Show Reel LAUAN402

My show reel for this term mostly consists of my Maya work, as I feel the most proud presenting it and I felt the most motivated creating them. As I would like to specialise and do more of this next year, I think it would be best to showcase to the class what I can offer. I chose the animations that I did, because I think that the flip book shows my style of animation the best, and I think that my slapstick shows where I am in my animation process the best.
I included a promotion at the end that represents the theme of my Instagram account the best. I'm glad that i animated the arrows so that the video didn't seem like it froze, and also gave people who don't want my information something to look at.

MAYA for Show Reel - Splint

Initially, I had created this model as a basic polygon structure to test rigging and motion for the 3D walk cycles but realised I had started creating the wrong character. Because of the purpose of rigging it, my final designs for a lot of the limbs were very basic forms with clear indications of the main joints.  

After making the clock and the handle for it, I thought that the best way to create the apron would be to extrude from a square to create the necessary curves around the body. 

I found that this didn't really work. Though it made a good shape and a cartoony wave pattern like in my sketches, it was too thin. I could not extrude the apron to give it some thickness, therefore the back end of the pouch and hammer constantly stuck out. Due to this, the apron was completely scrapped.

One of the things I did like in this stage of the model was the eyes, as they fitted perfectly around the cheeks to create the shape in the design. I also like the form of the ears, which I keep in the final model and smooth.

To create the new apron, I used a cube and used the knife to create a lot of polygons in it to be able to create the form against the body. I think this ended up having a better shape than before, especially when I smoothed it out. The straps were a single row of polygons in a torus, and I think the lack of depth looks good because it makes the straps thinner than the apron.
I combined and smoothed out a lot of limbs. Though the arms look the same from a distance, I like that it maintains the design shape. The legs however look smoother and they now have kneecaps which looks more realistic.
My flaws in this are probably the green undershirt on Splint, but this is because of the original design. I also don't like the lack of gap in the shoes, because there is a fake hole using a black texture. I think I could have made a foot with an ankle and created the boot around it. 

MAYA for Show Reel - Carlson

This was before smoothing out the polygons and creating a larger gap between the fingers. This is the first time I have created an object without booleans, using only one cylinder as the base of the entire fist. I mostly did this as an experiment, knowing that not using booleans is more healthy for the model, as there is less chance of having faults in the mesh. 

The clothes were fairly easy on this model as extracting certain polygons helped to distinguish the hems of clothes. However in my next model, I made clothes that went over the model to experiment with the two methods. I prefer this method, however I think it would be hard to make more flowing clothes this way. I do not like how these clothes have the restriction of the character's movements, and therefore could not have their own secondary action if needed. 

Destino

Destino is a short film created in collaboration by Walt Disney's John Hench and the surrealist painter Salvador Dali in 1945. The animation test created was seventeen seconds in length and was in the process for eight months.
Due to the second world war, the project was archived until 1999 when Walt's nephew gave the production over to the small Parisian production department at Disney, Paris for this to be finished.
This is french director Dominique Monfery's first role as director. Twenty five animators were needed to figure out what Dali wanted throughout his artistic and expressionistic storyboard panels.
The short was released with Fantasia 2000.
This has since been released to Disney plus in the last month(/ months for other countries)

Though Disney is a mainstream production company, I feel as though this short has a significantly smaller reputation than most, as I feel like few children know about fantasia and it is not a popular choice among adults to watch it, especially a remastered version of it. I also think that it is not as well known because Disney are not known for putting short films inside movies and only releasing them as such, as most Disney shorts were their own entity. Now a days, only PIXAR is famously known for their shorts. So I believe Destino is only truly getting recognition now that it is on Disney Plus among the other shorts in Disney's large roster.

I like this short because of how the animation team managed to translate Dali's art style in to the animation, and how everything flowed like a painting. I think that the idea of destiny and life being 'set in stone' was an interesting story to tell, using artworks like statues to show the literal phrase can be interpreted in to history revealing the destiny of the future through the man and woman. Using artworks of statues within an animation that looks like a giant artwork itself reflect the true artistic interpretation used to create this entire animation - as the animators themselves were actively trying to artistically represent Dali and Walt's vision from 1945.

Dissertation: WWW and EBI, Notes and Presentation Slides

Dissertation Notes

WWW:

• I managed to get up and speak unlike in the presentation of the pitch bible
• The presentation was visually appealing with the drawings I had done to explain some of the complex characters and concepts
• I had an interesting topic as I chose a video game and no one else did
• Had a lot of interesting information about the production and concepts thanks to the animator's blogs that Tequila Works produced
• Even though the game could not be played, I had a good knowledge on game play to answer the questions at the end about the game
• I was probably the most confident answering the additional questions unscripted and off of the top of my head over giving laid out information

EBI;

• I looked at the computer for 90 percent of the talk, so I need to look up more. This could be done by running with it, unscripted, and having a topic I can joke about more so that I can direct things to the audience
• I ran over, I didn't get a chance to say a little bit of the final slide. I was stuttering a lot and at one pointed couldn't process anything so I took what felt like a fairly large pause. I probably would have finished had that not happened.
• Standing behind the desk, even though I'm fairly glad I did that after my legs buckled, I should have been with the board and in front of the audience so they didn't have to look between me and the slide.