My Final Major Project Evaluation - UNIT 8/ UNIT 9

Unit 8 - Project Proposal (FMP)

Name	Maria Danneau
Pathway	Art & Design/Fashion Level 3 Extended Diploma Year 1
Your project title	Moonlight Pathway.
Section 1: Rationale (approx 150 words)		What is your reason or purpose for doing this project?
The reason I am doing this project is because I have always had a fascination in animals, specifically the canine family. I have spent most my life watching documentaries on wolves and African hunting dogs. They have always intrigued me, and ever since I was young I was always trying to draw my dog. When I was around 11-12 I began to watch, peoples own drawn animations on youtube, watching tutorials and looking at references, I enjoyed creating my own characters and giving them backstories. Seeing them grow and develop and gain a personal attachment to me. I began to focus on drawing wolves intensely, near enough every other day I was drawing wolves. I love how they live, how they work to survive, how they overcome. And so, I wanted to give them more love by drawing and studying them. That is why I have decided to base my animation on wolves.
Section 2: Project Concept (approx 250 words)		What is your idea and project question?
My idea is a wolf strolling through the forest at night in search for a drink, he reaches the stream and finally gets to drink. Once he has met his need of thirst he then heads back home, curls up in his cosy cave and goes back to sleep. Not a very complicated animation and it does not have much in it in terms of action and such, but it will be hard to make for me and challenge my skills. My project question is how will I turn my storyboard idea into a visual animation using Auto Deskbook.
Section 3: Evaluation (approx 100 words)		How will you evaluate your project and by what methods will you use?
I will evaluate by posting on my blog, and updating it every time I make changes, while also thoroughly describing and explaining each design and thing I post. I will use information and references and credit the people who I got them from, and I will also show in a detailed layout everything I am learning and how I came to get the ideas I have.
Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)
Youtube – Tutorials     Zoo – Images and Videos      Books – Animation tips    Documentaries – Visual knowledge.

Analysis
For my final major project I have decided to do a short 2D drawn story, about a young wolf walking through the forest and trying to find a drink and his cave to get back to sleep. In the story it will show him wondering around until he finds a little stream to drink from, once he drinks he then returns back to his cave and curls up to go back to sleep, its a very simple story but it will be shown through different angels and movement with the frames and background, it will be a good improvement of my wolf anatomy drawing while also keeping my own characteristic style to my design.

In order to get the best movements and most believable actions I will be doing much research on wolves anatomy and videos of wolves movement, as well looking at my favourite youtuber for inspiration with my art and my own attempts to animate. As shown below.

Research

For my research I looked up my favourite youtuber SumikoOneSan, I watched her animations and stories she had made from the past to help me get an idea on where to start with my own animation, I watched closely at how she made her wolves move and how she done her background to add this knowledge to my own final major project.
Here are some of her drawings/animations for reference that I used to help me.

Looking at her art and the way she animated gave me lots of inspiration for my own animation and where I am going to lead the story and in what ways, it helped me to plant through the story and make a simple storyboard to help keep me guided and on track. (Under Planning and Production)


And I also looked up videos of wolves walking to look at there legs in order to get more of an idea too but be able to help me alter it to be more characteristic and in my own style.

 This was a good animation for me to look at and use as research as it shows the wolf in a front view position and also shows emphasis on the wolves lips and flesh during the movement of the snarl.

 This animation was good for research as it helps me see a good angle in which to create my wolf howling and the movement in the head.

This animation I chose to help with walking as its slow and spaced out almost like showing a frame step-by-step appearance to help me clearly look at the joints.

I also looked at wolf anatomy with bones and muscle to help get a better judgement on the body and make it more easier to see how it would move where in which ways that show most realistic proportions.

All these pictures helped me to shape out the wolf in a more accurate way, even though my design of my wolf is very characteristic I still wanted it to move like a believable wolf, so looking at the bones and joins, with the diagrams of where everything goes to help keep correct proportion helped me a ton with make my own animation as smooth and as close to a real wolf as I possibly could.

 Getting labels on all the different parts of a wolf made it more successful in my own drawing because it helped me know where to add little details to be more effective.

 I even looked up diagrams of dire wolves (a species wolf that has been extinct for millions of years now, and was around in the ice age period.) Just to help me further increase my knowledge of the canine structure through bones.

Getting these diagrams in different angles also helped me to see how wide the shape of a wolf body really is, and it also helped me to get better understanding at different angels when drawing and keeping the body properly proportioned.

Looking at all these images gave me enough reference to try wolf anatomy myself and so I drew a head for practice.

