Final Thoughts

Well here we are, my friends. The end of the road is finally here. I still remember the early days of Year 2, making my first 3D blog and creating a single 3D mesh of Spongebob. I honestly wouldn't have guessed that I'd end up making the creations you've seen over the past 2 years.

This semester has involved a lot work... Moreso than any other semester's-worth of 3D (Which is expected, to be honest, seeing as it is my 3rd year!). Fortunately, it's been less frustrating than before. I felt a lot more confident and comfortable around Organic Modelling and now had full control over exactly what I would do and how (Rather than following a set of tutorials). As a result, this allowed me to avoid a lot of the annoying problems, like the symmetry modifier, which I had last semester.

Main thing now is that I will never underestimate the large amounts of work that goes into getting a set of 3D characters up and running (Quite literally!). There was a lot of steps required just to get the point where I could make one of the smile. Granted, it was a lot of work - But it made the animation process so much smoother, rather than attempting to leap in an animate right off the bat. I'm sure many others can attest to the fact that planning and structuring the characters completely early on makes for less hassle during animation.

So the first stage was coming up with the concept and plan. The theme was incredibly open - focussing purely on "Emotions" rather than a particular topic. This was actually worse for me, as I've always struggled with open-ended ideas. Given time, I can creatively work out ideas for a theme where I have some sort of 'limitation' (i.e. A specific theme to base it on) - But I tend to find myself lost without any foundation to base my ideas on. I still remember one evening when doing English homework in secondary school. We had to just write a poem... any poem... whatever we wanted. I spent more time trying to find a topic than I did wriring it! (3 hours at least deciding a theme). So whilst I find the open-endedness somewhat against my style - It was a much-needed exercise (After all, I ideally need to develop a greater sense of decisiveness when it comes to open-ended situations). So instead of focussing on the plot or theme - I decided to focus on the sort of characters I'd have the most fun animation (Being the key factor, after all). Whilst the ideas took a while to properly formulate - I'm very happy that I settled on the 2 aliens. I'm also very happy with the Chess theme, which was a lot more fun than the initial idea of having the 2 of them carrying boxes.

Next stage was the modelling. After the previous semester's work of making my head - This was less painful, if I'm honest. For one thing, I could spent the time looking at cute drawings of aliens, and not my head (Makes a change) - But also because creative license was open to have a lot more fun with the models. They could look as cute or strange as I wanted them to. Seeing a funny-looking alien come to life is a lot more appealing than seeing a realistic face, if I'm honest. Though it took a while to do (And areas like the mouth required several attempts), I was very happy with the outcomes of both. In fact, Carl seemed to have a more 'refined' character than I originally had in the concept drawings. He looked like a bit more of a slob, which gave his character a bit more texture. Kris came out perfect in my opinion. He looks just like I planned him to.

The bones was the next stage. Whilst the majority of the envelopes worked out according the plan (Arms, fingers, antennae, stalks and legs), I found that the shoulder and hip joints were very weak during animation. Maybe it was the additional bones or just a weak mesh... but either way, they threw up several mesh disfigurations, twists and pinches as I moved the characters around. You can see the worst of them on Kris' shoulder as he performs the 'Castle' (Good thing the shoulder is hidden for the majority of the animation!). Though I tried to go back and edit the envelopes to see if I could change this - I found that nothing could save the mesh, and had to put it down to weak connections between the limbs and the torso.

The morphers, on the other hand, went very well. Like the organic modelling, it took a while and frequently involved trial-and-error, often having to re-do from scratch - I feel that the expressions came out very well. The only thing I could have improved was even more morphers! (Perhaps some separate morphers for Carl's cheek bones to allow his eyes to show more emotion when smiling)

As for the Animaiton - I'm very happy with the outcome. Whilst I might not have the patience for it - I'd definitely say that it's my niche in 3D work. I find myself getting really involved with the character's motions, to the extent that I'll sometimes act them out and harass my flatmates to help me if the actions involve 2 people. To me, detail is everything here. I expect realistic results and will strive to try and spot any small movements and twitches to help amplify a basic movement to an expression-filled action. I feel that I have achieved this very well here. Whilst I keep going back and spotting small changes I would have preferred, I am satisfied with the outcome.

So overall, I'm happy with the 3D project. The music takes to another level, and I was exceptionally pleased to see 'Reefer Man' fit the opening scene so well. I've also managed to overcome my fear of organic modelling somewhat, and am more open to creating a host of different characters instead of robots.

