This week I've been focusing developing possible characters for the Maya animation. Below are scans from my sketchbook containing the images I was inspired to produce from my research into character design and shape.
Next, I moved onto character development. Originally I wanted to select one drawing from my sketchbook of a character and begin to develop them further, however I really loved these two character in particular; so in the end, I settled on blending the two designs together to form an all new original character. Below are the scans from my sketchbook of the rough development of this character.
Tonight using the rough drawings of the character I translated the design into digital form to really get an idea of how the character would look digitally. I'm really pleased with the characters design, but not 100% satisfied with the colour scheme. I'll continue working on this character as the project progresses further...
After completing the model my class and I were then introduced to the next step - UV mapping.
Uv mapping is basically applying a 2D texture to the surface of a 3D model, by 'painting' the polygons that make up the model with the texture or colour of an image. The 'UV' in Uv mapping stands for the letters 'U' and 'V' which represent the axes of the 2D texture, because 'X' 'Y' and 'Z' already represent the 3D environment within the software. Without the 'UV' in mapping, the texture would be painted onto the 3D model by the XYZ space, piecing the texture together across the surface of the model without knowledge of the polygons involved within the models surface. When UV is applied to mapping, the texture locates the 'net' of the model and uses that to help apply texture.
The steps of todays lesson to complete the 'UV mapping step' was this;
First we had to unwrap the model, pealing the net of poly's from the models surface to later texture. This involved opening up 'UV texture editor' and then taking a 'image' of the model face on. Doing this, we needed to open up the 'planner mapping options' and making sure 'insert projection before deformers' is selected projecting the model into the UV texture editor.
Next we referenced the fabric pattern of a teddy bear to understand how the different segments were sown together; then thinking about how we could apply a similar approach to our own model and how to successfully 'peal' off the polygons into a useful net - rather then a '2D image' of our 3D model. We did this by creating and separating 'seams' across our model by the edges; we did this by selecting the edges we wanted to slip from the body of the model and then using the 'cut UV edges' tool.
Continuing to use the 'Cut UV edges' tool, I separated the legs and arms from the body as well as the hands from the arms and the feet from the legs. I also did this to the neck of the model. To open up each segment I next created 'seams' across the sides of each segments, so they'd open far more effectively within the Mapping tool. For example I cut a slip down the back of the model, down the backs of each leg, around the bottom of each foot and across each of the hands.
Finally after I was happy with using the 'cut UV edge' tool I then unwrapped the net within the UV texture editor. Below is a screenshot of the finished 'Uv mapped' net ready for texturing...
Below is a rendered video of the finished product:
In 1908 the 'first cartoon' in history (that has been documented) was created by Emile Cohl titled 'Fantasmagorie' which consisted of hand drawn animation on a chalk board. At the time moving pictures were something very new to the eye but now nearly 100 years on times have changed. With the birth of 3D animation occurring some 30 years ago now, we are currently witnessing 3D animation somewhere somehow within motion pictures near constantly; be it for stunts, special effects or even entire characters. 3D animation now plays a massive role in our movies, be it obvious or 'unnoticeable' by the eye.
But what is 'unnoticeable 3D animation' and what do I mean by it?
3D animation has come a long way in recent years as far as blending together with live action, for example the 'Lord of the rings' character Golum was entirely animated, using motion capture and a computer generated model. This character interacts with live action actors seamlessly as if real. The first live action performance that occurred along side an animation was in 1914s 'Gertie the Dinosaur' which involved a 2D traditionally animated feature playing in real time behind an actor. However this animated feature only gave the illusion that the dinosaur was interacting with the actor and was no where near as convincing as the animated characters within The Lord Of The Rings films. From Gertie to Golum with the help of 3D animation, animation itself has come a long way regarding live action.
In modern times, special effects that would of once consisted of stop motion and real life models have been replaced by computer animated simulations; arguably improving the visual effect it has to the audience, with criticisms of die-hard 'old special effects' fans. From fire to the entire destruction of a building, computer animation would have played some part in making it happen; in recent years, that's for sure.
The newly released trailer for the 2016 Deadpool movie features a balanced blend of live action and animation. When suited, Deadpool is entirely animated from motion capture as he interacts with life action objects and actors; this is international from the director, to help push across the characters cartoony appearance and movements.
