CP2 Narrative: Week 1

30th September 2016

Introductory Lecture

These are my notes from the first Lecture of CP2: Narrative. 

Seminar Notes: 

Animation Process and Practice: Progress So Far

6th - 17th October 2016

Due to medical reasons I have not been able to attend recent 3D workshops, however I have continued to work on my character performance assignment. I asked friends who attended the workshops what work has been done and what is expected for the next session. I was told the character needed to be blocked out with no animation. Therefore I have to create the keys and extremes of the character as well as figure out how to turn off in-betweens in Maya.

Notes: Animation Process and Practice Lecture 6th October:

Notes: Animation Process and Practice Lecture 17th October:

I had to find out myself the tools within Maya on how to turn off in-betweens as well as create all of the poses before the next week. I simply searched for the answers on the internet regarding the tools within Maya, and soon found the Animation preferences and graph editor. In addition to solving a number of problems with Maya I learnt how to ‘step’ my character which changed the positions of the rig without creating in-betweens.

Now that I had learnt the technicalities, I now had to plan how to create the performance. Firstly I recorded a number of live action reference videos of myself performing the dialogue. I mimed the words by playing the sound file through my phone and considered how the voice sounded and recreate an appropriate expression and act the piece effectively. I incorporated a number of my own quirks by naturally acting the part and exaggerating my movements which could then be further exaggerated in my animation, without over-acting the scene.

After I had recorded myself, I watched the footage and used the extreme positions as reference for the model. Moreover I had to learn this keys and extremes again by re-reading Richard William’s book on what to call these positions. Once I gained an understanding of this, using the video as reference I sketched more positions, expressions and takes to further plan my animation.

Using this technique, I started with the key positions, as this was a short scene I broke it down into giving and receiving. What I mean by this; my character will take/ or process information by physically leaning backwards and then slightly leaning forwards as he talks like he is giving information back. I believe this is an effective visual way to both give character life and visually support the character’s motivations.

Once I had create the keys, I moved onto creating the extremes, which are the positions in which the character is at his furthest point within a movement. These will act as the in-betweens of the keys to further break down the animation and give it structure.

I met with my 3D tutor during a workshop and he gave me feedback on my poses. He said he liked them and that I needed to secure my camera to ensure my poses are staged correctly. I will do this by locking my camera in a fixed position and staging my character effectively in front of it to give the best possible performance.

I believe I have worked effectively given that I have not been able to attend recent sessions, because I have continued to work and teach myself in this time. I plan to use further reference from other actors and continue to read books on both acting and how to animate a character effectively using graph editors in Maya and with the animation principles.

Continued work will be ensuring the camera is secure, staging my character, lip sync and the in-betweens.

Animation Process and Practice: 3D Workshop Support 1

3D Workshop: Support

Continuing work with the performance assignment, I have created the initial poses with the ‘Malcom Rig’. This is sophisticated and well-made rig which I intend to use for this project as I was facing too many problems with the ‘Morpheus’ rig. 

This morning was a support workshop which allowed students who have chosen 3D to attend and receive any assistance they may need with their work. I intended to ask if the rig would be acceptable to use, as a ‘Henry’ rig was provided by our tutor, however he was not in and I don’t see any problem using the ‘Malcom’ rig. 

I created more sketches of the poses as I continued to listen to the audio over and over again. I have continued to think about the personality of the character within the scene and how we would respond to the questions. Yes the dialogue is provided within the clip however it is the significance of the delivery and to how to achieve this effectively. 

Rather than being too eccentric, like my previous animations, I have chosen a ‘toned-down’ approach, as the delivery within the track does not suggest an enthusiastic performance. Therefore this is an opportunity to test myself to produce a believable piece of animation with sincere acting from a character. 

I will do this with strong poses which will then be added by effective facial expressions. I have chosen a building block route; as in I will create the rough poses and key positions, once they are effective, I will then move onto tweaking the movements, and adding the details such as the face, lip sync and kinks at the end. 

I believe I have worked effectively today as I have had to change poses a lot as I have listened to the track repeatedly, and changed my mind on the delivery. This has been from the hands, to the weight distribution and head positions. Today I have also added some facial expressions with lip sync, I understand this is too early to add these but I couldn’t resist thinking about the possibilities of squash and stretch in the performance. However I will stop this to focus on the other positions, I will play this over and over again until I am happy with the poses, then I will then improve the performance little by little.