Sneak Cycle

I animated a sneak cycle ready for the boy which I am quite happy with, although it is a bit overbalanced and snappy in places. I am finally getting the hang of ignoring the numbers in Maya. I find it best to keep the channel box closed whenever possible to prevent me from being distracted by the data.

Goat Design

I used Photoshop to edit the goat's design slightly; thickening the horns and softening the face as well as other minor adjustments.





I have given the Goat to Joe to model for me. I have asked if possible for the model to retain some of the a-symmetric qualities of the original clay design. I have asked for this to be completed by the end of the Christmas holidays.

Hill Model

I am having other people do the majority of modeling for my project, as this will give me more time to work on other parts of production. I have given Susan the job of modeling the hill for my set. I have asked for this to be completed by the end of the Christmas holidays.

Boy Design

I created a clay design for my boy character. Unfortunately I made it too small to sculpt the head and have therefore left it as a rough shape. I think the model has some positive features that with some work could be developed into a successful design.

Tree Design

I developed the tree design in clay. It was a challenging model because of the very thin branches and roots. I used wire and newspaper to aid in the modelling process. I think the design is successful because it is both stylised and clear.

Goat Design

I have created a new design for the goat character. Underneath the clay is an armature made out of gardening wire with newspaper to pad it out to reduce weight. I am happy with this design as it is more stylised and simplified than the last goat.

Quadruped Walk Cycle

I have only ever animated a quadruped character once before and they spent most of the time walking on their hind legs, so I do not have much experience animating four legged walk cycles. For the animation I used the Real Dog rig available at http://www.highend3d.com/. Although I have no problems with the technical side of Maya I still find it difficult to concentrate on the character poses as I spend my time worrying about numbers. Despite several attempts, a lot of planning and analysing of reference footage, the resulting animation is poor as there is no sense of weight and it is quite snappy. As it stands I am not benefiting from computer animation's easier working method (building up animation one layer at a time, the mighty undo button) and I am more confident animating in stop motion and therefore need to concentrate on improving my Maya animation skills.

Animatic 3

I have been working on an improved animatic using After Effects to allow me to move parts at different times and to give a more 3-dimensional feel. I have experimented with cameras and it is a lot nearer to what I am after.

Tree Design

I developed my favourite designs for the tree. Although I prefer the drawing of the tall a-symmetric tree I think the willow design would work best with my story. I then developed the design from various angles.

Tree Design

I researched colours for my tree and tried drawing various styled plum trees, first rough then more detailed and incorporating the colours.

I like different aspects of each of them; the mossy clumps of leaves and simple branches of the bottom left, the twisted trunk and roots of bottom right, simple willow like structure of top right, the simple textures of top left, and the roots of the second from top left.

Rocky Mound Colour

I tried a few different colour schemes, creating different surfaces such as rock, grass, mud and moss. I am not happy with any of them but it has allowed me to see what is possible. The first image is the original gray scaled mound.

Clay Mound

I developed my designs for the rocky mound using clay, keeping in mind the path that the boy will take up and down it.

Rocky Mound Design

I have designed the mound around how the boy can get up and down it. I have also researched colours.

Goat Colour

I took one of the photos of my clay goat and coloured it in Photoshop. I tried several different colour schemes, keeping in mind that it needed to standout against the background whilst being simple.

Clay Goat

I modeled my Goat character out of clay to help me in the designing process. I am very happy with how it turned out but it has highlighted areas that need improvement. My biggest issue at the moment is that the character is too complex and needs simplifying. However, I like how the model seems to have personality.

Goat Design

I have been drawing designs for the goat, which I will develop using clay.

Thoughts on Group Work

I feel I am struggling with concept work and could defiantly do with some help. I will need someone to draw a higher quality version of my final storyboard as visulising different camera angles is not my strong point. The other way I could get round this would be to create a rough mock up in clay for each scene, but although this would greatly aid visualising, I unfortunately do not have the time.

I am confident with rigging, especially if I use Setup Machine, however I am not as confident modeling good riggable characters. I could therefore employ someone to check that my model's edge loops are in the right place to allow for movement.

As I plan to model all characters and scene in clay before modeling them in Maya I will import photographs on to the X and Y plains and use them as a template to model from. However, it would save a great deal of time if I had someone model objects from the photos for me. This will give me more time for animating later.

I will also need a voice actor for the sound of the boy screaming.

I hope to be employed by my class mates to animate, texture and model in clay.

Design Process

I find visualising difficult and therefore drawing without reference material is challenging. I prefer to create things with my hands so I will be doing much of the design work for this project using clay. This allows me to mold a lump into a design, rather than starting with a blank piece of paper where you can not see anything until you have already done it. Designing using a three dimensional medium makes a lot more sense to me. I found some great inspiration from the making of Ratatouille book.

Style 2

I am having difficulties incorporating the look and style into my film. I have features I am hoping to include and I know what I want to emphasise but I am having trouble working out how everything can fit together. I believe my problem is that I am trying to squeeze in too many different styles and I need to settle on one overall film style. I decided to look at tree textures on the Internet for some inspiration.

Animatic 2

I timed the latest version of my storyboard to see whether everything was working as I intended.