Portfolio Piece #10: Realistic Lighting Render Outdoors

Realistic Lighting Render Outdoors:

This was one of the hardest projects I've ever worked on. As I've mentioned before, I am not a person who is good at modeling or setting up a scene for lighting and renders. Nonetheless, this was a project I had to do and struggled with. The goal was to create a scene modeled in maya and build your own scene assets (lights, cameras, render layers) to create a realistic looking render of an outdoors scene. My first arduous task was finding a maya scene that I could use for my scene, there was no way I could completely model out a scene and render it with the time limit I had for this project. I found a scene online and it was perfectly suitable for my needs, unfortunately it didn't have any textures with it so I had to make those for my scene as well. I went out and took my own photos so I didn't have to purchase any and so I could have high quality textures that I own for the future. I also tried to get a few panoramic scenery shots so I could use that as a lighting source for my scene. After capturing those images and transferring them to Maya, I had the monotonous task of fixing the UVs for the models in the scene. This ensured that the textures I applied to the objects in the scene would be displayed properly and wouldn't be distorted once the textures were on there. This would also be important when applying lights in the scene so the reflections and refractions of the objects would operate normally. The second to last task was to apply lighting to the scene, this can be a very difficult process so I tried to take a kind of shortcut and use Imaged based lighting on my scene with photos I took before. This only worked so well and of course I had to tweak it and add some other lights to make sure it was realistic. The last and hardest part of this project was to set up proper render layers and render it out. With multiple render layers and effects, these renders took a long time and I had to budget my time wisely to ensure that the project would be finished on time.

Portfolio Piece #9: Motion Graphic

Motion Graphic:

This portfolio piece demonstrates a different type of animation from what I'm used to. Motion Graphics are used to describe animation that is used to add life to still images and titles, making a piece more interesting and visually pleasing. This type of motion graphics is called kinetic typography. Kinetic typography is basically animating words or a camera to make a dialogue or any audio with words more interesting and pleasing. The first step in making this type of project is acquiring some dialogue or audio message to work off of. There is actually a website that contains hundreds of dialogues taken straight from movies. My favorite director and maker of movies is Quentin Tarantino so naturally I chose some dialogue from one of his greatest movies. Now all his movies are great and it's had to choose a favorite but I decided to go with one of the best, "Inglorious Basterds." The movie is basically about a chosen faction of American soldiers sent to Germany in World War II time to take out as many nazis as they can. This movie has a lot of great lines so I chose one of the most notorious and fitting for the overall theme of the movie. "You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner takin' business, we in the killin' nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin." This is one of my favorite lines in the movie because of its brutality, it's spoken by none other than the incomparable Brad Pitt. After getting the desired dialogue, it's time to put it into After Effects to start the composition. I chose a worn parchment looking background which I felt went appropriately with the feel of the dialogue. I chose a fitting font and color for the text and went underway typing out the words of the dialogue. Once the dialogue was written out and spaced out in the composition, it was time to animate the camera/ words. I won't go into too much detail but basically I added effects to the words to match how and what they were saying and moved the camera fast paced. 

Portfolio Piece #8: Camera Animation

Camera Animation:

This animation project is a bit different from my other animation projects because the animation is focused on the camera. I started this project like any other, gathering all the assets I would need for the scene. First I found a model of the setting and the assets in it, from there I set up my maya scene. I like to use maya when doing animations because that's what has been taught to me the most at this school. I have the most knowledge of it and it makes it easier to operate the scene. Once my assets and models were set up in the scene I went on to the next step of creating lights and illuminating the scene. The scene itself is a back alleyway with a few overhead lamps lighting it up, with a dumpster precariously placed in the middle. After the whole scene was set up, the next and most important part was figuring out the camera. I say that is the most important part because in this project, the animation and better yet the feel of it will come from the camera. I made a normal camera and set it up in the scene, I decided not to add any lens effects or anything to the camera as it wouldn't bode well with the project. Now I just had to figure out what to make this animation about. I figured its a eerily lit alleyway, might as well add some danger and suspense to it. With that in mind, I animated the camera panning from left to right in a straight motion when all of the sudden the dumpster moves. Now we don't immediately stop with the camera after seeing that, it keeps going a bit before realizing what it saw and quickly puts the dumpster back in the shot. This was to give the sense of the camera doing a double take, which I believe portrays some emotion even for just a camera shot. Anyways, the camera moves the dumpster in the middle of the shot with it still writhing and jumping around. We move really close to the front of the dumpster and suddenly- BAM! The lid of the dumpster flies open!

Portfolio Piece #7: Biped Animation

Biped Animation:

For this portfolio piece I decided to use one of my latter projects for a high level class because I knew I would have the best animation with that. 3D animation is a difficult process and takes alot of know how. I have been learning and growing as an animator every quarter I have been at the Art Institute and I believe this project is a culmination of that. 

This project is a 3D animation of a character (Kelvin) dancing through time. I made two scenes out of about thirty for a combined team project called Fancy Pants for my Pre-Production/ Animation Production classes. The project is a short animation about a man who finds the perfect pair of pants that take him all through time when he dances. It's a fun and silly short animation that the whole class put alot of work into. My main responsibilities were story development and animation for my scenes, I also researched dance references and music for the project as well.

To animate my scenes I first started out by making thumbnails for the keyframes I would need. After getting my character, I loaded him into the Maya scene where I would be animating him. The entire class used Maya for their animation so there was no problem with the project as a whole. After posing my character in keyframes, I quickly went on to make the breakdowns. Now after many experiences with animation I found that planning and setting up your scene is one of the most important parts to any good animation. With enough planning, the rest of the animation is much easier. That being said, I spent a good few weeks on my breakdowns so I could get every pose and movement just right. Now came the tough part for me, timing. Timing can make or break your scene so I had to go about it very carefully, I did it slowly and thoroughly and it paid off in the end.