My plans and production for the animation;
I started with doing my storyboard, which was to help guide me through my scenes in my animation. This is where I got to with my storyboard.

 In this storyboard I show roughly how the story is going to play out. The wolf walks calmly through the forest, and interacts with a squirrel. He does not be angry or try to hunt it, he is calm and civil, showing tranquility and peaceful intentions, different to the typical stereotype that is portrayed of the wolf.

 In this part it then shows him continue to walk on through the forest as he is on his own little journey, till he reaches a small stream, and begins to drink it rather fast, showing he was thirsty and that was his intentions all along.

By the end of it he is heading back home to go back to sleep, showing he had no intention to hurt anything or cause distress, he was just simply doing his own little thing.











I also done a few very simple sketches of a wolf in different angles for practice for my character.

I also did a character design sheet, close up, to show his features and his design more clearly with some information.

Name: Sinyari
Character: Wolf
Gender: Male
Age: Young Adult
Personality: Calm and Kind
Live: Forest
Activities: Stroll around
Friends/Family: None
Fears: Starving
Stereotypical: No
Appearance: Look at drawing
Items/Clothing: None
Dreams/Nightmares: None
Defining Moment: No
Movement: Casual/Calm









Once i had done some very simple and basic designs of a wolf in different angles i began to actually start animating, drawing frames. However i found it easier to shape and design my character on my phone, as using digital art was far more smoother and easier to correct mistakes with so with that in mind, I began using this software on my phone;

This app is something that can be downloaded onto any device, such as phones, computers, laptops, tablets etc. It gives you a wide variety of different tools an brushes to give you as much detail you can with each drawing, it lets you create layers and then hide and reveal layers in certain orders. So for me it is a perfect app to use when drawing my frames for an animation. It was so easy to use and made progress so much smoother for me, I have already started on the frames of the first and second scene and have been saving my progress step-by-step in order to see how I am improving and developing the animation. I started off with doing some simple sketches to try and get a good reference in shapes for the wolf's body and than I began to add detail to make the frames.

Before I did this though I decided to work on the first scene of my animation, which is the background, the landscape of the forest, and the focus of attention revealing it zoom in and fade to black, giving off the impression you are being taken into the forest.
Here is the step-by-step progress of the landscape:

Once I had the frames I put them together and this is the outcome of my first scene:

Here is a FEW of my simple frame steps for the wolf base.

Here is what the first cycle looked like with all the frames lined up.

I liked it but when I played through the animation it was a bit too jumpy still and it was not consistent enough for me. 

As seen in this first animation cycle attempt.

I could tell it needed more frames and so I spent time adding extra frames along these ones in order to help me create a more smooth and consistent movement.
As seen in this picture of my new frames.

Once I added these frames I tested the animation again and got a much better result, in terms of consistency and smoothness.

After I got a smooth and consistent design with my animation I started work on colouring the frames, I did not chose complex colours as I liked my design to be simplistic. Here are a FEW of the frames coloured.

Once I had added colour to all the frames I then started to move them into place to create the moving animation again as shown here.

And this was the animation I got afterwards, which I was very proud with.

Once I had completely furnished the walking of my now coloured wolf character, I began setting the scene with the entrance of a squirrel that gets spooked by the incoming wolf character. These are a FEW of the frames I did.

This was then the finished design with all the frames in there respected places.

However in order to draw this I did use reference to another artist, who made moving squirrel frames, here is the reference I used.

Using this for reference I was able to make my animations, I tested it out and got this as result.

         
Once I saw it worked correctly as long as I adjusted some frames I could make it move forward, so did and then joined the frames with my wolf to create one of the scenes of my final major project, and this was my end result so far.

I feel after all the work I have done on my FMP, I was able to answer my project proposal I had from the start, and I have learned that it is very difficult to master the animation of movement when it comes to making animals move smoothly and consistently. However I was able to find my strength through this, when given time I can perfect the anatomy of an animal so that it moves believably, I feel I'm at my strongest when I am drawing wolves and other canine family relatives. 

Breaking Ball Animation. - UNIT 1,2,5 AND 7

Today I spent four hours working on an animation thats very simple but was very hard for me to complete, I wanted to work on my squash and stretch progress, so I did a frame by frame animation drawn style of a small very bouncy ball bouncing on the spot, with a white bar dropping down to restrict the balls movement causing it to pick up speed, to the point it cracks and break the bar and shoots off very fast. There are many mistakes with it as of right now but for my first attempt I added the bar shaking in frames to show the impact of the balls weight when hitting off of it, till the bar stops shaking and locks in place and the ball ends up destroying it.

