I decided on changing Malcolm's appearance, for a couple of basic reasons: I wanted his outfit to reflect his environment better, i.e. lounging about his apartment. Originally I had planned for Malcolm to be outside, hence the warmer clothes. The other main different between option 1 and 2 is the hair. The longer hair required a little more animation work and was intersecting with the couch mesh a lot and I thought with this relatively short time budget, shorter hair may be more realistic to work with.
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The objective of this assignment is to incorporate CGI with live action. I've been going back and forth on this one lately, but I'm finally fixing on an concept. The first step I took was modeling a puzzle piece, which will be the main character for the assignment.
I spent the day searching for and importing and texturing assets for the set to my MSP project. As the purpose of this project is character animation, I feel it's important to create a setting that further informs the viewer of this particular character. There's still more work to do here.
Another one of my assignments last semester was to produce a conceptual animation employing interactive transparent display technology. I was the project lead to a group of UX'ers, a game programmer and a game designer. We decided to apply the technology with an speculative extinct and endangered species exhibit. As the animator it was my job not to just demonstrated how the technology would be used, but to represent the human experience at such an event. I began with just 1/4 of the space I ended up with, initially focusing on the Vaquita and Black Rhino sections, but I soon felt it was necessary to expand on the idea and show the exhibit on a grander scale. This project was completed in about a month and a half. When given the time (as with all my assignments thus far) I will refine it.
One of the great things about using Malcolm 2.0, is that the model comes with some outfit and hair options, that let you choose from a few looks. The previous post is a look that I have in mind if I end up including a human model with my final project involving Ramblebot. However for my current Media Specialist Practice module I want give the character a generally benevolent feel. I chose a clean-shaven face because I want no feature hidden, as this assignment is specific to demonstrating convincing expressions. I chose longer hair because the hair is rigged and can be animated. Then I started playing with materials, reworked the eyes' iris. The default material for Malcolm 2.0 seems to be Phong, with a somewhat high reflectivity rate. It took me some experimenting to get the textures right, but I think I'm happy with where it's at now.
This semester, for my Computer Animation MA at Kingston University, I'll be focusing on visual effects (via Nuke), as well as specializing in character animation. One of the first steps in getting a little more familiar with character animation is familiarizing myself with picker controls. I'll be using Malcolm 2.0 to this end. Malcolm is a popular, rigged character offered at no cost by Animschool. Assuming I have the time, I will also be animating Ramblebot again this semester, to show the difference between emoting a near-featureless robot and human model capable of several expressions.
There were two assignments due for my first computer animation module: an organic model (the minion example below this post) and a hard surface model. I modelled, UV mapped, textured, rigged and animated both, but my aim was to showcase different aspects with these two assignments. So with the minion I focused on character animation, while with the hard surface example below I created a virtual set and employed camera angles for a cinematic approach. The robot animation was based on a character illustration I did a few years back. The character was a creation of mine for a writing project called Dead Land, and the character's name was Ramblebot. I've included a video character description along with the 3d animation assignment, with plans to develop the latter for my final Computer Animation assignment. 3d Computer Animation assignment: Ramblebot In Jail Original video character profile for Ramblebot
In September of last years I moved to the U.K. and began studying at Kingston University in London for a Master's degree in Computer Animation. Here is a sample of work from my first semester. More to come! Check out the motion poster for my upcoming series pilot, You Are Here. Synopsis: Joe is just cruising on auto-pilot when the road of life takes an unexpected turn, in this NYC-set web series pilot. Starring: Skyler Pinkerton, Michael Voight, Erica Boseski, and Julian O'Neill Directed, Produced, and Written by Richard Cunningham Co-produced by Paul Coughlan and Daniel Herrera. Click on the button below to check out productions images and scenes stills from the pilot episode! The closer and closer my series pilot, "You Are Here", gets to being done, the more slow things seem to move with production, but I'm looking to have a final render by the end of the weekend- and this time I really really REALLY mean FINAL version- and then I can put this idea out the there and see what's what. |
AuthorRichard Cunningham - IHM Founder Archives
September 2017
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