Final Draft

4/27/15

The animation is finished. What you see is what you will get in the Student Gala.

Rough Draft

4/20/15

My rough draft is complete. Roughly one quarter of the animation has been rendered successfully, and key sound effects have been added so far.

Milestone 6

4/8/15

By today, I am supposed to have roughly 3 gag segments to my animation completed. I've just about finished the animation, only needing to add in facial animation and some nCloth simulation.

Milestone 5

3/25/15

By today, the ending sequence to my animation will have been completely animated.

It is, but could use some work, especially on how to go about more interesting camera shots.

Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BlbQQ0QREU

https://vimeo.com/123205516

Milestone 4

3/11/15

For the remainder of the time in this class, I will expand and improve my animation to include several gags and an ending sequence.

All props for the rest of the animation have been completed.

Contract Revisited

3/9/15

In order to focus more on improving upon the animation already created, my milestones from March 11 onward have been revised as so:

	Deadline	Present?	To-Do
Milestone 0	21-Jan	G	Research
			Proposal Rough
			Contract Rough
Milestone 1	4-Feb	G	Characters 50% modeled
			Texturing as needed
Milestone 2	18-Feb		Characters fully modeled and rigged Essential textures completed
			Animation started
Milestone 3	2-Mar	G	Animation complete
			Composited and edited in After Effects
			Compiled within other works for demo reel
			Submitted to Pixar
Milestone 4	11-Mar		All necessary props and assets created.
Milestone 5	25-Mar	G	Ending segment complete
Milestone 6	2-Apr		Roughly 3 "gag" segments complete
Rough Draft	8-Apr	G	All gags completed
Final Due Date	27-Apr		Animation finished and submitted to gala, festivals, etc.

Milestone 3

By today, my animation, and all that is involved in that, will have been completed and submitted to Pixar.

A few things were added in, such as extra animated segments like the bonking on the tree and the point towards the dummy, but much more was cut from the final piece. The most notable of the cuts were the lack of a binded mesh, which instead was replaced with segmented geometry so I could animate in real-time, ncloth pieces that had to be removed due to the segmented geometry and some complex animations causing the cloth to distort, and the inability to batch render, due to 261 errors somehow related to missing or corrupted UV maps. The binded mesh could not be salvaged and reused in the final piece, due to mysterious parenting issues in the right arm.

Also, the sheep had been cut and replaced by the test dummy since before Milestone 2. May he rest in peace.

The result is a somewhat polished playblast with a cut-up character and none of the ncloth that was made and prepared for the animation. Yet even still, this remains a good animation for Pixar, because thankfully animation is my forte, and the intership recruiters really only want to see examples of storytelling through movement and the implementation of the 12 principles.

So, here it is.

Just in case here's a link to the video on Vimeo and Youtube:

https://vimeo.com/120984628

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0lCorUWA0&feature=youtu.be

Milestone 2

By today I claimed I the rigging on my characters will be complete, with all necessary textures added. I also said that the animation would be started, but sadly that is not the case.

The sheep character has been scraped and replaced with a simple dummy prop.

The rig is complete with IK/FK switches and several set driven keyed attributes, such as a foot roll, individual finger curls, etc.

The rig posed to show the binding deformations.

Facial animation will be implemented along with the full animation by the next milestone, as planned.

Milestone 1

Pixar has an open spot for an animator intern this summer, and applications are due March 1st. I plan on creating a short animation that demonstrates my animation prowess and compile it with my other best work to create a demo reel.



Concept art includes designs for a knight character and a sheep.

At this point, characters were to be 50% modeled, and any necessary textures were added.

I have completed my modeling of both my characters, a sheep and a knight, and decided that no textures were necessary at the moment.

As this is intended to be an assignment with a heavy focus on animation, a well created model and an even better rig helps make for a much better animation than the icing on the cake that textures provide.

The skeleton for the knight has been started.

Contract

	Deadline	Present?	To-Do
Milestone 0	21-Jan	G	Research
			Proposal Rough
			Contract Rough
Milestone 1	4-Feb	G	Characters 50% modeled
			Texturing as needed
Milestone 2	18-Feb		Characters fully modeled and rigged Essential textures completed
			Animation started
Milestone 3	2-Mar	G	Animation complete
			Composited and edited in After Effects
			Compiled within other works for demo reel
			Submitted to Pixar
Milestone 4	11-Mar		Head modeled
Milestone 5	25-Mar	G	Head facial rig complete
Milestone 6	2-Apr		Animation 25% complete
Rough Draft	8-Apr	G	Animation 50% complete
Final Due Date	27-Apr		Animation finished and rendered

The plan

Pixar internship demo reel

•      Submit completed demo reel for the Pixar summer internship by March 1.
•       Will require short film to demonstrate the ability to story-tell through movement while implementing the principles of animation.

o   2 characters, knight and sheep. Knight will try to butcher sheep for food, but his goofiness and clumsiness will be his downfall.

o   Requires fully modeled and rigged characters, but textures and environment is not a priority.

•      Once finished, compile the animation with other choice work to create an effective demo reel.
•       Will occupy Milestone 1-3

Lip synching exercise

•       Animate a character singing a song, with appropriate body movements to match.

o   May use character created for the Pixar short film, or a pre-made rig.

o   Creating a new character for the purpose of this animation is not ideal, but could be done.

•      Should be able to finish by Milestone 6 or on April 8 (the “rough draft” day).

Knife throwing animation

•      Short animation of a guy trying to throw knives at a dartboard, constantly missing and getting increasingly frustrated.
•       Could just use the same knight character from before.
•       Finish by April 27, the final due date.