The Animated Self: Final Animation

In my animation I produced 4 Models in Maya which reflect my personalities with in me. The 4 models I created were a guitar because I'm musical, A Space ship because I like Si Fi, and a batarang because I'm into superheros, and finally I modelled myself because I initially wanted to make myself move but then I realised that it would be too hard to do so. The thing that I'm most proud of is the guitar because I really like how I've modelled the strings and how they look like they're wrapped round the tuners, also I like my batarang because I've used a different material on the wings which is an aluminium texture which makes the wings of the batarang look sharp.

However, I don't like the model of me that much just because I would of liked to put more detail into the model but if I did that it would of taken up to much time. Also on the guitar the right side of it looks a bit different from the other side so I would like to go back and change this.

The feedback that I got back from my peers when I presented my models to them was good feedback because they said that they loved the amount of detail I've put into my work and that they like how the camera goes through the models and not just panning round them. As well I've changed the song I put in the animation because my friend Oscar said that he had a song that he did that would suit the animation better than the awolnation-sial song that I initially put in there.    

Effective Evaluation Writing

Writing an evaluation is a hard thing to do for many people especially me, because evaluating my own work and being critical about it may be confused with what your project is about and who you did it bit by bit.

To make sure you understand how to evaluate here are some things you can consider next time you're writing one, what do you think for the design overall, what would you change, are you happy with the colours, what are the views of other people regarding your designs, and how was you time management?

Evaluations are mainly about analysing and critiquing your own work, not just about what you did and when you did it. The main point of evaluating is to let people know why you did what you did, and how you feel about what you've done. Also it's about if you had another chance at the same project how would you go about doing it differently, and did you learn from the first time and how will you us this knowledge in future projects.  

Putting My Animation Together

To put my animation together I opened all the models in maya and created a camera to pan round and through the models I've made. After doing this I batch rendered the camera in maya then imported the images into After Effects, and then tweaked around with the settings. It took me a while to find a song to go with the animation because I wanted the music to be calming to fit with the flow of the animation. The song that I chose was Awolnation-Sail because the song has a certain beat to it which in me opinion fits in well with the animation. 

The hardest part of doing this was the lighting because if I moved the light the model would change massively be either being to dark or to bright. However, the easiest part was actually putting it together in After Effects because I'm well acquainted with the software.  

Maya Model of Space

Using some of the skills I've learnt from watching youtube videos and from just using the software more I've managed to replicate a ship from the film Star Wars (image beneath my model).

Having no reference image to help me model this ship I feel like I've done a pretty good job, but I do feel like the model I've made is a bit thicker that the one underneath. What I do like though is that I've managed to find out how to put glass on the model by getting one of my tutors to show me how to do that.

But if I did have to change my model or tweak it a bit I would change the texture because I feel that the white is a bit too mush so I might just make it a light grey colour or something similar to the picture below.

Maya Model Of Guitar

This is the model of my guitar for my new idea I came up with. The guitar at the back is an image of my guitar I've imported in maya so that I had some sort of reference to work off of.

To model this guitar I had to use the CV curve tool to trace the outline of the base of the guitar, nut then I had to convert the outline using NURBS to Polygons tool. I did this so that I could modify the body some more, for the rest of the neck and strings I just used cylinders, and for the tuners at the top of the neck I used cubes then just reshaped them to look like what they look like.

I quite the look of the guitar and how it's shaded, but I might have to go back and change the lighting so that when the camera pan rounds the guitar you can see all the details. what I like about it the most is the strings and how I've made it look like they're wrapped round the tuners, but you can't see that in this picture so that's why I'll have to change the lighting.    

Change of Plan!

After watching a load of youtube videos on how to rig and put skeletons in a maya model I found that what I wanted to do was going to be too difficult to pull off. My original idea was to make my character of me move around and object I.E the batarang I also built in maya, but after seeing how hard it was going to be in so little time left I decided to change my idea to something simpler.

My new idea is have a camera pan round and through my models I've built, I'll also model two more objects for the camera to pan through just so there's more things to look at rather than just two. For the other two models I was thinking about doing was modelling my guitar, because music is another thing I'm interested in. The second model I was thinking of doing was a space ship from Star Wars, just because I like the visual effects in the film and was interested trying to model one of the space ships.      

Giving A Good Presentation

To give a good presentation you need to understand what a presentation is. Its a communication of a journey or a story, its for showing your ideas, thoughts, sharing your concepts and it's an opportunity for constructive feedback from your peers/tutors and it should have meaningful information concisely.

Before you do your presentation you should know your audience and assume they know nothing or very little about your work, so you should inform them about it and you, your role and what you're doing and how you got there/ going to get there. Your presentation shouldn't be about you and about what you look/sound like, also they shouldn't be STRESSFUL so prepare and know your subject and keep is easy and simple. Avoid using clip art because it shows that you can't be bothered or you've just rushed it.

