Report: Working for a Second Year

Carina Adams 21036196

The Role/Objectives

For this project, I was given the role of 3D modelling assets and texturing them for a second year’s 3D film. This involved modelling objects such as a Chinese wall scroll, table, teacups, teapot and spear for the film’s environment.

After modelling the objects in Maya, I would UV unwrap the models and then texture them in Substance Painter.

Furthermore, I completed all the roles that were given to me and to the standard the second year was happy with. I didn’t receive much feedback on how I did however, I did receive good comments and they were happy with the models that I created. There were a couple of occasions where the models I made weren’t curvy enough for example, the table legs so as requested, I went back to improve on these things and the second year was happier with the new results.

Performance

Overall, I believe I performed well during this project, given that I was learning how to model in Maya during the process. I think I could have been a little quicker in completing the tasks, but I think this was due to learning as I went along. I believe I have a stronger understanding of modelling in Maya due to this project as I kept revisiting the models I had done and improved them where I could in terms of efficiency and how effective they would work in the second years animation.

I think I performed well in terms of communicating with the second year and ensuring that they were happy with what I was working on. I would send images of the models and keep the second year in check with what I was doing. Moreover, I would also ask them for inspiration in terms of how they wanted the models to look. For example, their animation is based on traditional China, and I would go online to find inspiration and see what the second year thought. This was so the project became entirely what the second year wanted, and I didn’t stray away from their chosen themes when working.

From this short project, I learnt that I need to improve on my 3D modelling skills more so that I work quicker and don’t get stuck on something along the way. I think I have improved on these skills however there is room for more improvement. I need to improve on how I construct the models and look for easier, alternative ways of modelling in Maya.

Furthermore, another improvement would be UV unwrapping and texturing the models. This was something that I struggled with and have struggled with in the past. UV unwrapping is difficult on complex shapes such as the teapot I made, and it creates a struggle to create effective UV unwraps if the shape is complex.

Relating to the Industry

The roles I was given for this project relate to industry role of being a 3D artist.  This is because I was creating assets for the second years animation and then texturing them, creating a complete model that can be used for the animation. Furthermore, this role requires both modelling and texturing as well as many other skills like storyboarding and knowledge in other industry standard software. The 3D artist role can vary depending on what industry you land in, whether its games or film but the role does require you to have an outstanding knowledge in all the skills. For this project. I only used my skills in modelling and texturing. This suggests that I will need to explore the other skills required of an 3D artist if I were to apply for that role.

https://www.betterteam.com/3d-artist-job-description 3D ARTIST ROLE DESCRIPTION

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of working for a second year. I had my doubts at first since the project was working for a fellow student however, once I got stuck in, I enjoyed working on the 3D models and helped to develop my skills further. I think the way in which we communicated really helped to get the tasks done efficiently and to the standard that was expected of me. Most of the communication was me checking in with the second year to see what they thought and whether there was anything else I could help them with. This was successful because I didn’t want to do any work that the second year wasn’t happy with, and I was determined to create what they wanted in order to help them with their animation.

During the project, I found some things challenging throughout the journey. Firstly, I found modelling in Maya slightly challenging. This is because I haven’t been used to modelling in this software before, so it took a couple of days to practise and get things right. Once I had some practise, I could see the errors I made in the first initial models. Upon seeing these errors, such as too high of a poly count, I went back and remodelled what I was working on and created a far more efficient and easier to work with model. I tried to ensure that the second year was able to work with what I made and there would be no problems erupting whilst they worked on their film.

Furthermore, I found the UV unwrapping stage challenging while working on the models. This is because I hadn’t done this before in Maya and it was completely ‘alien’ to me. I watched YouTube tutorials to try and figure this out however, I still struggled to do this task.  To overcome this challenge, I was able to export the models into 3D Studio Max instead. UV unwrapping

In terms of skills, nothing that I am working on is new however, working in a different software has taken up some time to learn. In the past, I have worked in 3dStudio Max so changing software was different and a challenge however, using Maya is a huge expectation for industry roles and they typically ask for knowledge of this software or similar. This project was a great opportunity to work on these skills and grow as a 3D artist.

