Minor Project: When I Grow Up .... ? Art of and Turnarounds

When I Grow Up Art Of

Minor Project: Tyler Skinned and Rigged

Tyler is finally skinned and rigged, took me longer than I thought with Christmas and running into a few problems. But now its done, quiet looking forward to posing him and experimenting with a walk cycle. Its been testing sometimes but with ever step of the process I have leant something that maybe I didn't know before and in the end its been worth going through it all.

Below is just Tyler in the West ham kit but his uniform has also been rigged and skinned as well.

Next step is for me too fix a couple of textures, that I noticed need some more work to them. But then onto creating a turnaround ready for final rendering.

Minor Project: Tyler Modelled and Textured

Just an update, at the moment I am skinning the models and then onto rigging. I have been busy with this that it slipped my mind to post an update of where I am up to so far. So below are renders of Tyler two models, with his textures. 

Some of the textures I have noticed need some work but this is something I can come back to after the next process. It been nice watching my character come to life and I cant wait to see him moving around next :D

Minor Project: Update on Tyler

I would say that Tyler's model is done with just a few minor teaks to the spikes of his hair and to the eye. But apart form those, I have gone on to mapping out the UV's ready for texturing and rigging.  

Started the UV's, when finished with hair all I am left with uving is his hair and face. 

Also I have created Tyler's uniform model. This was a lot quicker for  me to model as it will just changing the shoes and shirt, as well as adding pockets to the original model. Just now  it needs some tiding up and its ready for the next step also. 

Minor Project: Modelling Update

So I have model Tyler's head and now have put everything I have modelled together. Now just a few minor tweaks to make, especially the shoes, still losing something from my original design there. So will need to go back and work on them. Apart form that next step is uving and then on to rigging him. 

As you can see I have not quiet finished modelling Tyler hair, but I am still able to go on to rigging. Because when I add his hair on when its modelled, it will not effect Tyler's rig, as it is just part of the head and doesn't need a rig itself. The hair is a big part of his design and I don't want to lose anything from the design by rushing on to the next step.This allows for me to move forward with the next process and still be able to model the hair to the best it can be. 

Minor Project: Modelling Update

Its taken a while but I think that Tyler's model is getting there, still got to make changes to the arms and shoes to do. Also the head is nearly done still got to do the hair and ear but as soon as that is done I will post it up with the whole model. 

Minor Project: Character Modelling Update

Update on how the modelling is going, Still working on the shorts at the moment but next to start modelling the head and then the arms. 

Minor Project: Beginning of Modelling

Its been a while since my last post but now with dissertation draft behind me I have begun modelling Tyler's character. Quiet excited to see him come alive, still along way to go though from this point. So far initial model of shirt and legs, notice a few problems especially his legs, at the moment from the side view he is quiet wide in terms of his shape and to model the collar also. 

More Updates soon :)

Minor Project: Turnaround Improvements

Character turnarounds with a few tweaks,and the uniform turnaround which is just the clothes change slightly.  still need to work on the side view, still something wrong with it. Need to fix this problem before I can move on to modelling my character. 

Next working on expression sheet, this would help with modelling the character. 

Minor Project: Interim Crit Presentation

Interim_Crit.pptx by SashaHart

Minor Project: Orthographic turnarounds

With Tyler's design resolved next step is orthographic turnarounds,which also gave me the chance to think about the hands of my character but also put the final touches to the design. 

Minor Project: Character Design Uniform

Now I have a final character design for Tyler,  he also needs a design for his uniform. Which he is in at the beginning of the animation when he is in class, then he changes into his west ham kit when he is dream world.. Most primary school uniform are pretty basic and it is only the colour that changes with different uniforms.  For me its between number 4 and 6. Number 4 more because the colours kind of reminds me a little of the west ham also. 

Minor Project: First piece of Concept Art

When thinking about how I was going to make my animation, I decided that it will be a mix of 3D and 2D. Tyler's character would be 3D  and coloured and the classroom and props in the animation would be 2D and black and white line art. A suggestion was to look at  Paddington bear as an influence, and the idea of having the set and props are made out of cardboard. 

So I gave it a quick go and made a concept influence by the style. I think that this style would work because it adds to a child's imagination. 

Minor Project: Character Design

Here is Tyler's design altogether, still got a few minor refinements and tweaks to do to it  and to clean up the design in terms of the line art. But apart form that I think he is there and hopefully has a cute factor about him. 

