Life Drawing - Robin 3

Today I once again worked with soft pastels, chalks and charcoal on black, I really like the effects I can create with these media. 

Today's poses were musically based, and this first pose I think was about 10 minutes, I had quite a bit of trouble "getting into" the drawing - the proportions kept being very off, and I'm still not happy with these, particularly the huge legs. Also I still cant get the knack of drawing Robins face, even though it's so expressive. 

The next activity was a sequence of poses, ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in length. I really wanted to try and create a "full" looking composition instead of have my drawings neatly arranged, so played around with swapping out colours to make it less confusing while still overlapping drawings. I really like the effect of the final pose larger on top in charcoal. 

Next was another sequence of poses, this time 3 minutes each, but similar to last week the poses were on rotation, but only 3 times this week. Also Robin moved along to the music that was playing, most noticeably in the 2nd pose, moving his arm along to the beat as if beating a drum (actually a hula hoop) Again, still cant get the face down, though feeling better about the proportions on these ones, and I really think adding the white chalk highlights help the drawing to pop a little and be less sketchy and flat.

The last pose was a seated, slightly longer pose, about 15/20 minutes. I had real difficulty with drawing the proportions of this one because of the perspective, I tried to start with the hand nearest me and work back along the arm, but I'm still not happy with the arm. Need to work on my skills in drawing objects coming closer towards me. Robins left leg in the first post above was bent towards me and it really doesn't show in the drawing - the leg just looks too big. Also, below, I think I did my usual trick of making the head too small, but Im quite pleased with the other body proportions. Initially I was adding the colour highlights from the heatlamp, but this was then moved mid pose, and the highlights were now coming from a different side, but obviously were not red, so I added these in too, and Im quite happy with the outcome - I think it helps him look a little more 'placed'.

Maya Tutorial - Rigging and Skinning I - Part 1: Legs

Today in Maya we started creating a basic rig for a humanoid body shape. Feet, angles, legs and hips set up here.

After Effects - Camera Effects

Fantastic Voyage - Initial Concepts and Influence Map

Okay so, after talking to Jordan today I think I have the general direction I want to take my animation in sorted, so to summarise my notes above for easier reading: 

Focus area: The immune system and how it works

Target audience: Older kids to teens, around 10 to 16/17, I want this to be quite accessible to those who perhaps during their science lesson just sit, bored just wanting to be anywhere but there, probably preferably making fan art for games or series and playing video games perhaps. For those dont think science is their "thing" and know their brain functions much more as artistic and expressive than factual and scientific, or maybe those who just dont see it as 'fun'.  

The animation would be a short run-through/portion of a typical platformer "fighting game" setup, drawing inspiration from classics such as Kirby, Scott Pilgrim and Super Smash bros Brawl, as well as newer influences including BattleBlock Theatre, Castle Crashers, Slime Rancher and Splatoon, as well as the unlocking/upgrading system of Plague inc.

The idea is the human body is the arena, where the attacking bacteria battle the antibiotics. The educational aspect comes from with each round/level where the antibiotics are used, the bacteria can mutate to not be killed and be more resistant in the next round. The player will have to be strategic in their use of antibiotics in order to win (beat the bacteria) showing how antibiotics cannot be freely used constantly.
To better translate this into a game setup the player can perhaps choose different defences/attacks they can"develop" in their next antibiotic, unlocked at the end of each level and it will be chance if they are successful in completely wiping out the bacterias random mutations. If the antibiotic is unsuccessful/used too many times, then a superbug will be formed in a kind of "final boss fight" style, and the player will likely lose the game. 
I want this animation to be fast, fun, and playful to try and engage with my target audience, get them excited about beating off the bacteria while having to think carefully about the logic behind how to beat it, instead of going full on "all guns (antibiotics) blazing". 

Life Drawing - Robin II

 First pose - approx 20 minutes. Quite pleased with how this one turned out, although I had real difficulties with the face so conveniently blurred this... Also there's something a little off going on with his left leg, and the right foot. 

When cropping in photoshop I had a little play with the colours and saturation to make it pop a little

Changing it to blcak and white also helped me to see the tonal values (thank you Jordans' photoshop lessons)

Next were a set of quick poses, the five 2 minute poses are in white chalk and the 1 minutes are in yellow

There were a few I was particularly pleased with the outcomes of

We then moved onto a set of 5 moving poses, with Robin holding each one for approx 20 seconds before moving onto the next, and then looping around and repeating the set. I actually really liked this style of working as it made you get down some very instinctive structures and shapes in the first round or so, and then gave you more time after to add more detail and refine a little. 

To finish was a sitting pose, I made a caricature trying to bring out certain features over others. 

Maya Tutorial - Texturing 1 - Maya Fur Part 2: Santa Hat

Original Santa Hat Model:

 

With furs applied:
Polar bear/porcupine on bobble, polar bear on rim, and duckling on main body.

Final Render:
Ducking fur with added scraggle and no inclination.

Maya Tutorial - Texturing 1 - Maya Fur Part 1: Intro to Maya Fur

Original bear fur:

 

Playing around with adjusting lighting and densities:

Final Bear Fur:

Bison Fur:

Bison and bear 50% fur:

100% porcupine fur:

100% sheep wool:

Bear, Bison, Porcupine and Sheep 25% each mix:

Polar bear fur original:

Polar bear with different darkness densities at 0.2 increments:

Bear fur:

Bear fur with baldness:

Bear fur with checker effect:

Bear with checker and scraggle:

Scraggle removed, clumping added:

Clumping removed, testing out roll:

Baldness mapping:

Maya Tutorial - Texturing 1 - Shading Networks: Sampler Info Node (Reflectivity)

Original:

 

 

 



 Final Render:

 

 

 Final Render with smoothed background shading:

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - Crit Presentation

Art Of Pet Hate

Pet Hate Final Animatic from Pip Harris on Vimeo.

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - The Art of Pet Hate

Art Of Pet Hate

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - Pet Hate Final Animatic

Pet Hate Final Animatic from Pip Harris on Vimeo.

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - Character Sheet: The Cat

I made a character sheet for my final cat design, but I wasn't exactly sure what else to write on it so I'm afraid its a little blank. 

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - Cat Colour Comps

Colour comps for my cat character, I only used ginger and orange as this is the colour he needs to be as this is the fur colour the taxidermist is searching for to complete his collection. Just played around a bit with different marking styles, I quite like the simplicity of 1 but I like the scruffyness of 4, it gives him more of a street-cat kind of vibe and makes him friendlier in my opinion. Also I liked the mismatched eye colour, it gives him more character and if you were to have a cat with these markings (which would be very rare) it would likely have mismatched eyes if the markings were different over it's eyes due to the colouration biology of cats - gingers often have the usual yellow-olive green cat eye colour, while Russian Blues often have much more blue eyes. Also the cat is a male as it is rather uncommon for a female cat to have ginger colouration, plus it makes him a better-fit companion for the son. 

Storytelling and Commission - Script to Screen - Final Storyboard