Using after effects was fun in the sense that I have no object permanence and kept forgetting how to do stuff right after doing it. Anyway.

My original idea for a path animation was to have a plane flying above a mountain range, so I created assets for that. And then I realised I hated them with a burning passion so I scrapped the idea.

I regrouped, did a bit of thinking, and decided it might be fun to explore a rocky canyon-esque landscape. The plan was to have multiple layers of rock ranges that I could zoom into/out of, and then have clouds floating by ahead. So I created those assets next, using some photos of canyon landscapes as inspiration.

I was feeling pretty confident about this one because I have done a walk cycle before (it wasn’t complete but I had the motion down with a stick figure).

I chose the following prompts: firefighter (fireman?) and determined.

For the design, I spent a while trying to figure out what firefighters wear because I found a range of options, especially for helmets/headgear. I ended up going with the more traditional(? It feels like what I generally picture at least) helmet that curves down at the back. 

In terms of trying to capture the right emotion with body language, I decided to put more emphasis on tension in his body. Relatively straight back, shoulders raised up a bit, fists and jaw both clenched. It looks a bit stiff but it is very much intentional, and people were able to guess which emotion I was going for during our little class walkthrough, so I like to think I was successful. I probably could’ve pushed it further, though. I wanted to keep it more subtle so that it felt realistic, but it might’ve been fun to exaggerate the movements much more than I actually did, so that’s just a lil note for myself for future walk cycle/general character animation practice.

plan:

rough:

clean:

final:

3D modelling… I cannot lie, I did not enjoy this project. I have a bit of experience with 3D modelling programs, because I’ve used Blender in the past, but I struggle a lot with visualising/working with things in 3D, so this was overall really frustrating for me.

I thought I’d go with a bit more of a simple shape for my building, so I chose a lighthouse. I figured it might be easier to work with just adding things to a cylindrical base.

It was in some ways pretty manageable? At least with the basic shapes. I struggled more with the roof, and there are some details I just didn’t include because they would’ve been really small and precise and I didn’t want to push myself into having a mental breakdown. So there’s no railing around the walkway. Health and safety hazard, but luckily this lighthouse isn’t gonna be built anywhere. The rock was fine. Had some fun trying to hold it into a vague rock shape. Does it look organic? Probably not. But it’s fine probably.

And then we got to the texture mapping and everything went downhill. I actually managed okay with the cylindrical parts, because that was easy enough, but oh boy this roof gave me so much trouble. So I gave up on it. I think it was an issue of not really being able to figure out why the texture map looked so weird, which then fucked up any application of actual textures on top. Maybe it’s because I used a cone shape and chopped off the top? Perhaps just a sphere chopped in half would’ve worked better? Unfortunately I did not have the patience to find out. I just wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.