move the world with art

my showreel for the end of trimester 1, studio 1.

i have only included a few short shots of all my work (besides the written parts) 

as promised here is my final animation, unfortunately due to technical difficulties i is not the full animation, i chose this section of the animation because i think the movement here is well done and i am proud of my efforts.

in the 3 above images you can see the process of texturing, the first image is the uv’s that is what the 3d model looks like squashed down into a 2d image, using the uvs i then went ahead and colored them in, and yes i know it looks like a scattered mess but if you notice the very last image the scattered mess is placed onto the 3d model and when done correctly is perfectly laid out and gives the character its “skin” making it look more like a character rather nex a 3d mold.

for this i started in 3ds max and once modeled i put the uvs into the uv map before rendering them out as a png image, usually people will go straight to photoshop for the texturing but at the time i did not have photoshop so i used paint tool sai, once colored i loaded it back in by using bitmap.

when texturing in 3d there is always the same problems, it to shiny, or its to flat...

today i learnt a great deal about specular and bump maps.

specular maps is maps used to define a surfaces shininess for example the whites of the eyes.

bump maps on the other hand are maps used to make what appears to be bums or wrinkles on the texture.

here is what i have learnt.

above you will see my 3d character olly, with what is simply color maps, for those who do not know color maps is just your basic texture.

it looks very distorted flat and just unattractive so i did THIS!

I ADDED SPECULAR MAPS! as you can see the horn has shine to it and the whites of the eyes are a lot more bright because of it.

this probably looks like a big old mess to you so im sorry but if you look in the middle where you see the grey smudge with a white strip, that is the horn adding that simple strip gave the horn a nice glow, also if you see the two black dots in the middle those are the eyes, i was taught that when coloring a character to never go full white because its hurtful for the eyes, buuut since specular mapping calls for it the are full white.

here i give you all 3 at once, bump, specular and color maps and how much better does this look right? the black strip down the middle looks like its pushed in making the cloak look more 3d also i fixed the button and patch on his sleeve 

here is the texture map i made for the bump map, as you can see besides the obvious it is all grey, why you ask? well thanks to my teacher can tell you why.

basically, white or light light grey makes things stick out and look like it is more 3d rather then flat and black does the oposite making it cave in as it would seem, which you can see in the image befor this one. the grey all over the place is basically neutral it makes it so that the bump map does not make the entire model “sink and grow” changing the usual way you do mapping to put the time in to create specular and bump really pays off

taking a short break from my animation obstacle course i have decided to do a animation of myself doing a walk cycle. it has been a long time since ive done an animation that is just for fun

doing this animation i decided not to reference and instead go at the top of my head, i know its not all that smooth or rather it could definitely be smoother, also using only what i recall from memory to aid in the inbetweens and key poses i found that it was a tad difficult to go off memory but i did well regardless.

i believe this walk cycle is very believable and the swish of her hair and shirt adds the extra effect of realisticness

for this animation i had planned to have her walk across the screen but found that the software i was using at the time was no right for that king of job

the software i used for this animation are

unfortunately i had quite a lot of trouble converting this file and for now had to use a trial version (no point spending money on something that may not work)

using the techniques such as squash and stretch, slow in slow out and of course arcs, and much more. using these to aid in my animation i made this animation (not complete) so far i’m very pleased with how it has turned out and during class yesterday when demonstrating my animation i was overjoyed to hear some members of my class gasp in amazement at some of the actions i incorporated into my animation. i feel that the moves i used in this animation are very characteristic, the character i chose is harley quinn and i believe i captured her well with her acrobatic nature.

above are the images of my concepts and textures complete in the scene

above is an image i made for the game design project, a family photo an dtunr arrounds for the 3d model.

for this project i was given the roll head of animation, a title that made me very happy, i was put in charge of concept, character design, and texturing. this was my first time being in charge of anything and i found it to be quite difficult at first with everyone slacking here and there i really had to crack the whip.

 for texturing i had to ask that everyone who wanted me to do theirs had to label them, which at fist no one quite understood what i meant, they had assumed i meant name the image file properly, but i infact meant write on the uvs what uv is what so i could color correctly, once understood they went ahead and did this and it made my job alot easier.

 i had no problem with taking on the amount of concepts and texturing that i did, no one really fancied it but i preferred it, although i made it perfectly clear that i did not want or could not do and models i ended up doing one anyway, i personally am a 2d girl but when something needs to be done then who am i to fold my arms and pout?....

