Walk Cycle

I re did a walk cycle because I wasn't very proud of the first one I did, it was slow and didn't flow well. So I chose to redo it for the show reel.

At first I was going to use maya to do my walk cycle in. But I had recently been playing around with a little program called Miku Miku Dance. Its a free japanese animation program that has been translated (poorly I might add) for us not Japanese speaking lot.

I was quite excited to use MMD because it has a motion capture feature, all you need for the motion capture was an Xbox Kinect, which I so happened to own as well. The program can capture everything except for facial features and finger movements.

Now the kinect can be used on a computer with the correct drivers, which I spent a good few hours figuring out out how to install correctly. The official drivers are yet to be released but I thought I'd give it a go and see if I could get it running with the unofficial ones. I couldn't. Miku Miku Dance refused to find the Kinect sensor and didn't think it was installed. It was a shame because it would have been a lot of fun to much around with motion capture, jumping around my house like a mad person.

In the end I decided to just animated by hand a walk cycle. I like MMD's style of models and there are many to find aswell. This was the first full animation I did in MMD.




I had a little trouble with her feet, I don't know if thats a problem on my part or on the rig itself, overall I am happy with the walk and think it a lot better than my first one.

This walk flows a lot better then my first attempt a year ago, I got the timing a lot better on this one, I feel she could afford to be a little slower but I don't want to play around with the timing too much.

Miku Miku Dance

I have had this program for a while now, I stumbled across it whist browsing YouTube, saw that it was free for anyone and thought I'd give it a go.

It took me a while to get my head around, while it was translated into English the interface was unusual and I had no idea what any of the buttons did. I had to find the one English tutorial out there to understand how to animate and load models.

After a couple of weeks of shouting at it and learning the ropes I finally understood how to use it.

 The interface is a a lot simpler than say Maya but that meant I had to figure out where everything was. The controls for the models and camera, lights and props are at the bottom while the time line is to the side. Another thing with Miku Miku Dance is you don't really have much control over the frame rate. I can only have 60fps, 30fps or no limit. I chose 30fps as it was slow and easier to animate too as 60fps would have been too fast.

This is probably my favourite model. APPEND Rin. She's probably the best looking one I have found and I want to give credit to her modeller and rigger and what ever else they did because they did an amazing job with her.

You can customise the backgrounds as well, I think Rin looks good on a black background but I can load an image there if I want or import a scene.

Show reel

Also for this project we have to produce a show reel along side our other pieces of work.

After looking back through my previous work I felt like it wasn't good enough to put into a show reel. So I decided to redo certain pieces so that I could see how I've improved over the years.

I decided that I was definitely going to redo my walk cycle and then decided I wanted to do another lip sync piece seeing as I really enjoyed lip syncing this first time. I am going to keep and use my modelled character seeing as she was the first one I ever modelled and she turned out a lot better than I had anticipated.

I will need to see if I can get a hold of some of the work I did with my group for Digital Environments and Post Production seeing as I don't have the completed files so I can add these to my show reel aswell.

Initial Ideas

After looking through previous entries we got a few idea as to what our entry could contain.

One of our ideas involved a boy getting to the moon and trying to reach it in silly ways such as jumping or putting a ladder up to it, we liked the idea but we didn't really develop it very far because we only had 10 seconds for our entry and the moon one seemed like it would have needed more.

Another idea was to use monsters in some way, we liked the idea but quite a few previous entries had done the same and we thought it might be best to do something different.

We finally settled on a cinema screening of E4 in 3D. At first we were going to do it entirely in flash, but we then decided against it as not all of us had very much training in it, especially me, while I did look at tutorials there wasn't enough time for me to learn everything I needed with what little time we had left. So we decided to incorporate 3D into it to help.

Program Troubles

We suffered a little trouble early on in the project, Oly has Creative Suite 5 for all her Adobe programs and me and Sarah only have CS3 and CS2.


This was a problem because any work she did can not be opened by us on the lower version programs. So I needed to upgrade my programs so that we could all work on the same version of program. After a lot of searching and a few programs not working I think I finally have the CS5 versions of the programs I need. Fingers crossed they continue to work at least until the project is over.

E4 Estings

http://www.e4.com/skins/doitandwin/100eba297679504b733671e9e8abd9a0/entry-terms.e4

We decided to use E4 as out external client. We are going to enter the 2011 competition which ends on July 1st. We need to do a 10 second indent for the competition using any of the music they provide and incorporating the E4 logo. We don't have to use the music they provide but to avoid copyright laws and a long process of getting permission to use certain music it will be easier to use the tracks they provided.


