#assignment 02

CW - animal abuse, child abuse, menstruation, implied(?) SH, misogyny

STORY BEATS

1. Interior of an old, grimy barn. Groups of rednecks are cheering, drinking, smoking, etc. 2. Reveal the dog fighting ring. 3. Duke is holding back his dog Miss Roxy in the corner, who is growling and snarling. 4. He lets her go. 5. She bolts towards the camera. 6. Title card - BAD DOG 7. Interior of a slimy dive bar, full of drunk men chattering. 8. Maggie weaves through the bar patrons carrying a tray of drinks. 9. A man elbows her, causing her to stumble-- 10. And she trips and drops her drinks. 11. Miss Roxy leaps and tears into her opponent. 12. Spilt alcohol drips off of Maggie. 13. She looks up at the man that tripped her, feeling small. 14. She starts to clean up, pretending not to be affected. 15. Miss Roxy’s opponent has collapsed. 16. Duke cashes in. 17. Maggie turns her shower on. 18. After the bathroom has filled with steam, Maggie steps in. 19. She lets the events of the day wash off of her. 20. Ten-year-old Maggie plays on the monkey bars. 21. She turns around, noticing young boys making fun of her, calling her disgusting. 22. She realizes she’s bled through her shorts. 23. Present day, blood mixes in with the water going down the drain. 24. Maggie stares blankly ahead. 25. The next morning, Maggie walks to work. She has a cigarette in hand. 26. She walks past an old, dilapidated barn. 27. She pauses a moment to look at it. 28. Ten-year-old Maggie looks out her bedroom window at the barn. 29. She sees her dad, Duke, “training” his dogs. 30. He hits one of the dogs-- 31. And the dog growls and snips at him. 32. Maggie is wide-eyed. 33. She feels her own canines in her mouth-- 34. And she growls at her reflection in the window. 35. At work, Maggie goes through the motions. 36. Ten-year-old Maggie is being teased for the blood stain on her shorts. 37. She growls and barks at the boys teasing her. 38. One of the boys grabs her. 39. Using a belt, they cuff her hands together, restraining her against a tree. 40. One of the boys stuffs a bandana in her mouth. 41. She imagines a muzzle around a dog’s snout. 42. Maggie walks home at night. 43. She approaches the old barn again. 44. She stops and stares. 45. She grabs her lighter out of her jacket pocket. 46. She ignites the flame. 47. She throws it on the side of the building, the old rotting wood catching fire. 48. The flames illuminate her face. 49. Ten-year old Maggie stands in the same position she’s in now. 50. She watches Miss Roxy collapse in the ring. 51. Present-day, Maggie stands silhouetted against a raging fire.

STORY BEATS (CONDENSED)

1. Open on the interior of an old barn full of rowdy rednecks, hooting and hollering. They’re surrounding a dogfighting ring, where Duke holds back Miss Roxy. He lets her go, and she leaps at the camera, revealing the title.

2. Now in the interior of a grimy dive bar, we meet Maggie, a tired waitress. She weaves through the crowd of bar patrons with a tray of food and drinks. A man elbows her, causing her to trip and fall.

3. We flash back to Miss Roxy leaping at and tearing into her opponent.

4. Maggie has spilled the contents of the tray all over herself and the floor. She looks up at the man who caused her to fall, feeling small.

5. Miss Roxy’s opponent collapses. Duke cashes in.

6. Maggie turns on the shower. After the bathroom has filled with steam, she steps in, letting the events of the day wash off of her. She sees herself in the reflection of the glass, and she feels contempt and hatred.

7. Ten-year-old Maggie plays on the monkey bars during recess. A group of older boys make fun of her, and she realizes that she’s bled through her shorts.

8. In the shower, Maggie stares blankly ahead. Blood mixes with water going down the drain.

9. The next day, Maggie walks to work on the sidewalk alongside a busy street. She walks past an old, dilapidated barn. She lingers on it for a moment.

