WEEK 4: Animation Direction 1

We'll have a look at your WIP storyboards and talk about planning branching game cycles before the due date later in the week.

The next step of the process is planning the animation. We'll discuss many of the tools used to streamline this part of the pipeline: exposure sheets, bar sheets, timing charts, and animation posing. It's important to plan the animation direction so the style is consistent throughout the production. Drawing the character in key poses inspires the animation process. Gathering reference material including shooting video reference can be invaluable. Before animation begins, it should be planned as rough thumbnails as in the Ratatouille sketches in the photo.

Your next assignment is to thumbnail all of the animation for your virtual video game.

ADIR1136 Assignment 2: Animation Thumbnails

% of final grade: 20%
Assigned: Thursday, Sept 29th
Due: Sunday, October 9th <--NEW!!!

Please submit all work via FTP

SAVE your work uncompressed (PSDs recommended)

SEND me only JPGs

Please keep file sizes under 2MB

Filenames:
tdonovan_thumb_001.jpg

Description:
Plan the animation for a sequence in your virtual game. It can be built around the travelling sequences such as the walk, run, and jump cycles to be animated in the second half of the course. It could also focus on another significant part of the game. Drawings need not be clean but they should be clear, dynamic, and detailed.

Rubric:
Exemplary - In-depth planning of all the movement and surrounding actions for animation sequence showing the character's specific personality and style of movement.

Excellent - Detailed movement study of animation sequence showing all major actions with some personality.
Acceptable - Simple study of most of the planned actions for the animated sequence.
Not Acceptable - Sparsely detailed study of a few of the key poses of the animated sequence.

WEEK 4: Texturing & Shading 1

We'll continue building detail into our simple sign by learning about 2 more kinds of maps:

1. Bump maps add the illusion of detail and are very simple to edit.  We'll work with creating some gritty surface texture and cracks on the sign's base, scratches in the rusty paint, and add height to relief details such as the bolts holding the sign in place. 
2. Alpha maps are useful for masking out areas we want to remain transparent.  One common use for alphas is in the application of foliage to our scenes.  We'll add some simple grass elements in our scene and experiment with layering these elements to make the grass look more complex and realistic. 

Alpha Grass Tutorial, part 1: Painting grass textures in Photoshop

Alpha Grass Tutorial, part 2: Applying grass textures in 3DSMax

The final version of the sign is to be handed in by the end of the week 

TEXT2010 Assignment 3

3rd Assignment: 5% Click here for the Rubric for this assignment
Assigned: Tuesday, Sept 28th
Due: Sunday, Oct 2nd
Sign, UV'd and textured: 3DSMax file, diffuse, bump, plus grass diffuse file(s)
SAVE your work uncompressed (PSDs recommended)
SEND me only PNG's or TIFF's.
Maximum resolution: 2048x2048
File naming convention example:
tdonovan_sign.max
tdonovan_sign_diff.png

tdonovan_sign_bump.png

tdonovan_sign_grass_diff_001.png (or tiff)

WEEK 4: Character Acting 1 - Fight Direction 1

Welcome to our 3-class study of Combat Direction with guest instructor, Simon Fon. 

Simon Fon has taught thousands of people in stage combat, from coast to coast, over the past 18 years. He is a member of Fight Directors Canada, and holds the title of Fight Master. As a stunt co-ordinator he most recently worked on Disneys Power Rangers In Training. Some recent stunt performing credits include series stunt double (Season 3) for the character of "Jesse" on the TV series Mutant X. Hemingway V.S. Callaghan for CBC, Earth: Final Conflict, Prince Charming-HBO and Tracker for TV/Film. Simon also worked on the Genie Award winning short Hangman’s Bride as Fight Director and Actor.

In theatre Simon has worked at Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Mursaille, YPT/Lorraine Kimsa, The Grand Theatre (London), Theatre By The Bay (Barrie). Simon has also worked on the Dora Nominated Romeo & Juliet Remixed with eXpect theatre/Spark productions, and with Robin Phillips on Mill on the Floss for Soul Pepper Theatre at the World Stage. He teaches at George Brown College, University of Toronto, York University, University of British Columbia, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Equity Showcase - Players Academy, Rapier Wit Studio, and Fight Directors Canada National workshops (96, 97, 01, 02, 03, 04).

See you in The Octagon (515) at 12 sharp.  Please continue to bring drawing materials and cameras & tripods (if you have them) every week as we'll be working in groups and continuing our study of human locomotion.

Don't be late