Esme Duncan – Page 10 – Esme’s Blog

Week 2: Character Design Concept Art

Baring in mind different aspects of design and how they will translate into 3D space, it is essential to consider stylistically how it will be modelled. As stated in the book ‘Virtual Character Design for Games and Interactive Media‘, the “development of good character art is not possible without a solid understanding of nature” (Sloan and Stuart, 2015, pp.3) . Due to my direct reference to the human skeleton, it is important that I consider aspects of the real human body and understand its anatomy. Going forward into the modelling stage, I will make reference to the book Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists (Sheppard, 1933).

Trying to keep the design as minimal as possible, I want to push expression with a lack of facial aspects, heavily relying on the eyebrows to convey the majority of emotion. This design also will help me explore aspects of rigging and character modelling without overcomplicating the design for myself.

Character Inspiration and Mood Boards

A Large influence for my character ideas is Jack Skellington and the concept works of Tim Burton, as I like the ‘lankier’ and threatening yet simultaneously friendly looking character appeal. I think this largely comes from a longer, sharper body contrasted with a softer and friendly face.

Applying these ideas to my own sketches and concepts, I have given the character sharper and longer exemplified collarbones contrasting with a ‘cute’ round face which lacks in emotive feature bar eyebrows. I think the simplistic and minimal facial expression will help add an uncanny element, since facial expression is predominantly read through the upper regions of the face, and accentuate his ‘dead’ ness (Tinwell, 2015).

Aesthetic inspiration

when designing the overall look of the film, I felt very inspired by early black and white cinema, and want to take aspects of this into the final composition of my short animated film. In order to do this I have been considering multiple post production editing solutions and ideas to help build and expand on my overall look development.
Due to one of my main editing software’s being Da Vinci resolve, I looked into old film effects that i can later use in tests to see how the old scratch film look will appear. This will be useful to provide tests with later on in the production stage

https://youtu.be/Sdp1t2s8s1k

Dance and Motion Inspiration

Thinking ahead for motion aesthetics and character reference Ideas, I think a strong visual for these skeletons could be the graceful and well timed dance motions of singing in the rain. The ballet-esque dance moves displayed in the film will I think epitomise the Hollywood association of the late 1920’s, and will help set my animation contextually and tonally.

References

.Sloan, R. and J Stuart. (2015). Virtual Character Design for Games and Interactive Media. Natick: CRC Press

.Sheppard, J. (1993). Anatomy: A complete Guide for Artists. New York: Dover Publications.

.Tinwell, A. (2015). The Uncanny valley in Games and Animation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press

Week 2: Collaborative Project

Group Meeting and Notes:

The main project development points discussed at this point involved storyboarding concepts and character/ asset modelling in regards to my and Marianna’s aims on the 3D animation side.

Personal Goals Outlined in Meeting:

.Asset Modelling- Ice Cream, Sand Shovel, and the Ice Cream Cart

. Assist Marianna in storyboard drafts and Story development

VR Story-boarding and Multidimensional Narrative in VR Interaction
Storyboarding for animated films in comparison to Storyboarding for virtual reality differs largely due to the potentiality of player possibility. Due to the unpredictable nature of player interactivity, more than one straightforward narrative has to be planned and accounted for in pre-production. Storyboarding in 360 degrees allows for planning and also allows for the environment and spatial awareness planning which helps to gain a better understanding of environmental interaction between players and objects. Taking this into consideration, it is important to consider examples in the industry that really stress the idea of player control. Games such as ‘Detroit: Become Human (Sony, 2018) offer a very clear example of the pre-productive planning involved in creating a narrative in the language of game design.

Expanding on the storyboarding produced last week, the were several issues in the presentation of narrative development that I had not previously considered, such as the 360-degree nature provided by content produced in unity. Enlarging on this idea further, in the following week the intention for narrative planning will be done psychically in 3D space using a VR compatible software called ‘Tilt-Brush’. Looking to the book Storytelling for virtual reality: methods and principles for crafting immersive narratives, Bucher expands on the ‘sense of self-created by virtual reality engagement that is not congenitally restricted by the rules and laws of the natural world (2017). Considering this it brings into a light a further exemplification of what exactly one is a storyboard and how this is applied

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image.png — Example of Storyboard template used for virtual reality.

An example of Tilt brush being employed as a story planning tool is demonstrated clearly in the example below and offers great reference and understanding of how we will intend to utilise this tool in the next week.

Modelling and Sculpting

Pose Capture Feature In Storyboarder VR – Wonder Unit – YouTube

3D Models- In the book Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity, Totten discusses how digital sculpting is used to create a high detail resolution model that can be projected via ‘normal maps’ onto a low poly model to allow for constant rendering to function at the best speed it can 2012). Following on from this, and using my low poly mesh creations in Maya and exporting them into Nomad ( A software recommended by the VR collaborators on this project ), then export these aspects as FBX files which are compatible with unity’s engine.

