Tag: Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques

Establishing World/World Building

This week we covered world building, including the tone of the world and story within it. When constructing a fictional world, it is important to consider things as its history, ecology, and geography to make the world as interesting and immersive for the viewer as possible. George also went over creating moodboards for our ideas to build a tone for the story and world setting.

This week’s assignment:

1. Moodboards: Create moodboards for our 3 ideas, using what we learnt this week.

2. Shot blocking: Start creating some basic compositions/shot blocking in Maya (using crane rig as our camera). Don’t need to be final/shots we keep in final, but should be enough to combine into a first previs draft that will then be reviewed and improved on over the term.

Week 1 Assignment work: 3 storyboards

What I struggled with: I have always had some difficulty visualising what ideas I have in my head in a way I’m satisfied with (or in a way that I actually feel mirrors what I had in my head), usually due to visual ideas that are difficult/not possible to execute for whatever reason. With Idea 1 in particular, the idea in my head felt more engaging and visually stimulating, but when I got it down on paper it didn’t feel as such, and I struggled to figure out what was missing between the idea I had in my head vs the storyboard I created. With Idea 2 and 3, this felt easier to do.

I did enjoy making the storyboard for the second idea. It was easy to pick out which shots didn’t really work for me to change or cut while I’m also applying the feedback from this week. However it was also easy to see which shots did work/worked more than others, and this was also motivating as I could imagine how I would create these shots in 3D and what experiments I could do to develop these shots.

3 Storyboards Feedback:

Idea 1:

Feedback from George:

Feels like this idea doesn’t have enough of a start to it. This could be helped if between scenes we see flashbacks that show how the mage ended up in his current situation.

Idea 2:

Feedback from George:

Would be good with this idea to think a lot about transitions between shots to add flare to the visuals

Idea 3:

Feedback from George:

Not much to say as this is a very basic and short idea, but it works well. Should be expanded on if it becomes the chosen idea.

Though I was unable to attend the class, I caught up with the class material and this week’s assignment via the class PDF and discussion with my peers.

Along with introducing us to the brief, this week covered mise-en-scene, with a focus on shot layout and different types of shots and camera angles. In the past, I have found it difficult to create dynamic shots and camera angles, so I would like to use this project as a chance to improve on these things.

For next week, we should draw out 3 different ideas for our final projects. I have two in mind so far that are fairly fleshed out, and one I’m unsure on.

Idea 1:

A wizard is being chased through a forest by a group of men with hunting dogs. The wizard reaches a clearing, and begins to cast a complex spell. An orb of light surrounds him as he works. The men and dogs reach him, but hesitate to attack, fearful of the wizard’s power. One man tries, but is thrown back the moment his weapon makes contact with the orb of light. The wizard smirks, raises his hands, and claps them together. Light explodes outwards from him, sending the men and dogs flying backwards. One of the men sits up, dazed, and looks over to where the wizard once stood. The wizard is gone, and in his place a wanted poster with the wizard’s face on it floats to the ground.

While I really like this idea, the visuals I have in mind would require either a lot of 3D or 2D FX work, and because I want to focus primarily on animation and exploring my personal visual style, I would want to collaborate with someone to do this idea who would be able to handle the FX side of things for me.

Idea 2:

A fake anime/tv show opening. 

It’s difficult to write about this one, as the idea is more a collection of random shots that I want to try piecing together, instead of a typical narrative. This idea started in my head when I was debating if I would and should make a showreel for my final film. Speaking to other 3D animators (and VFX people in general) about their time studying, many of them said they regretted trying to make a full film as they weren’t able to focus on their specialism as much as they liked, and most of them only got two or three hero shots for their showreel from almost a year’s worth of work. A couple of them mentioned that they wish they had just made a showreel instead, hence my consideration of doing the same.

However, a big part of the reason I wanted to study at UAL was to explore and develop my personal artistic style, and to reconnect with my passion for the arts. I felt that making a showreel wouldn’t satisfy these goals. I was still considering the topic, and around this time I watched the anime Frieren. The second opening features many dynamic shots of the characters that I noticed would cover a lot of the types of shots someone should have in a 3D animation showreel. I decided at this point that I would explore the idea of making a fake anime/tv show opening, so that I could include a diverse collection of shots as seen in showreels, while still being able to experiment and develop the aesthetics and style. If I develop this idea, I would like to come up with a narrative for the fake anime/tv show, as this narrative will drive many aspects of the opening, especially how characters act and move.

Idea 3:

Fake zoo advertisement

I’m still unsure of what kind of story I want to tell with this idea, but I like that this idea would allow me to work with many different creature rigs and have a diverse collection of creature animation shots for my showreel.