15: Short Film Progress 03

Work in progress: Animatic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giwhHx8HK-w&feature=youtu.be

14: Short Film Progress 02

Revised storyboards: Nova decides that, despite her injured wing, she will attempt to fly over to her distressed egg. This turns into disaster, as the wind is too strong and her injured wing is unable to stabilize her body. Without both wings functioning, she can only glide and not truly fly. Her egg falls from the tree branch and both characters plummet into the cannon below (you can see this in the animatic above).

#13: Short Film Progress 01

Here are some completed storyboards, character sheets, and rough concept work for Nova's short story.

The model sheet for Nova (needs reworked)

More rough concepts and playing with character appearance/mood

#12: Final Render and Finished Short

#11: Playblast Animation

Work in progress for the final animation:

#10B: Storyboards and Research

Working Title: Catch.

Concept: An unexpected turn of events can be a pleasant solution to a not so pleasant problem.

Research/Inspiration: I want the environment to be tall, rocky, and mountainous.

Ideally, it will be cold with extremely jagged rock edges. The color palette of the environment will be primarily whites, light and dark blues, and muted purples.

For the character species (Arrow Heads). Arrow Heads are a subspecies of dragon. They are small, roughly 1-2 feet in length and posses a snake like body with a pointed head that bares no facial features.   In the real world, their bodies would ideally work like snakes.

#10A: Short Film Proposal

For my short film, I drafted up a species for my primary character(s). The Arrow Heads are a subspecies of dragon habituating a mountainous region . They are low in population, therefore extremely territorial. The story may focus around a pair of Arrow Heads defending their egg from natural threats (like falling off a cliff, or getting frozen, etc) or might revolve around one waiting for the other parent to return.

The problems I've so far encountered with this design is the concern of relatively organic modeling and organic rigging. These beings ideally will move in a snake like fashion when gliding through the air. The wings may also be a concern, as they sprout from the neck and don't necessary contribute to flight, but rather stabilization of the Arrow Head's body while in the air.  

I know I want to play with the dynamic of their low population, thus may be a story involving a pair of them as parents. The central desire and actions, however, are currently missing.

#9: Character Model With Texture

Marcus has a sleek, robotic quality so metal textures were added to enhance this affect.

#8: Character Model and Story Idea

 This is Marcus. He is a service drone for Emperor Dolvacus, a alien who rules several galaxies. Marcus often feels pressure from competition of other servant drones, and is considerably clumsy. Despite his faults, Marcus seeks to be Dolvacus's favorite. For this animation, Marcus will be seen carrying a tray of his Emperor's favorite food. He trips, and the objects spring into the air. Marcus scrambles to catch them back on the tray.  He succeeds until the Emperor's goblet crashes to the ground and spills its contents. The other servant drones make fun of him, but when the Emperor himself presents Marcus with a ribbon for his hard work, they quickly realize that he is indeed the Emperor's favorite. Delighted with himself, Marcus now understands that he was pressuring himself too much, and assumed the Emperor's standards were beyond reach. It is a simple lesson in realization, self worth, and understanding.

#7: Refined Character Design

This is Marcus, a little drone created for the sole purpose to serve. He is currently competing with other servant drones for the Emperor's favorite. He is extremely clumsy, despite appearance. Dropping trays and plates are a common occurrence for little Marcus, which often lands him to be the butt of cruel jokes among other servant drones. He is determined, however, to impress his Emperor, and to become his favorite. 

Scene summary: 

Marcus enters the room with a serving tray. His clumsiness causes him to trip or wobble. This accidentally tosses the food items into the air, and Marcus scrambles to catch them on his tray. 

Additional notes: Marcus has no facial expression, HOWEVER. The blades on the sides of his head will act as a means of emotional response. Like a bird, Marcus will flare or retract them depending on his mood. 

Project Two: proposal

 

I refined my previous character, and gave him both a name and a backstory. 

#6: Revised Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIAupPN2BSE

#5: Final Render and Animation

After a painstaking four weeks, here is my final animation! I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, and especially proud that I figured out some basic rigging. I think the animation is alright, but I would like to go back and polish it in some areas.

# 4: Model Render

Animation of this guy to come soon!

Post # 3: Sketch Idea

# 2: Project One final Character Design

Here is the (relatively) finished model for my character, the Stalker. I combined elements from both final concepts into a creature that was easy to model and had simple joints to rig.

Currently working on joint creation for his arms. Ultimately, this creature would move in similar light to an insect, ideally with two arms on the ground at the same time. I'm experiencing some concern with my rigging when dealing with joints, and involuntary model deformation when using IK handles. The final process of his arms would be deciding if three or four joints would be better, and currently four seems to be the magic number.

#1: Project one Character Design

This is the Stalker, a biomechanic alieniod with tripod limbs. It is fast, frantic, and terrifying in all of its movements, especially when running after prey. 

 For this character, I was particularly inspired by the tripod legs shown during in-class lecture. I love the  biomechanical nature of this approach, but I'm concerned about what problems this brings to modeling and rigging the design. In essence, the inspiration from its movement comes mostly from the movements of insects. I also created an "alternate" version, because I was worried that the original came across as too organic. I also didn't want to just randomly combine both mechanical and organic aspects (like sticking a laser cannon on a dinosaur and calling it a character), but fuse them in a way that they almost blend together or become impossible to separate.