Jasmine Masters, BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester.

Continuing on from adding the in-betweens from last time. Here I looked at converting the stepped keyframes to splined and then in the graph editor looked at cleaning up the spline curves so there was no overshoot and to make sure the timing of the animation seemed right. Cleaning up Animation (partial from frame 0004 to 0095.) Clean Animation - First Pass ^^Some parts are a bit slow and need readjusting to help speed up segments of the animation and some parts need going over to remove any jerky/ jumpy movements as well as removing any further rigidity in the animated movements in the second pass.

This week we looked at adding in the in-between poses to our keyframe animations from last week. Here I added in the remaining keyframes from last week to help round off the sitting sequence. I then looked at adding in extra keys to help add weight and movement control to the sequence. Reference Footage: Final Main Keyframes Finished: Added In-Betweens to Key Poses: Isolated In-Between (Chair Swipe):

This week we looked at using the bony rig to create a short animation showing the rig sitting down. We had a choice of either shooting reference to use or we could find reference online and use that as our base for our animation. I chose to use one of Kevin Parry's sitting sequences to animate, this being the 'Silent Film Star sitting sequence (see video below). With this reference I looked at blocking out the key poses for the short; making sure to set the time slider tangents to flat and stepped in the animation settings, I also chose to set the frames to 25fps. For this I had about 22 key poses (contact points) to position using the bony rig (not all key poses are marked out in the reference footage as I had to make some adjustments to the poses the rig would transition through).  Below are the time slider settings and some the key poses for the sitting sequence. Animation with the Ultimate... by Jasmine Masters Reference Footage: Key Poses (14):

Continuing on with learning Substance Painter. For this session we looked at texturing a Dumpster. Using more in-depth methods to texture the model; ranging from using a variety of masks, filters, generators, fill layers, anchor points and projections onto a surface to create the end outcome. I still had some stags due to my system requirements and the program not running how it should with maps glitching; but managed to make do with what the program would allow me to do. Texturing Pipeline - Textur... by Jasmine Masters AO Pass. Final Render Composite with AO Pass.

Continuing on with learning Substance Painter. For this session we looked at texturing an Oil Can. Using more in-depth methods to texture the Can; ranging from using a variety of masks, filters, generators and fill layers. Whilst using Substance I found I hit a few snags when it came to adding textures in the height map; meaning that although I was adding this information in, I wasn't showing on the live render model in the viewport. This may be down to the type of graphics card I have on my laptop and not having enough cache memory to carry out certain operations. Texturing a Oil Can in Subs... by Jasmine Masters Oil Can Composite.

Looking at my proposal ideas I started to think about whether I wanted to do them so that they were going to be 3 separate ideas or as a cohesive set of environments that all have one event in common to link them together. From this I decided to see how I could link all 3 together; noting how all have a science theme and how I could use this to form a storyline to base the environments off of. So, using the last bullet point from each proposal to form my base concept. I came up with the outline of a rebel/activist group planning to abolish all nuclear power from existence, using ideas from the Duck and Cover era to show an anti-nuclear regime. In addition to this I thought it would be good at add a group of scientist that are striving to protect earths plant life by taking into space where it would then be safe from the rumor's of the rebels planning to attack the power plants and shut the plants down. The story/world would be set years into the future and lack any form of huma...

From further discussion with my tutors, I have decided to scrap the idea of using folktales to retell a story and instead have chosen to focus on environmental storytelling. By doing this it will allow me to focus on environmental design and world building to help communicate past/present events to the viewer. Through this approach it will really allow me to focus on modelling, texturing and lighting as these are the areas I am most drawn to. With this in mind I can see this project stretching over the premise project, through to the minor and major projects to come in year 3. This is because I can break down the sets into 3 areas – interior sets, exterior buildings and the world these building exist in.  Below are some of my initial environment ideas. For this I used the idea of ‘what if’ to generate these outcomes as well as the use of initial visual research to help support ideas. Initial Environment Premise Proposals - Visual Themes. Premise Initial Visual Prop... by Ja...

This week for our session with James, we looked at adding a timecode to a piece of reference footage and marking out where the key poses are in premiere as well as looking at stepped animation and key framing poses in Maya. For each pose we had 10 minuets to pose the Ultimate Bony Rig to match that of the reference image we were provided with. Here the main focus was on creating the flow curves of the action being carried out (some being S and C motion curves). We did not manage to do all the of the poses; so, as extra after the session came to a close we were asked to do two of the remaining poses from the reference images. These being the tennis player and the other pose we didn't do of the two men fighting. Session #1 - Posing with th... by Jasmine Masters                         

This week we were introduce to Substance Painter; which is a live texture editing software used to texture models and create maps to then use in other programs, in this case we were exporting maps to use in Maya. Book Texturing in Substanc... by Jasmine Masters Book Outcome. Book Composite Outcome.