10. Ten-year-old Maggie looks out her bedroom window at that same barn, eleven years ago. She watches her dad train his dogs. He hits one of the dogs, and she growls and bites at his hand. Maggie is wide-eyed, pulling her lip up to look at her teeth in the window. She feels her canines, practicing her growl in her reflection.

11. She goes through the motions at work the next day, facing abuse and harassment at the hands of the bar patrons.

12. We return to the monkey bars. Maggie barks and growls at the boys teasing her. They continue to jeer, grabbing her and stuffing a bandana in her mouth. She imagines a muzzled dog.

13. Maggie walks home at night, and she approaches the old barn again. She stops and stares at it. Standing now in the overgrown grass and weeds, she grabs her lighter out of her jacket pocket, lights it, and throws it against the side of the building. It quickly catches fire, and the flames illuminate Maggie’s face.

14. Ten-year-old Maggie stands in the same spot. The inside of the barn is lit up with lanterns. She watches the dogfight, and Miss Roxy collapses in the ring.

15. Present day, Maggie stands silhouetted against a raging fire, and the old barn starts to collapse.

STORY TREATMENT

We open on the inside of an old, grimy barn, full of rednecks cheering, yelling, drinking, smoking. Duke holds back a growling and snarling pitbull, Miss Roxy. At the sound of a bell, he lets her go, and she comes barreling towards the camera. Title card.

Now we find ourselves in a slimy dive bar, where drunk men chatter and slur their words. Maggie, an exhausted waitress, weaves through the bar patrons, carrying a tray of drinks. A man elbows her, causing her to trip and fall, spilling her tray of drinks all over herself and the floor.

Flash back to Miss Roxy tearing into her opponent.

Spilt alcohol drips off of Maggie, and we see the rage starting to build up in her. She looks up at the man that tripped her, and he seems so much bigger than she. Ignoring him, Maggie starts to clean up.

Miss Roxy’s opponent collapses, and the pitbull stands victorious. Duke cashes in, smugly flipping through the stacks of cash.

Maggie turns on the shower faucet, and the bathroom fills with steam. She lets the shower wash the events of the day off of her. She looks at her reflection in the glass shower door, feeling contempt and hatred.

She thinks of a day from her past, where she, at ten years old, plays on her school’s playground at recess. She’s hanging off the monkey bars when she hears a group of boys snickering at her. She’s bled through her shorts. 

We see water going down the shower drain. Blood mixes in with it.

The next morning, Maggie walks on an uneven, overgrown sidewalk on her way to work. She walks past an old, dilapidated barn. She lingers on it for a moment.

10-year-old Maggie looks out her bedroom window at the same barn. She watches her dad, Duke, training his dogs, who are tied up on thick chains. He hits Miss Roxy, and she growls and tries to bite him. Wide-eyed, Maggie bares her own teeth, feeling the sharpness of her canines. She growls at her reflection in the window, trying to see how fierce she can look.

At work, Maggie goes through the motions, facing harassment and abuse from the bar patrons.

And she feels 10 years old again, on the playground. Like she’d practiced, she growls and barks at the boys teasing her. Jeering, one of the boys grabs her and they lead her off the playground. They tie her to a tree with a belt and stuff a bandana in her mouth. She imagines a muzzled dog.

She walks home again at night, and approaches the old barn again. She stops and stares. Standing now in the overgrown grass and weeds, she grabs her lighter out of her jacket pocket. The flame ignites. Maggie throws the lighter at the side of the building, and the old rotting wood catches fire. 

The flames illuminate her face. Her expression is blank, but she stands with confidence and a sense of justice.

Parallel to ten-year-old Maggie standing in the entrance to the barn. She watches as Miss Roxy collapses in the ring.

WEEK 02 

I began to do some research on different underlying forms, I found these pictures o a lion and a kitten. I found this so interesting as these two pictures would seem so complicated until it is broken down into its underlying shapes. 

Once upon a time there was a little animator

And every day she drove to school with lights in her car

But one day, she became a senior and needed a capstone project

And because of that, she began thinking about things she loved a lot

And because of that, she decided on an LED-based installation piece

And because of that, she needed to do tons of research on materials

Until finally she found pieces that worked for her budget and idea

And the moral of the story is that working on something you genuinely care about makes the tedious things much more fun!

