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.

AniFex Tour

Tuesday of this week we went to one of Adelaide's animation studios AniFex. AniFex are known for their unique style of stop motion animation and use of plasticine moulds to create and animate their creations. While most of their works date back to  the 1990s, they are known for creating the Smacko commercial, the Home Hardware commercials which star Rusty and Sandy the dog and the Honda Jazz commercial. Most of their creations can be seen in this demo reel.

For most of the tour, we saw where they shot most of their animations and many of their prop sets they held from previous works. One of the set pieces that caught my eye was the mask of the giant rooster mask they used for the Fantastic Noodle advertisements as well as the massive prop sets used for the old Mortein Flyspray ads. 

I had always wondered how animators in the industry constructed and rigged their puppets for stop motion animation and looking back at how AniFex executes it, it’s interesting to see and take in. Most of their puppets consist of a metallic skeleton made up of several pivot points and wires which allows the animators to freely move the puppets. On top of that, the skeleton itself can be modified when needed to fine tune how the puppet moves, and walks.

Asides from how the skeletons are made and what they consist of, the puppets themselves are constructed through a very fine system, which begins with the puppet themselves being moulded on clay before being sent to where they would make a casting for the puppet. Afterwards, the cast of the puppet is then used to create moulds with, which are made out of a composite of rubber, silicon and various other materials. 

Overall, the tour gave me a better sense of how stop motion animators produce their works as well as showing how the industry operates in terms of client contracts and what risks are needed in order to deliver on the client's demands.

Career and Pathways

As I further my skills of animation and drawing in this VET course, I never really had the time to think about where I would be going after finishing this certificate and year 12. The first option that goes into my head would be attending a TAFE course specializing in 3D Animation or graphic design but considering how I can attend TAFE without having completing year 12, it opens up the question as to what I can do in a University upon gaining my ATAR and SACE.

One of the reason this course appealed to me initially was the concept of furthering my skills in animation so I can apply that knowledge to cell animation or my childhood dream of getting into developing games. Reading about how the mainstream of the game industry is failing to meet expectations of gamers, the only choice I see if I were to get into the video game industry is either continuing studying basic game development at University or TAFE or become an independent developer.

Reflecting on my work from the past work, I have seen that with enough time and patience I can quickly adapt to new programs relating to animation (After Effects, 3D Max) and showing competency in these resources. As well as my ability to adapt, I have chosen to enjoy both 2D and 3D animation, with both methods of animation showing advantages and disadvantages.

With 2D animation, I found it easier to manipulate my rigged puppet into various position, while also making it significantly easier to design characters. 3D animation allows for animators to not worry about restricted work spaces, as animation in a 3D environment allows for more freedom and movement. However the downside to animating in 3D is that it requires patience when working with the available tools, which can prove to be finicky at times as well as modeling a character in 3D can be very time consuming and confusing if you're not familiar with 3D modeling.

I have chosen to favour in 2D animation from the past year, as most of my works done in 2D have the strongest results and are more engaging than my 3D animation. On top of that, character design was far more simple than it was with 3D but 3D animation has its advantages respectively.

Choosing the right university course or school is essential as to how I can get my wheels moving, which is why I have researched into different places that support the creative arts, ranging from both animation, VFX and programming courses.

Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE)

•  Courses centralise on interactive media.
•  Offer courses in games development/programming.
•  Adelaide campus situated in the city.

Flinders University

• Offers a range of animation courses and courses ranging in programming.
• ATAR requirements average out fairly moderate (65-75 guaranteed entry).
• Digital Media course has a partnership with CDW.

CDW Studios

• School of visual effects and entertainment design
• Specializes in both short courses and full length courses
• Both 2D and 3D animation courses
• Also have concept design course.

While the education facilities above show what they bring to the table for animation, there are many more available courses that specialize in this particular industry.

As for my chosen pathway, I am still unsure as to what I want to pursue after I graduate and leave school. While I have my University application open for editing, I want to pursue a pathway that will sustain me for the future while doing what I love or enjoy doing. I feel like a carer pathway in Information Technology would best suit me, as the course can allow me to major in software development, programming and game design. 

2D Animation - Character Design

Sketches
Before we started with our first main assignement, our VET coordinators got us all together and talked through with us about how we were going to approach this assignment in terms of structure and creative process. The criteria that we had to fill out was to create a robot with 5 animations; a walk cycle, jump, attack, defense animation and a 'transmit data' animation which would be used in the end of a level. To get the best out of our work, we spent the first day gathering inspiration photos and once obtaining what's useful to our design draw several thumbnail sketches.

