Maya Stuff!

I was really pleased to be getting into working onto computers finally, not that I didn't enjoy working in 2D but just for the fact that It was a newer and more exciting medium. Over the summer I decided to download the free version of Maya to give it a whirl, and managed to make one temple structure by following an online tutorial and then kind of deserted it again. Nevertheless, that allowed me to get through the tutorial we had on Tuesday quite easily as I had learned the basics by myself already. Basics definitely means basics though, (Forget you Cherie with your fancy bowl of stuff on a table next to your chair :P) at some points I still got myself a little confused, and without messing around over the summer I could see myself getting quite lost, like a few did. As Rosie mentioned in her blog I did think that the room layout is less than brilliant for this kind of thing, as our tutor (What was his name again?) had trouble reaching everyone with his voice. Richard did well helping the stragglers though.

I really look forward to continuing this type of work, even if the project we've been given is one of the strangest I've ever received (Drawing random chairs anyone?). Hopefully it'll get me a little more fluid in Maya, at least to the point where I can continue to create things and improve by myself. Digital 3D (more specifically the modeling of characters and such) is one of the areas where I can see myself specialising in, as it allows for some really intricate, laboured work, something that I've been craving for since we joined the course.


My experience in Maya in it's entirety.

Character interaction.

This seemed like a really fun animation to try out, making the expressionless characters interact quite explicitly sounded like quite a challenge and something I thought I may be able to do well with. I already found myself doing things quite differently just because of my experience with the last animation, such as only sketching down the items in the picture that are moving. Why waste time sketching things for no reason? I can just do that at the end with my black pencil. I was really grateful not having to sketch a stupid door every frame, too. I think I've improved very slightly with my timing since the last animation too, at least I've learned some things like with jumping to show the highest point rather than just imply it... If you follow.

Okay just fucked my blog up because of bad html that was actually faces, so this paragraph died.

EDIT: Today I finished the animation. Well, all but going over it in black pencil, and i'm quite pleased with the result. The fluidity is much better than my previous piece, and I think the characters interact reasonably well. I ended up cutting out a large piece of the animation which I would've liked to have put in because I thought it would be too time-consuming (and I was right) but apart from that pretty large hitch, everything went pretty well. I would have liked to have spent longer on it, but i've learned from the experience and next time i'll do it properly.

Angry Man.

This angry man was the first animation that I made on the course that required me to put a lot of effort into (Missed the jumping man, whoops). I enjoyed the challenge, trying to make all the actions that the character performed to have some sort of anger contained in them, but I found myself battling with the tedium more than the technical aspect towards the end. I think I probably spend too long and put too much effort into each drawing. When we were shown everyones animations together it seemed that the line quality and anything else that I tend to obsess over slightly is almost completely invisible in the final work, but still I find it really difficult to loosen up and go without. I'm still more of an illustrator than an animation for sure.

I thought my final outcome was okay, not brilliant. I really need more experience in the timing of the actions, and to learn some of the secrets of animating. Along with pushing my concentration span as well. The animation would have benefited greatly if i had just tested it every once in a while, but as time got on i just wanted to get it done. With my next animation i'll definitely test it as I go, I can't expect to get it right the first time. Not yet at least.

Will try to get my animation up in this space when I can.