This week, we learned that it is possible to edit existing rigs by adding new handles and joints. We got a flour sack rig and we are expected to create a short animation.
Flour Sack – Rigging
The most important lesson I learned was that we can edit the rigs at our convenience.
So what we did was to edit some joint connections and delete the ones that were limiting our movements.
We also learned that we can go into x-ray mode in order to see the joints and manipulate their connections more smoothly.
Furthermore, we also learned how to use the IK handles to stick the feet into the ground.
Flour Sack – Animation Progress
My idea behind the work was to create a short running animation of a flour sack. My aim was to give the flour sack his own personality and so I decided to create cartoon character movements.
First Outcome
My first animation of the flour sack appears to be very stiff because the body is only rotating horizontally.
For this reason, I would like to keep on working on the hip movements of my character.
Second Outcome
In my second animation, not only did I adjust the hip rotation, but also the bouncing of my character. I also experimented with the texture of my rig.
What I am planning to do next is to animate the ears in order to create an overlapping action with the body.
– Pick up a movie you like. – Breakdown the story arc (what are the 8 stages). – Breakdown the characters into their archetypes. – Create a timeline for the main character starting before the film.
Introduction: Nightmare Before Christmas
For this assignment I decided to analyse Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” because I consider it as one of my most iconic childhood movies.
The plot revolves around the misadventures of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, and who one day decided he wanted to take control over Christmas by kidnapping Santa Claus.
In this way, the audience is invited to join Jack onto his journey towards becoming the next Santa Claus and travelling between both Halloween and Christmas Town.
1. Story Arc
The following analysis is based on Nigel Watts’ 8-Point Story Arc:
1. Stasis: Jack Skellington is living in his comfort zone and fulfills his role as the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.
2. Trigger: He gets bored of his daily routine, wants to resign his job as the Pumpkin King and aspires to become the next Santa Claus of Christmas Town.
3. The quest: Jack needs to travel to Christmas Town in order to learn the skills on how to be a successful Santa Claus. In addition, this implies entering into a completely unfamiliar situation.
4. Surprise: Even though he was putting an enormous effort into learning Christmas crafts and traditions, he realizes his Halloween nature is intact. In other words, instead of getting into the real “Christmas Spirit”, Jack is turning Christmas into an unpleasant and terrifying holiday.
5. Critical Choice: Despite of his flaws and in hope of becoming the next Santa Claus, Jack sends Lock, Shock and Barrel to get rid of the characters standing in his way. Therefore, they kidnap his enemy – the real Santa Claus -, putting into danger the Christmas holiday.
6. Climax: When Christmas comes around, Jack fails to fulfill his duty as Santa Claus. Instead of bringing joy to the children, they start to get scared of him. In this way, the character pays a heavy price for his actions, and he realizes he needs help.
7. Reversal: Jack travels back to Halloween Town in order to save Santa Claus from the Oogie Boogie and in hope of saving the Christmas holiday.
8. Resolution: After being saved, Santa Claus returns to Christmas Town and brings joy to the children once again. Jack learns from his mistakes, accepts his fate as the Pumpkin King and starts appreciating Halloween even more than before.
2. Characters and Archetypes
Hero: Jack Skellington can be considered as the hero of the story. Even though he was responsible for almost ruining the Christmas holiday, he actually had harmless intentions and wanted to make a change for better.
Mentor: Sally is the character who tries to talk Jack out of his plan of becoming the next Santa Claus. Not only does she provide motivation, but also tries to advise him and talk sense into him.
Threshold guardian: The mayor of Halloween Town is responsible of guarding his world and wants to make sure that everyone there has a peaceful life. For this reason, he is the first one to be skeptical when Jack wanted to become the next Santa Claus instead of being the Pumpkin King.
Herald: All the town meetings and gatherings can be considered as the Herald, since they announced what was going to happen next in public.
Shapeshifter: Jack can also be considered as a shapeshifter, since you get to meet both his good and bad intentions. On the one hand, he wants to make a positive difference at Christmas, however, this implies getting rid of Santa Claus. On the other hand, after realizing that he never would be as skillful as the actual Santa Claus, he regrets his actions and wants to restore peace to both worlds.
Shadow: One could consider Santa Claus as the shadow of Jack Skellington insomuch as he was interfering with the idea of taking his place. However, the real enemy is the Oogie Boogie, who is the only character of Halloween Town who actually has bad intentions and wanted to eliminate the real Santa Claus.
Trickster: Lock, Shock, and Barrel are playful characters and can be considered as the tricksters since they show the absurdity of the situation and announce how they want to kidnap Santa Claus.
