Research Project: Artifact 1 Changes

So after talking with my tutor we decided that my attempt to investigate the differences in high and low poly modeling would be more successful if the models I used were based on the same creature. so I have created complex and simple variations of the same character.


So here is the original Kittybunny:

And here is his complex form, Wolfbunny:

Client Project: Evaluation

The objective of this project was to create an animation piece for The Nottingham Young Creative Awards, we would have to identify what our Target Audience would be and to ensure that the project would be appealing to this audience. The Nottingham Young Creative Awards Brief stated that we would have to create project themed Nottingham Loves… within one of the ten categories, of which I personally chose Animation and Digital Media.

For my project I felt that I had very good knowledge of Nottingham’s Nature and Wildlife, so this would obviously be the best subject to base my project on, I decided that my Target Audience would be children ages 3 to 7 and their parents, the reason I decided this was because I believe it would be nice to pass some of my personal knowledge on to the younger generations within Nottingham. Another reason for me choosing children as my Target Audience was that I have noticed that there are little informative documents that explain what is on offer in the area for children to do, this project would obviously give Nottingham citizens and tourists an understanding of what is available to them.

I believe that this design would probably work best being displayed on the information screens at Nottingham’s various transport stops, this is because the most direct and simple route into Nottingham City centre is by using is various transport methods, with the high traffic use of these methods of transport there is a higher chance of people seeing the design.

To ensure that my Target Audience would be interested in my project, I would have to ensure that my design was bright, eye catching and most of all informative. I played with many different ideas to determine what would be the best design, eventually I came to the conclusion that the design that would appeal most to the Target Audience was the 2D Pin Puppet design.

When structuring my project I first had to create a basic story board so that I could ensure that the project flowed smoothly, this was done by gathering all the facts which I wished to include within the design, and then creating a scene to fit each set of facts.

Once I had decided on all the scenes which would be included I then needed to create a background for each scene, this was done using Adobe Photoshop, to ensure that each scene was relevant to Nottingham I browsed the Internet and visited places around Nottingham to give me inspiration for my background designs. With the backgrounds complete, I then needed to create the Characters that would go in each scene, the Characters would be 2D Pin Puppets. Using Adobe Photoshop again I created each movement piece for each character, saving them individually, once all the pieces were designed I then imported them into one file where I was able to pin each segment together allowing me to move each piece individually.

After all the Characters and Backgrounds were completed I then imported them into Adobe Premier Pro, this is where I would create the complete scene. With each Character I had to create the Animation of their walk cycle or the motion they would be doing in that scene. This was done using the Puppet Pin Tool, this would allow me to use the characters I had created and animate each piece quite simply.

With all the Scenes now animated I needed to ensure that the sounds fitted correctly. For each scene I required a different ambient soundtrack and also the sounds that each of the characters would be making, these sounds clips were collected from a website called sounddogs.com. Using the sound manipulation software within Adobe Premier Pro, I was able to blend all the character sounds quite nicely and to ensure that each scene would blend with the previous and following scene without any overlap.

Overall I feel that my design worked rather well, with the sounds and visual blending quite nicely, I believe it was successful in its goal to deliver detailed and relevant information about the Nature and Wildlife in and around Nottingham to the Target Audience.

In future I will ensure that any text that is in a project does not overlap any of the animations that are taking place, I also feel that I could improve my time management skills, by setting myself miniature deadlines, this is to ensure that certain tasks are complete by a certain time, allowing me to focus all my efforts on the task at hand, and also giving myself a few completely empty days at the end of the project to ensure that if there are any modifications and improvements that could be made, I could make them quite simply. I feel that I could have also added some more sounds to the characters, this is because at points the backing soundtrack that runs throughout the entire design sometimes partially drowns out the ambient sound for some scenes.

Redbubble

So I finally got round to setting up my RedBubble page. Ever wanted one of my drawings on a shirt or as an iPod/iPhone case? Now you can!
Also, let me know if there are any pieces of work you would like to see that I haven't put up yet.


http://www.redbubble.com/people/blueryuk/portfolio

Research Project: Beginning Modeling

I have started the modeling process for my simplistic character.

I am not yet finished as this model will need more work before I can begin experimenting with textures and bump mapping, but this is only my work so far.

Client Project: Designs

This is an example of the process I will use to create the backgrounds for my animation. Starting with a hand drawn image, I will then scan the image into the computer and paint it digitally in Photoshop.

This is how a scene will typically look in my animation, the birds are only hand drawn currently, but in the finished scene they will be painted and animated. The information on the scenes will sometimes be floating ad in the scene above, but can also be in a speech bubble coming from one of the animals to keep it visually interesting. The position of the text will also change from scene to scene.

This is sketch of how I am going to set up the animation of the animals. They will each be drawn as separate pieces, painted and outlined properly and the individual images will be imported into After Effects to animate using the puppet pin tool.

