Toolkit #2: Submission Post & Reflective Statement.

Character Production Bible:

Toolkit #2 - Character Prod... by Jasmine Masters

See Basecamp for cleaner PDF version^

Character Design Project:
Class Work:

Lesson 1: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/10/character-design-session-1.html

Lesson 2: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-session-2.html

Lesson 3: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/11/character-design-session-4.html

Lesson 4: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/01/character-design-session-5.html

Lesson 5: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/01/character-design-session-6.html

Animation –

5 Poses x2:

              i. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/10/moom-action-poses.html

              ii. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/10/week-2-act-moom-relaxed-poses.html

Moom Weight Lifting: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/12/week-6-7-loosening-up-animation-re.html

Lip Syncing: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/05/toolkit-2-lip-syncing-pt-4-adding-head.html

Life Drawing Classes:

1. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/10/life-drawing-1.html

2. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/11/life-drawing-2.html

3. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/12/life-drawing-3.html

4. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/05/toolkit-2-life-drawing-back-to-basics.html

Maya & Associated Software:

Lighting and Rendering:

Arnold Lighting and Rendering P1: (Physical Sky Light, Mesh Lights, Ambient Occlusion, Photo Metric Lights, Depth of Field): https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/11/toolkit-2-arnold-lighting-and-rendering.html

Arnold Lighting and Rendering Pt2: (Fog (Legacy) & Atmosphere, Displacement Maps (Standard and Vector), Stand-Ins (Proxies) Motion Blur): https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2020/12/toolkit-2-arnold-lighting-and-rendering.html

Arnold Lighting and Rendering Pt3: Caustics: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/02/toolkit-2-arnold-lighting-and-rendering.html

Subsurface Scattering and AOV's: -- 

Pipeline 1: Jetpack Jones.

Final Outcome (Pt5):  https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/06/toolkit-2-pipeline-1-jetpack-jones-pt-2.html

Texturing:

Book Texturing (Maya): https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/02/toolkit-2-texturing-pipeline-book_17.html
Barrel Texturing: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/02/toolkit-2-texturing-pipeline-procedural.html

Graffitied Dumpster: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/toolkit-2-texturing-pipeline-texturing_17.html
Oil Can: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/toolkit-2-texturing-pipeline-texturing.html
Substance Book: https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/toolkit-2-texturing-pipeline.html

Additional:

Animation - James Holborn Workshops:

1. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/sessions-with-james-1-posing-with.html

2. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/sessions-with-james-2-animation-with.html

3. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/sessions-with-james-3-continued.html

4. https://jasminemasterscaa.blogspot.com/2021/03/sessions-with-james-4-continued.html

Toolkit #2 Reflective Statement: 

Over the course of Toolkit 2 I have found it eye opening to vast number of skills that have been compiled into this unit of work, from learning how to animate better, the processes behind texturing to all the behind the scenes work that goes into lighting/rendering and modelling. I have found Toolkit to enlighten my skillset and work flow within the 3D Pipeline. 

 Throughout this unit of work, I have found the lighting, rendering and texturing side of things to really appeal to me as no only does the behind the scenes allow for creative input but I also find the outcomes to be very effective when done right. Thus, allowing me to appreciate more the work that goes into creating scenes in films and animated shorts. So, when I got the chance to texture in substance painter, I found it valuable knowledge to learn so I can then apply it other little projects and taking it forward into my year 3 environment project, despite having some technical issues with the program on my PC (as I found when it came to texturing the dumpster, book and oil can) I found it has not hindered my grasp or understanding the program. With this said it would be important to note not forgetting the texturing pipeline in Maya as this is another key element to understanding the texturing process in the digital 3D world and connecting texturing maps up coming out of SP. 

Within Toolkit I have also found my level of understanding movement within the 3D world to get better, although I wouldn’t say I’m now an expert in character movement I have found since collaboration my animating has gotten better in areas. This being in positioning the character into poses and understanding movement, however with that said I did find it hard at times to correct timing of transitions in between poses; whether they be too quick or too slow. I found this became apparent with the sessions we did with James; in areas of that final animation it flows well, but others its either a bit ‘jerky’ or ‘stiff’. Despite that I found those sessions to be useful in building my knowledge in animating and being a bit more confident in the work I create with the constructive feedback to build upon and work towards. 

Over the course of the past year, there was a slight struggle to arrange proper sessions for life drawing with enough room to accommodate for social distancing within the uni. Most of our sessions were cancelled due to the lockdown put in place over November/December period and part of the new year. Despite this the time that we were in I found the sessions to be enjoyable and allowed for creative interpretation when drawing from life. This particularly evident in the week of life drawing we had to make up for lost sessions, during this week I found it allowed me to get back into drawing on paper and have a reprieve from staring at a computer screen for hours. Here I also found my drawing style to evolve while recording what I was seeing by putting pencil to paper and just enjoy what I was creating without it feeling like work. 

A considerable amount of Toolkit was modelling a character and then rigging said character (Jetpack Jones). With this I found I struggled to get into the making of the character, this mainly due to poor time management within the past year, finding I was hitting slumps where I was finding it hard to motivate myself and do work and where I wasn’t really allowing myself a break as I tunneled into other projects. To combat this, I aim to try a make a routine where I can spread the work flow of projects evenly to enable to get the best possible outcome. As mentioned with my premise reflective statement working from home, I have found to be difficult as there were too many distractions around me, so will need to combat this by getting out of the house and where possible come into the university to get work done. Despite this the parts I did do of the pipeline project I found I have learnt a bit more about modelling a character’s face and the key structure processes that go into the mouth and eye that can be applied to other characters created in future. With what I have so far, I can see it has the potential to be expanded and built upon which I aim do over the summer and hopefully complete the Jetpack Jones tutorials through to the end (final model and rigging) and gain a better grasp of the 3D pipeline when it comes to modelling and rigging a character.