Allies: Apart from being a mentor, Sally can also be considered as an ally, since she tries to save Jack and be a good influence on him. Dr. Finkelstein can also be seen as an ally, since he provides Jack with flying skeletons, also known as reindeers, during Christmas Night. In this way, these characters fill in the gaps where Jack is deficient.
3. Hero’s Journey
Ordinary World: Jack Skellington lives in his ordinary life and excels at being the Pumpkin King. He has earned the respect of Halloween Town and has a high reputation within his neighbors.
Call to Adventure: The protagonist is tired of his routine and wants to leave his comfort zone. He wants to be the next Santa Claus, rather than being the Pumpkin King, and therefore he travels to Christmas Town.
Refuse to the Call: Despite the fact that the Mayor and Halloween Town do not want him to travel to Christmas Town, Jack refuses to accept their warning.
Talks to Mentor: Jack talks to Sally about his ideas and how he was planning to take over Christmas. She also tries to stop him and advises him not to do so.
Crossing the first Threshold: Jack travels across two worlds: from Halloween Town to Christmas Town.
Tests, Allies, Enemies: The protagonist is being challenged and tested by Christmas Town. He has to adapt to their customs and learn how to actually get into the “Christmas Spirit”. Dr. Finkelstein is also involved in helping him throughout his mission.
The Approach to the Inmost Cave: Jack is struggling with the preparations for Christmas Night and therefore plans to kidnap Santa Claus.
The Ordeal: Jack realizes that he is overwhelmed by the responsibilities of Santa Claus and questions himself if he is ever going to be able to take his role.
The Reward: After receiving help from his friends at Halloween town, he manages to prepare all the Christmas presents for the children. In this way, he is one step closer to fulfilling his dream of becoming the next Santa Claus.
The Road Back: Jack realizes that instead of bringing joy to the children, he frightens them. In order to save Christmas, he travels back to Halloween Town and wishes to restore peace.
The Resurrection: Jack faces the final battle against the Oogie Boogie and successfully saves Santa Claus and Christmas.
The Return: The protagonist appreciates even more Halloween and accepts his fate as the Pumpkin King.
The aim of this week was to model a hand throwing a ball by means of locators and parent constraints.
Modelling
Firstly, we deconstructed the shape of the upper arm, forearm, hand and fingers into basic volumes. We learned about hierarchies and how to connect each of the square prisms according to their hierarchy level (Upperarm> Forearm> Hand> Fingers).
Locators
Secondly, we learned about locators and how to set them up in order to switch between them. In my case, I placed three locators: the first one to position the ball on the floor, the second one to position the ball in the hand, and the third one to throw the ball into the basket.
Hand Throwing Ball – Animation Progress
First Outcome
Finally, after setting up the parent constrains, I animated the secquence from different perspectives.
However, I need to keep on working on the timing and also on the ball as it should bounce at the end.
This week, we took the knowledge of our bouncing ball further by trying to combine it with a tail movement. In addition, we also learned about the concept of blocking and how it is different from spline animations.
Ball with Tail – Planning
Untitled Artwork
First, I planned the arc movement of my bouncing ball throughout time.
Then, I sketched some key poses of my tail. Here I will need to animate some overlapping actions of the tail.
Ball with Tail – Progress
First Outcome (Blocking)
After getting my feedback on my first outcome, I learned that I had to add more key poses.
Second Outcome (Blocking)
The amount of key poses is much better than my first animation.
However, I need to work on the movement of the tail since it appears to be stiff and sliding.
Third Outcome (Blocking)
For my third animation, I decided to add some platforms.
Moreover, I particularly worked on the anticipation of the tail.
Fourth Outcome (Spline)
For my fourth animation, I had to work hard with the graph editor in order to change from blocking into spline.
Unfortunately, in some parts it looks as if the character and tail is sliding.
Fifth Outcome (Spline)
While I was working on my fifth animation, I learned that I could change the character of my rig.
Even though the movement of the ball seems a lot more smoother than the previous versions, the tail still looks as if it is sliding.
Title: How Inclusive Storytelling and Character Design can Promote a More Diverse and Equal Environment in Video Games
Key words: Representation in Video Games – Storytelling – Character Design – Gender Roles
Introduction:
Over the past decades, there has been a tendency to portray women in video games as a supporting character rather than the protagonists of their own story and not only are they prone to be oversexualized but also underrepresented.
In this context, the aim of this research it to analyze to what extent inclusive storytelling and character design can have an impact on the perception of gender roles and how they can be used to create a more diverse and equal environment. For this purpose, the main focus will be on the video game sequel Last of Us which had a controversial impact when it comes to reinforcing gender stereotypes.
