Portfolio/Designs/Models
This is my groups finished animation and even though my part of the modelling/animation didn’t make it because of constraints I am still very proud of them and I am proud to be a part of this project.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/my-drive
This is the link to my drive and it contains both of my Lava Cave and the bridge that I have done. I will also post the designs here below. They are inside the Lava Work folder on my one drive.
These are the models that I have completed above.
And these are some of the designs above that I have completed for lava cave/volcano preparation.
Blog
This is the section where i will capture my thoughts and research as we go through this project and try to capture the important parts of the development. I will also keep reflecting on everything as we go along because I want to be able to look back at this and reflect on the things that I could of done better or different the next time I do it.
This project is about creating the animation with your whole group. Everyone is going to be able to contribute towards this project one way or another to have the best out come in the end. This will be a really fun project to work and experience because we will get to do anything we want freely as long as everything is discussed with the team.
For the first few weeks we discussed different ideas and we brainstormed a lot about what we might want to do. I have missed a few of these classes, but i got in touch with my team and talked about what each of us was thinking and what we wanted to do. There was many awesome ideas from fairies, robots and aliens etc. The one that stood out to the most was the the floor is lava idea. The idea itself was going to have to be based on an adventure so we also had to be careful picking the right idea and how we might want to approach it. It was a fun few classes that we had during this project. I got to know my team members better and how we wanted to approach different aspects of the project.
Throughout these classes we would have Alec and Sarah walk around everyone quite often and questions each of our ideas and why we chose what we chose and stuff like that. It was quite funny trying to explain our idea because we still didn’t know what we wanted to have to do and how we might want to do it. They also asked us about if we are going to do this project with 2D or 3D and our answer was both and I think that was very naive of us because that sounds like quite a challenge. We will probably end up changing many things and removing things from the project, but for the time being thats what the idea was. It was about a little boy who’s imagination takes places in our project. He becomes an adult in his head and goes trough an adventure in a fire place. It ends with him just falling on a pillow and realising it was all in his head. This could also be a really good plot twist for the audience as well. These were just some of the thoughts that we had during these meet ups and discussions.
These are our story boards that we have created in the first couple of weeks while working on this project because we wanted to plan out everything perfectly without anyone being confused. We all sat down around this whiteboard and talk about the images that we might want to put on there for the time being. We all stood up in front of the board multiple times and drew these images together. There was a lot of ideas and it was really fun doing these throughout a couple of weeks for sure. We wanted to look into pushing our boundaries with certain models and animations if possible. We wanted to create something awesome.
We discussed a lot about the problems that we might have if we try to do this project with only 2D or 3D so we told ourselves that we will be careful when it comes to this because we don’t want to run into many problems later on. We want to be able to manage the work flow as well as possible. We definitely did a lot of discussion in the first few weeks because we wanted the story board of the project to become solid and that every thing that we decide on is hopefully final in the end. This would probably be bold to say because we will definitely be doing many adjustments later on to fit the requirements and the boundaries that we have.
The link to our first class presentation
At the beginning of march we did our group presentation in front of our whole class and it was the most nerve wrecking thing I think i ever did. We were very prepared before hand and we had much stuff to talk about when it came to our idea. We split the power point into different parts and talk about each of the sections we were thinking of doing or even creating for the project. I was really into the background and the cave idea of our project so I thought from the beginning that I wanted to create some sort of background or a cave for our project. Depending on the things we will want to keep and add. In this presentation we have told everyone our idea about this little boy and how we wanted to approach the project in the first place. We first told the audience about the colour we were thinking of using and why we would use the colour for the particular parts of the project and how we would try to achieve the colour. We also showed a few concepts each of us did for the characters and what direction we thinking of going with the main character for the project. James spoke about this section of this power point and he pointed out that we want the child have some specific things on him and on the adult so the audience can tell that they are the same person. That could be a problem later on so it had to be pointed out. Then I was talking about our setting concepts and the look of the cave that we might want, we obviously wanted to have a lava somewhere inside our project because that was the whole vibe of our project. I have talked about the certain colour that we might want to enhance and use to make sure that the scene looks good for the audience. Then Rheanna has talked about the living room and that we want to keep this part of the project colourful and calm. This is after the boy leaves his dream. We showed a couple of our sketches for the animation and certain frames that we will be using. We were told that it might be too many frames to do and there is some frames in there that doesn’t really need to be there in the first places and they just take up space. That was really good feedback and it was very memorable for me. We then ended the presentation showing a couple more sketches and some short animations to show the audience the direction of the project. We were told that it might be too hard to implement the project with just 3D so we said that we will have to look into doing both 2D and 3D. This would make our project possible.
After all of the presentation were done the lecturers and their quests walked around each group and gave us some really useful advice that could benefit our project in the long run so that was really nice. We were told that we needed t create a cinematic because that would allow for us to be able to figure out the right frames and the timing that we could possibly use for the animation. The pacing could also be an issue so we had to be careful with our cinematic and how we wanted to go about doing it.