This is also a an image that I worked with, using it as a reference to help me;

Small Animation. (3D Model Ball test) - UNIT 6

This is a small attempt of an animation, using a 3D model type of art. It it my 3D modelled ball from my tutorial from before but I decided to make it give the impression of falling and then rising back into the air like a bouncing motion. I am very proud of this but it could use a lot of work like more squash and stretch techniques. But I feel the shadow shows good use of anticipation and it shows the object coming closer before becoming visible on screen and then leaving screen becoming smaller. I also added a small bit of movement to practice my rotation and shaping to see if I could make it believable that it is rolling for a few seconds, if given more time I would also add the squash and stretch functions to bring it more to life.

As for a first try though I am very happy with this outcome.

Tutorial On 3D Model Ball (PhotoShop) - UNIT 6

In order to make the 3d Model ball in photo shop I took very simple steps.

The first step was to make simple rectangles going up and then across to make a criss cross symbol pattern. This was to make the main base of the 3D model ball. And the starting step.
The second step was to then use the elliptical marquee tool (M) which was to help with cutting out a circular shape from the criss cross pattern.
The third step was to flatten the cutout lines, before then going on to to filter and distort to then spherize the circle shape inside to give it a more enhanced look.
The fourth step was to then copy and paste it into a different layer so the remaining background criss cross pattern was removed and only the ball shape remained. This was to make it easier to cut out the small white spaces between the gaps of the criss crosses before then colouring the patterned circular shape in certain colours.
The fifth step was to then copy the shape and paste it again onto a different layer and change the colours to a more darker shaded tone of the already selected colours, this was to help create the depth and vision as if there is an actual space inside the circle.
The sixth step was to rotate an scale the circular shape darkened toned version in order to give a double criss cross effect in order to make the background of the ball visible.
After this the final steps was to then make a background colour to help coexist with the ball and make it stand out more, and also to blur the lines out and brighten certain edges to give it a more broadened look.
One last step in the process was to resize the shapes and under layers and move it the background in order to create a shadow on the lower part of the design, this was to give the impression that the ball is on a flat surface.

Here is the final product I created.

Here is also a link to a site that I used to help me as a small tutorial: http://abduzeedo.com/node/62900

Where I See Myself In The Future. - UNIT 9

Difficult question to answer when it comes to what I want to do with my future in the animating industry. However I have given this much thought and I am very, very interested in working with simple 2D animation and the concept of this idea in general has always sparked an interest for me.

My interest in this picked up when I first watched animators on youtube, the fun designs and silly drawing made me laugh an gave me motivation to start drawing, the idea that you can create life from nothing but a pencil and your mind fascinated me. I often watched animators who took audio clips from famous you tubers such as Markiplier, Pewdiepie, Jacksepticeye etc. And they made their own interpretation using their art and animation skills. Very basic and simple drawings that somehow lead 100,00s of people to enjoy it because even though it was so simple it was a funny and creative idea they often drew for the audio.

Ever since then I have worked hard on drawing and getting my own style so that I can put my ideas to the test and make small simple animations for audio clips to youtubers I have enjoyed working. I feel like youtube is good place to start with my animating progress because its a world wide used app and a great open door for job opportunities, even though it may not seem like much people can often get noticed through youtube and get a job hey have always wanted. Some of these youtubers I speak of have actually been noticed by the yotubers they animate audio clips to and can sometimes end up being paid to do more and gaining a job from it, or even being noticed on the youtubers channel to help further the animators channel and increase their chances of job opportunities.

However this is just a small step for me, one day I hope to be noticed by an actual animating industry and join a team of other people like me that share a passion for bringing drawings to life and make it into a new and fresh project design that can show people how much we love our work and express our passion through our work.

I have always been a very enthusiastic person when it comes to drawing animals or certain people I admire, I have wished for a long time to be able to turn this into a work experience where I can enjoy the outcome of the effort and time I have put into something. Its often said its hard to be a person whose lucky enough to wake up and be ready and happy for their work because its something truly love and desire. But I am optimistic and hold hopes that if I keep pushing and challenging myself I can get noticed and take my passion further.

I have also had a passion in creating characters and thinking of comic ideas, the fun and creative side of controlling what happens on a world made up entirely from your mind has always fascinated me too. To get attached to characters of your creation and express your feelings so much that it helps other to feel their pain or sorrow and go through their story with them is mind blowing.

I have worked with a friend by the name Lucy Burgess who has shared ideas and creations with me and have start to create a small comic by the name of The Abnormals. Its so fun and rewarding working with her as she has amazing talents and with her art and mine mixed with a well thought out story line excites me when I think of how it could be when its finally finished. I hope we continue our work on this as i've never enjoyed anything as much as this.

