hspencer-charareel

[hspencer-charareel]

Finished Character Bible

Now with annotations and other minor tweaks here and there. I still wasn’t happy with the cover image, so I changed it again back to an image similar to the original but redrawn to match the current design choices.

[hspencer-charareel]

ANIMATION POSING EVALUATION

As show above, I think that the animation I have created has some very strong key poses in it with an interesting line of action. This helps make the character look visually interesting. I am very happy with what I have accomplished in this project.

[hspencer-charareel]

CHARACTER REEL DRAFT COMPOSITION

Here is the chosen order and look of the character reel. I added in a title card before the action started so that the viewer wasn’t just flung suddenly into the action.

I am very proud with the work I have done here. There are a few tweaks I wish to implement before it is ready for submission, such as possible colour correction and some other effects, but other than that I am quite happy with the results.

[hspencer-charareel]

AMBIENT OCCLUSION RENDER

As a test, I decided to render part of the character’s walk cycle to see what it would look like. I think this looks quite nice, but I prefer the renders of the character in full colour as I feel they are an important part of his design and hint at his personality.

[hspencer-charareel]

LIGHTING FIX

Most of the settings for the lighting in the sequences were alright, but the walk to run sequence needed some adjustments to work. It didn’t feel quite right with how the lights were hitting the character and the set.

To rectify this, I rotated the background and reset the lighting to match that of the others, which resulted in the final picture of this set. I feel this has improved the lighting as it is neither too light or too dark now.

[hspencer-charareel]

DEPTH MAP SHADOW COMPARISON

While rendering the lit shots, I noticed there was a bit of an inconsistency when it came to how the shadows would look on the character. From certain angles, there would be a lot of blotchy shadows on him. This in my opinion looks a quite sub par and not the desired effect.

I looked into the lighting settings for the light which was causing the shadows and ticked and unticked the ‘Depth Map Shadows’ box, causing the dodgy shadows to disappear from the rendered screenshot. Above are a before and after comparison.

[hspencer-charareel]

RENDERING IN MENTAL RAY

Happy with how the sequences looked, I started to render the sequences out. I had chosen the Mental Ray renderer, and decided to do a few test shots from one of the sequences to see if this was the right choice.

I think that these shots have turned out really nicely through the Mental Ray renderer. Even without having to smooth the character, it has resulted in a nice smooth render like that of the smooth preview.

[hspencer-charareel]

Weekly Evaluation 11

6th Feb

I think I have made really good progress this week, with the animation finished to a good degree and everything being set up for rendering. One thing that I feared would put me behind was the situation with the broken sequence of near completed animation, but over the course of the week, I have managed to reanimate it in the time I had, which has allowed me to catch up with whatever timing it put me behind on.

With less than a week to go, all that remains now is to organise everything to get it ready for submission. This includes rendering the character reel sequences and getting the experimentation reel completed, which should be easy enough as I have kept all of my files for this project well organised and all of the playblasts well documented.

I think I will also make time to go back into the character bible and make any needed changes to neaten it up ready for deadline, as I haven’t touched it in a while and some parts of it might need sprucing up to ensure it is the best quality of work for submission.

[hspencer-charareel]

LIGHTING PLAYBLASTS

Here are the sequences playblasted with lighting incorporated. I used three point lighting, with a light in front, behind and to the side of the character

I think this looks really nice in playblast form, and makes the animation look quite polished and sleek. These will probably need to be tweaked when it comes to rendering the sequences out, as I think they might look different in mental ray. But for now, I think that these look good enough and ready to be rendered out.

[hspencer-charareel]

CHARACTER REEL PLAYBLASTS

Here is the full selection of work that I want to use for submission. I feel like each piece has turned out really well.

The next step will be to render and edit these together properly by rendering through mental ray, as that gets the look I was aiming for earlier in the project. This will also include putting in lights and making them ready for rendering.

[hspencer-charareel]

Toon Shader Experiment

Earlier in the project, I had tried out putting a toon shader onto the character and felt that it looked nice, so I decided to try it out again on a piece of the animation that I had done.

While I think it looks nice still, I think I might leave it off the final render of the character so it doesn’t distract from the animation.

[hspencer-charareel]

SEQUENCE 3 - Show Off 8

Revised the timings to allow for the bow pose to be held for longer. I also added an additional rotation to the head to match the trunk flick.

[hspencer-charareel]

SEQUENCE 3 - Show Off 7

Did more with the arms, giving them a bit more natural movement corresponding with the body. I also made the bow dip a little lower, though still feel that this could be smoothed out and look a little less jerky than it does here.

I might make the wrist of the right hand turn upwards a bit more into the bow to make the arm feel more alive again.

I also think that the bowed ‘humble’ pose needs to hold a bit long still too.

[hspencer-charareel]

SEQUENCE 2 - WALK TO RUN 9

I showed this sequence to a friend and he suggested giving the trunk more bounce because it looked too stiff in the last version

I think that the change, while subtle, does help the sequence feel a lot more natural.

[hspencer-charareel]

REVISED SEQUENCE 1 - Sneaking About 6

Extended the sequence to match the original as the character stops mid step as he’s sneaking off.

Quite happy with the extra expressiveness I worked into the character’s face, such as his droopy ears and trunk as he realised he’s being followed or caught.

CHANGES TO MAKE:

Not necessarily a change, final frames will need to be held longer.

Ears might still need a little bit more work to make them look more natural. This could be through giving them a bob as well as a flap, or limiting how much flapping the ears do.

CONCLUSIONS:

Not sure if I will reanimate the ‘feigned innocence’ sequence again, as this works nicely on its own and the showing off sequence shows off his charisma (or attempt thereof) much better

[hspencer-charareel]

REVISED SEQUENCE 1 - Sneaking About 5

Made a few changes to the timings and added his jacket back in. Something about the footsteps is now annoying me as it seems like the legs come forward a bit too quickly. This might be down to a single keyframe that can be removed or changed, so it is an easy enough fix.

[hspencer-charareel]

REVISED SEQUENCE 1 - Sneaking About 4

Splining

This is without any tweaks. I feel as if the timings work well for this, and that the keyframes I placed down look like they are all in the right place. I might tilt the body a bit more into the steps now that it is in motion, as well as a few more keyframes on the ears as they feel very automated.