Moreover, the skills I have learnt on the course so far didn’t relate to the role I was given since I didn’t do any animating and I was mainly working on asset creation. However, some of the Maya sessions that we have had on the course did introduce me to modelling so I wasn’t completely lost when working on this project.

In terms of going forward, I will bring in what I learnt about 3D modelling into my practise. This is an important skill to have if I want to get into a 3D role and this experience has helped me to put all my focus into this for a few days. I could see that I was improving every time I modelled something so this experience pushed me to work on these skills more vigorously. This was due to the pressure of working for the second year as I didn’t want to let them down.

In conclusion, the project has helped me to grow as a 3D artist and has helped to develop my skills in Maya. I have also improved on my communication skills in order to get tasks done quickly and efficiently. I am now more able to do work for someone else and do the work when they need it. These are all valuable skills I have learnt and improved on during this experience and will help me greatly in the long run.

As part of my research, I went on Linkedin to find potential companies that have roles I could apply for in the future. Being a fan of Frontier Developments, a games company that has produced a variety of video games such as Planet Zoo and the Jurassic Park Evolution series, I looked into what current roles and opportunities they had. I could see that they had a 3D animator role and I dropped a message on the posting to find out what they are looking for in a candidate as well as what things I need to do in order to apply. I received a reply fairly quickly from Frontier’s talent advisors. They were super helpful and gave me a lot of insight as to what’s expected of an animator and what sort of work I should be doing to get there.

This short interaction has been very helpful to realising what I need to include in my portfolio when I start applying for jobs. The advice given has shown me that having strong animation skills is a must and it would be good for me to show that I can animate a variety of bipeds, quadrupeds and other creatures.

For today, I spent some time researching how to rig and skin a character in Maya. The first place I looked was Youtube for some tutorial videos on how to do this.

Furthermore, I discovered that there is a quick and easy way to rig a character by using the ‘Quick Rig’ tool. This is a fast way of rigging a character however, it isn’t perfect and adjustments have to be made. When I was going through this method I came across issues such as problems with the skinning and weights so this is something I definitely need to revisit over time.

During this experience, I learnt more about rigging and the tools Maya provides. I have learnt more about Maya’s interface and worked out where certain tools can be found and what they do. This was valuable learning for me as I encouraged myself to do this research in order to get a better understanding and I learnt that it is always worth looking up my questions about Maya and how it works.

With this learning, I will implement what I learnt in future projects so that I can quickly create rigs for characters.

Youtube video I found and watched to learn the quick rig method.

In my own time, I have been researching and finding out how to 3D model characters using Blender. I haven’t used Blender before so I was completely new to this software. I have been meaning to learn this software as I am starting to notice that it is being more widely used in the industry.

Moreover, I did some searches on YouTube and came across a bunch of videos explaining Blender for beginners. I watched the video below which talks more about sculpting in Blender and explained the different brushes and tools. This was useful information, especially for when I begin to sculpt characters of my own.

This was a valuable piece of research as I was completely unaware of how to use Blender and I wanted to learn more about the tools so that I didn’t go into sculpting with no understanding whatsoever.

In terms of what I will do with this learning, I will try and use Blender for when I want to create characters. I will try and sculpt characters from scratch using Blender.

Youtube video I watched during my research into using Blender.

As part of my research into 3D animation, I watched this short animation made by the Pokémon company. I was intrigued by this animation initially as I thought this was 2D animation, given Pokemon tend to use 2D animation for their anime series. However, this short animation is actually in 3D and used cel-shaded like textures to give off this 2D look.

Personally, I haven’t seen a 3D animation done in this way before and it was really nice to watch the Pokémon company try something completely new and unique to what they usually produce. Furthermore, the details put into this animation is extraordinary, considering it was made in 3D. The facial expressions of the characters, especially the lead ‘Bidoof’, really create the character and bring them to life in a way I haven’t seen too often.