Next to think about a turn around for tyler. 

Minor Project: Character Development

Now I have the shape and structure of my character, I have been looking at possible clothing for my Tyler. Most of the animation he is in a West ham kit and at the beginning in his school uniform. But first I looked at design his football kit, I used colour to help tell them apart. I kind of like number 5 but also like the lines and shapes of number 2. 

Also thought about the head of my character, using the previous design and developing them further. I kind of like number one but I think it not simply enough. But I am still drawn back to the original design the bottom row  with little tweaks to it. 

Next think about the facial features of my character and putting it all together. 

Minor Project: Figuring out Animatic

To help me with my animatic, I have gone ahead and spilt up the rerecording into sections to help me figure out how I will go about animating my character for each scenario. Getting everything I have in in my head written down really rough, might help me figure it all out and find what will work best in my animatic. Spent a couple of hours talking to younger brother and we come up with some ideas, some are a little crazy but maybe that's what I need, it is a child imagination and anything is possible after all. So this is what I have got, feeling more happy now and ready to go back to my animatic and not overwhelmed with all my ideas i had in my head. 

Recording break down.docx

One thing I have settled on is that my animation is not going to be jumping from reality into Tyler dream world but instead starts of in reality but when asked what do you want to be when you grow up we enter Tyler's imagination, him acting it all out, then after the last question is asked we return to reality.

Any feedback or any other ideas are gratefully welcomed ...

Minor Project: Choosing a Font

A quick look at different fonts for my animation and branding. Going for a child's writing style,  here are the best ones I found and out of them all I kind of like number 7 and 5. 

Also I had an idea of actually having kids write my tittle out and using that. So I asked the class where I collect my recordings from in the beginning when they have the time will they be able to to have each child write out the title.  At the moment I only have three because they are on half term but will be getting some more when they go back.  I like this idea better,  of having an original font, at the moment I kind of like number 3 and I think its the font I am going to use in my animatic. 

Minor Project: Character Design Progress

In terms of structure for my character I kind of think it is nearly there. After my tutorial yesterday, and some pointers of what works and what doesn't with my previous designs. This design is a combination of several of my previous designs. The body of number 1 and the top part of the body of number 2. And the head of number 3 for the moment as it still needs work but  the reason why I choose this out of all the other designs  is because it shows the type of design I  am going for with the hair, really ruff and messed up to add to the personality of the character. 

With the structure I have at the moment I have been looking at types of clothing for my character. I know my character is going to be designed twice because he needs two sets of clothing, one is his uniform which is what he starts and ends up in and then the football kit which he wears when he is own little dream world. I know from the recording that he is going to be in a football kit more specifically west ham kit .The image below is a couple of experiments  of the different style of kits. 

At the moment I not to sure to stick with the black or white or to have some colour in my animation, so I think when refining my character to looking at experiment and seeing if adding flat colour to the designs works. Also maybe adding colour will make it a little easier for the audiences to recognise what team he want to play for straight away. Also Alan suggested maybe experiment with adding texture to the design  making it feeling like actual children drawings. So some stuff to experiment with my refining my design. 

Minor Project: Animatic Development

This week has been about dissertation and character but here is a little development to my animatic, still needs a lot of work done to it. But one thing I have figured out is that I am gonna stick with my animation just being about Tyler and his answer. 



Here are a few initial head design also, looking for the cute factor, I think number 3 is but still gonna develop these ideas further. 

Minor Project: First Draft of Animatic

The next step for me is to go ahead and start the animatic. At the moment I am still undecided with whether to stick with my animation just being about Tyler's recording or to have my animation be about several recordings. I know there are many different ways that I could go with Tyler's recording and there is alot to work with but I also like the idea of having variety of answers to see the differences in them.  So I am going to make very ruff and quick animatic for both, to see how the animation would play out for either one. Then I will decided which way my animation will go, taking the animatic to develop further to improve. 

So here is the first 40 seconds of the animatic for just Tyler's recording, 

Also I did a quick sketch of Tyler character so that I have something to base my character on for the animatic. In terms of my character, I am going to work on designing him bit by bit, the face, structure, clothing etc. I defiantly know that I am going to stick with simple shapes and basic line, like my previous design experiment, for my overall visual.