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Week 16 Review (Evaluation)

During the Industry Panel we pitched this project as “An anthology of parody advertisements set within a dystopian sci-fi 80’s retro-future, wherein an AI controlled mega-corporation has a monopoly over the globe.” and I do believe that we have achieved exactly that, so by that judgement I think the project has been a success.

I would go on to say that the project has been a success in many more way more than just being “what was said on the tin”, as a collaborative project I feel this has been a success as we consistently met up as a group to discuss the project, with people bringing in new work  and ideas almost every week. This is a great improvement as my biggest problem from Ba3a was that I felt there was a lack of communication between the group which lead to a slightly disjointed proposal, whereas for the production of the project I feel that overall the tone is consistent along with the visuals and this is due to the constant meetings and discussions and re-edits of work.

That being said, that doesn’t mean the project was without creative differences. In my opinion Haydn’s animating style is quite different to how Joe and I animate, Haydn can tend to over-exaggerate whereas Joe and I tend to under-exaggerate, and both are totally valid styles. What is good about the way we structured this project is that It allowed people to have the individual freedom to explore their own ideas and styles yet still feel consistent within the world we have created, and I think this has worked to our advantage. I don’t feel like anyone in the group should feel that they have been forced into producing work that they don’t have their heart behind, and because of that this project has been a labour of love for all of us, we have all really enjoyed working on this project and I think it shows.

When we first pitched the idea of doing 2-3 sequences each with about 5-10 seconds of animation per sequence, we were told to be cautious that we might be being over ambitious. Now with the film standing at 5 minutes (3:40ish without the credits), it is clear that we have gone above and beyond that expectation.

To specifically evaluate the work I personally contributed to the project;

I feel that my development in low poly modelling was a success, I personally found it very refreshing to be modelling anatomy and I think it is a good measure of my improvement in modelling when comparing these models to Terry (sword in the stone) from second year. As low ploy models go all 3 characters are roughly around 1000 polys which based off my research is within the ballpark standard for what they should be.

I have definitely developed my skills in rigging though this project as I am now able to produce a “quick rig” in roughly half an hour, I have a decent understanding of IK handles and IK splines and I experimented with expressions. Rigging also challenged my ability to creatively solve problems as the rigs did break multiple times and each time I had to quickly figure out the problem and how to fix it, notably during the week of the Industry Panel, wherein it was discovered the rigs were broken on Sunday, I had discovered the source of the problem by Monday, fixed the problem by Tuesday, and by Thursday the group had animated 4 sequences with them.

Animation wise CureItAll underwent some major changes since Ba3a, and these changes have been for the better. I wanted to bring a larger element of character animation to this sequence and I think it is one of my best timed animations to date thanks to my use of reference footage. I think the development from a subversive joke about not being able to hear the side effects into a more physical comedy was an intelligent move that saved this animation.

The Art animation has remained a favourite of all who have seen the project develop since its creation, and overall has changed very little. I had a very sold concept with this animation drawing upon the abstract strangeness of vapourwave and the end result is exactly what I imagined it to be all the way back at the start of Ba3a.

The GyroGym advert is the animation I spent the least time working on and it suffers because of this. I would improve it by making the set more interesting, and I wish I had done more with the motion graphics to make it more like the infomercials it was trying to emulate. I think it is a good concept and it has been able to get a laugh here and there, but if it wasn't for Joe’s editing prowess this animation could easily have been detrimental to the project as a whole. That being said I did enjoy creating the assets for this, even though I did not use most of them as It was a challenge to again work in low poly.

Post submission there may have to be some changes to the project as we are in a legal grey area with some of the music used.

To surmise, I could not be happier with what the group has achieved as it is everything I had imagined it would be at the end of Ba3a and a whole lot more.

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Submission Film

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Progression Reel

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CureItAll Update / Render

I made some small changes to this sequence, namely adding a pause between taking the pills and throwing the bottle away, and added more of a twist in the hips during the throw, as suggested.

I also rendered this sequence in Arnold to be in line with the other sequences in the animation.

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Week 15 Review

In this weeks update to the animation we have replaced some of the sounds with ones we have created ourselves, the opening sequence I no longer feel has the same impact as it previously did so I think it needs reworking and it is no longer timed correctly. 