Adapted Sculpts in Nomad

Utilizing and educating myself on new software, especially in use with unity, I explored the use of a digital sculpting app called ‘Nomad’.

References-

Bucher, J (2017), Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives, Taylor & Francis Group, Oxford. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [7 Feb 2022].

Chris Totten (2012) Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity. Hoboken, N.J.: Sybex (Sybex Serious Skills). Available at: https://search-ebscohost-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=459449&site=ehost-live&scope=site (Accessed: 11 March 2022).

Friday Workshop Week 1: Storyboarding and Staging

This term involvement requires two 30- 120 second stories to be created, and the most vital starting point to this is idea conception and storyboarding. This provides a means for you to plan and assess how you wish the film to look shot-wise as well as plan initial staging and on-screen concepts. During this initial workshop, we were tasked to draw a quick storyboard to begin potentially progressing an idea to being conceptualised around.

First Storyboard Concept

The General Concept of the story is two cowboys are about to duel with guns over the last can of beer. They dramatically set up to walk 10 steps to turn and shoot, however just as they turn around, an eagle swoops down and steals the can, leaving the two cowboys to stare up in confusion. I think as a concept this works well timing-wise however, In order to create two relatively detailed cowboy models and rigs I would have to have a lot of time, and due to the limitations of time I have to complete the project, I have many challenges to tackle producing this into 3D content.

Storyboard 2

My secondary idea very quickly summarises an idea of several characters who compete in a ‘dance contest’ but when a contest makes an error, a trap door opens beneath them and they are out of the contest. Taking this into consideration for production, I could create the same rig dancing against each other to save modelling and rigging time and also use a more limited and stylized method of character animation that doesn’t replicate the imitative and smooth nature of Disney and Pixar character animations.

Friday Workshop Week 1: Project Idea Generation

Project 1 Idea

For a narrative-driven project Idea, I could develop a story aesthetically inspired by the Disney’s silly symphony involving dancing skeletons that are fighting the remain in the spotlight. However, every time they make an error, a stage door opens beneath them which sends their bones scattering into a pit at the bottom of the stage.

Inspiration

**Award Winning** CGI 3D Animated Short Film: “Dia De Los Muertos” – by Team Whoo Kazoo | TheCGBros – YouTube

CGI Animated Short Film: “Final Deathtination” by Marika Tamura | CGMeetup – YouTube

silly symphony – the skeleton dance 1929 Disney short – YouTube

Project 2 Idea

Developing alongside my thesis topic, I could create an informational and personal documentary, that discusses and highlights people’s different experiences in lockdown over the past two years and what methods they used to cope in such environments. Throughout this process, I could include a range of different rigs and animation styles to help empathise people’s experiences visually (eg. If they spoke about walking a dog, I could animate the interview using a dog rig) perhaps explored further through the experimental aspects of this terms following module. This may be something I develop as a Final Major Project later on down the line with a further range of interviewees and animation styles explored.

Asking questions such as-

What were you doing the day we went into lockdown?

Did you live alone or with others during this time?

How was your work impacted?

How has the global pandemic affected your personal lifestyle?

How was your relationship with the people in your life been impacted?

How did you keep in touch with others or did you fail to do so?

Are you comfortable discussing mental well-being, if so how did the lockdown affect your mental health?

Inspiration

Lip Synch: Going Equipped – Aardman Animations (Short Film) – Bing video

Week 1: Collaborative Project

For the collaboration module, this term I have joined a virtual reality project which will create an experience of comedy comic books into a 3D space. Largely taking inspiration from the comic artist ‘False Knees’ who makes witty, sarcastic and ironic comic cartoons revolving around animals. For this projects adaptation, the aim is to create a VR experience, largely utilizing the software Unity, to create an interactive experience between two seagulls, and shifting environments centred around a beach.

Initial Group Meeting and Notes:

During this initial team meeting, we were able to mutually agree on all the group members that would be involved in the project. It was agreed that myself and Marianna would focus on

Character Concept Designs

Upon early discussions and plans made clear in the team ‘Miro Board’ that there are two distinct personalities of the seagull character, very heavily based on particularly comic strips created by ‘False Knees’ the artist. Taking this into account, I designed different seagulls in ways that help characterise their personalities, one being goofy and more primal and basic in their desires more aligned with the ‘stupidity’ we often associate with birds. The second bird is designed to have an element of human intelligence, making often sarcastic and psychological reflections that create comic effects between the two.

After producing the Designs the team collectively designed, It was more clear how to approach the next stage of production which included script and story development.