This 3D animation is yes, noticeable slightly but in a way that has you questioning if the character is live action or animated. But looking at other aspects of the trailer such as the stunts, they could very well be (and most likely are) animated.
3D computer animation has a huge range of possibilities for motion pictures that is near endless and with technology continuing to develop into the next generation of what is achievable that range will most certainly expand. Realism is being achieved within movies, seamlessly that it's often unnoticed by viewers. But with the gap between realistic animation and real getting smaller and smaller, the question is - Is animation really worth it if it's no different then real?
After being introduced to model positioning and simplistic key frame animation within the Maya software last week, next I was given the task to model a basic character similar to the model we'd been given to familiarize myself with the software at the beginning - using the two references below:
Reference (front)
Reference (side)
I was completely new to the process of character modelling, so this task was entirely foreign to me. I was instantly introduced to all new tools within the software that would help me achieve the desired shapes necessary for this character. 'Extrude' for example was a very useful tool; after creating a basic cube around the pelvis of the character and fashioning gaps within the cube form for the legs to develop from, I could then select the 'edges' of the gaps and drag out the structure. This wouldn't manipulate the entire pelvis structure, but rather just from the 'edges' I had selected, allowing me to build the legs by using the Extrude - Edge tool again and again until a leg was protruding from the pelvis. I was also introduced to the 'Insert Edge Loop Tool'; which basically added on extra 'loops' to the desired area, to allow further manipulation of the structure of the character model or helped give a far more 'smooth' effect to the character model. I had a lot of trouble with Vertexes and Faces to begin with, accidentally crafting them incorrectly and having them cause a problem later on. For instant, I struggled to model the shoulder to begin with because for some reason or another I had accidentally build up more faces around the vertexes then needed when using the extrude tool. To fix this without deleting most of the model I used the 'merge at center tool' - Which would form an object together from selecting several objects, then forming them together at the center.
Below are some screen shots of the finished model;
Above as some simplistic environment designs I produced today, after looking over my work partners rough sketches of possible habitats for the story to unfold within. I wanted to focus on shape and colour rather than detail, so layered up a few smooth soft colours on top of each other for each scene. I really love how they turned out, hopefully these basic designs will inspire the final environment for the final 3D result.
This week my work partner and I outlined the story of our one minute Maya animation, we both agreed that we'd go away and work on story boarding it separately and then present our personal versions of the story to each other later. After that we'd select areas of both versions that we liked/didn't like and then draw up a 'final' storyboard using both the originals as drafts. These storyboards may need additional work, like extra panels for shots or something similar. I'll convert this storyboard into an animatic to see if any additional work is necessary.
Below are the draft storyboards that I've developed personally:
As part of this project both me and my partner are required to settle on a 'style' (or visual aesthetic) for the animation, regarding the character designs and the environment designs. We both decided to work with a visual style that I would design. I knew from easily on in the project that my personal way of drawing characters wouldn't translate perpetually well into a Maya model purely because they were far too complex to be easily modeled digitally; there for I would have to simplify my designs and break them down to the very basics. I began researching existing animations featuring humanoid characters that were simplistic yet very expressive. Below is a research image collage I stitched together for inspiration:
I focused my research into character design regarding over all shape, after being given a lecture by our new tutor Sara. In her lecture she mentioned how certain shapes can effect the over all impression that character gives the audience, however certain character can be blended together using two different shapes; Such as sully from monsters Inc, who is square all over however is rounded to give him a softer appeal, as well as being fluffy and the color design to his character. Having already done some research into David O'reilly and his character designs I then began to look at similar humanoid characters developed for animation. I came across a crude Japanese animated film called 'Panty and Stocking' with lovely character designs. The characters are very simplistic overall with their shapes, with defined shapes making up their anatomy; perfect designs for 3D animation in my opinion. I then discovered the studio that designed theses characters were heavily inspired by cartoon networks 'PowerPuff Girls' and then began researching into their original concept designs and how far they developed. I've begun to scribble down a few thumb nails of possible character designs to work from recently, I'll set the deadline for myself to select which character I want to develop for next week.
