This way of keeping track of my research is new to me. But I reckon it's for the better, for I'm known back home as one who writes everything down on a notepad, tears them loose and keeps em together again with a clip. (Where's the logic in that?) At the end of the module, my research is all over the place since I didn't keep a stable track on it. Considering my mark for my research report last module (which I didn't like at all), I want to step up my game, since it's an important aspect in not only my graduation project next year, but for all the moments after that.
Sooooo to the point. Maya. One of the reasons I chose to execute my exchange program here was because of this module. I enjoyed working in Maya last year and decided I want to improve on my techniques of modelling and animating in 3D, this module seemed like a perfect opportunity to me. After reading the brief, I was quite sad that it didn't involve as much modelling (and rigging) as I had hoped but after a short talk with Mat we came to the conclusion that I might be able to model and rig my own character for the dialogue since I already have knowledge in Maya because of my original studies. (This needs to be negotiated further in detail though, I think. Danique be stubborn, but don't bite too much than you can chew. #IronicYOLOingAbout)
Since it's been about 5 months(?) that I last worked in Maya I started to already pick it up a bit again this week by downloading a rig to start again with animating. Alongside that I started modelling a realistic head (at least a valiant attempt at it) and I already received some wonderful tips and critiques to improve bits and pieces on my modelling like placing certain points in the mesh of a face and how to (effectively) use the normals and lighting to check my work.
(Sadly I don't have much before pictures and I tweaked a lot already so this is already a tip for next time: screen cap more!)
My animation is a bit rusty, but to be fair, that's not a bad thing. I wasn't too fond of my 3D animation before and generally liked modelling more, so this is a good way to improve on this. The flow of the movements isn't really how I expected them to be, here and there the ease ins and outs could've been placed better.
I made another walkcycle (with a different rig than last time) and compared them to each other. With the scout I used pose to pose animating, while with Mery I animated movement by movement and tweak everything along. Even though I'm quite happy with the result, the workflow wasn't as nice as I had experienced it with Scout (And the wobble in her knees annoys me so much! But after more than an hour of tweaking I just gave up. Better luck next time) . I discussed this (not the knees, the workflow) with Mat and we came to the conclusion that I misused some of the tools in the rig to animate comfortably pose to pose. With his tip to explore the rig more than I already did and use other tools I might try to make another walkcycle again. (again with Mery for better comparison).
Alright, back to the brief (it seems I like writing whole novels)
I have not yet given much thought to the lyrics yet. This afternoon I started by listening some of the songs that keep replaying in my head, and they may have potential. This weekend (and the rest of the week) I'll have to look deeper into some of my favourite (or even least favourite) songs to find a piece I really like and I can do things with. Main focus for me has to be that I have to let go of it's original meaning and purpose. Maybe a swing around another corner might be something fresh and interesting for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment