digitalthomasdesigns-blog

[digitalthomasdesigns-blog]

Animation Principles Term Two.

Week One.

On the first week back we were briefed on the new task, this being to create an alter ego of our characters we had designed in the previous term.  We then went on to create a traditional style of animation using techniques such as Rotoscoping, Stop motion and puppeteering. Personally my group and I used the traditional stop motion methods, that consisted of cut outs that where then stylised, then finally animated.

We each designed a character that had specific traits, such as personality quality's and physical quality's that all differed from the next. At the begging of term two we were asked to re visit the traits and personality's of our characters and then come up with an alter ego, this would have to be in personality traits but the physical traits had to be linked to one another, as I found out a number of times. As my character was originally a fish that devoured colour I had the idea of an angle that produced colour, but the fish and the angle are to far apart to connect, so to fix this I created another sea dwelling creature.

Week Two.

Character development

Concept Art

Creation of  my character. I knew I had to create something that included a type of mythology as I have used a Chinese god in the first project, I began to brain storm, I knew the Romans and Greeks used owl god. my logic behind this was that Athena used to have an owl with her to resemble she could see in the dark, as the fish would eat the colour from the seas the owl could supply them into the sky's where they fall into the sea. But this idea did not feel as strong as I would have liked.

Nevertheless I still went on to design some styles I would possibly use for the final character.

These where the original idea for the armour style that I would have liked to use.

The armour on the right is a reference to my own armour on the left. I used the style and shapes to create my own adaption of the armour.

This is the original design for the owl, using the armour styles to be effective in battle but not to hinder the flight of the creature.

The claws will be made out of a special metal made from fallen meteorites, that can only be destroyed by unimaginable heats.

The breast plate will be made out of the same material but mixed with nickle to create an even lighter product.

Week 3

Although the owl was a strong idea I, thought an angle would be better as a producer of light, so I then began to design a concept for this idea.

The style and ideas of the angle where strong but they did not suit the profile for an alter ego of my character.

This is the finalised but not finished design for the angle.

Although I will be using it in this particular project I see my self perusing this in my own time.

Week 4

After some long thought and brain storming I began to create a new character profile to then build my creature on, rather then just producing ideas out of my head.

Character profile of alter ego.

Aegaeon is the name of the creature, there are very few of them in exsitance at one time, they are only known to be born, when another dies this leaves the question on how the reproductive cycle works, no one is certain, but legends point to them being a direct produce of the god Iku-Turso. The creature resides in the dark depths of the Atlantic ocean, where it hunts and assures its dominance over the territory's of  the depths.

The creature will search for the places where colour is and light is lacking the most as it thrives in darkness, but the darker the surroundings become the lighter this creature will become as other creatures will know Aegaeon is now the most powerful creature in the ocean. But as light is prominent in its surroundings it will become weaker and darker,

this is why when Yu-Kiang, starts to reap the colour from the ocean the creature becomes stronger and will follow the path of Yu-Kiang, as darkness is strongest in the path left behind by it.

Aegaeon will track the creature growing stronger in the wake of the recent darkness, this brings it up a gigantic size. As the darkness reaches its climax so dose the growth of Aegaeon and Yu-Kiang. This is how the story reaches its climax as now there is nothing but darkness in the ocean and both creatures alike are at their strongest and in close proximity, Yu-Kiang is searching for the last part of light and colour and Aegaeon is hot on its tail this throws the creatures into an epic battle of wrath.

The seas become stormy and gigantic waves crash, along with huge thunder storms swell in the proximity of the battle.

As the creatures clash colour and darkness explode in all directions creating multicoloured storms that  fly out of the sea and into the clouds. As the battle rages the storm gets larger, until darkness takes over and everything goes black, this is when Aegaeon strikes the fatal blow causing Yu-Kiang to explode into a mass of colour that spreads to every corner of the ocean for a slip second then stabilises.

The shear amount of colour in one place will also destroy Aegaeon, where both are sent hurtling from the blast into separate corners of the oceans where the cycle will begin again.

Week 5

After the story profile were completed it became much easier for myself to create a character that would work.

For the styles I looked at; ancient Chinese dragons, frogs, deep sea creatures and mythical beasts.

This is one of my the final designs for my character.

It has pincer like jaws to produce a crushing effect on prey and trap them into its mouth where is razor sharp teeth will slice any creature to shreds.

The webbed hands and feet allow for faster movement but instead of fins the hands allow for the human style grip with opposable thumbs for extra effect in battle.

The fin on top of its head allows for a more stream lined effect in a fast persecute, where it will straighten its body out and use the tail for maximum thrust.

The tail is armoured like a dragons tail for maximum protection and also as an effective weapon from attacks from behind.

At first the creature will only be slightly larger than a human being in height but already much wider. The creature will grow in size as darkness will thicken.

The creature will have a rocky scaly style skin for maximum protection against close attacks, whilst causing a solid defence anything to come into contact with the rocky scales could be torn to pieces.

Week 6

This is new design for my creature, as it is less cartoon like are more realistic in means of mythology.

The new design is sleeker, and more agile. If anything it is more dangerous, as it has a longer body, for a more streamlined speed.

The arms and legs are slightly thinner, but much more muscular.

The scales on the tail and back have become much sharper, this is to ensure maximum damage from attacks.

The claws are more predominant for more deadly precision, as opposed to the previous version, that seemed for grip.  

These are some of the colour options that I have selected for the characters final outcome.

In my head I have chosen to create the character with a red and blue tinge.

being because dark blue is good camouflage in the ocean when hunting.

Character Modelling  

The initial model was created during Maya, the reason behind using Maya was that I had just began to learn both 3dsMax and Maya alongside one another, as I soon found due to my own personal preferences I would have sooner used Maya instead of 3Dsmax as I found the navigation and controls easier to pick up.

I have already a few years using CD4 but as we were learning new techniques (for myself), I thought it would have been better to use another software with the new skill set. Now I have gained these skills I have found they are all easily transferred between one another.  

I found that I preferred the modelling in Maya and Cinema, the rendering and Animation also in Cinema, and I preferred the UV mapping inside of 3DsMax.

I would have used 3dsmax to rig my character and animate, but I encountered issues when skinning the rig to the model, for some reason the software would crash every time I connected the two together.

For this reason I used Cinema 4D, yet for my own future projects I will try to use 3Ds Max for rigging and animating as I feel it is a very high quality package to use for this purpose in my own personal experience.

At first I used Maya to create the initial model. The project was very primitive in structure and I had little idea of exactly how to  project my concept art into such a low poly model, this is one thing I found difficult.

After numerous attempts I began to feel more confident using Maya, I started to see a steady progression in my work flow and quality.

After this image was taken this was my 6th attempt and modelling the character from scratch.Even though I started to feel more confident in the area of Maya, I couldn't yet get the exact proportions that was needed, so as a final touch I imported the model into Cinema4D and finished the final touches.

Feet

                                                                                Tail

                                                                          Head

The images above consist of the before and after of my workflow from Maya into Cinema4D.

The feet where changed as seen from more talon like claws and regular anatomy of a lizard, into a webbed feet, to suit the creatures amphibious nature.

The tail was changed in ways of widening the outer lines to create a better structure