Thomas Mayfield Uca Rochester

So did some more speed posing today! Overall this pose for once, I actually think its okay! There are a few flaws, but I came quite close to getting to pose down pretty decently. Reference The main problems with this pose are mainly his neck, as it curves ever so slightly, so the top area of the chest could probably could do with more twist, the rear foot should have been pushed back way further and pointed much sharper towards the floor, his hands needed to be scrunched way more and his left hand needs to be facing the camera a lot more, and finally, his front foot has been pushed a little too far away from his body. Focusing more on accuracy of the pose, rather than the character and the face. Pose

Reference  Pose I'm not very happy with how this came out, I tried to bend for the pelvis but I ended up breaking his hips. The arms are not extended enough, the head is at a poor rotation and the kicking foot is not even close to the original image. It's similar to my pose, but definitely not my best work. Need to do better next time.

Overall, pretty happy with how this came out! Posing is okay, stature is okay, my only gripe are the hands and the bending in the spine and neck, they are not enough. But overall, not too bad.

  This was the pose I was working from. There are some main problems in the chest and neck. The pose originates from mainly the chest, so I neglected to turn the chest in this exercise, so that's a fault on my end. So I need to work on how I pose my spines so that's a goal I need to work on.

So this was the image I was working from. Overall this was okay, I'm not too happy with how long the body is and his hands (As they are in okay positions, but their shapes are incorrect.) , but I think I've gotten the main pose down. Facial pose was okay, but because of the picture quality there's only so much I could do posing-wise. Then the pelvis was a little out of whack, just because I bent the top half of the body rather than the pelvis. Overall this pose was okay, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Did this in about 5 minutes, thin the spine seems okay, but it needs work on the angle of which the upper part of his torso turns. I've also worked out the facial controls fully now and I got a rough, rough, rough face going, but couldn't finish. Hands definitely still need work but I'd say I got the main idea of the pose down. Might do a study into animation poses at some point, but I'm not sure yet, this would be a great way for me to hone my skills.

Overall I know this rig a little better now, e.g. keeping the controls on in renders casts shadows and how to get the facial rig working. I'd still really like to get a lot better at this though and I could definitely see myself doing this again in my spare time.

The audio clip is from the film 'Secret of Nimh' (1982) and features the main characters Jeremy and Miss Brisby. Now we can easily identify that there was a level of romance coming from Jeremy, but Miss Brisby is able to brush off this attempt at being hit on. There is also a level of comedy in the audio, so the person in the higher place of power will be Miss Brisby, because Jeremy is trying to woo her over. So key points for this animation: There is a level of romance in the audio There is a level of ignorance in the audio There is a level of comedy in the audio. In this scenario, Miss Brisby has the position of power. Last thing to take note of is that the animation focus in this animation will focus on the comedic timings and how the face can show an array of emotions.

Animation in film has been around for a long time, some films only use it as a minor part, or some films heavily depend on it. How animation is produced in film and media can be a lot more straightforward, but at the same time, it can have a lot of snags that can be a lot harder to work with. Now the main difference between video-game animation and film animation is that whilst they both still need to inform the viewer of particular actions, a film usually has a single shot to animate rather than taking all dimensions into account. You see, a film is only experienced from one perspective whereas a game could be experienced from multiple. Films usually focus a large amount on compositing, post-production, and spectacle, because whilst the workload would be much larger with creating a film, the work that is produced is a lot more refined than game animation. Game animation still requires a level of dedication and detail, but some games do lack either the technical know-how or the ...

Ever since the idea of animation was introduced to video games, there have been a number of ways in which these practices have been used, developed and altered to express a creative outcome. In video game animation there are a couple of things to take into consideration, firstly is that an animation may have to look good from every angle due to your game. Certain traits of animation may need to be exaggerated depending on the art style or activity (Anticipation is used in boss fights traditionally.) . How restricted are you with the animation process? If the game is built on a 2D plane, there may not be a requirement for grand, massive actions when all you need to do is move some arms a bit, or alter a face slightly to express an emotion. I'm going to use old examples and compare them to new examples, show how these principles have been carried over and how they are relevant. Just click on the videos to get a rough idea of what I'm trying to talk about, so you don't h...

So in order to first create an animation showreel, what needs to be understood is what is expected of an animation showreel? Well breaking this down into simple terms are these key points: The main focus is on the animators skills Observation in animation techniques Intriguing to watch Good post production. So let's start with the main focus, animation. Whether it be 3D or 2D the main content of an animation showreel is to showcase animation, henceforth the name, ' Animation  Showreel'. In this example, it's important to watch not only the quality and detail of animation in this showreel but also its post-production. Alaa Aldeen Afifah :  Character Animation Demo Reel So the quality of animation is to a high standard, but more importantly is the clean post-production that can be seen, showing that the animator is not only a skilled animator but a skilled editor too. This showreel is mean to focus on character animation, so focus on the face, body lan...