Another thing you shouldn't do is use too much text as the message gets lost, each slide in your presentation should be important and communicate clearly. To do this you should NOT use bullet points because they kill your presentation and make it look boring.

If you're still stressed at this point then relax because the audience it there because they want to listen to you, so take a second to run through what you're going to say. Also be enthusiastic, persuasive and expressive and you should know you don't look as bad as you feel. If you MADE A MISTAKE, don't worry get over it correct yourself and carry on.

To summaries be prepared, learn your script and use cue cards or some sort of notes to help you. prepare your presentation and don't leave it to the last minute and practice it more than once, and when it comes to the presentation day arrive early and set everything up and don't forget to enjoy yourself.  

PPP Maya Model Building part 3

After finishing one arm and leg I then deleted one half of the body and duplicated the other half so that it would reflect on the other side and make a full body again.

The hard part was connecting all the arms and legs to the body then making it look symmetrical and even. I did this by using a tool in maya so that when I duplicated the body the duplicate would copy any changes I did on the original body.

Next came the feet to model which in my opinion wasn't that hard because I didn't even need to look up a tutorial online, all I did was extrude the ankles and then reshaped them to look like feet, or in this case shoes. What came after was the hardest part! I then had to model the head, so I looked at tutorials online and they were so hard to follow because you started with the eye first then move out from there. However, all I wanted was a simple design that looked like a head so I started with a cube and just reshaped it from there while using photos of my head as reference.

I've decided not to give my figure any hands because one there too hard to do and another thing is that it would take me too long to do and then I won't have time to finish me actually animating my figure.  

PPP Maya Model Building part 2

This was the second part of me modelling myself on Maya, were I feel like it took me shorter to do than the batarang but it still took me a long time.
Whilst modelling myself I realised that it would be easier to model me if I only had shorts on so that I would be able to se my muscles and body shape better.

I think the hardest thing for me to do to this model will be to connect the arms and legs to the body and then creating the head. To me the head might be the hardest thing to model because its got loads of features on it, but I suppose I could simplify me features on my head.

PPP Maya Model Building part 1

Building this in Maya took me about 4 hours just because I was just getting use to the software and I as getting stressed out because the guy doing the tutorial online was going to fast for me. However, I feel like the outcome is pretty good, but it's not exactly like the guys in the tutorial I watched. The one thing I do like about my model of the batarang is that it looks like it has sharp edges on the top because I used an aluminium texture on it, and I also like how the batarang doesn't come to a point at the ends of the wings because it makes me think thats where you'd hold it if you had to throw the batarang.

PPP The Animated Self: Idea

For the PPP task 'The Animated Self' I wanted to animate in Maya to increase my skills and give myself a bit of a challenge. The thing that I'm going to be doing in Maya is modelling myself, but then have me dodging a batarang (a weapon used by Batman) that I will also model in Maya. I can up with this idea when I was looking at tutorials online on how to model in Maya and saw that someone had modelled a batarang. I feel that it will be hard to model myself in Maya because there is so many parts of my body to animate, but hopefully the outcome of the animation will be pleasing to me.      

PlayStation All-Star Battle Royal

This PS Vita game is kind of like Smash Bros where all the stars from the PlayStation games come together and fight, however All-Stars is different because instead of health bars you have power bars and when that fills up you do your super move and thats how you kill someone.

Its different to most combat games because when the characters are battling the backgrounds start to change into different backgrounds from the games where the characters come from. For example you will start off in the little big planet arena and then finish up having the god of war monsters trying to attack the players.

Also with each character you can level them up to have better abilities and face other opponents with similar stats as you and see which one of you is better. you can also change their theme music, taunts, costumes, and movements to make your character unique to you.

     

Mike Hermes and James Taylor Maya Tutorials

Throughout the past couple of weeks I've been practicing my Maya skills because that's what 'm most interested in, in animation. So to do this I've been watching tutorials by Mike Hermes and James Taylor on youtube to help me understand more about modelling in Maya, and to help me to place texture on the models I've made. Some of the tutorials I've watched have been about how to model a person in Maya and on how to get the proportions right when modelling a character.

This is on of the videos I've watched while trying to model in Maya:

At the minute I'm working on modelling me in Maya and I've realised that it's easier to model someone with their arms stretched out rather than by their side, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of the software because other people in my class are asking me about the software Maya and how to do things on it.      

This is another video I've been looking at because for my PPP animation I'm wanting to do a 3D animation about slow motion and having a character move round an object. I will tell you more about this animation in another blog post because thats where I'll show you some modelling I've been doing as well.   

Lego Marvel Superheros

The Lego Marvel Superheros game has nearly every superhero from the marvel universe including loads of cameos from the one and only Stan Lee. In the game all the characters have their very own unique powers and another great thing about this game is that most of the characters also have different costumes so you don't get board looking at them.

I also like how if you're playing as a characters who has different personalities like The Hulk, Spiderman and Iron Man, you can actually change mid game into their opposite identities like Bruce banner, Peter Parker, and Tony Stark. Also the game mode is different from the other Lego games because in the superhero game it's an open world game where as Lego Batman for example is a level by level game. So if you're playing as Iron Man you get to fly around the city and do what you want.

