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.

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.