We also didn’t really know what style we wanted to do, but we knew that we wanted to keep it simple and don’t make it too difficult for us to handle later on. This was pretty important because some of the it could cause many issues later on as some of the styles out there can always cause problems with modelling and rigging something or even animating it. So we knew that we had to come up with something simple, but also recognisable.
They also advised us on looking into different styles and easier ways of drawing characters because some of them make your work way easier than other. So we had to be looking into different styles and approaches carefully. We also wanted to make sure that we were making the best decisions when it came to the lighting of our scenes and models that we will be creating later on. We were also told to look into many aspects and approaches of this project to make it as simplistic as possible.
After this we all went back to researching and designing different stuff that we could use for our project and then we discussed that we should try to create the animatic so that we could show each of our frames to the lecturers.
Each of us just started working on different designs and try to animate some of the designs very quickly so that we could have something to show and to work on. These are some of the designs that I have did for some of the characters and how they could look later on in the final product because I think James was thinking of drawing up the finished characters and their finals looks so I am drawing up more ideas and inspirations for the final design. I also put in a couple of props that the child could have inside his room or on himself so that the audience knows thats its the same person. Some some sketches and ideas. Also started thinking about the background like the lava hill and what colours we might want to use for it as well.
This was the cinematic that the group came up with, some of the frames and designs that everyone created. Then all of the bit were put into one with some of music in the background as well. As you can see that it is very simplistic and its shows off the main points of the project and the way we will want to approach it. James edited pretty much the whole thing which turned out perfect. I was really excited to move onto the next phase of our development because I really wanted to start modelling my part of the animation which would be the lava cave or just a volcano and then see if we can implement it inside our animation.
This is already us working from home and it was one of the worst experiences for me because the spread of the virus we all had to leave the premises immediately and go home as soon as possible. This made me really disappointed and made me lose a lot of motivation because I started going to uni to get away from home and be able to work on my own. This was nobodies fault, but it was the worst outcome for me and I had to deal with it. This also brought me a lot of issues because I don’t have a good enough computer at home to run any of the programs needed to work on any of these projects with my team.
I knew that I wanted to create a lava cave or even a volcano sort of thing for my group and see if that could be used for anything later on so I started sketching and creating ideas because that is the only thing I was able to do. At this point I was feeling really hopeless because of this whole situation and how it messes everything up for everyone. Luckily I contacted Alec and he saved me big time by helping me figure out the way I could acquire a computer that I can work on. He ended up sending me a whole package with a Mac inside of it which I will always be grateful for because I had no other way of getting a computer. So I wanted to personally thank Alec for that.
It took some time for me to get the system, but when I did I started working on things I could or needed to. Another problem for me is that I have really bad wifi that keeps disconnecting non stop if all of the family members are using it and all of us being home this was a big issue. So I am ended up using 4g from my mobile for the Mac which kind of worked. It allowed me to browse the web, but it would be very weak and disconnect a lot as well. This is why I couldn’t really join many of the online classes and the tutorials that we had because of the Covid 19. I tried my best to join every class and the tutorial that I could.
I would chat with my group members and catch up with them every time because I could at least use messenger without a problem with the 4g.
These are the couple of the tutorials have I have watched throughout the weeks to helps me start understanding modelling in maya even more and start practising to I could model the volcano that could possibly have a cave inside of it. Zbrush has also some good tutorials on modelling and sculpting different caves and stones so I watched a couple of them as well. I prefer modelling on maya since its a little familiar now and easier to use for me than z brush. For z brush the drawing pen is also very useful, but I don’t have that so I didn’t really engage into the application fully at home and I definitely want to look into it a little better later on which different projects in the future.
I spent a lot of time watching tutorials and trying to become with the perfect solution to create my cave when I will be able to and then make it look really good as well. This was my part of the project to model and to try to animate into our animatic, but discussing it with my team it seems that the cave/volcano that I will create might be too complicated or might make it too difficult to work with. So I also have to make sure that I am keeping everything as simple as possible because I don’t want to make everything harder for everyone.
The link to the second presentation
This is the link to the second presentation that our team did and just includes a couple of designs and things that people started to model. I wasn’t able to be a part of this because I didn’t have a computer system to access the online meeting with. I talked to the members later on about this presentation and listened to their feedback about the things so far and the timeline that we want to start working towards. I let my group members know that I am watching tutorials on modelling and creating hills/caves etc. And also told them that the Mac should be arriving soon so they know what to expect from me.
We also came up with the time line after the presentation that my team did and I was made aware of the time line and everything that was in it. We talked about that everyone started modelling something and just playing around with different software to try to model different things that we could use throughout the project. Everyone just stared practising modelling different structures and objects that could be used in the scenes.
We also agree with this time line and we will try to stick to it for the time being and work on the our own parts of the project and try to have something to do for each of us.