Dying Light: Good Night Good Luck

Now I haven't actually played this game but I want to because it's parkouring and killing zombies at the same time. I've watched people play it on youtube and it looks so fun to play and the environment looks so pretty. Dying Light is  a first person point of view game and is set in a vast and dangerous open word, during day light to roam an urban environment devastated by mysterious epidemic, scavenging for supplies and crafting weapons to help defend yourself against the zombies. However, at night the zombies become stronger and more powerful so the hunter becomes the pray, and the inhuman predator will build a nest to grow in numbers and leave at night to feed on you.

Outlast Whistleblower

Outlast Whistleblower is an amazing game that I've played over the past couple of weeks with me friend Molly. In the game you walk around an insane asylum but you can't fight any og the peasants off all you can do is run, and to me this is scarier that fighting them because you know if you get near them they'll just kill you straight away.

Another thing I like about this game is that the only way you can see is if you hold up your camera and use the light, but the camera will run out of battery if you use the light for too long. if you do run out of battery you still can use night vision mode bit you can only see something if it is right in your face.

Not only is the game scary it's so dark and interesting, the story involves the government and experimentation and the human body, and how the government are trying to make a weapon out of a human but the subject turned into the 'Walrider'. The Walrider is actually a swarm of nanites, small, nanoscopic machines who possess great strength and power. It took possession of William "Billy" Hope, as shown in a document Billy was undergoing Morphogenic Engine Therapy. He learnt to self direct the lucid dream states, he was then capable of controlling the Walrider.

Another character I really like is in the DLC and is called Eddie Gluskin, who is a man trying to make other men into women so that he can have a family and raise children differently to how he was raised. When you encounter Eddie for the first time he calls you darling and tries to get you and turn you into a woman so you can have his children. In the game you get to see one of Eddies experimentations on turning a man into a woman and its very disturbing to see because it's imitating child birth.

 
     

Hotel Transylvania

The animated film 'Hotel Transylvania' has some great animation in it, however the story isn't that great. In my opinion the animation of the movement is the best part about the whole film because of the fast but smooth pace of Dracula and the way he runs through the corridor is cool because his whole upper body is still but his legs are just flailing around. I also like how each character has there own way of moving around, so like Frankenstein is big so his movements are heavy, loud and big. My favourite character has to be Murray the Mummy just because of his big movements and the way he acts, plus the person who voices him is CeeLo Green.

   

Brave

Brave is a great animated film and shows a wide range of amazing characters because each character has their own appeal and personality (except the three little boys). Out off all the characters my favourite has to be Merida's father Fergus just because he doesn't act like an adult but can be a total bad ass when needed to be, also the best part of the film is when Fergus impersonates Merida for Elinor the mother. Besides Fergus I also love the characters of the three little boys Harris, Hubert and Hamish because even though they don't speak they are very entertaining to watch and I love how cheeky they can be towards the maid, and even as little bears they still are really cute.

 












As well as the characters in the film I also like the environment especially when Merida and Elinor are in the woods together because of the way the light hits the trees which makes it look so realistic, I also like the way the water looks because of how it effects the characters when they go in it to get the fish, I say this because in some animations water looks horrible and doesn't flow the way its suppose to do.

Portal 2

Portal 2 is another favourite game of mine and not just because you can throw yourself around with the portals you create. I love this game because of the physics behind it and how you can feel weird after going through so many portals and you don't know were you are or what way up you are. I also love the characters in this game especially Glados the main robot character, because she has amazing sarcasm towards the character that your playing as.

Glados also has a good back story that you learn about when you fall right to the bottom of the testing chambers laboratory, where you fine out that Glados was once human, I'll leave it at that so I don't spoil it for you if you wan't to play it for yourself.

Another thing that I love about this game is its environment and how different testing chambers are unique in their own way. Not just that, I love how the developers have incorporated mother earth with in the game by adding vines and leaves everywhere when the chambers got destroyed because Glados was murdered in the first game so she couldn't keep the place clean. I also like how in some of the chambers early on in the game are still getting fixed by Glados, and also how she teases you at one point by destroying a cube before you can finish the test.

       

A Fox Tale

The animation 'A Fox Tale' has a great environment and good characters to help tell an okay story about a fox that can transform into a woman in water while two men are fighting over the woman not knowing that she is actually a fox. I really like the animation of the two men fighting because you can really get the feel of how heavy the big guy is in his movements and how he used his weight as an advantage. Also the little guy used his size as an advantage because he can move very fast to dodge the big guy and then used the big guys weight against him by throwing him around, and at one point the little guy gets thrown up into the sky and gets at ability to manipulate lightning which increases his speed and agility. Another thing that I like about this animation is that the characters use the environment around them to help in the fight, for example chucking rocks at one another and using the rock as punching gloves.