Final Review:
Throughout the semester our team composed of four members, Lukas Kontilis, Christian Salinas, Kelsey Grier, and Jorge Macias, have developed a short animation depicting a food chain twist between a snake and mouse, with a kung fu movie feel. The entire animation took a whole semester to develop, from the story board, to the final renders. We split the workload evenly, giving tasks to each member that had to be met each week.Each member got a taste of the animation pipeline, as well as having the opportunity to spotlight the specific track the member believes they would like to pursue. Together we developed the short animation and came across some challenges along the way. We overcame challenges such as working together to develop a cohesive story and look, and of course, attempting new animating methods with hardly any prior experience. This all helped us develop as individuals and it allowed us to expand our knowledge on programs, techniques, and pipeline work flow. We hope you enjoy all of our hard work from this past semester.
Kelsey:
For this project, my original task was project manager and pipeline manager. Though the original idea was mine, I did not do story line or character design. However, I did do most of the asset models, based off research I did in regards to a ball python terrarium. I also did the textures on the main two characters. For the snake, I used a painted UV texture to create a red morph color scheme to contrast with the soft blue-grey of the mouse. I used painted UVs, specular and bump maps to create the textures. I animated the mouse in all of the shots and did layout for most of them. I was limited with the rig of the mouse in that I couldn't create expressions and some movement was limited. I tried to combat this by conveying emotion through body language. I managed and supervised all of the rendering, I painted all of the matte paintings and I worked on compositing shots. I based the matte paintings on a teenage boy's room who is heavily into kung fu and martial arts entertainment culture so that there is an implied backstory to the characters. I also did the end credits of the animation. Through out the production process, it was my responsibility to fix pipeline and software errors, and also help guide my teammates on their individual tasks when they did not have experience with it.
Jorge:
The tasks given to me by our team leader, Kelsey Grier, were asset modeling, character rigging (mouse), lighting, compositing, and effects. The lengthiest of the tasks was rigging the biped, prior to rigging the mouse, the only other model I had rigged was a snake my freshman year, rigging the mouse was a learning experience and I found a liking to it. It was tedious but the end result is pleasing and it really demonstrates how joints bring the entire model to life. Lighting was a fun experience because it is all about the perfect light, how to change the mood or tone of an image. Lighting really gave me the control over the feeling of the scene and I enjoyed every second of it. Compositing was near the end of the animating process, it was tedious but it is a step every animation has to undergo and being a part of it sure was worthwhile. I give props to the industry compositing artists. The overall experience is something I want to continue pursuing and expanding my horizon towards it, I can definitely see a future in the 3D environments.
Lukas:
After our group talked about our strengths and weaknesses, I was instructed with character modelling, rigging, and character animation of the snake, the antagonist of the piece. My other jobs included some concept design as well as mixing the audio and compositing. I was very caught off guard the first week of this project, being plucked from a different group and forced to choose another group. When I got here, I decided to make the best of it and volunteered to do rigging. Before this project, I had previously made one unsuccessful fish rig. Through this, I hoped to challenge myself by working in an area that is uncomfortable to me. I actually enjoyed working through the problems I ran into during the rigging portion of this project. It taught me to pay even closer attention to real life and how critical it is that an animation reflects that. This whole process grew me as an artist as it developed me further in every aspect I was involved in. This industry example taught me that I could definitely see myself as a character rigger because while it may not be the most desired position, it is the most vital because without rig, the model has no life. Deciding how a model will express emotion is a very important aspect of this industry.
Christian:
I had been assigned to create the title for our animation "Snack Size" as assigned by our team manager. I had just commenced lighting and texturing for all of the released shots, and so now my main priority was to create a title that fit our animation and the scene well. I utilized After Effects entirely for the creation of our title, going through with effects and referring to my teammates about what we wanted to see in our title. Initially, I had wanted to have the text be wiped away by the animation of our snake, but the snake isn't introduced until a bit after the title sequence so that idea was scrapped in order to keep our plot consistent. I then decided to use a writing effect for our text, giving a sort of calligraphic feel to our sequence. This was intended as our animation references classic Martial Arts films, so the self-writing effect really compliments the animation and storyline. Lastly, the title was feeling a bit bland, so our team brainstormed and asked that I make a mini-mouse head silhouette to be used in our title to add a bit more character and fun to the opening shot. I really enjoyed making the title sequence, as it is the first impression of our animation. I also positioned the text to be displayed as if it was a shadow being cast, and I did this to play off the heat lamp in our snake tank. It blends the title with the environment very well and captivates the viewer.
