WEEK 5
With my group we established a time-line in order to have all the work under control and afterwards I started working on the animation of the two main ghosts of the story, the ghosts of the mother and the son.
Before starting the animation in Maya, I sketched the main poses of the movement in order to understand the most important keys of the animation.
After that I began animating the running of the two characters individually. The animation would have to be in place and in cycle in such a way that it could be used in Unity. I then animated by marking the key poses of the run and then corrected and cleaned up all the movements in between. Finally, once I had achieved a convincing run, I tried to see how the two characters moved together. Once I had achieved a convincing result, I exported the files in FBX format so that the VR people could enter the animation into Unity.
IN CLASS:
During this week we did a presentation in class where we demonstrated the progress made in the project, in order to
make the presentation my group and | decided to use Google slides so that we could all have access to the
presentation and be able to add our own contribution to the project.
The presentation in class was given by myself and Martyna who represented the VFX people and Alexa for VR. We
decided to divide the slides according to our roles in the project.
This activity was very useful to understand how to proceed with the project and to see the progress of the other
groups. Seeing the projects of others was certainly inspiring and made us realise that we would have to work hard to
achieve a good end result.
TATE GALLERY
After that we went to visit the Tate Gallery, where we had to find pieces of art to scan and then the following week recreate a 3D model of them.
I decided to look for objects and sculptures that I could relate to my project, so things that reminded me of a dystopian and industrial look.
WEEK 6
Once the characters’ run was animated I worked in the animation of the second run of the mother. She should have turned around during the run and should have looked behind her to check if the man was still running after them.
The process for making this animation was pretty much the same as the one listed above. I sketched out the main movements, then selected the main poses in Maya and kept correcting it until I got a clean and homogenous result.
I finally exported the animation to Fbx and passed to the VR team.
IN CLASS :
In class, we saw how the environment is important in determining the story of an animation. Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. The resulting world may be called a constructed world.Worldbuilding gives the writer a clear understanding of what their world looks and feels like. It’s completely up to the writer what they want their world to be. The imaginary world serves to establish where the story takes place.
To finish the lesson, we saw how to transform the scans we made at the Tate Gallery into 3D objects that can be used in any 3D software. This exercise was very useful, a technique that I will certainly use in my future projects. Having the possibility and the tools to transfer real objects into a 3D designer is certainly a great way to work on a realistic scene.
WEEK 7
I also worked on the animation of the deer that was in the last room of the VR experience. I had to make two separate animations, one showing the deer on the place, eating, then noticing the spectator and then turning to look at the spectator. The second animation was to be the running animation of the animal on the place. This last animation was to be applied in unity after the first in such a way that it would have an action like: deer eating, looking at the spectator, and then running away.
Final animations:
FRAMELESS VISIT :
” Frameless is redefining the experiential immersive art world. Situated in Marble Arch, we are the largest permanent multi-sensory experience in the UK. Frameless features four galleries and showcases some of the world’s greatest works of art presented in ways never seen before. Where art breaks free.”
Having the chance to see this exhibition was really very inspiring. I realised how a collaborative project can be used to create something as great as an exhibition, and I saw the beauty of combining different art styles to achieve a new and contemporary artwork in the end.
WEEK 8
The last animation I had to work on was the animation of the group of ghosts that would populate the waiting room. To do this I found low quality characters as they would not be very visible in the scene due to the plasma effect textures that would be applied to them.
I wanted to have a wide range of characters in terms of their appearance in order to have a diverse group of people.
The animations I worked on consisted of simple movements that people make while waiting, such as talking to the person next to them, talking on the phone, making a phone call, observing the booths and the people around them, checking the time… and so on.
Final Animations:
Once the animations were finished, I showed them to the rest of my group and received some very useful feedback. They were all pleased with the variety of characters and movements, but suggested that I show more of the characters’ anxiety and fear, as they were in that waiting room waiting for the lineation that would end their lives.
I found these feedback very useful and I will certainly correct these animations by the end of the project.
WEEK 9
During the ninth week we tried to see how unity responded to the animations and what the VR environment would look like. As we are working on a demo version of the project to send to the client, many aspects are not just defined. Many of the animations will be modified and changed in order to have a dynamic and realistic environment.Having the chance to see how the project was taking shape in VR was certainly very exciting and it was very pleasing to see how all our work came together to give shape to this demo version.
We are planning to work on the project for another month before sending it to the client, and during this month we plan to refine the demo version in terms of textures and animations, which will be what will create the desired atmosphere of the experience. As far as VR is concerned, the team will have to correct some minor errors in the codes in order to have a programme that moves smoothly.
WEEK 10
After that I started working on what I was going to submit at the end of this unit, which was my work in progress video and my portfolio. In order to make the work in progress video I decided to use Premiere Pro and edit a video with all the recordings of the working process of the animations I made for the project.