Within the realms of animation, techniques will always have their additional limitations. Even as technology develops further and continues to support the cinematic industry as it does so, limitations will continue to affect certain aspects of the art form. One such limitation involves the pursuit of realism within the industry. The representation of the realistic within animation, especially involving humanoid focuses has always been persuaded by creatives but has always felt slightly sinister in certain examples. In 1970, a Japanese robotics specialists named Masahiro Mori defined an audiences settlement when viewing something behaving and/or looking human with a term to reflect the limitations of attempting to make something appear 'human'. This term hypothesizes the negative effect from a viewer, of something attempting to imitate 'human' be it in features or behavior. This is defined as the 'Uncanny Valley' phenomenon. A phenomenon effecting the approaching realistic between the scale of unrealistic to realism when creating something. Below is a graph depicting the 'Uncanny Vally'.
In recent years 3D animation has begun to follow a certain trend in competing in realism within animation. For example, when the 2009 3D motion captured film 'Avatar' was introduced to paying audiences the critics were flabbergasted about the visuals and their 'realness'. However this motion picture was never considered to have entered the 'Uncanny Vally', the computer generated figures may have been humanoids but were also seen as 'aliens' in the movie and there for avoided the human likeness that promotes the phenomenon. However the first incident where a piece of computer animation was considered part of the 'uncanny valley' was in Pixars 1988 short 'Tin Toy', in particular towards the animated baby involved. Roboticist Dario Floreano defined the short as such because of the audience negative reaction to the baby character. This was apparently the first time computer animation had been described as such, and as a result the 3D animation industry began to take the term seriously.Several years later, the 2004 'The Polar Express' by Chris Van Allsburg was described as 'creepy' and 'unsettling' by reviewers because of the eerily human characters coming across as unsettling in their motion and expressions. Although the film set a new high for realisum within computer animation, it also fell slap bang into the creepiness of the valley and it wasn't the last from that studio to be considered so.
2011s 'Mars Needs Moms' was another computer animated film by the same studio to once again, achieve an unsettled reaction from viewers because of it's mixture of realistic humanoid models and cartoony style; however the computer animation did achieve the title of 'box office bombs' coming 2nd... which is no where near a good thing. The 'Uncanny valley' is still a very unpredictable thing, based on viewer reaction. Becoming unsettled or seeing something as sinister or creepy differs from viewer to viewer, however there are clear examples of pieces of 3D animation that belong under his definition by critics. Of course we're going to become unsettled by something that mimics human and yet is very much not a human, it's part of our primal way of thinking - right?
Today I attended a seminar that focused intensely on using referencing and in particular using body language references to help portray emotion and character when animating. This seminar was presented hand in hand with a small task; to demonstrate an understanding of body language within Maya when animating the Maya puppet we'd been given, using our own photo referencing.
Before completing the 5 poses within Maya, I briefly looked again at the examples of exaggerated portrayal of characters and emotions using body language that we'd been presented with as part of the seminar. These examples included Charlie Chaplin, Jack Tati and a test animation from Big Hero 6. Both Charlie Chaplin and Jack Tati are excellent examples of actors who over exaggerate their body language in order to portray a character or emotion without a narrative. Charlie Chaplins facial expressions and hand gestures in particular are completely over the top, but as a silent comedian his body language needs to be as such. His body language is comically exaggerated; hence why he's a wonderful actor to use for animation referencing. Jack Tati does much the same, but his acting is far more slight compared to Charlie Chaplins. Actors take on board a character fully when portraying them, not necessarily needing to rely narrative but rather using their own body language to bring their character across to the viewer. As an animator, I should be able to re-imagine how a character would behave with my own body language to later use my own acting as a reference for myself when animating.
Below is a short YouTube video of a character animation test developed within Disneys 2015 'Big Hero 6' post-production stage. Most (if not all) animation projects involve some sort of animation test similar to this one...
This test involved an animator experimenting with different characters movements and body languages. Each character enters the environment in a way that is unique to them, from the sway of their arms to the way they sit down at the table. For instances when Hiro enters the environment he's rather energetic and eager to sit down, throwing his bag onto the table putting his feet up; He's clearly very comfortable to the point of being slightly smug, to be there. However with Tadashi he moves in a far more respectful manner compared to his little brother Hiro. Tadashi raises his hand to gesture a hello when he first enters the environment, before carefully pulling his chair up to the table and removing his hat politely as he does so. Body language defines a character. As an animator it's never a good idea when animating characters to rely only on their dialogue to define them. Define your characters with movement, which is what animation is all about.
David O'reilly is a Irish born film maker/animator, who experiments with 3D animation within Maya. His visual aesthetic incorporates a low-poly 3D animation theme, stripping down 3D graphics to a very simplistic form; especially within his character designs. There is also a recurring trend within his films to feature the 'glitch theme'.