 needless to say i got it done and the final product was not as we all expected but it pushed us to the next step int he game the step that would make the game what is was ment to be, last night at the usual time of 8pm we had a group meeting where only 3 members including myself attended and we established that i was to do concepts of the new character and the other member was to model then i was again texturing.

for our group work we used different ways to communicate, we used skype for calls and im’s every day, we had group meeting calls every night at 8pm aside from that we also used google drive for putting up work we had done, and once done we would return to skype and inform our group members that the job was done. we had also met up for group meetings every wednesday during our designated group works day at uni. this also helped greatly as we had to use software we had not used before (game students use different stuff) but thanks to those face to face meetings i was able to ask for help when needed so that i could get my work done.

above in an image of our group chat, as you can see by the light hearted humour rolled in there we all get along swimmingly which does help with how we get work done greatly. we have small chats from time to time to keep ourselves sain and always check in to see how things are going with other members

during my cross disciplinary activities i have assisted in making a game and making a web magazine, 

for game design we communicated using skype which proved very useful, we organised team meetings every night at 8 pm, we also used google drive that was split up into numerous folders well placed so it was easy to find what we were looking for. 

one of the main problems i faced during this assignment was that i did not have 3ds max at home and as such was unable to model unless i was at school, but everyone was more then happy to take on the models whilst i did the concept work and texturing, another problem i faced was texturing, since i did not have the model to double check the textures worked well i was flying blind, i had to ask everyone to label the textures accordingly so that i could texture them correctly.

in regards to the web magazine i found it rather difficult to understand what it was they wanted from me, after a few meetings with them on the designated wednesdays at school i finally understood what they where asking for, one of the problems i faced with this assignment was the animating of the flags, they wanted it to have a transparent background and be a gif image.

 this was no problem and i set out to do my work, but once complete i was told the colors weren't the right shade and the background was not transparent so i had to go back and do it over again, at first it was an irritating mission having to go back and redo it and i feel as though if the communication was a bit better i would not have had to do so, but regardless i went back and i completed it

one of my latest assessments is the animation obstacle course, it is as you can see in the above images i have to animate a character through an obstacle course and for mine i chose harley quinn. i chose harly because in all honesty i have never seen her in anything, other then billions of fan arts and those 50,000 people at conventions that dress as her, i cant help but to wonder why on earth anyone would want to dress up as a woman that allows a man to lay hand on her time and time again but each their own... anyway i figured i might as well try a character i know nothing about just for extra skill improvement. now other then the fact she is a foolish woman she is very fascinating and even more so to animate.

if you see the above image (image 2) it is a few thumbnails i have drawn onto the obstacle course, (this is not the final piece there are A LOT more...but you have to wait and see ;)..)) i chose to do this animation in 2d for a few reasons one being i grew up and fell in love with 2d ive always done it, from images to small animation and secondly i think we need to go back, or rather bring it back, i know its still around but 3d seems to be taking it over and i a die hard 2d lover refuse to give up on the god given amazingness that is 2d animation.... now i can sit here and talk about 2d all day but i will probably get in trouble so ill stop hehe.... 

for these thumb nails i have used the software photoshop as i felt it was the best software for the job, as for the animating side i have brushed up on my skills in flash and am currently doing my animation there

hey guys also for another cross disciplin i am doing i am helping make a lgbt online mag  my job is to design animated flags for each sexuality heres one now...

http://sta.sh/01ajtqrty2li

i am quite fond of this as i went through and did a fair amount of inbetweens to get the movement just right, it is good to my standard but hey first time doing a flag so dont hurt me hehe.

for this the brief was simple, “ we wish to make a lgbt friendly online mag, for young adults who do not have anyone to talk to about their sexuality, an online mag that will help them understand” they then mentioned they wanted flags on their page that represents the different sexes, i suggested that we make animated gifs for them and so there it is, the first flag i did was good but it wasn't the shade of colors they wanted so i went back and fixed it and am still working on flags now so i will post them all very soon.

hello hello everyone this week i have been doing alot of cross disiplin work here is some i have done

for my cross discipline i have had to do concept work for various pieces that will be modeled for the game i am helping with in game design here is only few. in total i have done 9 concept pieces and will be modeling 2. the last image above is a family photo of the main character the daughter with her father. i have also concepted turnarounds for her

this is the main character that i will not be modeling, i very much enjoyed drawing all the concepts as i know soon they will all be modeled and become a game, i will post the 3d models of the ones i have done as soon as they have been modelled, and a video of the game being played once completed

so here it is guys the title reboot project me and my group have been working on, we had to do a new title sequence for night of the living dead, but since they all died we decided to do a prequel video to show how it all happened, we had to do this animation in bunraku paper cut out style, for this we did both 2d and 3d  i did the character design, graveyards, hands and the environment backgrounds with the help of my team members of course

earlier this month we it to go out and use a DSLR camera witch came with two lenses one for close range and long range photos and or videos 

during this time we learnt how to change various settings to alter the image for 

here is a break down of said camera 

1:  Shutter release: needless to say this is the button that you press to capture an image

