Animation Direction AM50309 -6: Week 8

So this week I've decided that I need to get more people involved in helping out my project. I already have Laura Emmerman helping me out with some of the foley sounds eg. Ocean and water, but I need more people to help with other parts of the project eg. Poster design and voice acting.

To promote my project, I have decided to post up flyers in various parts of the uni faculties eg. The animation and graphics departments. I have made it so that if people are interested, they can rip off a ticket with my contact details on it.

I have also been working on Fishbone's trident in maya. As my narrative revolves around Fishbone's mistake of bringing a coconut to life, my design process was to make the trident look more superior than the character who welds it. It is also supposed to signify Fishbone's lack of understanding of the weapon, which I think adds to his personality.

I originally envisioned the trident to have dents and bumps to show it's age. However, I tested the texturing using a preset mia_material, and it produced a far better quality. I also wanted the trident to have a unique silhouette, so I added the wing-like metal at the bottom.

Front

Side

Perspective

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 7

This past week I have decided to make the finishing touches to the floating rocks and also make a start on the ocean shader. 

I decided to make final checks to each rock to make sure that the bump mapping looked right on each one. I also added the palm trees on them, and bended each one so as to avoid them looking to stiff. I'm not quite sure how I will animate them yet, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.                 

Andward Arts Presents

                 

CocoNUTS!!!

Floating Island

Side

Front

Top

Bottom

Regarding my ocean shader, my original thought was that I would have to create it from scratch. As creating water in maya is very difficult, I wasn't sure whether to carry on with the original concept. Thankfully, I discovered a pre made ocean shader in the software that allowed me to apply  a map with an ocean texture on it. It can also be animated as well, which made things far more easier. This took down my production time significantly, and I decided to focus my time on making the waves look appropriate for the final animation.

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 6

I'm continuing with the modelling process, this time creating the second title card for the animations name, CocoNUTS!!!.

As with the other two rocks, I followed the same process of creating a basic model in maya, exporting it to mudbox to apply basic texturing and then utilising photoshop to finish off the final details. Like with the other title card, it was fairly easy to texture due to the simple shape. I also followed the same process of making normal maps with CrazyBump.

Before

After

I enjoyed creating all of the rocks, as it was a way of letting me develop my texture and bump mapping skills. It also taught me valuable shortcuts to save modelling time, which I plan on using for future projects.

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 5

In order to give my film a bit more of a visual impact, I decided to give my film a unique title sequence so as to intrigue the viewer. I have never done anything like this for any of my other projects, so I wanted to try it out for this one.

I first started creating the rock that represented my brand identity. I largely followed the same process as for the floating island, but I used cylindrical mapping instead. After exporting the base mesh to Mudbox, I once again applied basic texturing to the mesh to act as markers. I then exported the texture maps to finish off the final details, and applied bump mapping with CrazyBump.

Mesh

Texture Map

Render

I still have a bit more work to do on them to make them look right, but so far I'm making good progress.

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 4

I now started to think about the design of the main island. Knowing that I wanted to keep it simple to avoid long rendering times, I decided to use a basic cube polygon, and then sculpt it in Mudbox.

In Mudbox, I applied basic bulging on the edges on top to make it look more rock like. I also added a few bulges at the bottom to make it look like it's floating off the ground. After I did this, I created the textures on top using basic mapping, and then exported the texture maps into photoshop like I did with the palm tree and Fishbone's textures.

Overall I'm happy with the way the island looks, and I plan to eventually include a pond in the hole as well using dynamics to create a waterfall. If I had more time I would probably make the bottom look slightly more defined.

This week has also given me the opportunity to work on the coconut character. As it's a simple sphere, it would be quite quick to model and rig.

For the coconut's eyes, I wanted to give the impression that they are etched onto its surface. To do this, I decided to use a similar technique to making blend shapes, except this time I utilised images instead. To do this, I created a texture map and then created eye expressions       

in Photoshop.

Once I finished the different expressions, I saved each layer separately as tiff files and then mapped them to the top half of the coconut. I then created a new item in the channel box named eye expressions and keyed each expression to the channel.

Image Sequence

Normal

Crazy

Eyes Closed

Once this was finished I added the blend shapes to the top mouth. I felt that this would make the animation slightly easier. Adding these blend shapes was relatively easy, and I plan to use them in the final animation.

Blend Shapes

Left

Back

Top

Front

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 3

This week I've decided to devote my time towards creating the texture maps for Fishbone. I knew that this would be quite a long process, so I'v dedicated the entire week to doing this.

My plan was to create the texture map in Maya, then import the model into Mudbox to mark out particular points of the characters texture. Once this was done, I'd add extra detail by exporting the texture file to Photoshop.

I started out with the face, and applied cylindrical mapping in Maya. I then separated the eye flaps to avoid them reflecting onto the head. Once exported into Mudbox, I applied various facial details such as freckles and scales. In Photoshop I then changed some details slightly to avoid it looking too formulaic. Below is the final texture map.

In order to improve the face, I decided to include bump mapping to make the details stand out. Through looking on the web, I discovered a great tool named CrazyBump that allows you to automatically create normal, occlusion maps etc. I don't plan on using all of them, but I will definitely use the normal map. 

I carried out a similar process with the rest of the mesh, but I made sure to apply different texture maps for all of the geometry. Here are some samples of the texture maps I made.

Sandals

Hair

Helmet

Tail Fins

Body Shield

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 2

I made a start on creating some of assets for the environments of my film. I decided to make a start on the palm trees, as these would be tiled within my scene.

I made a start on the modelling process, and my original intention was to replicate a realistic palm tree. However, due to the high poly count of the main character, I decided to give it a cartoony style to reduce it. I then rigged the palm tree so that it would bend and avoid the trees from looking too formulaic.

I then applied cylindrical mapping to the trunk, and left the mapping on the leaves the same. I then exported it into Mudbox to start texturing. I found it useful to do it this way, as It allowed me to mark out specific places that needed texturing. Once I'd done this, I then exported the texture maps as psd files to be edited in Photoshop. I made slight edits on them to ensure that they looked right when uploaded to Maya.

Another thing I wanted to try out was bump mapping on my models. I've never tried it before, so I wanted to experiment with it for this project. Having found a tutorial online, I decided to use a software called CrazyBump. This program allowed you to import files and convert them to normal, displacements maps etc. it was a lot quicker than doing it manually, so I plan to use this software for future projects. I then uploaded all the files to the original mesh in Maya, and I found that I got a far better image in the end.

Animation Direction AM50309 - 6: Week 1

Welcome to a new series of blog posts titled Animation Direction, which will display the progress of my final major project. Over the next seventeen weeks I will be showing you the work I've done on my final major project at university, from the initial startup to the final stages of animation.

So this week I've decided to focus on the planning and scheduling of my project. I knew that this was important for the next few months, so I decided to create a schedule that manages to give me better time management. I feel that this will help me keep on track with my wor, and I plan to follow it as closely as I can.

This week was also an opportunity to make improvements on my current model of Fishbone in Maya. As i already modelled some of him in Maya during last semester, it was an opportunity to finish some modelling that wasn't finished before. New additions include the hairline, tail fins and feet, including some extra detail on the nose.


Before

After