For my final major project, over the course of the next couple weeks, I'm going to be developing an animation showreel, showcasing my skills as an animator. This project will consist of a consistent posting pipeline, so my progress can be easily tracked and monitored. The whole point of this project is meant to show how to manage a project to a professional degree, whilst showing I know what I'm talking about (e.g. subjects relating to animation.), then proving I can animate to a high standard. By creating three main scenes using existing rigs I've used before as well as new one, I'll be taking audio clips from multiple sources, and using my powers of interpretation, coming up with a scene to showcase my animation skills. So far I'll be using rigs such as Maya Max and Moom, but I could add more depending on how much work I can get done. Moom Rig Maya Max Rig So the main goals for the project are: Produce an animation showreel to a professional st...

Animation is deeper than I think a lot of people understand, we have the potential to tell stories with no words spoken, but movement and action taking center stage. Animation is a powerful story telling tool. But there are a lot of in's that need to be understood, including realism, rubber hosing and a couple technical know-hows. So in this video I've exported the same animation at 12, 24, 30 and 60 Fps. Whenever an animation is being started, even if the animation is a high frame rate or a low frame, a decision needs to be made by either who you're animating for or what you want to animate it. Generally, the higher the frame rate will mean more work, it means more frames to render and animate. So some standard frames rates that are expected of either an employer or industry, so in the video, I've exported the same animation about four times at different frames rates so I can break it down. 12 Fps can be found in a lot of older animations like b...

Pipeline 1 Head Modelling Body Modelling UVing Skinning Rigging Facial Rigging Part 1 Facial Rigging Part 2 Facial Rigging Part 3 Texturing Turnaround Pipeline 2: Lighting & Rendering Mental Ray Part 1: Samples & Quality Control Mental Ray Part 2: Final Gather Mental Ray Part 3: Linear Work Flow Mental Ray Part 4: Physical Sun & Sky Mental Ray Part 5: Portal Lights Mental Ray Part 6: Mia Material X Shader Mental Ray Part 7: High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting Mental Ray Part 8: Displacement Maps Mental Ray Part 9: Ambient Occlusion Mental Ray Part 10: Motion Blur Mental Ray Part 11: Mental Ray Proxies 11 Second Animation Post 1 Post 2 Post 3 Post 4

I just need to do one more cleanup and this thing is finished. So far liking how it's looking!

Just some more progress. Need to now animate the squirrel and fix some issues with the guy but I'm pretty happy with this so far.

So I need to create an animation based off the sound clip I have chosen, so here is what I have to work with. So in this sound clip, there is a clear sense of High/Low status, the character in the high status has the attributes of being a condescending parent whilst the low status seems very sheepish and annoyed. The sound clip is from guardians of the galaxy, but that doesn't really matter because we're only focusing on the content of the sound clip. So the reason I'm going to animate a man hold a squirrel upside down is for two reasons. The first was actually based off what the clip says, the first character says, "I picked this guy up a while back for petty theft!", but the way the audio is presented it sound like I picked this guy up a while back 'From' petty theft!" So I've come up with the idea that this squirrel is a recent purchase from the animal store "Petty Theft" Where criminal animals are rehabilitated and...

Film Reviews Mary & Max (2009) Spirited Away (2001) Sita Sings the Blues (2009) Waltz with Bashir (2008) Perspolis (2007) Ethel & Ernest (2016) The Secret of the Kells (2009) Kubo and The Two Strings (2016) Maya Tutorials Pipeline 1 Pipeline 1: UV's Pipeline 1: Skinning Pipeline 1: Rigging Lighting & Rendering Sample & Quality Control Final Gather Physical Sun & Sky Portal Lights Mia Material X High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting Displacement Maps Ambient Occlusion Motion Blur Mental Ray Proxies In Class Activities Mudbox Mudbox 1 Mudbox 2 Mudbox 3 Mudbox 4 Animation Animation 1 Animation 2 Animation 3 Animation 4 Animation 5 Animation 6 Animation 7 Animation 8 Acting Acting 1 Acting 2 Acting 3 Acting 4 Acting 5 Sculpting Sculpting 1 Sculpting 2

Over the past six weeks, there have been many laughs, many tears. We have encountered oddities from a Pianist with an ego as large as his piano, To a couple where the cat is always been on fire. Games were played and lessons were learnt, and it has been a blast. The rivalry between Sharknado 5 and Wildcats has been interesting, and with much pain, I have to declare Sharknado 5 the victors of Cheeseburger Keepy Uppy, so congrats to you guys!   So away from the tomfoolery and onto what could actually be taken away from these lessons apart from a damaged nose. The main things we have learned in these sessions is the conveying of emotions, creating tension, improvisation, high status and low status. The whole idea of these sessions was to show us how we can put these techniques into our animatons, in order to get more bang for our buck. So for example, if a character has been created with the high status in advance, you ...

Ninja This week in acting we had to focus once again on improvisation, however, the twist this time around we were given scenarios to play off of. For example, we were told to walk in circles and had to walk in a particular way  depending  on the situation, for example, walk as if you were stressed, you walk past an old Ex, or you were walking to a party. Acting Session  So the conveying of emotions through subtle motions was key in this exercise, so when we were put into groups and we performed for one another, we were able to get feedback to see what worked and what didn't, tweaking our performances. Minor Setbacks Unfortunately, this week in 'Keepy Uppy' the previous record of 87 has been discredited due to the fact the ball was different. So for now, Sharknado holds the current record of 72 for the Keepy Uppy score, but don't worry, Wildcats will bounce back!