gathering reference images and videos to help refine our design style. I mostly looked at cartoons and children's shows as that is the sort of content that our bump will be shown around.

I gathered about 50 reference images in total, here are a few of my favourites:

I also looked at clips from various cartoons and films:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZiB_S9VpiU 0:00-0:10 Foster's home for imaginary friends 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajyzr1aAJ8M&feature=youtu.be&t=2m29s 2:29-2:35 Danny Phantom
http://vimeo.com/9383918 0:00-3:00ish A pilot for a cartoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1NLzBGJavc&feature=youtu.be&t=40s 0:00-2:10ish Up! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxYsO3LBxuQ&feature=youtu.be&t=30s Donald duck 0:30-1:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQhCvOIjNU&feature=youtu.be&t=1m30s Adventure time 1:30-2:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toDjyx4abt8&feature=youtu.be&t=16sInvader Zim 0:17-0:21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3F5SHvkERQ&feature=youtu.be&t=45s Jimmy neutron 0:45-0:55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiqS6J_A6Jc Toy Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zh8nyl7wA0 Heroes - Hiro discovers New York

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRjB8PEDkM Mary and Max - Brilliant grey + dreary style

I also put experimented with using Prezi, a website use for online presentations and collaborations, to share resources and brainstorm ideas within my group, however it was decided that it would be better to minimize the number of platforms that we use. You can see on here more of the images that I gathered.

Using all this research I put together a short 'design ethos' for our project, a task that each member of the group has been set so that we end up with one cohesive design style that we can follow for the length of the project. To help, I first brainstormed a list of words that come to mind when I think about my project:

-Fun, energetic, action-packed, quirky, cartoon, bright, imagination, daydream, children, escapism, awe, wonder, amazement, magic, stylized, ages 5-8, toybox, wacky.

-A fun, energetic bump that shows a child's imagination run wild, turning her monotonous cul-de-sac into a bright, wacky town straight out of her favourite cartoons.

Laura: First Attempt of Modelling from the Finalized Drawings

I started blocking in the character. I like to use Zbrush for most of the modelling process even for relatively simple characters as I find it a quicker process than point pushing in Maya. I switch back and forth between the programs using GoZ in order to tweak aspects and to create things like the jumper with topology I liked and a mouth cavity and throat. 

I noticed the character's face wasn't reading very well at this stage and that the eyes looked somewhat buggy. I asked for 3/4 drawings to try and better understand how she should look from this angle. We also looked at similarly stylised 3d characters to see how others had handled eyes. I initially used spheres for the eyes as I have previously with realistic characters but this wasn't working.

I made new eyes in Maya where the iris was a concave shape. I also slightly flattened the eyes and separated the pupil. All this will also help with how the light hits the eyes later on and in shader assignment. I roughly painted a placeholder texture to allow me to visualize how they should sit in the head a little better.

The images below show how the new eyes sit in the character's head better and how I have rounded out the face and started working on the folds around the eyes. She seems to look much cuter now. 

Laura: Practice Mesh to Visualize Original Proportions

I decided to make a base mesh with Zspheres based on the initial concept drawings as a practice and to see how the character looked in 3d. The child originally looked a little older in the drawings and this is reflected in my initial base meshes. I also practiced how I could make the low topology version of the character within Zbrush using the retopology tools. The left image shows the progress I made. Though unfinished, it has animatable topology and I feel it is good practice for later when I create the final version of the character.

Ruby: Rough Storyboards & Animatic

These are the rough storyboards we collaborated on as a group on post-it notes. While short-hand we as a group understand the shots represented and the exercise helped us get to grips with an initially confusing concept.

I then put these into animatic form using Photoshop for a vague if not entirely precise idea of the piece's timing. I'm going to redraw and possibly rework some of the shots to create more comprehensive storyboards (plus animatic) but this helps to get an idea of what we're working towards.

Jack: My pitch for the short anim description

An animated world that is propelled from bleakness and boredom to excitement and energy. At the whim of a child who's imagination has been released wonderful creatures jump forth to decorate the blank canvas! Anything that can be dreamed can become reality in this fantastical visual treat for any children ages 5-8.

Jack: Biplane model progress

Here what I have so far...

Working plane tail fin

Biplane side view

Biplane (almost) complete

I have just to add a couple of fins to the wings to enable the plane to turn accurately and that's about it. Any other observations?

Jack: First paint tests

A thicker more 'clumpy' emission, too slow

A quick look at a few experiments I did playing with emitters and settings like viscosity etc.

Just a starting place for the possibility of paint...

Arianna: Inspiration

These are some pictures that I thought would be useful in our initial phase of pre-production. While they might not be what we are looking for, they could have been of help to figure out what we don't want our style to resemble. Exploring other artists' styles is often a great source of inspiration.
As we are working on a 3D animation, I also had a look at some Maya tutorials, to see if I could find some fun ways to busy the scene. This is an element I came across that I really liked:


Flying Arrows in Maya from Ryan Boyle on Vimeo.

I have also started modelling, beginning with a very basic yoyo:

Katie: Let's get started!

Welcome to our blog! We'll be using this as a platform to record all the steps along the way to completing our major project - a 20 second bump for kid's tv currently titled 'Colour Your World'.

To start off the project I gathered together some references, created a rough storyboard, and an initial concept  for the overall feeling of the bump to use in my pitch. I focused on the contrast between the two versions of the set using texture and lighting as well as the colour palette.