Life Drawing: Understanding the complexities of perspective

After a litle brake we got a male model in life drawing with different body shapes in reliance to the previous model.
The task after a quick warm up was to capture forms in perspective using methods we learned from previous sessions ( mark making, measuring, relating shapes with negative space etc.)
We were given ruffly about 2 hours to draw it.
First half of that hour was only mark making, there were only strait lines and dots on the sheet, after understanding how the shape worked I began to draw out the values of the body.
Though, as I agree with Chris Hunt, still many issues are evident in the work.
But enjoyed it anyway :)

Maya classes: Visual effects and Skinning

This week's tutorials were teaching Smooth Binding & Weight Painting as well as how to use wire deformers.

Editing weights by painting them on mesh rather than typing values in component editor was more clear because the editing process was represented visually in gray scale.

The tutorial with wire deforms seemed particularly useful. I immediately saw how it could be used for the modeling/animation projects. It is easy to transform and animate the model but at the same time it adds complexity to the rig.

Looking forward to applying what I've learned :)

The Pitch

The presentation we had was not only interesting with a variety of creative ideas, but very informative as well. I found comments from both Mr. Klappa and Phil very useful for my further project development.

The notice was to sinchronize carefully animation's timing with the soundtrack.
This is the slightly changed pre-viz.

After Effect classes: Combining layers

First practices in after effects. The task was to combine separate layers of video material in to a seamless whole. The Process shown here illustrates how a certain kind of gasses try to clean poisoned lungs ( if I recall the explanation correctly ) .

Pre-Viz for Slime Mold Life Cycle

There are few changes ( for insatnce at the very end you'd see no cross disolves) just to see what works better. I no longer can see it objectively,but hope the line of action is clear.

Animatic for the Life cycle of a Slime Mold #2

To hang a slime mold upside down or to spin the camera?

Since now it is clear from the animatic, that there is the confusion with the line of action, I need to fix it.

But I also see two ways of fixing it.

One is to make the slime mold, fruit hang dawn as if from a real ceiling. But there would be problems with composition, since what works now might be entirely wrong when the panels are flipped. Yet still this would be an option in order to make the line of action clear

Or we could make the camera rotate to mach what's actually seen in animatic. For instance from the establishing shot the camera would actually pan and rotate at the same time to make the "upside down" view normal. And just before releasing the spores it again would rotate to "world's point of view" ( a made up term of mine.. :/) and we'd then see a jump cut of spores falling down.

I'm constructing pre-viz now so this is a good time to decide which approach to choose.
Since now it is clear from the animatic, that there is the confusion with the line of action, I need to fix it.

Animatic for the Life cycle of a Slime Mold

The Animatic is a useful reference for the timing of animation later on in the stage of production. Though there will be changes.

Most importantly, this was the first time I started thinking about soundtrack so early ( before it was always considered only as a final touch). Now it is clear how much it can influence the later construction of animation as well as how much easier it is to imagine the action with the help of music.

Hopefully this piece of soundtrack ( from V for Vendetta (DIr. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 2005)) works.

New Chancellor of UCA - Zandra Rhodes

Today I had a great opportunity to participate in the Installation of Zandra Rhodes as a first ever Chancellor for the UCA. I was lucky enough to win the competition between student ambassadors to participate in this event in London's Banketing House.

As today It was explained, Chancellors mission is to make sure University is holding to its philosophy, direction of development.

Instantly recognizable with her distinctive pink hair and blue eye shadow, Zandra Rhodes has achieved worldwide fame with her textile designs which are worn by rock stars and royalty alike. ( examples could be Diana, Princess of Whales, Jackie Onassis, Freddie Mercury)

Zandra Herself finished This University in Rochester ( then known as Medway College of design) where she developed a passion for textiles.

At the time of event she gave a very inspirational speech about what it means to be successful as well as what it requires. Essentially the point she was trying to make was that the difference between an idea that in the end succeeds or fails is hours of work and the level of dedication.

Also few practical tips came from her what could help to achieve creative success. As boring as it sounds, believing in your idea and believing that you can make it real is the secret.

SO this was a bit of enlightenment about what's happening on UCA outside CG Arts and Animation baseroom :D

Storyboard for the Slime Mold Life Cycle

 

Storyboard Artist: J.J. Jolanta Jasiulionyte

Storyboard's contribution to the development of the project can't be emphasized enough. From many reasons it is worth taking some time and allowing the luxury not to be rushing. (It was developed roughly in 4-5 days, what is a relevantly long time in 5 weeks long project) Such reasons would be that it is a tool to solve problems of staging, how all the elements will interact with each other, ruff idea of how the camera is going to move and so on. Only after storyboarding is finished, there's confidence to go and start constructing the animation, since it's like you've already rehearsed it.

The storyboard for the Life Cycle of a Slime Mold starts with amoebas gathering into a migrating colony. After what, a more difficult stage of the slime mold forming fruiting body and spores is explained in more detail panel by panel. When spores are formed, fruiting body starts drying out and releases spores to fall down. Spores gently reach the ground and new amoebas come out of the shells. Story is finished with a reveal shot that emphasizes  the scale and the extension of the beautiful process.

To bring clarity in production as well as to clearly communicate the direction in which animation is going to be produced all the panels are done in color with the desired lighting, staging and texturing. The aim is to keep the original look that's seen in the storyboard. 

Go and see finsihed Life Cycle of Slime Mold

Target Audience - Mature School Students (16-18 year olds)

One of the main things to consider, while developing the project is the type of audience it's going to reach.

Not only it gives a direction and hints how furhter the project must be developed, but also it may contribute to the success of the production.

Before proceeding, one first must define the audience, goals and objectives. Goals define the ultimate purpose the project.

Then continuing further , what messages, experience, or content do you want them to come away with ?

ALso, what They want and need.

What content to develop and how best to get it to those you want to reach?

The following is a scheme of questions, answers, tools needed to answer questions and connections.

After doing this I decided to make the pacing of the animation faster with more cuts, add more complex camera movements.

Maya Classes, week 1: Intro to Visual Effects and Skinning

Happy Accidents

Today I was working on my storyboards. And suddenly noticed something emerging from the abstract shapes of slime mold.. So I thought to make a break and see what happens further developing the shapes.
I know it's not project related, but still, this was quite surprising to me. And this little drawing gave idea, what I could perhaps develop after the project :)
But now again, back to storyboarding :)

Concept Art

As I mentioned previously, at the very beginning I chose Caves as one of the places where slime molds can be found. And what this gave me was a further research about this environment and , most importantly, the lighting. See-through slime molds in dark caves are lighten by glow worms, their neighbors.

So this is First 3 concept drawing of what I imagine the Animation is going to look like.
Maybe it’s going to be less textured (if it's going to destract from the slime mold transformation), so far what I notice. I'll see.

Sketching

These are some of the sketches. I'm trying to resolve how the slime mold would develop. Concentrating on shapes, also having texturing in mind.


A question, can artists be considered an audience?
Because that's what I'm thinking when I'm doing this project, as if it's for a competition where you are given scientific process and asked to make it graphically/stylistically appealing.