A Year of Learning - summary

This year has been quite a rollercoaster ride in terms of what i have learnt, acheived and completed in comparison to what i thought i would.

I entered the year with the intent to work on a 2D film or a hybrid film that involved 2D. My pitch had been chosen within the first week so it looked like a 2D film would definately be a possibility but by the end of the selection process no one wanted to work on a 2D film. I found this slightly odd that the film could be chosen but yet no one who chose it would be willing to work on it. I decided that risking my degree on a film i would be working on alone was not a worthwhile risk as the stakes were too great.

In retrospect, having seen how the other groups have composed themselves and seen films being developed over this final year, i do feel that i could have completed my film if i had taken the risk. If i had the oppotunity to try again i would definately go for it. Not only would this have been far more fun to work on it would have given me far more creative freedom in terms of story, design and compositing.

I started work in the War in Wunderland team ready to complete concept work - this was not to be however as the majority of the film is based on existing designs that the film simply characterises. This aspect of the film i think is its weakest point - that fact it isnt completely original - but the zany idea was the most fun and is what appealed to me. Instead of working on the concept designs for this film i outsourced to other groups and did very well for myself in terms of work (i was awarded an A grade for my artist folder). I kept very busy over the first term and put a lot of effort into getting various films concepts finalised. This i expected as concept and drawing are my greatest strengths (or were at the time).

I managed to complete in the first term:

Full character sheets, brief, storyboards and one character model for my own Desert Race.
Expression sheets, storyboards and mood boards for Wunderland.
Character design, prop/exterior modelling and scene development for Cafe de Beiginet.
Thumbnails, storyboards and character design for Rusty Petal.
Minor character design (birds) and font/alphabet design for The Muse.
Environment mood board for The Stamp Collector.
Building concept for Moon smile.
Character concept forThe Day that I Died and Aztec Escape.

This term was very well structured and organised. I met every deadline set and because i managed my time well i was able to build up a large body of work.

The second term was broken into two chunks and i was forced to dived my time between writing and researching my dissertation and completing work for the films. This was a struggle as the dissertation process was very demanding and stressful. The pressure was worse as there was also work to do for the 3rd year films and there were problems with late dissertation feedback that threw me off schedule by 3 weeks. Despite this i do feel that the work i completed in the second term was valuable and i did meet the main deadlines on time (dissertation included).

I do feel though that this term was the least productive of the three. Groups had not finished their concept by this stage and animation was not started till much later in the term. Ideally animation should have started either a the beginning of or in the holiday before the second term. This was not the case and many of the groups then found themselves struggling to meet the final terms deadline. If i had been director of my film i would have finished the concept element of the film in the first term and left a little room to start animating in the holiday. I would have completed the main animation pass by the beginning or middle of the third term and left time to render if necessary and composite. People deal with pressure in different ways and with people relying on their teams to be on time, those who are not due to poor time management in relation to the dissertation causes a knock on effect that prevents others from doing any work.

I managed to complete in the second term (on 3rd year films):

Character animation (Bigbot), Runcycles and Firecycles (Grunts and Robots) for War in Wunderland.

The third term was, surprisingly, my second most productive term. I have been able to focus on animation throughout the second half of term two through to the end of the third term and have done quite a lot of work. I feel i could have done more work on various projects had the work i have done not been bounced backward and forward so much. Having to redo scenes over and over again is not only demoralising but when you have to do it for seemingly picky and unecessary reasons it is drastically more demoralising because it seems like a waste of time.

I understand that directors are the boss and that their vision is the vision we are trying to create. There has to be though, i feel, some compromise at our level of development. Finishing the main first pass of the animation should be the most important task in the second term at least and any tweaks should be made afterwards. That way the core film is complete and you can make it much better in 'layered' steps. Obviously you cannot have your way all the time and one persons ideas will not be the same as anothers. As i was not director or in charge of any of the films i did not have any control over this process and i had to just get stuck in as best as possible. The industry will be no different, just in the industry i'll have the luxury of getting paid. Wunderland was quite frustrating to work on in this respect because my director had very set ideas about what he wants, prehaps because he has been planning this film for a while. this does not make for a bad director or team player, it simply means i found it difficult to work on the animation because i was limited in how creative i was allowed to be. Several bits of animation i liked and thought worked were scrapped because they didn't fit the greater plan.

