For this year's 10x10 project I focussed more on visual development and animation rather than narrative and story, like I did last year. I came in to the project with the clear aim of improving my 3D animation skills, but along the way I also developed my motion graphics and After Effects skills.
ECA-Stanistreet-01 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For the first day I followed a Lynda tutorial in the morning in order to refresh myself on how to use Maya. In the afternoon I chose to create a simple motion based on the lessons I had learnt with the flour sack rig I used in the tutorials. However, I do not feel that this one was a particularly strong piece as the animation feels clunky and rough. For the next day I decided to go back and watch another tutorial and animate to it as I went along.
ECA-Stanistreet-02-Harbourne-01 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
Day 2 had unexpected problems as I had completed two films for this day - I completed a Maya animation by following a tutorial, and I was happy with the animation, but was unable to render it out correctly. I realised this much too late and had to use my back up animation (which I had created ahead for Day 3 as I was unable to produce anything for this day). Though I would have liked to go back and spend more time on this animation, I was inspired by the way I used the soundtrack to guide my animations and kept this in mind as the project went by, hoping to develop this technique.
ECA-Stanistreet-03-Gaskell-04 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
ECA-Stanistreet-04-Errington-07 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
On Day 3 I wasn't able to use the render farm to render out the Maya animation, and so I worked on another After Effects piece to experiment more with motion graphics, and this time I was inspired by a quick 5 minute tutorial showing how to use 3D objects and the camera in After Effects. The first segment of the film roughly followed the tutorial, but the animation was improvised. The remainder of the film was also from my own ideas. I was playing more with colour and shapes rather than going for any narrative in particular, and the composers reacted well to this piece, producing two versions of it with completely different instruments and mood.
ECA-Stanistreet-04-Cariello-04 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 4 I was able to correctly render out the Maya animation, and so it was relatively peaceful. I am happy how this piece came out, and choosing to use the Renderman renderer added a clean and professional finish to the animation, even though it took longer to render. A composer added some sound which gave his movement a lot more life and added more comedy to it, which I was really happy with.
ECA-Stanistreet-05-Meurs-05 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
I followed Day 5's brief of visualising sound, and thought that this would be a great opportunity to work with After Effects and motion graphics again. I selected Mike Meurs' track as I enjoyed the ambient and abstract instruments used, as well due to the fact that it seemed to have different 'parts' of the piece that could be animated separately. I did not properly listen to it before jumping into animation as I wanted to see what shapes and animations I could produce based on these sounds. I am happy with how this piece came out, and have submitted it to the Motion Commotion screening.
ECA-Stanistreet-06-Cariello-Harbourne-08 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 6 I returned to playing with Maya as even though the animation I previously produced was short, people responded well on Facebook and it even had a piece of music composed for it - which I was not expecting for these test animations. Rather than following any tutorials, I decided to animate purely from my own knowledge and skills. I created rough poses on paper, and used those to block out and animate on Maya. I was able to see myself become more comfortable with using this software and I am happy that I was beginning to achieve my personal goal of developing my 3D animation skills. Another composer created a simple soundtrack for it, which complimented his movement and gave him a personality.
ECA-Stanistreet-07 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
During Day 7 I continued my development of 3D animations, this time combining concepts from the bouncing ball into this film. Again I created rough poses on paper in order to visualise his movements and then block out and create the animation on the computer. I started with the bouncing ball and then moved onto the rig's animation as I wanted to pinpoint when the ball would land and how long his reaction would be delayed by. I hoped by adding this secondary animation I could further push myself. Though this piece didn't feel as polished as the other Maya animations with this rig, I still enjoyed and learnt from it.
ECA-Stanistreet-08 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 8 I began to work on another Maya animation, however, due to the snow, I was unable to render out this film as I did not have access to the studio's more powerful computers. Despite this, I was adamant I wanted to complete a film every day, and so had everything prepared to render out before the end of the day. At this point I was unsure how long the university would be closed for, so I concentrated on just having completed films, and worry about rendering them after, even though this meant that I wouldn't be able to provide the composers with any content. This was a bit of a shame but I did not want to let the weather compromise my main goal of improving my 3D animation skills.
ECA-Stanistreet-Avery-09 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
When the snow really came down on Day 9, I decided to work together with Isabella Avery and collaborate on a stop-motion piece in order to try something different. Though the final animation was quick, some frames did not work properly as the camera didn't seem to capture them the way we wanted, and so were scrapped. Having a break from using the computer was refreshing and allowed me to reflect on my achievements so far.
ECA-Stanistreet-10 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
My final piece on Day 10 was a mix of both After Effects and Maya as I wanted to combine what I had learnt over the past two weeks. Though again it was short and sweet, I used tutorials in the morning to work out how to use particles. Initially I wanted to create the snow particles on Maya, however due the fact that my laptop couldn't process it properly, and that the university was still shut so I wouldn't be able to use the computers, I decided to use After Effects instead, as I had used particles on it once before. I followed a quick tutorial in order to refresh my memory, and then improvised until I had the look I wanted - similar to outside on that day. I was inspired by the snow and so wanted to capture facial expression of wonder and joy, so the animation on the character's body was quite minimal.
Overall I think that this year's 10x10 was a success and I am very happy with the progress I have made. I believe I achieved my goal of improving on Maya, as well as unexpectedly developing a new skill and interest in abstraction and motion graphics. I believe that this method of animation would work well with presenting information, and so would like to develop it further by using it to create my documentary for the Issues of Representation course, or for more musicians for my next external project. I feel a lot more confident with using Maya now, and hope to keep up creating small, simple animations in order to not lose my skills by the time I get to fourth year.