Story and Interaction Development

Developing Ideas in the Realm of virtual reality is something that I lacked experience in, due to its difference in conventional filmic narrative storytelling. Using direct inspiration from the artist ‘False Knees’, I translated the realistically inspired style into a storyboard panel to try and communicate with the Virtual reality team ideas of interaction between the birds. In Doing so I wanted to translate the material and its comedy to fit into the context of the virtual reality setting to enhance viewer engagement.

Previs

In order to better communicate Ideas with the Virtual reality students, I went through the process of creating a 3D previsualization of how I imagined the player would potentially interact and move around the virtual environment by animating false first-person perspectives with `a camera. This also included producing a test for how the speech bubbles would appear in-game and poses interesting ideas and further thoughts on how this text will be presented and animated in style.

Character Animation Tests

In order to convey a realistic idea of how the seagulls would move, I initially looked at reference Videos of Real Seagulls, as well as animated adaptations. Taking these references, I tried to relate the movements of the two seagulls to that of their initial personality descriptions. Due to only using the one downloaded rig, I tried to make it discernable which seagull was which through movement and expression alone.

seagulls flying – Bing video

Seagull walking on the beach in October ~ Hilton Head Island, South Carolina – YouTube

Will Smith Transforms Into A Pigeon Extended Scene – SPIES IN DISGUISE (2019) Movie Clip – YouTube

Seagull A Animation test

Seagull B Animation Test

Performative Documentary Form

Researching into the ideas of Bill Nichols and his book Blurred Boundaries (1994), the documentary can have more metaphysical and symbolic methods of representing reality. Nichols Points out Roman Jacobson’s ‘six aspects of communication’, which include expression, referential, poetic, rhetoric, phatic and metacommunicative (1994, p.94).

Hollywood Fiction– This largely includes the ‘absence of reality, fantastical at times.

Expository Documentary– Stems from the 1930s, and directly addresses the real- ‘Overly Didactic.’

Observational Documentary– from the 1960s. Avoids direct commentary makes a record of things as they are happening. This can include a lack of context and historical facts.

Interactive Documentary– From the 1960s- 1970s. However, the person’s interview puts excessive faith in the witness and provides a ‘naive account of history’.

Reflexive Documentary-1980. Arises question to the documentary form. It can be considered too abstract and can lose insight into the factual issues at hand.

Performative Documentary– 1980s-1990s. ‘ Stresses the subjective of classically objective discourses’. The ‘loss of referential emphasis may relegate such films as avant-garde’ and can contain the overuse of style over fact.

Nichols states how the first four types of documentary modes emphasise the referent, while the performative documentary ‘inflects’ these modes into a different form of factual presentation (1994, p.95). Adding more metaphorical and inadvertently ambiguous meaning behind the real world’s presentation can help build a further sense of identity in the documentary, similar to the filmmaker Auter in style. Associating with my thesis topic at hand, the process of conveying personal experience through performative documentary methods could add a further level of emotional empathy in accentuating the symbolic representation of experience and provide interesting points when going into CGI documentary creation. Due to its artificial nature, the creation of assets and environments to accentuate personal recounts of events adds a deeper level of ‘performativity’, which could create additional points against the reliability of animated documentary, further blurring the line between fictional storytelling and factual account.

I feel these points and ideals could link to aspects such as Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008), which uses a lot of performative and non inherently overtly referential aspects in the way it represents hallucinatory and mentally constructed accounts of war, however, poses an intriguing statement that supports the real-life experience of the individuals involved. While previously covered in the critical report, the validity of personal experience through animation is something that can be explored further into its effectiveness of genre classification.

A Point Nichols brings forward is the point that performative documentary can embody an ‘existential situatedness’ that is relevant and a precondition of specific ‘class consciousness’ that arises watching more referentially created documentary. These are aspects to consider when viewing and partaking in the creation of the performative documentary as it may not be inherently accessible.

References

Nichols, B. (1994) Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Collaborative Project: Idea and Skill Pitch

Project and Idea:

The Project I have expressed interest in is a virtual reality immersive experiences adapted from a comic book that centers around comedic and existential conversation of two birds. The Project is titled ‘False Knees’.

Roles and Tasks you could bring to the table

I have 5 years prior experience with Maya and have previously worked as a project coordinator in the third year of my undergraduate course when I managed and supervised team of animators. My undergraduate course emphases the importance of team work so I have some understanding as to how a 3D team will function. I have some knowledge of how rigging works and can adjust and adapt my skills to make rigs compatible with game engine software’s. I have some experience in Unreal, which while not hugely similar to unity, it has the same process of exporting compatible FBX files to be functional. It also has a similar relationship to the advanced skeleton, which may prove handy at a later date. I have some drawing abilities that will also assist in the pre-production stage.

.What you want to achieve and get out of the project, and what career you are heading towards

Idealistically I would like to go into character animation, however I am very open to the idea of going perhaps into character rigging as well as involving myself with more games related projects in the future that will require the experience I can gain from working on this project. I am more than happy to work and engage with all aspects of the pipeline, including assisting where I can within unity itself.