Research Project: Artifact 1 Progress

Concept drawings for my first artifact. They are only first sketches and I will be polishing them in the final versions, all except the front and side view sketches which I will be using to make the 3D models.

 First my simplistic character:

Secondly this will be my more complex character:

Client Project: Planning

The Brief:

— You are invited to submit a piece(s) of your creative work which could highlight aspects of what you love about Nottingham? What would you love Nottingham to be celebrated for? Be as creative, unique, experimental and expressive as you like within the categories of your choice based around the theme. The most successful of past winners have not only been creative but they have met the brief and have given us a new way of seeing Nottingham.

       For my client project I have chosen to do 'Nottingham loves... nature and wildlife'

       
       As the target audience I've selected is children and families with young children (the group most likely to want to visit places like city farms and other wildlife and nature parks), I chose to do an animation in a cartoon/ puppetry style as children would find this more visually appealing.The animations will be simple and brightly colored and will appear alongside facts and information about the places around Nottingham you can go to see wildlife and other animals, including family days out etc.Some slides will also have information on how to be more aware of nature in your area and suggest fun projects for children and parents on how to help and protect wildlife in their own backyard.This project is relevant to me because I love nature and love visiting the places mentioned in my project.

       these are the locations that will be included in my project as backgrounds and some of the information will be about them:

—The Arboretum
Sherwood Forest
Wollaton Park
Stonebridge City Farm
The Great Oak
White Post Farm
Attenborough Nature Centre

Research Project: Sources

This is a list of the research sources I have looked at so far or will be looking at as I complete this project. The list may grow as I develop my understanding of the subject matter and expand my hypothesis.


Books:

•Creating Characters with Personality by Tom Bancroft
•Character Mentor By Tom Bancroft
•Creating the Art of the Game by Matthew Omernick 
•The Skillful Huntsman by Scott Robertson•3Ds Max Modelling for Games: Volume II: Insider's Guide to Stylized Modelling: 2 by Andrew Gahan
•2D Artwork and 3D Modelling for Game Artists by Davis Franson
•The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
•Halo: The Art of Building Worlds
•Half Life 2: Raising the Bar
•The Art of Skyrim
•The Art of Dead Space
•The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants
•Game Design: Secrets of the Sages


Websites:

•http://www.bloopanimation.com/ 
•http://www.cgsociety.org/
•http://ww2.animationstudies.org/ 
•http://characterdesign.blogspot.co.uk/ 
•http://www.polycount.com/forum/



Research Papers:

•Exploring perceptions and attitudes towards teaching and learning manual technical drawing in a digital age Susan V. McLaren (2007)
•The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford
•Modelling Techniques: Movies Vs. Games by James Dargie •Enhancing 3D Graphics on Mobile Devices by Image-Based Rendering by Chun-Fa Chang et al.
•Level of Detail for 3D Graphics by David Luebke et al.
•Game Character: Concept to Product by Danial Rashidi (2009)
•An Introduction to Computer Graphics for Artists -Modelling 1: Polygons by Andrew Paquette (2013)
•3D Modeling Optimization for Multimedia Production by Malta de La Plata, Bruno (2013)
•Optimizing the 3D Character Modeling Process for Game Development by Turppa, Markus; Kuismin, Henri
•Optimization of CG Models by Andrew Paquette

Research Project: Question, Hypothesis and Artifacts

My Research Question:

"How does one preserve the aesthetic of the original concept art throughout the animation/games production workflow?"

In this research I plan to investigate characters progress through initial design phases to 3D models, and determine the importance of decisions such as poly count and texturing choices in creating an accurate 3D representation of the original artwork and technical designs.

My Hypothesis:

I believe that 3D models with a higher poly count will better preserve the details seen in the original artwork, however being higher poly will maximize rendering time and be more difficult to use in games or animations.

I also think that low poly models can also retain a significant amount of data (despite the lack of base model detail) through use of techniques such as bump mapping and texturing.






Artifact 1:

Moving from concept art to 3D models. Examining the workflow as a character or creature progresses from original concept art, through technical designs and eventually translates to the 3D model

My plan for this artifact is to design two creatures, a complex and detailed one and a more rounded simplistic one, creating artwork for each, taking that artwork through to technical drawings, front, side and three quarters etc. Then using the drawings, create the creatures as a 3D models. From this I can assess the process of artwork to model first hand.

Artifact 2:

How does the poly-count of the models and texture/mapping techniques effect how accurate the 3D model is to the original concept designs?

Using the 3D models of the creatures from my first artifact  I will reproduce the character as a low poly structure, and a second iteration with a high poly count, seeing which work best for looking close as possible to the original design while maintaining functionality. I will also compare the use of the polys, from the simplistic to complex models to see if the necessary number of polys changes to maintain the detail of each.

Life Drawing

Some Life Drawings I've done

 

Still Life

Some of my Still Life work

Character Design Final Video

Death Portrait To 3D Model

Sketch to Rigged Models (Positioning Comparison)

Death

Destructon

Dream

Other