ECA-Stanistreet-01 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For the first day I followed a Lynda tutorial in the morning in order to refresh myself on how to use Maya. In the afternoon I chose to create a simple motion based on the lessons I had learnt with the flour sack rig I used in the tutorials. However, I do not feel that this one was a particularly strong piece as the animation feels clunky and rough. For the next day I decided to go back and watch another tutorial and animate to it as I went along.
ECA-Stanistreet-02-Harbourne-01 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
Day 2 had unexpected problems as I had completed two films for this day - I completed a Maya animation by following a tutorial, and I was happy with the animation, but was unable to render it out correctly. I realised this much too late and had to use my back up animation (which I had created ahead for Day 3 as I was unable to produce anything for this day). Though I would have liked to go back and spend more time on this animation, I was inspired by the way I used the soundtrack to guide my animations and kept this in mind as the project went by, hoping to develop this technique.
ECA-Stanistreet-03-Gaskell-04 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
ECA-Stanistreet-04-Errington-07 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
On Day 3 I wasn't able to use the render farm to render out the Maya animation, and so I worked on another After Effects piece to experiment more with motion graphics, and this time I was inspired by a quick 5 minute tutorial showing how to use 3D objects and the camera in After Effects. The first segment of the film roughly followed the tutorial, but the animation was improvised. The remainder of the film was also from my own ideas. I was playing more with colour and shapes rather than going for any narrative in particular, and the composers reacted well to this piece, producing two versions of it with completely different instruments and mood.
ECA-Stanistreet-04-Cariello-04 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 4 I was able to correctly render out the Maya animation, and so it was relatively peaceful. I am happy how this piece came out, and choosing to use the Renderman renderer added a clean and professional finish to the animation, even though it took longer to render. A composer added some sound which gave his movement a lot more life and added more comedy to it, which I was really happy with.
ECA-Stanistreet-05-Meurs-05 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
I followed Day 5's brief of visualising sound, and thought that this would be a great opportunity to work with After Effects and motion graphics again. I selected Mike Meurs' track as I enjoyed the ambient and abstract instruments used, as well due to the fact that it seemed to have different 'parts' of the piece that could be animated separately. I did not properly listen to it before jumping into animation as I wanted to see what shapes and animations I could produce based on these sounds. I am happy with how this piece came out, and have submitted it to the Motion Commotion screening.
ECA-Stanistreet-06-Cariello-Harbourne-08 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 6 I returned to playing with Maya as even though the animation I previously produced was short, people responded well on Facebook and it even had a piece of music composed for it - which I was not expecting for these test animations. Rather than following any tutorials, I decided to animate purely from my own knowledge and skills. I created rough poses on paper, and used those to block out and animate on Maya. I was able to see myself become more comfortable with using this software and I am happy that I was beginning to achieve my personal goal of developing my 3D animation skills. Another composer created a simple soundtrack for it, which complimented his movement and gave him a personality.
ECA-Stanistreet-07 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
During Day 7 I continued my development of 3D animations, this time combining concepts from the bouncing ball into this film. Again I created rough poses on paper in order to visualise his movements and then block out and create the animation on the computer. I started with the bouncing ball and then moved onto the rig's animation as I wanted to pinpoint when the ball would land and how long his reaction would be delayed by. I hoped by adding this secondary animation I could further push myself. Though this piece didn't feel as polished as the other Maya animations with this rig, I still enjoyed and learnt from it.
ECA-Stanistreet-08 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
For Day 8 I began to work on another Maya animation, however, due to the snow, I was unable to render out this film as I did not have access to the studio's more powerful computers. Despite this, I was adamant I wanted to complete a film every day, and so had everything prepared to render out before the end of the day. At this point I was unsure how long the university would be closed for, so I concentrated on just having completed films, and worry about rendering them after, even though this meant that I wouldn't be able to provide the composers with any content. This was a bit of a shame but I did not want to let the weather compromise my main goal of improving my 3D animation skills.
ECA-Stanistreet-Avery-09 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
When the snow really came down on Day 9, I decided to work together with Isabella Avery and collaborate on a stop-motion piece in order to try something different. Though the final animation was quick, some frames did not work properly as the camera didn't seem to capture them the way we wanted, and so were scrapped. Having a break from using the computer was refreshing and allowed me to reflect on my achievements so far.
ECA-Stanistreet-10 from ECA Animation on Vimeo.
My final piece on Day 10 was a mix of both After Effects and Maya as I wanted to combine what I had learnt over the past two weeks. Though again it was short and sweet, I used tutorials in the morning to work out how to use particles. Initially I wanted to create the snow particles on Maya, however due the fact that my laptop couldn't process it properly, and that the university was still shut so I wouldn't be able to use the computers, I decided to use After Effects instead, as I had used particles on it once before. I followed a quick tutorial in order to refresh my memory, and then improvised until I had the look I wanted - similar to outside on that day. I was inspired by the snow and so wanted to capture facial expression of wonder and joy, so the animation on the character's body was quite minimal.
Overall I think that this year's 10x10 was a success and I am very happy with the progress I have made. I believe I achieved my goal of improving on Maya, as well as unexpectedly developing a new skill and interest in abstraction and motion graphics. I believe that this method of animation would work well with presenting information, and so would like to develop it further by using it to create my documentary for the Issues of Representation course, or for more musicians for my next external project. I feel a lot more confident with using Maya now, and hope to keep up creating small, simple animations in order to not lose my skills by the time I get to fourth year.
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