Category: Group

After I finished the shot animations within the 3D scene last week and made them into three separate videos which were made to allow the rest of the group to easily check and discuss the details of the shots together. After completing the initial shot animations, tianqi’s modeling and the two animators’ drawings worked smoothly after having the shot animations. I prepared the group presentation during this gap, we only had a week to prepare the presentation as Crystal had told us about it on short notice last week so we didn’t have more time to prepare. The project was still very tight, both in terms of refining the 3D modeling of the Tianqi scenes, including the daylighting and textures. The animation is still very much a part of the painting that needs to be done. So I decided to prepare and present this presentation by myself. I first spent a day preparing the PPT and the content of the presentation and then a day practicing the content of the presentation, mainly including the theme of our project introducing the basic information of the team members and our work plan, and finally presenting the progress of our current project and the software used.

At the end of the presentation day, the 2D animation group members said that their course had a collaboration with Point Blank Music School and that the sound effects music for our project could be given to the students of this school as a collaborative project. So the two members of the 2D animation group invited me and Tianqi to go with them to the Point Blank Music School for a showcase of this collaborative project. At the showcase, we were able to see other groups’ animation presentations and music presentations by students from the music course. This has given me a lot to look forward to for future projects.

My main job this week was to confirm the shots for all three scenes and render the shot split videos so that the animation crew could better draw the characters in context, so Chenyang Deng and I revised the desert battle scene and the running scene inside the cave twice. This ensured that the whole scene was smooth and the shots were coherent.

I then used skeletons in blender to parent the camera to make it easier for me to adjust and track the objects captured by the camera. After this I switched the blender rendering mode to workbench rendering. The renders were very preliminary but could be rendered very quickly in a matter of minutes, allowing the team to make many changes and attempts. I then sent the rendered video to the animation team as a story board with 3D backgrounds.

Scene 2 was the climax of our whole assignment and we wanted to focus more on making the shots and animations for Scene 2. I used eight different cameras in scene two to do the switching between subs. In between I also learned how to switch between cameras depending on the timeline, the screen is also used to create bones and subsequently bind the bones to the camera to follow. This allowed the frame to effectively follow the object I wanted to focus on.

The shots inside the cave and Chenyang Deng went through a number of discussions to determine how the camera would move with the frame. I think it was very necessary to make the whole story coherent and the articulation of the images and the presentation of the hand-drawn animation content more effective.

This was the point in the week when we officially started working on the content of the project using the software. First we had to decide on the art style for our whole project, so according to the schedule I set last week, I had two members of the 2D hand-drawn animation team design character images for each of them, which included a king, a minister, an adventurer, a monster and a praying lady. During the week both members shared their draft character designs with us. We discussed and shared many pictures of the interior of the palace with each other and finally tianqi designed and produced the throne scene. And I did a simple camera animation based on the script based on his first draft white model.

Once the members of our collaborative project team had been identified, we also decided on the general direction and content of the project, so during the week I made a schedule for the content of our project. This schedule was developed in two day increments for a total of 45 days. From the very beginning, the style was set Research, Art style, Role design, Scene design, Preliminary model, Storyboard – 3D, Storyboard – 2 D, 3D modeling, 2D Animation, First Compositing, Animatic, Sound, Compositing, Rendering, Editing, Delivery. My aim in writing this timetable was not to make our group perfect and follow it to the letter, but to make it clear what we needed to do and to divide up the work in detail. I used different colours to represent the four different members of our group and organised the work so that we could alternate each person’s tasks to maximise the use of time. For example, after Tianqi has finished the basic model, I can start using the shots to define the subplot for the animation. While I’m working on the sub-screen, Tianqi can continue to finish the refinement of the model and materials. This is of course a very tight schedule and we don’t think we will necessarily be able to complete all of the above, so it will be adjusted according to the actual progress we make subsequently.

I was invited by my classmate Tianqi to form a group with two 2D animation students. We discussed our understanding and ideas on ‘From an everyday object to a fantastical object’ and finalised the content of our animation.

1) Title: Traveling with coins

2) Team members and roles:

Chenyang Deng
MA Animation
c.deng0320221@arts.ac.uk
Role: 2D animator

Yuanjie Lei

MA Animation
y.lei0320221@arts.ac.uk
Role: 2D animator

Tianqi Xu
MA Visual Effects
t.xu0320223@arts.ac.uk
Role: 3D scene modeler

Jiachen Ding
MA Visual Effects
j.ding0320223@arts.ac.uk
Role:  Compositor

3)Description of idea:
We plan to use the everyday object of the coin as a medium to connect the real and the fantastical, to show the meaning and influence that humans give to the coin (money) in different fantastical worlds. The project will use 2D animation to draw the characters and parts of the screen. At the same time, using 3D models for the scenes and a virtual camera to complete the subplots.

4)Blog/Personal Padlet Online Power Point Link:
https://vimeo.com/759682547
https://tianqi.myblog.arts.ac.uk/
https://djiachen.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

This was our first week of collaborative work, choosing a topic of personal interest based on the topics listed on the Padlet Board. I chose Subject: From an everyday object to a fantastical object because I think that anything interesting comes from the everyday. I think this Subject is an exploration of the creative process (from everyday to fantastical), and I think it’s a good idea to have a special effect. I think this Subject is an exploration of the creative process (from everyday to fantastical), and I am looking forward to it.

I am looking forward to having someone to work with on this subject to create the story. I hope I can exercise my skills in the post-compositing part.