Thanks for reading. All the best

- Steve A.K.A. Captain Pineapple -

The Finished Result

Alas my friends... but the final rendered video comes in at a whopping 500mg. As a result, I'm not able to upload it on here (The limitation is 100mg). I will see if I can find some sort of way to compress the file... but I still can't understand how a smaller resolution makes for a larger file size (Individually each file is only about 50mg each)

Either way, I'm going to make do with what I have. So here are the rendered versions of each of the 4 scenes. Yes, there's no sound - But the animation is all here for your enjoyment.

Scene 1: Rock-Paper-Scissors

Scene 2: Game - Start

Scene 3: Game - Middle

Scene 4: Game - Last

Putting it all together

The final stages involved a general clean-up and then putting the animation together.

After giving the videos a basic render, they were watched over and over for inaccuracies and problems. Interestingly, there were several, none of which are immediately obvious the first time you watch it. This is, of course, down the fact that your attention is more fixed on the key character movements. It's only when you've seen it a few times that you spot things like Kris' tie passing through a wooden table. So I went back over the animation and re-rendered them with the updated changes.

With the final batch of 4 videos... the only thing left was to stick them together with the appropriate fades between scenes

Enter Adobe Premiere!

Other then a fade-to/from-black at either end, and a fade from one scene to the other - Nothing fancy was added to the visual side of the animation. The main priority was getting everything together.

After I had a final version of the finished video now under my belt (And backed up on several sources!), it was time to start considering potential sounds or music.

Though I intially considered mumblings and sound effects - The problem was the lack of actual dialogue between the characters. The sounds wouldn't actually add much other than some weird grumbles... which seemed weak and wouldn't help to 'enhance' the overall effect.

Taking the video to others, a brilliant idea was suggested: Jazz Music! It's light enough to be gentle for the scene, yet upbeat and 'playful' enough to be jolly (As opposed to being calming and sleep-inducing). I was pointed to Bix Beiderbecke as a starting point. Luckily, the first song I came upon did it for me. His piece: 'Singin the Blues' was played alongside the chess animation, and it worked perfectly! It was upbeat yet gentle, and matched the mood. Doing this would also rendered the mutters and grumbles unneccessary, as it worked well purely on its own.

I knew I wanted the music to cut out as Carl smacked the board though, as it was just the sort of "off-beat" action to warrant that the music cuts out instantly. It was time to adorn some of the key movements with sound effects!

Luckily for me, I was finally in possession of a microphone, so was able to spend as long as I needed sitting at my desk making sounds until I felt that they were perfect. The first port of call was the sound of the pieces flying off the table. Though I did not have a full-sized chess board on me, I did have a pack of dice. Though not necessarily the same sound, it was a sufficient replacement. So for the next 20 minutes I started smacking the box of dice across the desk until I had a sound that resembled what chess pieces flying off a board would be like. The length of the sounds were key. I needed the initial cacophany of the pieces all cascading, then needed a few to still keep rolling for a few seconds longer. After a lot of trial and error (and crawling over the floor to retrieve dice that rolled under the bed), I had a good sound.

Last thing left was to take care of the start. 'Singin The Blues' worked well for the chess match, but felt very out of place on the initial chaos and action. As I pondered what to do with the opening scene, I recorded the main sound effects for the actions (The sounds of a clicking finger, hi-5 and making an exaggerated sound for the 'Rock'), and located a nice slamming sound from last year to accompany the slams of the arms in the opening rock-paper-scissors match. They matched the movements nicely... but felt very bare without music.

It was fortunate then, that I have an unusual bunch of friends. Several months ago, one of them forwarded me a link to a really weird Flash video called "Dad's Home" (It's brilliant: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/195918). Luckily for me, the opening music is a piece of upbeat and almost insane Jazz. After watching it, the music got stuck in my head. And it was lucky that it re-appeared as I was doing this, as it fit the opening scene brilliantly.

So I went back and located a portion of Cab Calloway's "Reefer Man", and tried it out. I started it playing as soon as the camera zoomed out, to create an 'anti-climactic' moment... and to be really honest, it worked so well. It was such a brilliant tension breaker.

Working the final tweaks to the volumes - The finished product was exported, and I was done!

Day 8: Finishing Game - Last

The climax to the animation perhaps hosts the greatest range of emotions. More playing with the morpher sliders!

The opening scene has Kris with a fairly neutral face, while Carl's now looking somewhat defeated already. Carl only needed his eyes closed and a slight 'pout' applied. Everything else had been taken care of by the body language.

Kris' analysis of the board proved yet more opportunity to pull his eyes about. Once again, his right eye took dominance as it scanned the board more closely.