David O'reilly has become notorious for his approach to visual story telling within the film maker and animation community in recent years. For me personally I became aware of his work when the Adventure Time episode 'A glitch is a glitch' was aired on television. This episode was written, storyboarded, directed, produced and animated entirely by David O'reilly. The shows creator Pendleton Ward had apparently idolised the film makers work since stumbling across it online and in 2010 contacted him about the possibility of collaborating together on a Adventure Time episode. At the time David was far too busy creating his latest film 'The External World' to take onboard the offer from Pendleton and had to decline. However after moving from Ireland to Los Angeles a year later, the two bumped into each other several times and began discussing the possibility of having David work on an episode in the future. Pendelton Ward gave David complete creative freedom over the episodes story and reportedly told him to 'Do HIS own thing'. Despite the fact David O'reilly claims he would of been more than happy to animate one of the shows episodes he was extremely pleased to have creative freedom over the entire episode. Regardless that some segments of the episode had to be removed, censured or edited within the script, the final cut of the episode is still something that David himself describes as 'still something that he's proud of'.
The Adventure time episode involves a computer virus from a 'initial video' infecting the land of ooo. The 'initial video' that fin and jake watch in the episode involves a woman eating her own hair, this video was also released by David O'reilly online a few weeks before the episode aired. Complaints flooded in from worried parents claiming it was 'too extreme for a kid's TV' however David responded to those complaints that children could 'tolerate it'. I do find that particular segment of the episode very unsettling to watch, but it's clearly David O'reilly style to have something like that incorporated into the episode. The film maker also claims he found it difficult to animate his glitchy trademark style mixed with good character animation.
What I love most about the 'A Glitch Is A Glitch' episode has to be what David O'reilly accomplished with the Adventure Time characters when modelling them in Maya. Below are a few character pages depicting the design process of converting the characters from 2D into 3D models...
Jake 2D design to 3D model design
Princess Bubblegum 2D design to 3D model design
Because of adventure times simplistic cartoony visual aesthetic it blended together extremely well with David O'reillys low-poly 3D animation style. Before moving onto the character design level of this project, I'm going to research into simplistic character design examples because I feel focusing on the simple rather then the realistic for this project would be far more effective then anything else.
Many argue that animation is for the 'child audience' rather then seeing it as the art form it rightly deserves. However, David O'reillys interpretation of Adventure time is verging on 'inappropriate' for children; certain scenes being upsetting or unsuitable for children. Low poly computer animation, much like his style may be naturally assumed to be child friendly regardless of content because of the visual athletic of the animation itself. As much as the audiences opinion and assumptions of an animate based on how it looks is a factor to CG limitations, CG in many ways has developed to a far more respected level when it comes to special effects then when approaching a more 'cartoony feel'. Honestly, I do feel like computer animation is near obsessed with recreating reality rather then creating a world of its own; which you could argue is in itself a limitation of the technique.
After participating in a small work meeting over coffee today with my work partner to discuss the possible story choices for this project, we've both decided to choose 'Adrift' as our focus title and the concept 'A character detaches from reality and is unable to call out to their friend; but their friend reaches out instead and reassures them they're here for them. We both agreed this concept was far the most interesting and unique out of the bunch we had originally created, not just related to the title 'Adrift' but to all of the other titles. All other concepts were comical, which wasn't a bad thing; but more, we both wanted to work on something more meaningful. Not only that but the possibilities for characters and visual scenaros we could mould out of this concept seem far more interesting then what we could achieve if we decided to work with one of its siblings. This concept involves two characters;
one is seen as the 'supportive' character, and the other the 'detaching' character. The two characters are portrayed as having a deep connection, whether romantic or otherwise. However, out of the blue, the 'detaching' character beings to disconnect from reality. Visually, we want this to represent depression, dissociation and anxiety, with the 'detaching' character being unable to control this feeling that occurs out of the blue for no reason. The 'supportive' character is at first oblivious to their friend’s disconnection from reality, however ultimately reaches out to and comforts their friend, reassuring them they’re there for them – something which brings them back to reality. Concerning the narrative, we're leaning towards a poetic monolog to describe the sensation of disconnection from reality. We'd also quite like to incorporate sound effects to emphasise the distance and numb sensation of feeling so far away from reality you might as well be trapped within a bubble; for example, fuzzy static sounds and disorientating voices or street sound. As far as research I'd like to look into mental health cases, involving the sensation of 'dissociation' perhaps even interview sufferers in person. I'd also quite like to plunge deep into the internet to fish up some similar concepts in cinema, be it animation or not. For such a deep subject to focus on I'm leaning towards making the visual imagery rather stylised and approaching cartoony; to balance out the dark theme.