2; Jog dial: this dial changes the shutter speed, photographers use lowe shutter speed to take an image of something to make it look like it is in motion but will allow it to stay in focus instead of being blurry it will look like this 

a fast shutter speed is the opposite instead of making the image look as if it was in motion it makes the image freeze actions

3: flash: when there is very little lighting the flash will take this into account and go right ahead and light that puppy

4:power switch: needless to say it turns the camera on and off

5: Shooting mode dial: or main mode dial, most dslr cameras automatically adjusts itself to better suit the surroundings so if it is dark it will flash if it is light it will dim down, but this dial allows you to change the settings manually if you want it to be dark say goodbye to that flash.

6:  Lens release: this button when pressed releases the lens so that i can be properly removed or connected 

7;  Auto focus: the auto focus button that in most cases is set to auto lets the camera focus on its own, this can be done manually if desire by turning it off

8:  Image stabilizer: when turned on the stabilizer helps prevent any unwanted blurring in an image 

9:  Zoom ring: this when turned will zoom in and out 

10:  Focus ring: and this ring like the zoom ring when turned alters the lense but the focus ring changes focus 

now this may be overwhelming for some and i will admit when i got my hands on the camera i couldn't even figure out what button to press to take a picture but wait.... theirs more

here we have the other side of the camera, ill break it down for you 

1: Diopter adjustment: this dial adjusts the sharpness

2;  Record/Live View: this button allows you to change to live view witch is basically changing it so you can see what you are shooting on the LCD screen for video footage

3;  Trash/Exposure Value: this button deletes the image or footage you want deleted

4;  Zoom in/Exposure lock: this button makes your photos larger when viewing them in play back mode 

5:  Zoom out/Focus point:  this buttons allows you to choose one part of an image to be the focal point

6:  Display on/off: this allows you to see on the LCD screen and change the settings seen on the screen 

7:  ISO: this changes the ISO settings the lower ISO is used for sunlight while higher is for darker 

8:  AF-on: when held down the camera does not use auto focus 

9:  White balance; the button will show you the white balance options and when done well it give an image a far better quality then auto 

10:  Playback: this button allows you to view shots and footage you have taken 

11;  Menu: this button brings up the menu where you can adjust most of the options 

12;  Burst/Timer/Jump: burst is used to capture fast action, jump lets you skip through photos and videos while in play back mode and count down 

13:  Set: this button accepts changes made in menu and select images in play back mode 

14;  Q: is a quick navigation button 

so there it is a low down on the camera 

also there are reflectors white reflectors give a white light and gold a yellow glow 

here is come shots we got on the day using both camera and reflectors

as you can see by my derpy face the reflectors are VERY bright 

as you can see using them changes the lighting as you can see above it has given a very nice glow

and as seen here using the gold will give a very nice light yellow glow 

but after all is said and done its important to pack up and packing up the reflectors is no walk in the park ill tell ya...i had two of my teachers teaching me at once haha its tricky business packing up reflectors

research links: http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/what-does-this-do-an-explanation-of-dslr-buttons/, https://photographylife.com/what-is-shutter-speed-in-photography

so i'm going to talk to you about problems and how to solve them

for example recently i needed to made a low tri 3d model for one of mu assignments and during this time i had no idea how to make the tris go bye bye but keep the model looking smooth, for example when i removed tris the model became blocky and appealing when i asked for assistance i was told by 3 different people how to remedy this issue in 3 different ways, one suggested a modifier that made my character look like a balloon the other suggested i go through and change all the vertices to make it look smoother and the other suggested i use smooth so i tried all 3 just for fun, as mentioned the modifier made my character look like a balloon so that wasn't happening

the second well it was to strenuous and for each i edited another needed to be done and it would have ended with me having to remodel the whole thing and i just didn't have the time, but hey third time the charm indeed as it did the job perfectly and i successfully fixed the issue, before asking i did a lot of research on the subject one i was  looking at made sense and i gave it a try but when i went to start i realized oh wait this example is for different software....i'm sure if i kept researching i would have enevitable found the answer but nothing beats turning to a classmate and simply asking if they know how to do it, saves time and is straight to the point