Bibliography:
Wells, P., 2007. Scriptwriting. Lausanne: AVA Academia.
Wells, P., 2006. The Fundamentals of Animation. Lausanne: AVA Academia.
Fernández-Vara, C., 2019. Introduction to Game Analysis. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
This week, we learned about Maya’s Content Browser, which ennables us to work on preexisting rigs and scenes. Our task was to create a shark animation and for this purpose we used a preexisting shark rig.
3D Modelling
First and foremost, we modelled in more detail the shark rig and added eyes, teeth and changed the shape of the mouth.
3D Animation Path
Secondly, we learned how to attach objects to a motion path and how to animate different body parts by using deformers, for instance, the sine deformer.
Motion Path
Sine Deformer
Shark Animation – Progress
Thirdly, we also learned how to set up cameras so that they follow our animated characters.
However, what I need to fix is the film secquence editing, as the shark should not move into opposite directions.
This week we got feedback on our bouncing ball animation and learned about pendulum movements. We were given the task to first plan a pendulum animation and then start working on the animation itself.
Pendulum Animation – Planning
For my planning, I took into account that the parts of the pendulum are moving at different rates.
Furthermore, I defined the amplitude of the pendulum oscillation and how it decreases over time.
Finally, I illustrated the offset animation of the different parts in order to create overlapping actions.
Pendulum Animation – Progress
First Outcome
In my first draft, the offset animation of the different parts seems to be smooth.
However, I need to keep on working on the end since the pendullum movement stops abruptly.
Second Outcome
My second animation does not look satisfying at all.
Even though I tried to add some oscillations at the end, it the movement still stops abruptly.
Third Outcome
The pendullum animation of my third draft seems to be much smoother than the previous ones.
However, I noticed that I need to lower the maximum height of the pendullum oscillation.
The movement should not exceed the height of the upper part of the pendullum
On the first week, we got familiarized with Maya’s user interface, toolbars and key controls. We also learned how to create polygon primitives and how to edit the amount of subdivisions in order to modify our shapes smoothly using faces, edges and vertices.
References
I decided I wanted to model a Susuwatari, which is a small and furry spirit that lives in the darkness and appears in Hayao Miyazaki’s movies.
In this way, I practiced how to create polygons, snap elements together and edit colors and textures of materials.
I also had to take into account what type of textures, cameras and lights I used so that the Arnold renderer would recognize them.
3D Modelling
Render of a SusuwatariSusuwatari placed on a HDR Background (https://polyhaven.com/a/fireplace)
3D Breakdown
Extrusion of faces
My Susuwatari is holding a star shaped object and in order to model it, I edited the number of subdivisions of a sphere and extruded different vertices to create irregular patterns of spikes.
This week we had an introduction to the 12 principles of animation and we were given the task to plan and animate a bouncing ball going from left to right.
Bouncing Ball – Planning
Since this was my first time planning an animation, I learned that I had to take many things into account:
The position of the ball in the X and Y axis.
The number of frames it takes the ball to actually move.
The speed of the ball is given by the number of frames. In this way, when the animation is slower, we need more frames, whereas when it is quicker, we need less frames.
The stretch and squash of the ball when it is bouncing.
Bouncing Ball Progress
First Outcome:
My first outcome was not so successful because at some parts the ball did not actually hit the ground.
Even though I added some stretch and squash to the ball, I had some issues with the timing.
Finally, the ball looks as if it is sinking into the ground at the end.
Second Outcome:
For my second draft, I needed to change the view from perspective to left.
The animation turned out better than my first attempt, however, I need to keep on working on the arc movement at the end.
In addition, I may add some tiny bounces at the end because the ball falls to the ground abruptly.
Third Outcome:
For my third draft, I worked on adjusting the squash effect taking into account that the first bounce is the one with the most significant squash effect.
Furthermore, I added a last bounce at the end and made the animation longer so that the ball kept rolling some frames more.
Fourth Outcome:
The animation of the bouncing ball seems to be smoother, however, there are still some stretch frames I need to fix.
This week we had our unit introduction where we learned about the outlines of our course and also about our assignment brief.
We were also given a general explanation on how to develop a relevant research topic, how to organize our ideas and what academic resources can help us elaborate our critical report.
We also worked in groups and thought of potential fields of interest. Some of them are:
Representation in animation taking into consideration gender roles, idealization and appearance of characters.
Immersive media as opposed to real life.
The importance of animation and how it is developing for modern audiences.
AI technology and how it can be perceived as a menace to artists.
