Character and Narrative 5: Skeleton

Using Matts video guides i created a character skeleton with ease and put them together nicely. I found this section very easy, and i feel like making the controllers for the joints will be easy too, however i am not sure how well i will fare when it comes to putting all of these elements together. We shall see in time.

Character and Narrative 3: Modeling

Following a guide that Matt created I made a maya model, using reference T pose images. With Matts guides i learnt a lot of new processes and refreshed my memory of a lot of old ones that i used when modelling London.

I started with the pelvis and then  moved up the torso.

 I then extruded the leg and the upper arm.

 Then i finished the rest of the arm to the wrist and made the foot.

 I then created the hand which was the most time consuming, not because of difficulty but because of how detailed it was made modelling take up longer. Next was the head, and i then mirrored the body.

I found i had the most trouble when using the easier but bigger tools such as when i had to mirror the model, furthermore i have learnt that modelling is much easier on a bigger monitor. I have also learnt that often when using a reference image, on the side profile the arm gets in the way a lot. To prepare for this i shall leave the arm out of the side profile reference image and use a top down reference image for the arm and hand.

I am confident i will be effective at modelling the characters after we design them.

Character and Narrative 2: Maya Poses

This week we were tasked with taking reference photos of 5 emotions and then posing the model Matt gave us in said poses. Below are my 5 poses.

Amusement

 Anticipation

 Awe

 Pain

 Timidity

From this exercise i learnt a few things. First that i am better at showing certain emotions over others, for example my expression for pain wasn't great, and my pose for anticipation looks more like determination, which highlights that maybe i ought to take a few reference photos to show each emotion.

I also learnt that the face shows a lot of emotion, and though you can pose the arms and legs in ways to add to the emotion, without the ability to move parts of the face the model will look a little uncanny. 

Character and Narative 1: Back into the swing/Idea Development

For the first part of the day, we got back to grips with maya and its hotkeys and controls, which was extremely easy, similar to riding a bike after not after a few months. After this Matt gave us his  rigged model to practice animating with, which after some practice i got to grips with and posed it in a few different ways. After struggling with the college computers i decided to continue posing at home.

After playing with maya we got down organising groups for the modelling project, after a little trouble finding someone i wanted to work with me and Katy decided it would be best for us to join forces against evil, as we both were struggling to find someone either of us wanted to work with but mutually respected each others skills as artist/animators. We played with a bunch of the title choices, eventually whittled it down to three titles which we created spider diagrams for; The message, Road to nowhere and Adrift. In the end we decided with adrift. Next wednesday we shall start planning out an actual story.