Unit 2.1 Advanced and Experimental 3D Computer Animation Techniques – Project 1, week 2.
My intention with the art style is uncertain at the moment, considering I have a few ideas about how to portray the style. Most of all, I should direct my narrative intentions through the style to emphasise the story. This week consists of style exploration and development.
The variations of art style I am looking towards including/ using as inspiration are:
Design of:
- Narrative – storyboard
- Camera work
- Mise-en-scene
- Environment
- Character
- Animation path and action
- Col scheme and visual style
Next, are the style options that I considered:
1. ‘Stylised’
An animation reference for stylised animal designs can be the film ‘The Secret Life of Pets‘.
2. Low Poly
Most of all, the style that I pick should appropriately portray enough expressions /personality and movement details on the character as the puppy is the most important aspect.
I love the colour swatch tones of Tim Reynolds (far right in fig 4.) low poly illustrations:
Low poly character mood board
3. Disjointed Model and Rig
This is less of a concept style choice and more of a personal 3D modelling and mechanical technique that I wish to experiment with in the future. It will possible to do so in this project, as long as it is appropriate for the art theme. I may have to add more ‘disjointed’ looking things in the environment if I continue with this style.
So, to clarify, by ‘disjointed’ model and rig I mean to describe the way that the model has been constructed.
As you can see above, the model does not have bends in it, only ball joints. With this, the weight painting would be simplified to covering whole sections rather than smoothly covered, incremental sections. For example, for the bend of the elbow, the whole forearm and elbow ball joint would be covering when weight painting. None of the upper arm would be included Then the wrist ball joint and the palm would be applied to the wrist rig joint.
While, it would be beneficial for my skill and experience to learn how to model and rig an animal for the first time, I wish to consider this technique also. At the very least, it should save me some time that I can use to learn more about rigging the face and animating an animal.
Style Choices
While I liked Tim Reynolds’ low poly illustrations, and I believe that I can make the art style work, it will be difficult to ensure that the low poly model looks good when the rig is moved. I more geometry than the sketch above is needed. And I should triangulate the mesh to make it look better rather than with quads. I can imagine implementing Tim Reynolds’ art style of all of my objects, and it looking extremely aesthetically pleasing. I was thinking of having all of the models having a gradient to them like in his illustration. Then objects that the puppy would have seen often and gotten used to will be lighter, dimmer colours (e.g. grey), as to not stand out. And objects that may be new, unfamiliar or make noise, they can be more vibrant colours (e.g. red/purple), as to draw the attention to them. In a world of light colours, there would be a dark grey- gradient to light colour- puppy that stands out.
Choosing Theme
I chose to have the stylised theme for my animation. This will best suit the ‘new life’ theme that I wish to portray. I believe that the others will only distract attention from the animation. Whereas, I can best portray a designed character with the stylised theme, this should provide sufficient translation of personality through aesthetics. Since, with the stylised theme, I can exaggerate certain physical traits that translate into visual character language, for example how in a characatures exaggerated chin and eyebrows can convey snobbishness.
Character
Dog Shape Experiments
I experimented with breeds of dog and shape differences between them. I could simply choose the most easiest and generic breed of dog, that being golden retriever or a Labrador. However, I would like to also consider the option of juxtaposing ‘aggressive’ or ‘fierce’ looking breeds with the fearful behavioural characteristics that I will apply to the character. For example, the boxer in the sketches above.
Concept Shot (test frame for visuals)
Rig Research Ideas
3 ways of rigging a reverse leg (dog leg) in Maya – YouTube
#RiggingInMaya | Part 20 | Advanced | Driver Skeleton – YouTube