Portfolio Piece #6: Casino Piece

Casino Piece:

Now this was one of the most fun projects I had to create for my portfolio. The reason for that being the guidelines for the project weren't very in depth so I had a lot of free range for this project. The instructions say to make a slot machine game design for a casino, with that in mind, the hardest part was just coming up with the general idea for the game. I thought long and hard about what the best course of action would be for me to take. After many ideas I finally landed with a dog themed casino game and called it, "Dog House." This was partly inspired by the iconic painting of dogs playing cards and the opportunity for puns with dogs and the title. 

This project was one of my favorites to work on because I had a lot of freedom to be creative and I got to draw all the assets for the project. The first step was figuring out all the different dogs and theme I would use throughout the piece. I decided to go with a full house of dogs, making different dog breeds into different card pieces. To elaborate, I used a mastiff as the King, a pug for the Joker/ Jack, a corgi for the queen and a bull terrier as the Ace. Now most casino games don't just use face cards for all their assets so I decided to add some number themed assets as well. To symbolize the number one, I used a solitary fire hydrant; number two was two dog bones crossed together like on a pirate flag and number three is yet to be decided. Once I figured out why and what all my assets would be, I had to gather references so I could sketch all these animals and objects. After gathering at least two references, I made sketches in Sketchbook Pro and did some color concepts in there as well. All of my assets have the same basic principle in all of them, thick black outlines of a goofy but cute dog and colors that match their own while being uniquely vibrant.

Portfolio Piece #5: Realistic Indoor Lighting Render

Realistic Indoor Lighting Render:

This project was one of the more challenging pieces I've had to create. In my time at the Art Institute I've concentrated on being an animator, however that field comes with many other aspects besides just bringing characters to life. It also deals with bringing the scene around the character to life as well. Unfortunately this is not one of my strong suits so I had to work diligently on this project. I did the whole project in Maya from the modeling to the rendering, it was the software I was most familiar with.

To begin I found a model of a bedroom online, I could've modeled one out myself but that would've taken far too long for me to finish this project. After I acquired my model and made some changes and touch ups to the scene to make it more my own, I went on to texturing. Texturing was one of the most challenging areas of this project since I decided to use textures from photos that I took myself to make the scene even more mine. After laying out all the UVs in the correct spots and making sure all the textures were up to scale, I was able to have a ready to render scene. Now I did use some materials in Maya to complete the scene, such as the for the walls, I used a rubbery plastic material which resembled a real world wall when rendered out. 

I had to render this scene out in three lighting scenarios, morning noon and night. I chose my afternoon scene because I believe it came out the best. Now for all three of these lighting scenarios, I used the same kind of lighting setup. I used image based lighting by taking the same outside picture three different times of the day and getting the desired results in each of my scene.

Portfolio Piece #4: Quadruped Animation

Quadruped Animation:

For my Quadruped Animation I made an animation of a dog chasing a ball and then flipping over trying to grab it. This was based off of a Youtube video I watched featuring dozens of hilarious dogs failing. I took one clip from it and referenced my animation based on that 3 second clip. 

To make this animation I first got my references and planning in order. I used my reference clip to make hand drawn key frame thumbnails. I then set up my Maya scene by making a plane which was the ground and a ball which was the tennis ball the dog goes after. I got textures and applied it to the scene objects to make it a little more visually pleasing. The next step was to get a puppy rig and play around and test to make sure it was in proper working order. After making sure nothing was broken with the rig I put it in the scene and I was ready to start animating.
As with any animation  first started by making the keyframes of the scene and getting the posing correct. I then went on to my breakdowns to further a strong animation base.  After making sure all the important poses and timing was correct I went on to check the arcs and how every different part of the rig was moving. Once this was done it was time to polish the animation and really give it a sense of life. This process of polishing and finishing up the animation is much different than blocking it in and starting it. You have to be very critical of your work and make sure that this is what you want.

Portfolio Piece #3: 2D Animation

2D Animation:

This project is called, Nut-n-bolt Cracker. It is a 2-D animation drawn and created in Toon Boom Harmony. It is based off a sketch I made of a goofy and clunky robot doing ballet. The story is about a large robot who was built to lift heavy objects but throughout his lifespan he decides he just wants to dance. The meaning behind it is to follow your dreams and do whatever you want, no matter what society and your background tells you to be.

To start the process I first designed my character, the robot, using Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop. I then gathered references of ballerinas and ballet dancing and compiled them into one video. I rearranged them and cut them into one dance that I used for my robot dancing. I then proceeded to make thumbnails of the keyframes and breakdowns in the dance. I used these thumbnails to draw and pose my character in the right positions for the dancing. Afterwards I added as many in-between frames that I needed to make the dance look better. After the sketches were done, I went on and made the real outline of my character and made sure they had the correct proportions. 

Last but not least I exported out all the frames into a video and added the music to it. The music I used is Damon Albarn's "Everyday Robots." This song and artist are one of the inspirations for this project and provide a perfect melancholy feel to the piece. The song talks about that we as a society are robots stuck on our phones and not really paying attention to what the world has to offer. I took note of that in this story with an actual robot who sees past what he is supposed to and gets interested in what he enjoys.