The above expression only required both eyelids to be thrown open (Some of the 'Shock' morpher was also used so that he opened his mouth). Snapping the eyes wide took care of most of the expression for this part.

Kris does a good job of looking smug. As before, combining a smile with lowered eyelids seems to work wonders. The eyes were also lowered to emphasise the level of comfort.

Much like Kris - Carl's shock only really required a gaping mouth and for both eyes to be thrown wide open. This time, however, Carl also had the 'Raised' eyebrow morpher to help exaggerate the expression.

Throwing the 'Raised' to 'Frown' was pretty much all I needed to change Carl from shocked to angry.

As he smacks the board, Carl holds an incredibly petulant face. Keeping in tune with the lack of movement of his body, Carl's expression does not change as he hits the board (He doesn't even blink). Kris, on the other hand is given somewhat of a shocked expression, as his eyes also flinch and retract further backwards.

In the closing stages, we finally see Carl with a smile again. He's finally able to use the "Yeah" expression that was originally saved for his victory dance. Kris only required a slight pout to show his disapproval. And with this, the expressions and smaller details were now completed.

Day 7: Finishing Game - Middle

Now the big expressions were starting to break out! 'Game - Middle' had a lot more than just pondering-moving, so opened the door for a host of expressions to run free.

Carl's mulling combined no fewer than 7 different morpher targets. Throughout his mumbling, the parameters of them all were just thrown about randomly as if a small child had found its way onto a Mixing Desk and was randomly pushing all of the buttons and changing the switches. The effect was ideal. A lot of contorting, thinking and squinting. Who knows what he was mumbling under his breath... most likely profanities at his animator.

A love this face! Kris looks well and truly smug here, which coincides perfectly with the casual 'flick' motion he does. The key to this expression is his eyes. They're at such a level that they convey confidence with comfort. They're relaxed, yet bear a hint of arrogance. It's odd how a small facial movement conveys so much.

A face-palm would not be a face-palm without the closing of the eyes and a sigh.

Kris' decisive capture left him wide-eyed and with another smile on his face. It's like a small child a Christmas.

Carl's mix of expressions worked well here. Combining the Frown, closed eyes and 'Err' mouth movement - Carl looked pretty annoyed. Kris kept his smile, funnily enough.

Day 6: Finishing Game - Start

The first scene saw lots of smaller twitching, but the lack of major moves meant that expressions weren't major in this section.

Kris' eyes played a large role for his move with the Knight. As he carefully moves it, his right eye lowers and squints slightly. This helped create the effect that he was being precise. Throughout the animation, I decided that the right eye would be his dominant, and would frequently be the eye that moves in for closer inspection, whilst the left would remain behind.

Carl's teeth were given a bit more screen-time with him chewing his lip over his next move. His eyes also scanned over the pieces to see which one would be best to move. His antennae also twitched nervously.

Carl's next move was the Queen. This time, he squinted slightly as he mumbled to himself. As an added effcet, when he lifted his hand from the queen and paused, I made him squint slightly again, to show that the cogs are well and truly whirring in Carl's head. It was in this expression that separating the right and left eye paid off (He squinted more with one eye, which seemed to have greater effect than if both squinted equally)

The scene ends with both looking fairly content. The only real problem I spotted was Kris' shoulder during the castle. Sadly, the bones had contorted it into quite a disfigured shape, but that was more a fault of the envelopes and mesh, so was ignored. Luckily, the camera angle allowed the King to perfectly cover up this unsightly twist in the mesh.

Day 5: Finishing Rock-Paper-Scissors

After a nice 4 day break from looking at the scene, it's time to go back and add in the finer details. I've thrown in lots of smaller twitches and reactions, so the following will just cover the main ones. Carl, in particular, is the most expressive with his face - whereas Kris works his from his eyes.

The first sight of reactions are in the immediate aftermath of the Rock-Paper-Scissors Match. After losing, carl scowls and opens his mouth in a "Damn!" sort of effect. Kris, on the other hand, cheers and closes his eyes in celebration.

In addition to grumpily dragging the stool towards him, Carl was also made to mutter and grumble to himself, still keeping the frown from before. Kris, on the other hand, lowered his eyes and smirked as he wagged his finger victoriously.

The Hi-5 sequence saw the only other main realm of expressions. Not only did Carl cheer up, but he started grinning too. Kris' eyes also 'jolted' as they performed the 'Rock', to create the illusion of the shock when the fists collide. Carl now was at least smiling, which is never a bad thing.