We had to make sure we stick to the terms and conditions
http://www.e4.com/terms-and-conditions.html



It can be live action, it can be animated, it can be 2D, 3D, 4D. It can be hi-fi, lo-fi, big-budget or no-budget. Simply download the E4 logo and a soundbed of your choice and get going. The only rules we are cruelly forcing upon you are thusly –

(a) We can't show anything explicit or violent in the daytime, but we might be able to after the watershed as long as it’s broadcastable. So - within reason - your idea can be quite naughty / irreverent / provocative etc. Use your common sense though, anything too grim or sexually explicit won't get shown at all.




(b) It HAS to be EXACTLY 10 seconds long. If it’s not 10 seconds long IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED BY THE JUDGES. Sorry, but we’re feeling a bit strict this year. To make things easier we’re providing you with a choice of 10 second audio beds which you are welcome to use in your E Sting (but feel free to use something of your own if you prefer!)




(c) It HAS to have the E4 logo in it... But you probably knew that. (Preferably integratedinto the idea rather than simply slapped on top of your piece at the end)

Brief

(Taken from moodle site)

This unit builds directly on the Industry Exercises 1 and Industry Exercises 2 units, allowing students to use their portfolio of animation skills to develop finished broadcast animation pieces (in small teams) to be shown during Rave on Air, and to generate an individual show-reel to promote those skills to employers. Students also develop more advanced planning and organisational skills necessary to manage team productions.


This unit has the potential to allow inter-faculty collaboration through the use of animation to promote the work of other courses in the creation of animated advertisements for Rave on Air (product design for example). Intra-faculty collaboration is also possible through the use of other disciplines such as post production and sound design that naturally complement the animation industry. These collaborations will be negotiated on a per team basis.


Aims of the Unit

• To enable students to initiate, plan, and complete complex team projects. 
• To enable students to work to broadcast standards of quality. 
• To provide experience of establishing and developing team project schedules and tracking progress towards project completion. 
• To enable students to demonstrate and promote the range and quality of their animation skills through the production of a show-reel. 

The emphasis for this brief is upon fitness for broadcast purposes, if you read the learning outcomes and assessment criteria that follow this section then you will see that one of the main areas for your assessment is upon how well you meet technical parameters to enable your work to be broadcast.


You will be required to work in small teams, ideally, two, or three people per team.
You will be required to submit three pieces of work for assessment.

• 
  
• An individual reflective journal (Blog) 
• An individual interactive DVD showreel 
• A group film fit for broadcast 

Journal


This should focus on your plans for this project, your brief, your project schedule, and your performance as a team member. These can be supplemented by a group journal to help communication with team members, but the primary concern is your individual reflective account. These should be hosted on Blogspot, or Wordpress and the URLs submitted to your tutor.




Showreel


Your showreel will take the form of a menu driven interactive DVD where users will be able to select which of your work they view. You will be expected to assemble a reel that demonstrates the breadth of your capability, and the diversity of your style as an animator. As such, you may use work from any point in your studies, or from outside your time at college. You may also consider generating new work this term to supplement perceived gaps in your portfolio. The main drivers for assessment here are NOT the quality of the individual pieces of work, but the way in which you choose to present them and to promote yourself…




Movie


This is where the majority of your effort will be directed for this project. You will have to choose a team first of all, ideally a small one of two or three individuals. Then you will have to negotiate a brief for your project. There are three main ways that you can fulfill this part of the brief, but all will depend upon you having a real client, and it is up to YOU to get information from your client to define your brief. This information should include a list of deliverable items, and a set of deadlines.


Way 1


Work as a junior on a BA film project.


Identify the film you want to work on, agree a role, agree deliverables, and then deliver them. It will not be possible to do much in the way of concept or modeling work for these films given the advanced state of their development, but it should be possible to do large amounts of UV mapping and texturing, lighting, rigging and animating.


Way 2


Work towards Rave Live.


This will involve you either working towards doing one of the six channel idents, in which case you will have to contact the graphics students responsible, or towards generating programme content in which case you will have to contact broadcast content creation students to find out their requirements. Be aware that work will need to be ready much in advance of May 19th, so it should be viable within a reduced time frame. Remember the panic that you had at the end of last term? That is a luxury that you do not have this term. It would probably be a good idea to attend all possible meetings about Rave Live, such as the one this Friday (26th) read your email, and look for posters…


The 3rd Way


Find an external client.


You may source a client for your project beyond the confines of college. The same conditions apply, you will negotiate a brief, and whatever work you produce must be produced in a form that is technically suitable for broadcast purposes. Other than that, the subject matter or content are entirely down to you and your client. This is possibly the most challenging of the three ways you can fulfill this project…