AVINIARSKA

I wanted to try out Adobe Substance 3D to paint on my model, but I couldn't add any texture cause it was showing that I don't have an access, anyway it was importing my model in a smooth mesh even though I was exporting it without ticking the box to smooth out, couldn't figure the issue so decided to just paint on top of UV maps in Photoshop, which worked. Now it's time to try do simple animation in Blender and will update on it later below.

Unfortunately I faced a lot of issues while simply rigging it and then when I tried to animate it it also didn’t work for me so I decided to just do a 360 turn but in a pose, still looking like animated, because it looks like ballerina in a music box, which I’m happy with!

Before moving further with stop motion, I decided to check if my idea works the way I wanted and overall how it looks. I used roto brush tool in After Effects to remove the background, and surprisingly it was easier than I thought, because it automatically finds the object, the only thing I just needed to add some strokes with this brush tool to add more or less desired area. We still have one and a half week before submission, so I will add here my further thoughts later.

Over the Easter break I haven't done much, but tried to work on the first scenes with oil pastels. So far I did not have any issues beside my phone moved in a few frames, because I was using it with magic arm. I still like how it looks, and considering the fact that I plan to add a background on TV Paint, it makes me less anxious about the perfect look of an end result. I also think that combining two, digital and traditional, was a great idea, as it will save me more time and will look more neat in the end. Even though, all the work is still in progress, I already can see the finished look, the only thing left is to catch up with my imagination:) Still haven't recorded any sounds, but I think it will be better to record them in my case after I finish animation, so I could match the sound to the frame.

Continuing gathering together all little things I want to have before starting shooting the scenes. In class I did a background for the first shot on paper with oil pastels, scanned it and added other details in photoshop, because I decided that it will be better and easier to animate simply a character on a background and later in TV Paint add all the details, as the medium I chose to work with won't be good to use for detailing even character's hands or face features, so I will combine two together, which I think will look great and more neat. Also tried a quick walk cycle test on TV Paint as well.

Before starting animation, I wanted to do a few tests of different techniques and decide the one I like. I had three options: using homemade multi-plane, do rough animation on tablet and trace onto paper with oil pastels (not so economical), using thicker paper and working on one sheet of it with oil pastels, scraping the parts I want to animate with a craft knife and repaint on top the next frame.

I was more curious about the third option, because that interested me the most, so I did one quick test with a bouncing ball, I won't have an exact ball scene, but there will be a scene with a tiny rock skipping, so it is similar. I realised it is easier than I imagined it to be, and it took me about 10 minutes for that test and even though I haven't tried other techniques, I decided to go with that method.

I always like to watch the details in the background whether it's a movie or an animation. Usually, it's even funnier than the main focus on the scene and I enjoy finding those tiny details behind. For this project I'd try my best to make their world real, even though I'm not sure how exactly, as most of the scenes is just a forest and considering that I plan to use oil pastels I don't know how much of a details I could add. I finished my storyboard and started the animatic, but still need a sound plan.

Started a Maya project and we'll model a 3D character this time for which I'm so excited, despite the fact that I don't enjoy doing 3D. I had few different ideas, as we are free to choose whatever theme I was stuck between whether I want to create a character for a children's TV or for advertising. My initial inspiration was a show Zack & Quack where the characters look like they made out of paper but they are 3D models. When I was younger and was watching these kind of shows I thought it was a real paper, and same with Lego movies. So I decided to have a character with that paper look. I thought of having a character maybe for some sort of show or advert about pollution and making a garbage a character, but it wasn't that interesting for me. And from garbage and pollution my ideas jumped to creating a character for an advert of a ballet in a Royal Opera House as an example. That is more interesting for me to do, I love ballet so will try create a paper-like ballerina.

Finished my third GIF which was easy, because I did a video reference of my and boyfriend's hands using a lego rose. The hardest part for me is the second GIF because there is a secondary action of a hair movement, which is a wave cycle. I remember on a first trimester in a first year I was also struggling with a wave cycle, so same as now. I hope I will achieve the flowy effect I want. So far, I like my ideas and how I approached the brief, however I will say that I'm not pleased with my time management regarding this particular project, and I could do more and better if I were feeling better mentally. But I'll try to finish the animations before the new project starts.

I am so glad we completely finished our animation and presented it to the client. I'm grateful of having a chance to work with my peers, even though it sounds like we didn't had much time, I think we still did a great job working together throughout these 5 weeks, as we perfectly managed our time to complete it before presenting. And our group was the only one with fully finished animation which I am really proud of, it was very professional from our side. I enjoyed working on this project and experiencing for the first time making an advert for a company with a team, it made me realise that working with others is not always stressful or else. Plus it was so fun for me to be a voice of a little caterpillar!