Walk/Run Cycles

Contrasting Characters - Walk/Run Cycles

 



 

An extension of the previous Contrasting Characters design assignment was to take the two characters and create walk/run cycles out of them. At least one of each, with an interaction between the characters before/between/after the cycles to establish a bit of a scene. The walks, moreso than previous attempts, were supposed to show personality and mood in relation to the situation. Rough as it is, I like how mine turned out.

Character Design

Character Design - Contrasting Characters

 

 

For this assignment, we had to design two characters of similar style (meaning that they could both believably inhabit the same universe) but of contrasting character types, in personality, appearance, etc. I chose to design a pair of vegas magicians; a bumbling, well-meaning, portly magician, and his superior-skilled, reluctant, 'well-endowed' assistant.

 

 

 

 

Layout

Layouts - Street Scenes and Interiors

 

 

The next two layout assignments were the Street Scenes (despite one option being on the sea) and large versus small interiors. Here are the four I chose to do. Once again, we were provided with thumbnails to work up into full layouts. I did this for the two street scenes, but for the interiors we had the option of creating our own this time, so I did.

 

 

 

 

 



Storyboard

Storyboard - After A Bath

 

 

This year I really got into storyboarding. As a kid, I drew comics all the time, but I always seemed to approach them as if you could actually see the movement from frame to frame, and shots were inspired by television shots. I realize now I had been doing my own version of storyboarding!

 

Anyway, for this assignment, we were given a choice between two vague poems that served as inspiration for a short film. It was our job to create the character lineup, beat boards, and final storyboards ourselves, with help from class pitches and turnover sessions. See the full project after the break.

 

Weight Lift & Toss

Weight Lift & Toss Animation

 

 

This is the final animation for the weight lift and toss assignment. I am not entirely happy with this one. I think the weight was handled well enough, but I should have worked more with the rough animation before cleaning it up. Last year I tried to clean up most, if not all, of my animations because I thought it made them look better, even though it wasn't required. But this assignment showed me how important it is not to rush into the cleanup stage. Later animation assignments from this semester have not been cleaned up and I think they work better for it.

Character Design

Character Design - Weight Lift Toss

 



 

This character was specifically designed for a following animation assignment, the weight lift toss. It had to be a human (or humanoid), and it had to struggle to lift, struggle to hold, and struggle to toss some sort of weighted object. In my case I chose to do a baker character and have him toss the familiar flour sack.

 

 

These are the possible poses for the later animation. In fact I stayed pretty close to this, with some minor alterations.



Old Hands/Feet Studies

Also found while sorting through stacks of paper were studies of hands and feet done for first year life drawing. Searching through the abandoned folders on my computer, I found the orignal scans. They were later assembled four or five to a page before handing in, but those files are lost and I don't think it's necessary for posting them here.

 

 

 

See all studies after the break.

 

Old Character Designs

The first few days of any vacation are alway when I take the time to do some neglected housework - including sorting out all my old projects. In doing so, I found some assignments that I never posted; mostly character design, because those weren't handed in digitally and I didn't have the files on my computer.

 

 

My first character rotation from first year, a dragon character.

 

 

My first character design pack from first year, a cowboy. I intended this one to be more of a flatter design, but I don't think it worked very well.

 

 

My first expression sheet from first year, an anthropomorphic cat. Aside from a few problems of staying on-model, I liked this one.

 

It's nice to see how I've improved even since last year.



3D Walks

3D Maya Walk Cycles

 

 

This is the first walk cycle I made in Maya, using the provided Rosco character. It's a simple rig and a simple walk, but it was good to refresh on the basics of a cycle and apply that to 3D.

 

 

This is the second walk cycle, done with the provided Phil character. It had a lot more controls than Rosco, and so could produce a more complex, believable walk with more personality. For whatever reason, Maya didn't want to export the smooth rig, but this gets it across.

 

 

Just to punch it up a bit, I tried sticking Phil into a background. Using AfterEffects to place it properly, making sure the size and acceleration stayed appropriate, was tricky, especially on an incline in perspective, but it turned out alright.

Painting

Painting - Interior/Exterior

 

 

The assignments for these paintings were simple; an exterior, and an interior. I approached each of them a little differently; the exterior was meant to be more realistic, while the interior is meant to be flatter, slightly graphic, almost cartoony. I didn't realize that I'd used the same purple/green/yellow pallette for both of them until I'd uploaded them here; they were done weeks apart and it was purely coincidence. I should also note that both of these look unfinished, compositionally; that was intentional, as if these were to be used as backgrounds, the animated characters would be the focal point (for the exterior, in the spotlight; for the interior, at the console and in the back of the tunnel).

In other news, now that the semester is pretty much wrapped up, I've got quite a lot of backlogged assignments ready to be posted, so I'll be updating the blog twice a week from now on, probably Sundays and Wednesdays.





Layout - Castles

Layout - Castles

 

 

Our first big layout assignment this semester focused on compositions which include castles. Thumbnails images were provided and we had to work them up into a full layout, at least three. I did all four; see the rest after the break.