So I was able to join one of the online sessions with my group and we talked to Alec about everything that is going on and the things we are working on for the time being and what are we thinking about etc. We got some feedback on the work that everyone was doing and how everyone was just doing working from home and dealing with this whole situation. We all just talked to Alec and everyone just discussing about how we are feeling. Everyone was kind of losing motivation and feeling disappointed with the whole situation.
We were told to just try out best and keep going even thought this is one of the worst things that has ever happened in the world and probably one of the worst timings as well. We kind of lost our team communication throughout April, which wasn’t helpful at all, but it was nobodies fault and we can only keep going and work with what ever we got. I had many issues during this and I wish I could change that, but I can’t. So I am trying my best to come up with the best work that I can.
I would say that I didn’t really work to my full capability because of all the restrictions and issues throughout this project, but I just tried my best and tried making it work even though I have no motivation throughout this tragic time and hope that it gets better soon. In the future I want to be able to work harder without any constrictions limiting my work throughout. I appreciate all the help that I have gotten from all of my lecturers because I don’t know what I would do without them.
This is the work that I have did for my group project when it came to modelling and trying to animate and see if anything with that would work.
These are some designs and final design ideas that I came up with for my part of the modelling and I tried to make a volcano/lava cave that could possibly be used for the animation in the end. I have used a lot of references throughout the weeks to help me come up with the easy solution and trying to figure out how to model a volcano with a cave inside of it without causing myself too many problems. I have a little experience modelling now so I used everything that i have learned into the final model that I have made for the project. When I was in the right mind sent I got really inspired by the different cave models and how they can be achieved so I really wanted to try my best and to develop a really good model.
These are a couple of images that I have used for the model of my cave and there is also the textures as well that I was planning on using the whole time because I I really like them and I feel like it matches the colours of the whole project theme.
My part of the animation didn’t get put in because we run out of time and we didn’t really get to do a bigger animation like we wanted to do from the start. So, I focused on designed different ideas for my team and trying to create the best cave possible. I have done a couple of the ideas for the cave and see that maybe my team would be able to use that for any part of the animation or anything like that.
This is the finished model that I have created it and I am really happy with it. I have started modelling with a cylinder and worked from there to try to make it look as much as the image above because I wanted it to look identical. I think I achieved a great shape of the volcano and I am happy with the end result. The drops might not look realistic like real life but I wanted it to look like lava is coming from the top of it incase I get to animate it, but unfortunately we couldn’t. I have used small cube polygons to create the drops which was pretty easy to so I would say and then I tried many options on them to not make it like like they are edgy or anything so I used the smooth tool to make them look nice. Then I just duplicated most of them and placed them around the top of the volcano.
For the actual cave that I have below the volcano I used the extrude tool and went into the inner side of the volcano and applies the uv planner as well. This was pretty difficult because the texture looked horrible and it was out of places everywhere. I had trouble adjusting the texture to make sure that every side is happy and looking good.
Texturing was a little difficult and confusing for me as always, but I figured out how to use the uv planner properly and adding the textures like that. Then I just adjusted the textures to not make them look stretched out and make them look good.
This is also a model of a bridge I have designed/modelled or at-least tried to. It was quite fun modelling this one. I just wanted to see if maybe i can implement it into anything in our project, but I am putting it here as a finished model without textures.
Reflection on the year
This year was definitely an experience for me and i have to admit that it was really hard and that I have a lot to learn for sure. I am still not used to this type of life style and that is something I need to work on. I have met a lot of nice people and gained a lot of experience in different skills and I am really happy about that. I am glad I was able to open up about some of my personal issues with my lecturers because I felt like i was safe and it was okay to speak to someone. Alec and Sarah were really nice to me through these months and I appreciate that. It just felt like people actually cared. I still have a lot to learn and improve on, but I am happy with the progress that I have made. I will keep taking one step at a time and try my best. This study year has ended with a disaster and I am still uncertain about a few things when thinking about the future, but I am hoping for the best for everyone.
Team Assessment
Laura:
Contribution to project/team as a percentage – % 20
Feedback on their contribution: Was really nice to work with and get to know. She contributed a lot to the team by editing and supporting each other which was really important.
James:
Contribution to project/team as a percentage – %20
Feedback on their contribution: A nice group member that also did all of the work he was able to do and very easy to work with for sure. He also completed all of his responsibilities and more.
Emma:
Contribution to project/team as a percentage – %20
Feedback on their contribution: Contributed amazingly as well and worked well with the whole team. Did all of her responsibilities and kept everyone in check.
Rheanna:
Contribution to project/team as a percentage – %20
Feedback on your contribution: Was really nice working with her again. She contributed a lot to the team as well and completed her responsibilities well. Always makes sure that no one is lost and that everyone is trying their best.
Self:
Contribution to project/team as a percentage – %20
Feedback on their contribution: I think I have done as much as I could presented all the issues that I went through, but I definitely think I could of contributed more I would say. That is something I will remember for the next time. I have done a lot of designs that contributed to the final looks of the animation and certain parts of the work. And even though we weren’t able to implement my lava cave onto the animation because of constrains I am very happy with the result of it.
Mantas Macidulskas 