3D Animation - Story Boarding

For the second 3D animation, we were recommended to try out story boarding, a useful method to plan ahead of animating and laying out how and where camera shots are to be executed. A lot of famous people in both the animation and film industry use story boards during pre-production to plan out how filming will be executed in order to save time and be well managed. Below is a story board about a small story regarding a door, which out VET coordinators told us to draw up a story board relating to a door.

Methods of drawing up a story board includes being extremely clear as to what is going on in each shot, with the text below each box adding more detail into each shot (camera movements, sound, timing etc.).

After that we went ahead as planned and drew up a story board for the 3D animation, which had our modeled characters in it. For my animation, I wanted to have my character be needing a toilet and as he enters a door to a public restroom, he finds out that he entered a women's restroom. Story boarding this helped me lay out what could happen as well as camera shots that could be used.

Observation Drawing

One of the first drawing exercises we had to do was the observation drawing exercise. This required us to draw an object at a forced perspective while trying to draw it as close as to the object shown. below are some of those drawings.

3D Animation - Character Modeling

The 3D animation that we had to do at the end of the year required us to model our own character's face, feet and hands all in 3D Max without using the pre-made puppets. This was achieved by designing our character's head with clay and taking photos of it with a camera, then importing those photos into 3D Max for modeling. Below is my character's head molded into shape using the clay, with these images being used as reference for the 3D model

The finish product of the 3D modeling in 3D Max turned out fairly different. I had to make adjustments to the design of my character's head due to it's unrealistic facial proportion and how the ears were too large for the head as well as the moustache in the clay model was obscuring the design of the character.

Cell Animation

Around in mid-March, we experimented with the form of animation known as Cell Animation, which was the traditional method of animation done with frames being all drawn by hand. From the cell drawings we did, we learn't a lot about the animation principles used in cell animation to deliver life like animation.

• Squash and Stretch
• Anticipation
• Staging
• Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
• Follow Through
• Slow In/Out
• Arc
• Secondary Action
• Timing
• Exaggeration
• Solid Drawing
• Appeal

To create the animation, we had to design a character and with it create a frame by frame animation with it. Upon completion of it, we animated the character by taking photo's of each frame, importing it into After Effects and animating the sequence. My animation had a man walking and then taking an unexpected fall shortly afterwards.

2nd 2D Animation - Character Design

For the second 2D animation, we were tasked to design a character and animate the character in a scenario based on an emotional change. The brief was given to us by Troy Bellchambers, one of the creative forces behind the animation studio Monkeystack. There were various states-of-change scenarios to choose from, and out of the 5 options I chose the apathy to shock change.

The scenario for this relied on designing a character which can reflect an impression of lack of interest while quickly switching over to a shocked expression. Throughout the planning period, Troy did help out with what would be a good animation with everyone's idea. For mine, we came up with the idea of having a cowboy in a stand-off facing an unknown opponent, with the twist being that he was facing off against a cactus which he confused to be an actual person.

The design of the character is supposed to reflect the clique looks of a typical western cowboy who would be seen in a spaghetti western film, along with the beats on the right showing camera angles using narrowed down letter-boxing and switching to a profile shot of both the cowboy and his alleged opponent. 

After designing the character, I went onto Adobe Illustrator to finalize and refine my design of the character, with added colours and other features to strengthen the design, as well as adding layers to allow the character to be rigged and moved when animating. The outcome below shows the finished design of the character. I can say that I am pleased with the look and vibe the character has. 

Workscene

There are a lot of business and companies in Australia for the animation industry that cover a range of sectors of this industry. Surprisingly enough, there are quite a few Adelaide-Based companies that are big players in the industry, who have contributed to the industry. Some of these companies include the following:

Rising Sun Pictures

A well known Adelaide based company known for specializing in visual effects for movies. Primarily known for their contributions to the Harry Potter, X-Men and the Hunger Games franchises.

• Works focus on visual effects animation.
• Work on high profile films.
• Employ mainly compositors.
• An award winning studio and were nominated for an Oscar.
• Showreel

AniFex
Another leading animation company that focus on stop-motion animation. They do a lot of advertisement work and have a lot of well known characters from TV adds.

• Based in Adelaide.
• Work mainly with stop motion animation.
• Get a lot of advertisement work but also create short and feature films.
• Have won numerous awards.
• Showreel

MonkeyStack

An established animation company that works mainly with advertisements, but also works on animated TV shows, games, and concept art.

• Based in Adelaide.
• Work on both 2D and 3D animation.
• Get mostly advertisement work.
• Also work on separate animated shows and games.
• Showreel

Asides from Adelaide based companies, there are still a lot of other animation based companies in Australia, these include the following:

Vishus

• Animation company.
• Based in Adelaide.
• Created the children's television show Figaro Pho.

Halfbrick Studios

An Australian games development studio responsible for the Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja franchises. 

• Based in Brisbane.
• Hiring game artists, programmers and QA testers.
• Focuses on games development for both mobile devices and the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. 

Animal Logic

An award winning animation and visual effects studio situated in Sydney, Australia. They have worked on major films such as The Lego Movie, Prometheus, Happy Feet and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

• Currently hiring for various positions for both their Sydney and Vancouver studios, such as lighting artists, C++ developers and many more positions.
• Specialize in both animation and visual effects for film.
•  Showreel

New Ways and Means

With how rapid technology grows in this world, it also affects how animations are done and the mediums they are created for. Technology has now made it significantly easier for people to create their own animation and games, both independently and as a part of a company. Many people are going the indie route, and creating TV shows and games along with their close friends and colleagues. There is so much software available that allows people to create work themselves, without having to establish a company.

 

Mobile phone applications and games have become extremely popular and are only growing as time goes on. Developing applications and games for mobile devices allows for one of the safer approaches to this industry as it can reach a much wider audience.

One of the largest innovations in technology in recent times has to be the cloud services that have developed in the oncoming years. For most companies, Cloud software is primarily used for online storage similar to Apple’s iCloud and Dropbox but can also range from more private cloud storages that are dedicated for a specific company. Adobe has a similar cloud service called the Adobe Creative Cloud, which is a program established to allow consumers to pay a specific fee weekly, monthly or yearly and allows users to use all of Adobe’s programs. In the past you had to pay for the full cost for one of Adobe’s programs while having to pay for the updated programs separately, this cloud system makes it easier for companies to use Adobe’s programs. 

The capabilities of using cloud software in this industry make it increasingly easier for work to get done at an optimal pace, whenever and wherever. This technology can allow companies and clients to communicate and share work from anywhere in the world without having the client go to the company’s location if he or she is somewhere overseas or interstate. This also allows increased productivity for employees working on a project, where they can save and access files on a shared drive where they work and allow their colleagues to access and modify files when needed.

Asides from cloud based software, there is a variety of free software for independent developers to get a hold off, or for newcomers in the industry who want to have a crack at it. Blender is an extremely powerful 3D program that allows you to model, animate, rig, composite and render. It is a highly recommended alternative to programs that cost a lot like 3DS Max and Maya. 

Gimp is a free photo editing program, similar to Photoshop. It is quite a powerful program, given the fact that it is completely free, and again is a great option for people who don't want to buy Photoshop. 3-Sweep is another great free program as it allows you to create movable 3D models from 2D photos.

Turbosquid is a great resource for 3D animators. It's a website that has a massive selection of professional 3D models that can be downloaded and put straight into a 3D program, like 3D Max. Although not all of the models on Turbosquid are free, there is a huge range that are, and it's not hard to find a great model for free.