Once upon a time there was an attendant of UMBC

And every day they took classes in the spring semester

But one day, the Senior Art Exhibition opened up

And because of that, they decided to drop in and visit because visual art is pretty cool

And because of that, they experienced the capstone projects of various seniors from the Visual Arts programs

And because of that, they decided to stay a little longer and take a look at more projects

Until finally they came across a glowing cube with 3D figures moving inside

And the moral of the story is that you should come to the senior art exhibition because you might see something that makes you want to make art too!

Once upon a time Fay built a 3D LED cube

And every day she tried her darnedest to learn Arduino

But one day, she ran into so many obstacles that she just about lost her mind 

And because of that, she knew she needed a hand

And because of that, she began searching for resources inside and outside of UMBC

And because of that, she was able to contact professors and engineers who were familiar with the software

Until finally she was able to work out the difficulties she was experiencing

And the moral of the story is that code sometimes is the worst, but there are countless resources all around you and it’s foolish to not use them!

Once upon a time a visitor of the UMBC senior art exhibition walked into the gallery on opening day

And every day before this, they’d been waiting for the show to debut

But one day, it finally did, and they were granted access into the world of visual arts capstone projects

And because of that, they discovered a very unusual installation piece built by an animator

And because of that, they experienced a light show that manipulated forms, patterns, colors, and shapes all within a 3D setting

And because of that, they stood for nearly an hour watching the animations cycle through 

Until their feet began to ache and their friends had all moved on to other pieces of artwork in the show

Before I began texturing in Substance, I had the idea to save on performance by using a lower poly version of the mane and having it normal-mapped with the high poly version.

Unfortunately, it didn’t succeed, since the normal-map version ended up with having just as chunky shading as without it.

Here is my retopologised mane’s UV map. It’s in high poly, so it took a while to do, due to the performance impact it had on my computer. Hence why I wanted to work with the lower-poly version.

I had to redo it with the low-poly version, since 

Here’s my first attempt at normal mapping, based on Autodesk’s Transfer Maps editor instructions. It’s blocky and defeats the entire purpose of normals. I’m not entirely sure what caused it, but it did take a while with the settings I used, so it was a considerable waste of time.

Here is the low poly mane as it appears from behind without the normal map. It’s pretty chunky around the lower areas, with the points.

Here’s the same area with what I consider a successful normal map. However it is only slightly less chunky than what I had before.

Here is the front. As you can see, there are major seams from the underside of the mane from my UV mapping. It’s here where I felt that normal baking would not be an effective solution for improving the visuals of the model, whilst maintaining good performance.

It would probably be better just to add more edge loops, that go around the back side of the mane, though that might cause complications on the front and sides by adding heaps of detail that might be difficult to manage or even also impact performance.

Here is my texture in Substance for Honey’s head/face. The brown, ‘insect’ part of her antenna transitions from skin on her ears. 

I also redid the eyes to be larger from previous, since I felt that she might look more appealing from the side if her pupil was more easily seen. The eyeliner shares the same material as the lashes and is assigned directly to the faces themselves, as opposed to being part of the face/head texture.

Also note my updates to the eyebrows’ thickness, so that Sorin doesn’t have to bring it up as much in the future.

Here are the shoes. As observable, I feel that the lack of detail turned out to be much more consequential than I anticipated. Since they didn’t look as appealing as I hoped, appearing relatively flat with just the texture.

I wasn’t completely sure how I wanted to handle the 3D detail of the shoes, hence why I didn’t really bother with them in the first place.

Here are the textures for the rest of the clothes, front and back. The skirt has its own separate material and UV map. 

At some stages, I had to make tweaks to the mesh as well as the placement of some of the materials. Thankfully, Substance was able to maintain my progress when I updated the mesh during those incidents.

However, if I were to do anything that changed the UVs, Substance may not be able to keep my texture, even though I knew that a representative mentioned that Substance is able to retain progress as long as the brushwork was done in 3D.