Autodesk Maya ( or simply 'Maya' ) markets itself as a '3D computer graphic software' and is used frequently within the film and game industry. Released in 1997 the software was one of the first to be developed that focused on computer 3D modelling. The software was developed by Alias systems corporation which later became part of the Autodesk company in 2006, when three software companies merged together to form Maya. At the time of release Autodesk was competing with Windows, against their software 'Softimage' which forced on animation rather then modelling. Apparently Maya was the leading commercial modelling software at the time, along side 'Softimage' for animation and 'RenderMan' for rendering. Maya has been used to create many popular and best selling products within it's release in the 90's. The successful American video game company Crystal Dynamics' also used Maya as its software of choice when working on the popular Tomb Raider games. The original 'The Sims' by EA Maxis was also entirely modelled within the software. Maya has also been merged with Pixar's 'Renderman' to produce animated movies such as Finding Nemo (2003), The Matrix (1999) and Avatar (2009). 'Renderman' isn't the only software however to be paired with the modelling software. For example the program collaborated with the software 'CorelDRAW' to animate the popular animated television show 'South Park'.
But what can Maya do?
Maya is a fantastic and versatile modelling tool used for 3D computer animation, focusing on 3D sculpting and special effects. Maya uses 'polygons' to craft the models, within it's virtual workspace which can be adapted and modified as much as the user requires. Although I am fairly new to the software, after my most recent yet small task involving the software I really have fallen in love with it; despite the fact the random crashes do frustrate me from time to time. To me Maya is much like a tool in which to craft a character to later position in order to give the illusion of movement, in much the same way a stop-motion puppet is crafted to later position between image captures to give the illusion of movement also.
But how has Maya affected the animation industry?
Autodesk Maya isn't the only 3D animation software existing out there, but it was one of the first softwares of its kind to be marketed. 3D animation was developed in the 80s and only became commercial to the common creative 10 years later when software like Maya was released to the public; by then 'the Pixar computer' had already created beautiful computer animated films like toy story, bugs life and cars. The software didn't change the animation industry by itself, but rather opened up the opportunity for more and more studios to experiment and invest in 3D computer animation.
I must admit I did struggle to remain 'professional' when posing for references earlier today. I really did try and get 'into character' for the positions, but despite my determination to take this seriously it was no match for the giggles and playful insults from my friends. Non the less, I found the photo references that I snapped very useful. I already had a vague understanding of how the human body can move, or how the human body would balance itself; because of my previous experience with life drawing and anatomical drawing.
Before taking the photos that I would later use for referencing, I was suggested by my teacher to watch a few 'Charlie Chaplin' movies to remind myself of how important exaggeration is when portray movement; for example especially in silent movies. Chaplin was an amazing actor when it came to physical comedy, emphasising the most basic physical movement to really bring across the character he was portraying. Remembering all of this, I then began harvesting photos for referencing. I focused on emphasising my positions to attempt to confidently bring across what emotion I was protraying.
Below are the final posed models I produced next to the photo references…
Photo Reference
'Shame'
'Fear'
Photo Reference
'Exhaustion'
Photo Reference
'Shock'
Photo Reference
'Anxiety'
Photo Reference
When modelling the positions above, I also wanted to use the lighting to 'set the scene' for that particular emotion. For instants, with shame I positioned the lighting directly above the model; to imply a more incense focus on the character. I was inspired to position the lighting in this way because personally when I feel ashamed I feel like a very intense judgemental gaze is glaring down at me from above, which I also replicated also when lighting Anxiety. With Fear I positioned the lighting effect in a way that mimicked the head lights of a car, which is something I'd certainly be afraid of.
Participating in this small Maya task has surprisingly helped me familiarise myself further with the software, for example the basic quick keys for moving objects and rotating them have become second nature to me now. Not only within Maya but I've realised how important referencing is when working within the fields of animation. In the future I will defiantly take as many opportunities as I can to record/capture references to later use within my animation studies.
