Major Project: Animal Expressions

Drawn up some facial expressions and some action poses that the animals would use when interacting or in its own nature.

Major Project: Sea Mink Run Cycle Update

Its been a long process of refining this little guy's run cycle. I've had a look at its modern day relatives such as the ferret, mink, weasels and bobcats but there aren't many footages of the animal out there running directly from the front or from the side. I've also had a look at a cat's run cycle too as a bit of reference. The major improvement compared to its old version is the clunkiness and 'popping' which looked unnatural and a bit too robotic. I've also changed the timing of the legs a bit, rather than having the legs step off and land on the left leg first, the legs alternate between left and right instead. So here it is the finalized Mink's run cycle!! ^_^ Also included the background for a bit of depth. :D

Major Project: Museum Sequence Colour tests

The final shot takes place in the museum, depicted in grey scale. I'm trying to figure out whether the extra cast of animals should have a greyed textures applied onto them or have them as a plain grey shaders applied. Versions 4 and 5 appeal to me the most.

Version 1 (Original plinth colour)

Version 2 (Plinth colour change)

Version 3 (extras textures applied)

Version 4 Version 4 (Changed wolf, deinotherium and hare's tones)

Version 5 (Darkened the flooring to contrast with the plinth)

Major Project: Museum Animal Extras

For the last couple of days, I've decided to re-model my extra cahracters that would appear in the museum in the animation. Originally made in Mudbox but this proved some difficulty in cleaning up the edgeflows of the models when transferred to Maya. The only model worked throughout the process was the bird model, Guadalupe Caracara. So only using the quadruped torso, I've remodelled the extra characters. Happy to say Im really happy how the Deinotherium, a relative of the elephant, has turned out as making it was a bit tricky. I've also included other animals like the Hokkaido wolf (appeared in one of the early character development thumbnails), Morant's Blue butterfly, Mbashe River Buff butterfly and the Black Siberian Hare, a relative of the rabbits. :D

The extra animals

Deinotherium

Hokkaido Wolf

Black Siberian Hare

Guadalupe Caracara

Left: Morant's Blue butterfly, Right: Mbashe River Buff butterfly

Major Project: Eastern Elk Dance Cycle

It's been a while to try and nail the Eastern Elk's dance cycle. It is slightly difficult trying to have the limbs walk in beat whilst also maintaining a speed that the elk walks in. After getting some pointers from both Tutors Phil and Alan, Ethan and classmates, I've managed to have a dance cycle! The background is not final, as this is just me testing with the lighting and textures!! :D

Major Project: Character colour refinements

I've made the Sea Mink and the Sea Cow slightly more vibrant as they appeared to be too 'pastel' like when grouped together. To me the the sea cow looks much better now but does the mink work or could it be more vivid?

old version

Sea Mink and Sea Cow version 01

Sea Mink and Sea Cow version 02

Major Project: Updated shotlist

With the pre-viz all complete, I've created an updated version of my shot list to keep things on track.

Life Drawing Class: Week 20

This week, our theme is referencing practice. This meant that we could use this time to focus on a particular aspect of our choice. For me, my aim was to continue experimenting with styles as well as try to cover different areas of focus.

As a warm up, we are to draw full body sketches each pose lasting around 5 mins each. I've played around with coloured pastels and also tried to make quick studies with some spare seconds/mins.

Using model Alan, the next piece is slightly more longer than the warm up, lasting for about 10 mins. We are to draw the full body first before making further close up studies. I'm quite happy with the way the full body sketch turned out by experimenting with styles.

This piece again, was done in 10mins using compressed charcoal, pencil and coloured pastels. My aim for this piece was to depict emotion by using continuous lines and compressed charcoal for highlights.

Extending the long poses to 15 mins, I felt the previous image wasn't exactly showing much emotion so I've tried it again, only changing the styles up a bit. Using the same materials as the previous image, I'm really happy to see the way it turned out! ^_^

Lastly to wrap things up, this piece was more style experiments packed into one image. This lasted for around 15 mins, using the same materials previously. :D 

Major Project: The Carnival of The Animals- FINAL Pre-viz

After making many draft pre-vizs, this is the seventh version and the final pre-viz. Comparing back to its first draft and the animatic, alot has changed. It was also agreed that only have the logo appear at the end rather than a tagline and logo. Next stage, refining the animation!! :D

Major Project: The Carnival of The Animals Pre-viz draft 06

Getting there!! Some few shots were in need of tweaking in terms of time, beat emphasis etc.

(Hard Cut edit)

I've come into a road block whilst trying to either make a simple cut between the two shots around 00:36:00 mark or to have the silhouette versions of the mink and butterfly run across to show they're coming out of the abstract world.

Major Project: Animal Silhouette tests

Based on my pre-viz, this new sequence shows the silhouettes a bit more. Here I've made colour tests between the Xerces Blue Butterfly, The European Sea Sturgeon and the Stellar's Sea Cow. This is because as shown on the original image, both the butterfly and the sea cow share the same colour based on their coloured shadows. From these experiments, I quite like numbers 2 and 3.

Original- based on their coloured shadows

Butterfly changed to darker blue

Changed the sea cow and the sturgeon to its default colours

Same as test 03 only changed the order based on Latin alphabetical order

Butterfly has darker blue but kept the order from test 04

Possible concept art

Major Project: The Carnival of The Animals Pre-viz draft 05

I've added some extra sequences in, also replaced the old elk with the latest version to test out the syncing between feet and beats. I've also had a play around creating water deformers in particular for the Sea Cow's scenes which will be refined later. I've also recolored the sturgeon sequence around 00:30:00 mark as well as having it transition from left to right like the other shots, but might consider changing this?

Changed sturgeon sequence horizontally and using another colour from the colours on the animals.

Life Drawing Class: Week 19

Going back to classic life drawing this time, moving on from structural still life. We've had model, Janet today and the main focus of the day is drawing out dynamics and weight. To begin the lesson, we've had six quick sketches lasting around 5 mins each. For me I wanted to explore other methods of drawing the figure as well as wanting to be more expressive, so to start, I've drawn these in chalk pastel and pencil.

Next, we've had another set of quick poses lasting around 3 mins each. I've attempted to add in more weight and shadows this time using charcoal. I'm really happy how this piece turned out! :D

Focusing on key framing and movement, this set lasted around 1 min each, using the chalk pastel again, I aimed to focus on tonal shapes which works in some places.

To finish up for the day, still concentrating on weights and gravity, we've been given 30 mins to draw Janet. Because of the angle, I've also had the opportunity to improve on foreshortening. This piece consists of using chalk pastels. :D