Wednesday, October 9, 2013

WEEK 6: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 2 Due next week!

So you should be blocking now. A lot of animators use this method of stepped keys to block out their animation with solid posing and all the major details such as facial expressions, hand gestures, eye direction but NOT lip sync. They check and recheck for strong silhouettes and keep honing their timing until it seems perfect before moving forward.

Here's a great example of blocking from Kevin Webb.
He describes this video as the result of a day's work. I think you will agree that was a productive day indeed.


Animation scene blocking from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

Here's the final result. Notice all the beautiful overlapping action - it's not just pose-to-pose, he's layered on texture in the timing and made everything fluid and lifelike. 14 seconds, no textures, no lighting, no background, no bs. Just great acting and great animation.


Zooey Lipsync from Kevin Webb on Vimeo.

WEEK 6: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 2 Due Next Week in Class!

This week you should be starting to put the polish into your weapon concept art. It should have a clean silhouette that you can use as a mask for any finishing effects like gradient lighting. Start thinking about presentation. Here are two examples. 

The first image has blueprint-style images and a photo texture of some paper in the bg. It also has nice lettering and a strong sense of compositional balance. 

The second image is more loose in rendering style but again has a nice balance in terms of image placement and the use of gradients over a simple rough painted texture in the bg.

There's a lot of leeway in the presentation of this piece. Be sure to follow your hand-in parameters very carefully. Watch naming conventions, file sizes and compression guidelines.

Any questions, just ask.

Good luck!

Monday, October 7, 2013

WEEK 6: Motion Studies DESN1136 Assignment 2 Due Today!

Your second assignment is due today in class.

We do have one small topic to cover before we dive into 3D animation in Maya after the break:
cartoon characters have skeletons, right?
Anatomy! You've already covered anatomy in your drawing classes so this will be a review. We'll be using various tools to revisit terms you should have learned last year and start working on a specialized drawing based on your character design: an anatomical cartoon study. Next week we'll wrap up with a little 10-question quiz on everything you've studied.

DESN1136 Assignment 3 & 4: Anatomy Study + Quiz
% of final grade: 5% each, TOTAL: 10% 
Assigned: Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013
Due: 
WEEK 7, Oct 15th at the end of class
*Late assignments are worth 0
Quiz will also take place in the first hour of class. You may write it in either class period. Once your quiz and your assignment are handed in, you're free to go!


Max 1200 px along longest edge @ 72 dpi

Filenames:
1136_a3_donovant_anatomy_001.jpg

Description: 
Cartoon characters have skeletons, don't they? Of course they do. Draw what's under your
character's skin. This is great preparation for rigging as you consider the joint placement and proportions of anatomy that may need alterations to adapt it from the familiar human skeleton.  Don't just phone it in, make it a nice looking piece of art to go in your portfolio. Draw over the character in PS with the lower layer's opacity very low. Label if you want. And you're not limited to human skeletons - you might need animals, dinosaurs or other skeletons to help you.

Rubric:
Choose one image of your character in a pose and draw a cartoon study of its anatomy. Aim to make your drawing a portfolio piece that shows both your knowledge and your artistic skill.

Exemplary - thorough and well-drawn study of your character's skeleton that shows the skull and major bones of the skeleton adapted to your character's anatomical form and design, special limitations or extra capabilities
Excellent -  a good study of the character's skeleton including all the major landmarks 
Acceptable - a simple drawing that attempts to follow the skeletal form
Not Acceptable - a sparsely detailed or poorly constructed drawing that doesn't follow the character's form