There is another timing problem at the end sequence starting frame holding for way too long, I really like the new “tunnel” effect Joe has created I think it is better than the previous one.

I think the ending is finally coming to a resolution that makes sense, as we are pulling out from CTRLX the movie (our movie) to the “real world” as a forth wall break and simulating the audiences response to the movie. I know this gets all a bit meta but I think it works.

I reworked the art sequence this week by improving the render and adding in an extra shot, I think these changes are beneficial to the sequence as a whole and I am pleased with the result.

As most of the sequences are now rendered in arnold I plan to render the cure it all sequence in arnold when I go to make the small changes suggested in the group meeting.

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Group Meeting

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Art Update / Render

In this update I have rendered the models in Arnold and used a HDR that simulates the lighting that would be expected in the scene, I think this really adds a layer of finish to the animation.

I have also redone the pose for the “Meaningless” model trying to portray the emotion better, as well as including a cut to the pineapple as suggested, before handing over to Joe to import into his animated backdrop.

I intended to swap out the soundtrack for this animation to another song I sourced as the current track is questionable on if we can actually use it.

I was planning on changing to “resonance” by home, a song styled as 80′s synthwave, as I own the album and had previously checked that it was okay to use.

However, when we came around to changing it over we found that the copyright had been changed and we could not use it either, therefore we decided to stay with the current track and look for a replacement / get in contact with the current songs owner to to see if we can use it, and make the change later.

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Week 14 Review

In this weeks sequence I feel like we have finally injected the essence of a narrative the piece needed with the glitch transitions general breakdown of the animation during the “quickfire” segment, and I feel like going strange and weird with the ending compliments the animation and brings us to a better endpoint than we were previously at.

This week I updated the GyroGym sequence with the improved flex animation.

As a group we plan to render out our sequences early next week in preperation for compiling the entire film.

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Group Meeting

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Gyro Gym Update

In this update I replaced the entire flex sequence with some poses taken from the reference footage filmed over the Easter break and re-cut the advert ever so slightly.

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Week 13 Review

From this week onwards I will be shifting to focus moreso on my Personal Portfolio work, this was to be expected as I handled most of the pre-production work for this project and therefore after reworking the GyroGym sequence a final time, I will essentially be handing over my renders to the other members of the group to be comped into the final animation.

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Group Meeting

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Cure it all Updates

In these two sequences I have updated the Cureitall sequence by moving to splined animation, fixing the position of a few poses, and added in a visual element to the “Zap”.

In this sequence the “Zap” is represented by a wire-frame cage flickering over the top of the geometry.

In this sequence this is further reinforced by the screen going black during the flicker. 

Of the two, I think the first is more clear as the black frame is a bit harsh on the eye so the first sequence will be further developed.

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Week 12 Review

This week I overhauled the GyroGym sequence making it more in line with the rest of the animation.

I plan to continue developing this sequence using the reference footage filmed to create a better flex scene.

During the group meeting it was mentioned in the Cureitall Sequence there is a point at which the arm bends in a way that is unrealistic, therefore I plan to fix this in the following week.

It was also mentioned that I could change up the art sequence by adding a beauty shot similar to those in 80′s gameshows, this is something I will consider in the following weeks.

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Group Meeting

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Gyro Gym Update

In this update I went back and looked at infomercials again for inspiration and I found that I liked the styling of this advert and used it as a basis for developing the Gyro Gym Sequence.

I think the joke now has more time to land and is more in theme with the rest of the animation, I intend to use the reference footage to update the final scene of this sequence over the next few weeks.

I ended up only using the exercise bike I created previously in this animation as I felt like including them all was a bit confusing, and I believe that the exercise bike is the pinnacle of what a home gym aspires to be and was very much a popular item back in the 80′s.

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Easter Break Review

The main focus over Easter break was reworking the cureitall animation as it was a worse version of the “Buy Now Pay Later” joke, and now having reworked it into its current form I do feel that it is far more successful both as an animation and a joke.

Filming reference footage has been invaluable and has improved the quality of the animation greatly.

I also finished up fixing the rigs as the child rig has now been updated.

Over the next week I plan to move to update the gyrogym advertisement and maybe move to splined animation in cureitall.