Moreover, I believe this animation style and techniques would be a great use for films and even video games going forward, as the immensely stylised world that’s been created in this 8 minute short is highly engaging and a fresh take on what animation could look and be like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTidwW3iLHk (Link to video)

For the first term, I have been introduced to animation in its many forms such as 2D, 3D and stop motion/puppets. This has been a very useful term in learning what area I wish to pursue in animation. I’ve discovered that I am enjoying 3D animation the most and I aim to continue improving and learning this topic.

I’ve also learnt more about my weaknesses and strengths during this first term and that I should focus all my time on what I am better at or what I am enjoying more and willing to learn and improve.

Overall, the first term flew by very quickly but I received a lot of information that I can carry over to the next term.

For today I wanted to post a small update on what I have been doing in my 3D work. Today we attempted to model a basic biped character using Maya. This involved building from a polygon cube up to a human-like body. After making a character model successfully, we then attempted to rig the character.

The modelling part of the session was fairly straightforward as this is something I have done before however, we were using a different software to what I am used to. Furthermore, I was able to construct a biped model fairly quickly. The model was very ‘blocky’ at first but then I was able to use the ‘smooth’ tool to make a far more close to life model.

The challenging part of today’s session was moving on to rigging the character model we made. This was harder to follow since the skill is very new to me and I struggled to work it out. The main thing I struggled with was when it came to ‘skinning’ the character. After setting the ‘bones’ in the model, you then have to skin the model. This essentially meant attaching the bones to the model so that it was movable. Moreover, this is where I got lost during the session and it is a concept I am going to have to go back to in time.

In conclusion, I did struggle with this learning and it was harder to follow when it came to the rigging stage. From this, I know that this is something I will need to revisit and learn more about.

For today, I made some more progress on my 3D animation work where I have worked a mood change with the Binky character. This was practice for the Unit 1 hand in which requires a mood change exercise.

During this exercise, I think that I learnt more about timing and anticipation. I tried to time the actions so that the impact of what was happening was more effective. In the animation, the character walks up to a ball with a very happy expression and then the ball rolls away, causing the characters mood to change. Timing was crucial with this for more impact in showing how the character was feeling.

In reflection, this was very fun to do and I think that I learnt even more about animating a character with this. I was able to give the character emotion and a realistic reaction to the events occurring in the animation. To improve, I think that I will create a different mood change animation with a more interesting reaction to something.

For today’s session, I have been working on how to animate a basic walk cycle in Maya. The process involves key framing and moving the feet and body controls.

In reflection, this was a very daunting exercise at first as I am still learning the basics to Maya. I found it difficult at first to make an accurate looking walk cycle but as I redid the exercise, my walk cycle started to improve.

During this exercise, I think that I have improved more on working in Maya. I am starting to understand the software better and I can create more exciting animations. Furthermore, there is still ways to go when learning Maya however, I believe I have got through the basics of it quickly.

In conclusion, I aim to use what I have learnt during this exercise in my future work. I understand that having walk cycles mastered will make my show reel stand out to employers and this exercise has encouraged me to work on this more.

For my presentation, I read this book by Chris Solarski as part of my research into animation in video games. It is a very interesting read on how video games are made and how they share the same skills that are used for film/TV animation. The book also discusses how traditional ways of creating art is still used for this very modern industry.

During my research, I learnt a lot more about how similar the practice is for both video games and film. They use the same software and similar skills in order to create their product. Furthermore, the book opened my eyes to see the importance of multiple aspects such as being good at drawing or paying attention to detail. These are just some of the aspects that the industry look for in their employees so It would be a very good idea for me to invest more time in these things in order to become more of an ideal candidate. Moreover, the book also made my presentation more interesting by discussing the importance of animation in video games and how it really creates the characters and the worlds they reside in.

This book by Chris Solarski was my most valuable piece of research for my presentation. It helped me to explain the importance of how similar the two industries are and what skills/methods are applied to both.

In conclusion to this research, I feel that I would’ve been a bit lost on the subject during my presentation and wouldn’t of had much to talk about when it came to informing everyone about the methods used by the game industry to create their animation. This book was my guide to understanding that the industries are not so different and just as much, maybe more work is put into video games.