This week, I did some layout work, providing more feedback to finalize the shot sequences. I helped David with creating the Animation Guide for all the animators to use moving forward. This week was mostly spent blocking out each of my scenes, setting up the rough key poses for each of my four shots, as well as altering camera setups and shots to fit better with the newer rigs and environments. I then uploaded videos and FBXs to Perforce and Unreal.
Block Outs
A10
As the newly appointed layout lead, I spent time this week looking over my group mates' sequences and suggesting changes to make sure they are in line for what we need.
Most of my time this week was spent creating 2D test footage for the yarn ball character. A lot of people, outside and inside the project, have been confused on how the yarn ball actually moves around in the film. Some thinks the yarn rolls, others think they slither. I wanted to do some 2D test animation to show how this character moves. First, I animated a scene from the storyboards, and then I animated an entirely original scene for the second one.
2D Test Footage
Perforce
For my contribution to this sprint, I contributed a lot of storyboards for different sequences throughout the short film, as well as editing together and adding sound effects and music to it.
Storyboards
Animatic
As for the animatic, I edited together the first and second part of the three sections of the film. I took everyone's shots from those parts and timed them out properly for the animatic. After I got Parker's edited section as the final part, I added sound effects and music to it.
Perforce
For my Artist Interview, I interviewed Teresa Falcone, a UCF Character Animation graduate and currently an animator at Pixar. Thank you so much, Teresa, for lending me so much of your time to talk about yourself and the industry.
Perforce Submission
What I Did This Week
This week, I received the most complete, fully functional rig yet, so I wanted to expand what the original animations did in subtle ways while also taking some of the feedback I got last week into account. I finally had finger controls to work with, so I employed them in ways that added expressive detail to the animations, such a fist clenches on certain actions. My main focus this week, however, was on the snakes on Medusa's head, which received criticism in the class before. I wanted to make them more life like, but I didn't quite know how to apply that to snakes spawning out of a scalp. I looked at references from other depictions of the character throughout media, particularly from the Percy Jackson films. With that, I was able apply more realistic snake motion to all of the animations I had made.
Before:
Perforce:
What I Did:
This week, I had to focus on polishing up my animations based on the feedback I got last week, alongside helping my team better implement the assets into engine and finishing up various tasks. I really wanted to focus on my idle animation this week, as I tried to de-emphasize some movements based on the criticism I received the week prior. I also wanted to make it longer, as well as adding an extra movement later on in the animation to break up the repetition, with Medusa standing and looking side-to-side. I also had to create an extra torch-holder asset to help complete the in-engine scene. My last task was to finish texturing some assets that were still blank so the finished game has a polished look.
Animation
Texturing
Perforce
What I Did:
For this week's phase, I was given an a much more polished rig, so I was able to remake all of my animations. Now that I had more time, I was able to polish them a lot more, adding a lot more extra detail and playing with the timing and overlap a lot more. I made the movements a lot more smooth and less janky, as well. as making them loop. This rig also allowed me to properly animate the snakes on the top of the head, which was definitely a challenge. However, it was really interesting to simulate and experiment with how the snakes would move in tandem with her movement. In the end, I pushed all of my FBX's into Perforce for my other group mates to implement.
Idle
Perforce Upload
This week, I did some layout work, providing more feedback to finalize the shot sequences. I helped David with creating the Animation Guide...