Thesis Ideas

Going forward into developing Ideas Towards a thesis topic, the topic of animated commentary is one that has a growing prominence in the genre and has areas of consideration for reflection growth. For a potential final major project I am looking into creating an animated interview style documentary in which anonoimity can be persevered but a topic can be outlined.

Other areas of interest include cinematography and colour grading as non verbal metaphor in storyline development. This includes non Verbal communication such as moments of silence in place of dialogue, and implications of physical movement.

Reading list for the weeks ahead (Documentary):

Blurred Boundaries- Bill Nichols

Representing Reality- Bill Nichols

Animated Realism: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Animated Documentary Genre- Judith Kriger

Drawn from Life: Issues and Themes in Animated Documentary Cinema- Johnathon Murray and Nea Ehrlich

Collaborative Unit: Initial Considerations

Understanding what makes and effective collaborative piece of work is essential for productive team working for this module.

An essential part of the collaboration process is communication. Without constant effective communication, takes and progress will be unclear and halted. This can also cause misunderstandings and waste a lot of valuable time.
Sharing ideas and offering solutions to issues anyone could encounter will speed up the pipeline of the process. This could involve technical issues or creative and design issues that could be evenly shared out.
Making definitive roles and tasks for each individual so they know what is expected of them each week.
Successful collaboration also requires understanding and utilising everyone’s skill set effectively to creates the highest qualities piece of work possible.
Understanding if someone is unable to produce something and allowing plenty of contingency time in case anything goes wrong during the process.
Having a group space online that everyone can access so everything’s progress can easily be tracked and having a clear grounds for feedback reflection possibilities. (Eg. Google drive, one drive)
Using spreadsheets to track what needs to be completed and who is assigned to each task. Also having an easy access point (discord, Microsoft teams) where everyone can communicate for issues such as covid etc.

With potentials of working with VR and games design students, it is important to understand the relationship between Maya and unity and the pipelines that need to be put in place for an effective team effort. From what a majority of the research below, it is important to export model and animation as FBX files so they are compatible with Unity as a software. As well as Unity, games students may also use Unreal Engine 4/5/6 which is a node based editing games programme, contrasting with the code based software that Unity is. Knowing that these require FBX files and taking into consideration the spatial relationship that will need to occur in communication of scene files and communicating with the teams to ensure these are clear.

Tutorials on Maya file exporting for Unity-

Animation Showreel Submission Post

Learning and progressing my skills in 3D animation through the term has proven challenging yet has given me a more substantial base understanding of the toolset in Maya and the application of the 12 principles of animation. Engaging with tasks, especially character performance-driven exercises, proved enjoyable and stimulating, allowing me to establish effective workflows with in-class teaching and research from Richard Williams The Animator’s Survival Kit and Kenny Roys How to Cheat in Maya 2014.

Alternate Video Links: https://vimeo.com/664528146/aebffcca26, https://youtu.be/L1WbyQtwRIg

Reflecting on the work I have produced overall this term, I feel I have pushed myself to a higher level of creating animated work. While there are aspects of my work that need improvement, especially in terms of refining and weight conveyance. I feel my particular weaknesses were in walk cycles. Going forward, I intend to experiment with different character performance walk cycles, focusing on cleaning pops in the knees and elbows. Pairing this and gaining a better understanding of more complex rendering techniques to those I have already researched, looking further into the capabilities of the Arnold renderer. I have found particular enjoyment in creating character performance and facial animation and hope to continue to record strong references and really push my capabilities. It could be beneficial to take practises from Acting and Performance for Animation ( Derek Hayes, Chris Webster) going forward in this direction of animation. Using applications such as SyncSketch has proven extensively beneficial for me in reflecting on my work. Next term, it will be particularly effective as a collaborative feedback tool for the group project module.

Further reading material ideas for next term:

Character animation in 3D: use traditional drawing techniques to produce stunning CGI animation- Steve Roberts
The illusion of life: Disney animation- Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
3D art essentials: the fundamentals of 3D modeling, texturing, and animation-Ami Chopine
Cartoon animation- Preston Blair

Challenge Blog Posts

Challenge 1:The 12 Principles of Animation – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk) Challenge 1: The 12 Principles Applied to Industry Standard work – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 2: Bouncing Balls – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 3: Challenge 3:Obstacle Course – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 4:Challenge 4: Gesture and Posing in 3D Space – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 5:Challenge 5: Tail and Ball Animation – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 6:Challenge 6: Walk Cycles – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 7:Challenge 7: Reference Footage – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 8:Challenge 8: Body Mechanics – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 9:Challenge 9: Advanced Body Mechanics – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Challenge 10: Challenge 10: Lip Sync and Facial Performance – Esme’s Blog (arts.ac.uk)

Class Workshops