Extended Practice:Evaluation

This project was a roller coaster. I set really high standards for myself, not really knowing what i was getting myself into. It started out alright, I set myself up with a schedule and a project plan, hoping to keep myself adhering to  a schedule. Slowly I began to fall behind, and more and more mistakes started popping up. I wanted to try out a new experimental technology, as well as keep my focus on character design, but balancing these two objectives was difficult to say the least.
I have everything set up for a 360 degree render for my animation, but i'm not going to submit with it, due to various drawbacks including render time and quality of the animation itself. There's some caching errors involving some of the hair sets, which i will fix as soon as possible in order to get ready for the exhibition. I feel as though if i wanted to get this project done on time and under budget, I probably should have worked with a partner that would help with putting everything together. I did work and commission out other people, but it would have been nice to have someone working alongside me for the entire duration of this project. I managed, however. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and knuckled down and finished my project by the deadline, which i'm very proud of.
The logistics of shortening a 4 year work cycle down to 4 months is nothing to be ashamed of. I will continue to aspire to new heights, and I will polish this project up in order to get it ready for display. I ended up applying for an extension on this and another project, and i feel like that truly gave me a chance to get this done for deadline. Due to various circumstances beyond my control, I had to stay an extra week in Chicago for a family matter. I would have traveled back to Leeds if this had not occurred, and that put me behind a full week in production. That, along with having to balance my jet lag with work set me back a good amount. Still, I wouldn't get where I am today without some help from friends and colleagues.
I got the chance to work with some really interesting people, as well as friends i had been wanting to collaborate with for a while now. I got the chance to work with my friend Jalen, a practicing actor based in Chicago. He wrote the script and did all the voice acting and motion capture reference. He was the perfect choice to act as the Viking character, and i wouldn't have preferred anyone else over him for this role. He always got done the things I needed him to, on time and under budget.
I also got to work with a really great 3D artist, Thomas Parker. Hes the guy that put together the environment for my animation, and he made it in the exact specifications I asked him to, which was amazing. He even provided me with differential and normal maps for the  mountain ranges he gave me which added a nice depth to the animation itself.
I got to work with a second year animation student as well, Dan Goodman. He provided me with 3D assets for my scene. If he didn't help, I wouldn't have the fire I needed for my animation. He's very adept at Maya, so he also helped me along with some other things as well. I wouldn't have fixed my face rig if it wasn't for him.
Another great artist I got the chance to collaborate with is Jela Mckinney. She went to my Arts high school, and It was really great seeing how her art style has evolved over the years. I commissioned her to provide me with 2D sprite assets for my fire animation. Her art truly adds to the overall project, providing imagery to the story the viking tells in the animation. I don't think it would have the same feeling if they weren't in the animation.
So I might have not had the chance for a full collaboration with another artist for the entire duration of the project, but a lot of different minds and efforts went into the making of this animation.
This, along with the great help that my instructors gave me provided me with the ability to see this project out until the end. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me along with this, as i probably wouldn't have gotten it done without their help.
I do plan on polishing this animation. I will be re-recording the dialogue as well as the facial motion capture, this time simultaneously so that I wont get any lip sync errors I'm going to re-cache the hair so it doesn't fly around and act buggy over the entire animation, and i'm also going to finally export this as a 360 video, all in preparation for the Exhibition Week.
Overall, this project gave me a lot to think about in terms of how i want to go forward with 3D animation. I want to focus on character design, but rigging is extremely tedious and mind numbing. So I think I might prefer to just do character modelling for the foreseeable future. I may go back into it, I think for right now, a break from 3D might be needed, as I'm completely exhausted and I haven't touched my sketchbook in weeks. Still, I don't regret doing this project at all.and given better circumstances, I could see myself doing something like this again. Still, for right now I want to focus more on 2D animation rather than 3D, and I've got a commission lined up that will let me do just that. These past three years have given me so much knowledge, and I'm endlessly grateful for the opportunity to study here. Going on from here, I have amassed all the experience and ability to become a proper animator, and I'm excited to see what I can provide to the world.

Extended Practice: Project Management Pt.14

Today I managed to get almost everything done for turn in. I finished half of the final after effects project, and I also managed to render out all 3834 frames of my animation. Ill be adding some buffers for the title and end sequences, but overall this should be done on time. I ran into a couple bumps over the week. I forgot to cache my hair files, so all the renders i made over tuesday night werent working properly. So i had to start over wednesday on 20 computers all around the school. They were rendering out all day, right up until closing time for the school. I have all the audio files set and ready to go, all i need is to put them together and render out my final video. I'm going ahead and making a 1920x1080 animation for submission, however i will be making a full 360 video for exhibition week.

Extended Practice: Project Management Pt.13

I managed to get a lot done this week, I fixed the eye controls, as well as putting together the fluid systems for both the fire and the ocean. One of the teachers suggested that I cache the objects, which ive done now. Hopefully over the weekend i can finish the new hair system and render everything out over the weekend. I got the extension, so my final deadline is now May 18th. I dont think i would have passed if i didnt get one, so im really glad the school decided to alleviate some pressure.  

Extended Practice: Project Management Pt.12

I managed to get the face Re-targeted onto my model by today. I'm still behind, and i need to remake my hair systems since the older ones got deleted. Its probably for the best anyway, since im going to need to make it not clip with the body model. The face retargeter had some trouble reading the expressions on his face, and I cant get the eyes working for some reason. Im going to go over my control systems and see if anything is amiss, but i might have to leave the eyes unanimated. I managed to finish the environment today, everythings set up in place. I wasnt able to make a forest out of modeled trees, so i ended up making sprites instead. They look just as good from the camera perspective, so it'll save render time at least.I also commissioned out one of my artist friends from back home to make me some sprite images for my animation. She accepted, and im waiting on getting those assets so i can add them to the final product.
I decided to go ahead and ask for an extension, since i probably wont be getting this done on time for may 11th. I figure my grounds are acceptable, considering the circumstances, which i wont go into on here. I figure if i get an extra week for both my modules i should be able to get everything done on time. They should be in session today anyway, so ill get my answer soon enough.