Senior Portfolio Spring Week 5

Senior Portfolio Post 5

2/28/19

For this week, I had a bit of "animator's block" and had a bit of trouble figuring out what to work on.  I was not quite motivated to continue work on previous projects early on, and instead opted to start a new animation first.

This new animation focuses on a single character going into a slide underneath a barrier.  This was created more haphazardly without much reference to go off of.  That is certainly one thing I will focus on later if need be.  Once critiques come in, I hope this could spark some new ideas connected.  One particular challenge was the multilateral transition from upright standing/running down into the actual slide.  As the LEGO character doesn't bend like a normal humanoid, rules must be broken, and illusion of motion must be utilized.  Certain pieces also have to be put in unnatural positions to make the movement readable.

https://youtu.be/NY1W9PdMrO0


After starting on the previous animation, I decided to go back to my project from a couple of weeks ago.  The boot-up of the mech with the character entering was a good start, and I wanted to go further with it.  Taking in critiques from the last session, I made adjustments to animations in places such as the arms, character entrance, cage fluctuation, and arm weight.  I also wanted to work on a better rig system for the legs, as they are not in inverse kinematics.  Applying new knowledge from rigging, I did a preliminary setup for the feet and leg movement that is somewhat independent of the main build, while still functioning with the mech as a whole.  It will need much more work, but so far it works better than expected.

https://youtu.be/W4k6vNcQ-Ng


https://youtu.be/nvxLj3aO6ns

Senior Portfolio Spring Week 4

Senior Portfolio Post 4

2/21/19

This week's work was primarily put towards blocking out animations for the 495 Advanced Production game project.  I continued work on different personality animation cycles happy and angry.  For each I prepared initial ideas for actions including idles, sitting down, drinking, walking, and more.  These are all meant to be early developments to be improved later when ideas are finalized, as well as when the official rig is completed.  Once that takes place, the blockouts can be referenced and proper, more streamlined animation can be focused on.

https://youtu.be/IbTMiM6T9AE



https://youtu.be/Maifynh4ksM



https://youtu.be/_4tYSMefeO4

 https://youtu.be/ZVxOkRtdu5Y

 https://youtu.be/c4bWvhmPPE8

Senior Portfolio Spring Week 3

Senior Portfolio Post 3

2/14/19

This week, I have continued experimenting with the mechs and characters from the previous week.  I have tried to create an animation merging the two styles.  The main focus is having them interact within the same environment, working together.  The character will hop into the mech, which will then power up and prepare for some sort of following action.  This was a test of constraints knowledge and knowing how to maneuver two sets of controls at the same time.  If all goes well, I plan to move forward with larger scenes with even more characters and such to keep track of.

https://youtu.be/2SaTMprS8fM

For my other animation focus projects, I have continued blocking out animations for Advanced Production NPCs, and their different personalities.  I began work with the new custom character rigs being produced for the game.  A different personality was the focus of this week, and I have compiled a few blockouts.  These will be further tweaked as the rig is updated, and I have established a better idea of how the respective personalities will look later on.

Advanced Production Progress Post 1

Advanced Production Progress Post 1

2/14/19

As an animator for the project known as My Little Tavern Shop, my work will be based around creating the non-playable character movements, as well as rigging characters where necessary.  For the first weeks, and first sprint,  I was tasked with blocking out the basic movements for multiple different personalities.  Another task was reviewing the rigging lessons, and applying them to teh custom characters being created for the project.  With a variety of characters utilizing the same types of forms, the key is to establish a unique set of movements that both correspond with each other, as well as fall in line with the overall feel of the project.  For each personality, the base animations we picked as a team were: walking, standing idle, sitting idle, sitting down, standing up, drinking, and more what may factor in at a later time.

To start off, I began working with the personality type: Nervous.  I blocked out the scenes, and proceeded to smooth them out and finesse where I could.  As the custom character rigs we will use for the final product were not quite ready, I used the Jack rig from the Bodymech rig pack as a substitute and practice.


The following personality types I am ans will be working on are the Happy and Angry personalities.  With the base of the new rig now at our disposal, blocking out and examples for animations will be using such, until finalization.  So far, blocking out has begun on the Happy personality animations.  Not many issues have arisen since work has begun, aside from simply getting used to the controls for the new rig.

Senior Portfolio Spring Week 2.5

Senior Portfolio Post 2.5

2/7/19

This week I have worked on a couple of animations focused on testing some of the character rigs I put together previously.  The first animation is a simple walk-type cycle with simple joint articulation.  The second tests out a model with more joints to play with.  It is also a walk cycle, but with joint systems and movements closer to humanoid skeletons.

For the first animation, the inspiration was working with the character as floating around with less gravity.  This is more of a moonwalk type cycle, exploring realistic movements.  Since this was a fairly new experience with these types of characters, it was interesting to find the differences in animation workflow.  Some aspects were much easier to pinpoint and alter for the overall animation.  The changes to come will certainly come easier and faster going forward.

https://youtu.be/6cZkwVdNaR0



The second animation will take some time to finesse, and will likely be a learning experience for future projects with bigger and better models.  This animation uses a robotic mech that has a fairly good range of movement, but proved tricky to become acquainted with.  The first thing I worked on was the legs and feet.  Once I got a decent idea of how they would work, other moving parts fell in line as far as adding weight.  I want to do some more research and reference for these types of models in the weeks to come.

https://youtu.be/ctU8GhbmewM


In addition to the main portfolio animations, I have also blocked out and somewhat splined some animations for Advanced Production.  These are practice game animations meant for NPCs.  While the official models are not finished yet, these concepts will be helpful for when the time comes.  These animations will be based around a common personality, this one in particular being "nervous." There are three animation I worked on, them being a walk cycle, a standing idle, and a sitting idle.  All of these use the BodyMech Jack rig.

https://youtu.be/kGv2J44cwvk