Despite this the third term has been very productive and i have had the oppotunity to finally do some 2D work as well as 3D animation. This was very refreashing and i definately enjoyed this work more than the 3D work. It is important to vary skills within animation but if i had the oppotunity to work in the digital animation discipline i would.

I also had to work hard on technical aspects of production. This was something i was very worried about as this is where i am weakest in the production pipeline. Unfortunately several films ceased production mid year and that added more students to the remaining films. Technical work was hard to find and i was forced to complete my own tests and research techniques myself. I focused on developing my understanding of lighting and render layers. I learnt alot about how various presets can be used within render layers to achieve different looks that can highlight or blur the main body of work. I focused mainly on the following aspects of rendering:

Luminance Depth
Occlusion
Shadows

While experimenting with all the settings i came up with a couple of tests i could create then compare that would help bolster my technical folder. I looked into creating depth of field (DOF) using two different mediums that i could then compare and contrast. The result would be that i learnt two separate techniques and what would be better for different situations. I created a camera that automatically generated DOF in Maya for one test and used Luminace Depth renders to create DOF in After Effects.

I also experimented with lighting using directional, ambient, point and area lights in Maya. I also taught myself how to use a few new features in Maya - the Sun and Sky lighting system and the Mia_material shader. These two can be combined to create some really realistic and interesting effects. For more information see the relevant posts earlier in the blog.

I offered what i had learnt to the various films but they had already developed a particular lighting and rendering system. Even though my technical work will not be featureed as part of the final film products the lessons and techniques i have learnt are just as valuable to me than if they had been featured.

I managed to complete in the third term:

Character animation (Bigbot, some Red, Gold Robot, Grunts and Workerbot), Reaction cycles for War in Wunderland.
2D animation (Birds, Flowers, Text+symbols) for The Muse.
Lighting Tests in Maya (Sun+Sky System, lit model, lit run/firecycles)

Overall what i have taken from this year is: -

Time management+organisation: I have done well to manage my time over the past year and, if anything, my understanding of why time management and organisation are so important has increased. Seeing various groups struggle to meet the hand in with incomplete renders has shown in particular that to have a finished product you cannot underestimate how early on you need to have started and completed animation and rendering.

Communication: Is of the upmost importance and helps in the management of time and schedules. Emails cannot be relied upon (one misteriously did not reach the recipient and as a result a day was wasted) and people need to be willing to make phone calls to organise work and feedback if they are not working in a group in one place. This is especially true towards the end of a project when time is really of the essence.

Artist: I believe that i have not had the oppotunity to do as much drawing as i would have liked this year, but i have been able to work ona variety of versitile projects with varying styles. This has helped bring me out of my own drawing style or comfort zone and has helped me develop as an artist.

Animation: I have done a lot of animation this year on Wunderland and the Muse. Thankfully some of it was 2D, which i really enjoyed. I feel that where i had problems with speed and weight in year two i have developed my animation technique and i can comfortably judge how fast or how heavy characters should be. Working on character animation has been a lot of fun and i even got to work with a giant death dealing robot. what more could one ask for?

Technical: Technical aspects of aniamtion production remain my weakest aspect. Where i have gone from strength to strength with my artistic and animation skills, technical has suffered greatly. It is not a lost cause however as this year i have become far more familiar with After Effects, Maya lighting and camera operation. I still take no joy in technical work but i am more capable than i was before.

In all it has been a successful year and despite the number of films that have ceased production i think that there is a very diverse set of work from a group of very talented individuals. I am looking forward to seeing the final products at the end of year degree show.