Week 2 - Combining Ideas and Making Alterations

This week was brilliant, we managed to come up with some very interesting ideas and combine our storyboards. Towards the end of the lesson we decided that we liked Alex's storyboards the best because it had dynamic views and camera angles.
 There were some things we wanted to change but we will be making alterations as the project evolves.

Below you can see some basic storyboards that i have created, this storyboards portrays a breaching involving three characters, a detective, a SWAT operative and a unidentified civilian.

The animation consists of a detective and SWAT operative, chasing an unidentified civilian through a building.
It starts out with the door being broke down and it then swiftly develops into a chase sequence involving jumping over objects and darting round corners.
The animation then ends with the man vaulting through a window, smashing his way through and landing in a dumpster.
After the detective stares out the window as the unidentified man makes his escape.

Below are some videos that i have filmed of my group team members executing their poses which we will each be animating. I will be animating the SWAT character.

Poses i will have to animate will consist of the following:-

Idle - Riot shield stand
Idle - Riot shield stand extended
Idle - Run
Idle - Run extended
Bridge - Vault
Bridge -  Door charge
Bridge - Shield raised

These animations are going to be the main milestones i will be aiming for. I will be creating more but for the meantime i shall animate the 4 main idles and then fill in the gaps with bridging animations.

I will be incorporating these animations into the "Trax Editor" in Maya, this will allow me to stitch together different segments of animation creating seamless movement for in-game cinematic quality.

Above is my group story board, but below i will be showing my own personal one, this is just a quick few sketches to give a good idea, or portrayal of the scene we will be animating. Strictly speaking, there is room for change. So we wont necessarily stick exactly to these storyboard sequences, but it is a touch idea and a basis to build up from. 

Above you can see my storyboard, it starts with a all characters marching toward a door, the swat operative then kicks down the door and a shot from behind looks down into the corridor. As the suspect flees the swat and detective characters pursue the unidentified man. As the swat guy breaks down the next door the detective runs through and shots "stop" whilst pointing his finger, as the suspect is cornered he looks toward a window and vaults out of it landing in a garbage bin. The detective looks out the window and aims his gun at which point the animation ends, leaving the view thinking, does the suspect die or survive?

Week 1 - Introduction To The Module

Module Overview!

From the sounds of things, this module is going to be very exciting, it will consist of working in a team of two or three people, and our goal will be to create a sequential in-game cinematic which we will animate at 24 frames per second. This will be used as a show reel or portfolio piece when it is finished. Each person will be animating 4 parts of the animation and collectively we will sew together all sequences creating a seamless 12 part animation. 

Most of this module will be accomplished through self directed study and the amount of independent learning I put into it myself, but it will also be about team work, this means me and my group will need to conduct meetings and experiment with different ideas, hopefully by working as a group, we will bounce off each other when it comes to inspiration and ideas. 

Individually, we are also to create a document, which will explore, in-depth an extensive understanding of the 3D pipeline process. This will be done through our own research and experience of creating the animation as we progress through the module. This will mainly include the principles of animation and how to apply them to our work

3D animation will be split in terms of research, I will be doing a lot of primary research as well as secondary. I will need to provide all of my own photographic reference as well as thumbnail sketches and group videos that we will use to block out a rough idea of how our animation will be portrayed. 

Secondary research such as game trailers, films and cinematic s will also be gathered as inspiration, so that we can use those sources to reflect upon our work and create new and innovative ideas and designs. All reference will be documented and detailed also. 

Mainly today we were getting to know the module and we all took the initiative to set up our own groups or two or three. 

I decided to group up with two friends, Stephanie Wallis and Alexander Stevens, I chose these two because I know they are hard workers and they both have a passion for animation, I thought I should be with a strong set of team members so I thought that these two were a great choice and I think we will make a great team. When we came up with team names we were a bit stomped for ideas but I am quite happy with the result, we all agreed on the name "Team Tiny" which was fitting as we are all quite short!

I think having a good team name is important, as you will be easily remembered, and it gives you more recognition and the potential of a brand name.  Me and the group also discussed on attempting to create a logo. 

When creating a seamless animation, they are rarely created all as one block sequence, usually they are split up into different segments which you then put together to create the illusion of continuous movement. This is what we will be doing together as a group. We will be animating walk cycles, and idle animations such as standing breathing, and we will be conforming to standard frame rates such as 20-50 frames of run through time, this will repeat and cycle giving the illusion of continuous breathing. 

Software

We will be incorporating various software development kits into our work, we will be using Maya mainly, alongside motion builder and Sony Vegas, this software will will be used as the video editing software, i will also be looking into after effects CS5 in my own time to try and create some truly eye catching animation samples. 

Maya - This software is used as the most mainstream film and game industry 3D software package. It is used for all 3D assets and it is also used for a great deal of animation and mood lighting. 

Motion Builder- This software is used to bump up your animations, it is great for things such as crowd control and creating effective scenes. This revolves mostly around animation. 

Sony Vegas - This software is used as video editing, I've not looked into it a great deal but I'm sure by the end of this module I will have discovered some cool techniques that will benefit me in the long run. 

After Effects - This is probably one of the most powerful pieces of editing software that is out there, it is incredibly mainstream and used my most film companies and animation studios. I will be looking forward to getting to grips with this software package and i will hopefully be also making a logo with the software itself. 

All of this software is used properly will really make our animation look eye catching and by the end of this year I'm sure our team will create something of that standard. 

Group planning and idea

When we got together in class we came up with a basis of an idea, it wasn't solid and there is still plenty of room for alteration and change. We all contributed to a basic idea just so we had something to work from as opposed to nothing. 

The essence of the idea will revolve around a detective and a SWAT agent with a riot shield who are chasing an unidentified character through a building. 

It could consist of the unidentified character being followed in a chase scene and inevitably being cornered into a room. This would be shortly followed by the character hustling toward a window at which point he/she would jump out of the window and land, making their exhilarating escape. 

This animation idea is rough but it is better that way I think, it allows for a lot of leeway, I would love to try and incorporate lots of dynamic camera angles, quick movements and perspective shots.

Basic animation list

Detective:- 

Idle_01_Breathing 

Idle_02_Breathing_Extended

Running

Running_Extended

Lifting_Gun

Idle_Holding_Gun

Shooting_Gun

Run_Shooting_Gun

Window_look

SWAT:-

Idle_01_Breathing

Idle_02_Breathing_Extended

Kick_Door_01

Idle_01_Crouch

Idle_02_Crouch_Extended

Surveying_Room

Shield_push

Shield_push_Extended

Unidentified Man:-

Idle_01_Breathing
Idle_02_Breathing_Extended
Surprised_Emotion
Window_Jump
Running
Running_Extended
Crouch_To_Stand_01
Crouch_To_Stand_02
Backwards_Walk
Backwards_Walk_Extended
Quick_Turn

Inspiration, The Matrix, Assassins Creed, Tomb Raider and a film i watched recently called The Raid, this serves as perfect reference for a riot shield, if we do decide to stick with this idea.