STUDIO 2 journal entry: week 1

So I am officially in the second half of my course now, only 1 year to go. This Trimester is called Studio 2 and consists of 3 parts: Rapid Production Project, Specialisation and Cross Discipline.

A Concept Character Turnaround for the Rapid Production Project

This week has been off to a bad start. A few weeks ago I received an email asking what I would like to specialise in: 3D Modelling, Character Animation or Special Effects. I Chose 3D Modelling without hesitation. HOWEVER... I find out that this choice does nothing in terms on what you actually learn, only determining what is written on the bachelor's degree at the end. So what is my first assignment you might ask.... Character bloody animation (Pardon my french). If anyone has read my previous blogs you might understand why I am so angry about this, as I had hoped that I would never have to touch Character animation again. But the gods are against me, and so here we are. Character animation.

The Rapid Production Project consists of:

Creating a 5 - 10 Second video based on a sound effect.

Designing, Modeling, Texturing, Rigging and Animating 1 Character of some sort.

Including 2 separate camera shots.

The Characters movements must sync up with the chosen audio clip.

Using video reference.

And finally being created iteratively.

When I initially received this project it did explain that an option would be to create a vehicle of some sort to rig and animate, and so I instantly thought Viking and wanted to create a Historically Accurate Viking Cart. I gathered up reference images, began on a story board and found a piece of audio that would suit that animation.

I told the Lecturer my idea, however he was not as enthused about the idea as I was. He explained that the project was about designing and creating an original character and suggested that I create a 'Viking-esk' vehicle, but again, if anyone has read my previous blogs you KNOW that my whole dream and reason I am doing this course is for authenticity (as every single fantasy game or movie out there in existence is Viking/Medieval-esk not authentic, even those claiming to be authentic are not). So that meant that historically accurate is out the window, and I needed to be actually creating something from my mind (again again again, previous blogs already say how crap I am at creating original ideas).

So back to square 1.

We were told to create silhouettes, so I roughly created some basic shapes and made them look like little monsters.

From there I chose my Audio Clip.

I then sketched out some more refined characters to allow me and my lecturer to have a better understanding on what they would look like.

I also put together a extremely rough Story Board.

Throughout the rest of the week I have been putting together a Project plan, consisting of Scope, Ethos, Work Breakdown Structure, Gantt Chart, Risks, Operations etc... Not Fun stuff, but essential for this course. To try and make it more appealing I Photoshop-ed the information into appealing slides to make it easy to read and like I said, more fun.

I am thinking that I will create my Sludge Character in 3D (as 2D is an option), but I will have to brush up on my rigging and skinning skills.

I have also Drawn some final Character Drawings, as I wanted a better look at what the characters could look like.

I have no idea which one I will choose as I quite like all of them, but I will also have to look at what will be the most simple to model. I and my Lecturer will choose one next week and I will create a final Character Turnaround, as well as Art bible, finished Story Board and Begin Modelling.

Ciao