In my conclusion I guess all I can say is I hope and pray that I can one day work with 2D animating projects or be a comic writer and share great experiences with other talented people.

Research On 3D Animation. - UNIT 6

Other Animators Work;

I have learned a lot on models and animation in a 3D application, I follow the developers of a game called The Isle in which the game is about surviving as humans or dinosaurs in a land of unknown time. Its an early access game and much is still to be done, but I follow closely on the blogs and posts they make on the working in progress.

They show designs of models and real life creatures they used for its over all finished idea.

Model from The Isle

Model from The Isle

These are two dinosaurs from the many they have created and are still in the progress of making. They use a special and professional site to create the models and animations of these creatures and living organisms.
They show how they use rendering and how they use polygons and particles to complete the work with a smooth animation. They show the timelines and what runs along it at certain points to help them predict when to edit certain parts of the model and make it look as realistic as possible. They often show the design templates first that they have roughly sketched out and what real life influences and references they used.

They also make it clear they use informational sites on dinosaurs and prehistoric history with the proof that it is valid and came from an expert of the research. They take as much influence and inspiration they can from the truth in history about the creatures and mix it with some of their original and creative ideas to either create specially made (fictional) dinosaurs in which they call Hypos and then realistic outcomes (non-fictional).

Here are some examples of the non-fictional dinosaurs they made on 3D modelling sites when they had enough influence and references.

Model by The Isle

Model by The Isle

Model by The Isle

A lot of the ideas and references they used came from images and watching Emus and Ostriches walk around and do their average day thing as they are believed to be the closest relatives to dinosaurs. This helped me understand that its very important to look up references and information to help broaden your knowledge and understanding on the creature/item/object you are planning to model.

And here is an example of their first fictional creature.

Model by The Isle

They use certain textures and colouring to make the creature feel alive and believable and also scale and render with accuracy to make it seem the most proportionally correct as they can.

They post small videos on animations they have worked on or are working on to let the community that support their game get more of an insight on how difficult it really is to make a fully fledged game.

By The Isle

Concept for The Isle

Concept for The Isle

Concept for The Isle

They had to start with 2D concepts first, 2D drawings are the first step and very important step of animating as it lets you get the details through first, its almost like your creating the guide and instructions to get the finalised product at the end.

They often asked for the community to send their ideas in to see if it would be good help and reference for their own creations, these are some of the concepts the developers of  The Isle decided to use.

My Work on 3D Models And Animation;

All these posts by these developers have helped me get a better understanding on animation and animating on a 3D application, in which in my case I used Maya. I animated a small ball with legs hopping from the ground onto a small box. I used the application to see how I could cope. I understood about the timing and scaling of items and parts. I understood the different layers to help make it easier to animate in total. I used the graph editor to help bend and turn body parts of the model to make the movement more realistic, I also used different views from prospective to grid views to line up objects to stop collision and unnecessary clashing of textures.

Using Maya I realised how hard it is as I struggled to use the tools to bend the legs in the right places and make it look as smooth and accurate as possible. I had to use the rotation tool to turn the feet and face it in the right directions at the right times using the timeline to see where and when to move it, I used the scale tool to help make the box large enough so that the character jumps onto it and have it make sense that it could carry the characters weight and balance him properly. I also had to move him so that the jump would look realistic and not too small or far, the jump had to believable. I made sure I lifted him high enough so it didn't look silly seeing him almost 'fly' up in the air, I made the height of the jump and the distance accurate and believable.

I now understand the process of turning something from real life into a model on an 3D modelling site.

In comparison to the developers of The Isle and my small animation its very clear I need more time and more understanding to become more able to suit the more complicated tasks of animating and more in-depth features I can use. 

I believe if I had been given more time I could have perfected the animation better and get further with my product. 

Horse Running Cycle (Small Animation Test) - UNIT 1,4,5 AND 7

Here is a simple horse running animation i did to try and practice on consistency and smoothness. I feel i did a good job and i am very proud with it, specially since horses have always been something i have struggled with.

I think the placing is good at it looks very straight and does not jolt around everywhere, however i went for an impression of it running and slowly moving right and left (in the horses view) so if it moves up and down very slightly i hope it can be seen its trying to move left and right.

Credit goes to Lucy Burgess for helping me make the horse template when i was struggling in some places. 

Here is a reference to a video i watched to help get an idea of a running horse: https://youtu.be/zQDAUv6d_KY