February 2012
14 posts
Modelling the Cell - Part 1
One of the scenes in the animation is of a small cell in which Meryl is bouncing a ball against the wall. This will consist of a small room with a few objects in. Overall to create the look of a dark, dank and uncomfortable cell.
Below are some objects to start it off:
This bed will look a lot more scruffy and unwelcoming when I come to texture it.
These boxes look a bit too clean at the...
Rigging - Part 2
The next part of the skeleton is the spine. The spine is one of the most flexible parts of the body so I need to create more joints to simulate it effectively. With these joints in place I use a different Kinematic tool called the Spline IK, this creates a curve that aligns with the selected joints. This method fits in better with the natural curve of the spine.
In the above picture, you can...
Rigging - Part 1
Now that I have the completed model, I need to prepare it for animating. To do this, I need to build a working skeleton and attach it to the model. A skeleton in Maya works very much the same way as real one, with a hierachy of joints that move certain parts of the body in certain ways.
First of all, i’ll start with the legs. The joints need to go in places where the body bends, so for the...
Completed Meryl Model
Below is the completed Meryl model (minus hair and eyes) following what I constructed in the previous Character Development posts. Details may still be added before moving on to rigging.
Character Development - Part 3
Clothing
To complete the model for Meryl I needed to define the clothing so you can tell by looking at the mesh what kind of clothes she is wearing. I started with the tank-top I designed her to be wearing. To do this, I split the polygons on the existing mesh to outline the shape of the tank-top. I then selected the faces and extruded them to give the 3D presence of the clothing. (See ...
Character Development - Part 2
The Hands
So far I have created the basic curved shape of Meryl. To continue developing the character I need to move onto creating the other body parts whilst defining and adding detail to her overall shape.
First of all is the hands. To start I used the following drawing to map out a basic shape for the fingers.
When I had created one finger I copied it and scaled it to fit the other fingers...
The Script
Storyboarding for a trailer is trickier than for a standalone animation. Trailers have a lot of brief clips rather than full scenes meaning I cant really storyboard until I Have a script for the piece. Below is a rough draft I typed up, from this I can not only produce some better storyboards but map out what exactly I need to make the animation.
Inner Demons Script
Music fades in.
Scene fades...
Character Development - Part 1
Whilst I think of a clearer structure for the trailer and scene, I can move on to creating Meryl. When creating a character there are several stages of development and several ways of going about it. The way i’ve always gone about character development is to start simple and build on it bit by bit. In this case, i’ll start with blocking out the basic shape of Meryl
First of all, I...
The Story
Inner Demons is set in a facility in the near future where people can go to overcome their fears, phobias and any bad experiences they want to move on from. They do this by using technology that creates a physical environment in their minds that they can go into to directly confront what they want to overcome. (See it as a kind of dreamworld they can explore)
For example, if someone wants to...
Introduction
Hello! This is my new blog documenting my progress for my Semester B Digital Media project.
For my this animation I have gone with an idea named Inner Demons. It is a short animation piece in the format of a theatrical trailer with an additional short scene to accompany it. As with my previous piece I will create it in Autodesk Maya in the form of a 3D animation. (Above is my previous piece:...