When it came with creating the sketches, I had several creative blocks which prevented me to let my creative side overcome my logical side. While most of the blocks were associated with myself being tired, the lack of time and the first idea handset, I did manage to come up with several and creative drawings:

Above are the drawings that my VET coordinators found appealing and interesting. The sketches showed the process of how I played around with the designs of each robot along with experimenting with the perspectives. I then proceeded to redraw the three sketches into Illustrator:

When it came to choosing the character I would be using, I decided to go with the Toaster. The design would be easy to animate and the features which contribute to the design could make the animation interesting and fun. I took the design of the toaster from the image above, polished the design up more and applied each part of the body to its own layer:

Creativity and ways to avoid mental blocks

When being creative, the right side of the brain is the part that's being used. Whenever you have what people call a "creative block", it's because the right side of the brain, the logical side of the brain, preventing you to allow the creative side process ideas. The idea of being creative is not to be too logical or too hard, but just going with the ideas as they come.

Some of the things that cause the creative block include the following:

First Idea Handset: Falling in love with the first idea you come up with, neglecting other ideas that come to mind.
Pre-Judgement: Judging ideas before you create them.
Peer Pressure: Being pressured into creating something you don't want to.
Social Anxiety: Being too anxious that people will judge you for your ideas,  therefore holding back on ideas.
Habit: Doing things you're conforatble with and do often which can stop you from being creative.
Lack of Time: Running out of time and rushing ideas.
Fear: Being scared that you're ideas are bad.
Tension: Othre stresses and tensions in your life may be obstructing your ability to be creative.
Lack of Exercise: Due to being sluggish, your brain doesn't operate well due to a lack of exercise.

The diagram below shows a way of thinking that can be useful when coming up with ideas. The idea is to come up with as many ideas as you can think of and not pre-judging them and thinking of them as good or bad ideas. After this, you can look through the ideas and process which ones are stronger, and what you can do with the ideas. The first idea may lead onto a new idea or a similar concept that you didn't think of previously. This leads to having a refined list of new concepts and ideas from big range of original ideas.

Perspective Drawings

Perspective Drawing

For the visual design component of our course, we were tasked to experiment with perspective drawing on Illustrator to gain a better understanding with the different types of perspective drawing. below are the various types of perspectives we experimented with.

Basic Body Movements in After Effects

Basic Arm Movements

Towards the end of the first week, our animation skills had already improved from what we initially had. We had learnt the basics of animating a moving person, analyzing what goes into a simple walk animation in both body, arm and leg movements. One of the first animations that we worked on is a stationary arm and animating it to look like it was in a walk cycle:

Give this man a hand...

While It's not pretty, it helped with understanding how basic arm movements worked as well as understand how the parenting tool works in After Effects. 

Walking/Take off animation

Upon completing that, our next task was to take an already existing character model and apply a walking animation to it. What made this task easy to me was that the character given to us had separate layers created which associated itself with each part of the body (right foot, left foot, etc.). This made it significantly easy with parenting body parts to one another and from there animating the character walking:

My people need me.

Towards the end of the animation, I ran into a problem with fixing the character's movement to a straight line, causing the character to fly upwards. Knowing I didn't have a lot of time to fix the error, I worked around it and made it so the character takes off and fly.

Bowling Animation

The last animation that we had to do with our character was making it look as though it was rolling a ball on it's knee. Like the previous animation, this wasn't too much of a challenge to animate but gettng the movements to look realistic enough and function the way I wanted it to was a hard obstacle to overcome. Eventually I got the animation to work but when it came to adding the ball itself to the animation, well, its best to watch for yourself:

"Objects that are in motion don't require gravity"

Turns out parenting the ball to the throwing arm makes the ball follow the arm. 

First Animation - Ball Bouncing

One of the first projects we worked on during the first week of animation was making a ball bounce in Adobe After Effects. The task was supposed to teach us the basics of animation as well as analysing the core movements of a ball when it bounces. Below is the final result.

Dat Physics thou

Creating the bounce effect (while intimidating) was quite simple. The trick is to stretch the ball at certain points of the animation to give it the illusion that the ball is fast at certain parts of the animation.