Telling Tales: Idea Development

Sitting down with Lauren, we went through the notes we made yesterday and started to flesh out our ideas a little and explore other ideas and titles to see if we could come up with something more substantial. Reflecting upon what we came up with for the title Opposites Attract we established that the narrative would most likely steer towards the interaction of the characters. Based on this we came up with a few ideas revolving around one character helping another character, and other ideas which took the title more literally. However, after a few ideas we struggled to think of anything else that we felt would relate to the title and make a good narrative. Adrift created a similar problem for us, as we aren't comfortable with the idea of animating 3D water. However, this could be solved with using mixed media within our animation.

Expanding upon our previous choices we decided to look at the title Road to Nowhere, as we realised that this has potential. We came up with the idea of having two characters that were opposite in personality that could somehow travel to the destination of 'nowhere'. I really like this idea, as I feel that the characters could have a lot of personality and the narrative would be clear to construct in the short amount of time that we have.

Finally we touched upon Leap of Faith. Sticking with the idea of a parent pushing the child to take a leap of faith, we decided to stray from the bird idea and more towards a less literal meaning. We came up with the idea of a child learning to walk and creating a montage of the child attempting time after time before eventually getting it right. I also like this idea and feel that it would be a good choice to go with, as again the narrative would be easy to portray throughout the animation.

Overall, we have decided to focus upon the last two of our choices and develop them further, as they aren't overly ambitious, yet have the potential to be effective and tell a clear narrative.

Telling Tales: Initial Ideas

In order to help us with the narrative side of this brief we were given a selection of titles to choose from and after looking over them all there were a few titles that stood out to me and my partner (Lauren). Opposites Attract and Rivals were the first two ideas that stood out to us because of a few reasons, the main one being that the narrative could focus upon how the characters interact with each other. These two titles also opened up the opportunity to create characters that are likable and that could have comedic values, which could help to lead the narrative.

Alongside those ideas I also thought that Leap of Faith and Adrift could also work in a similar way to the other two titles but with more focus on the characters having to rely on one another rather than how they interact. 

In terms of character design we deiced that the characters should be quite simple in shape and detail, with human-like qualities and characteristics. However, I want too much realism, as realism risks falling under the uncanny valley category. 

Character and Narrative: Playing with 3D Models

After being briefed, we spent the afternoon recapping on how to use Maya and the basic tools within the program. Once we'd done that we got our first look at a rigged model to see how it would work and move when we come to create our own in the next few weeks. 

I found it quite easy to manipulate the model and move it into the positions I wanted with little effort. However, I did learn that if you moved certain parts of the body too far, such as the hips, the model would collapse in on itself and bend out of shape. Overall I had a lot of fun with this tutorial and I feel confident that I will be able to move my own rigged model with little stress (if I make the rig correctly). 

Towards the end of the session we were briefly introduced to UV mapping, which I used to add create a texture in Photoshop to then add to my model.

Character and Narrative: Telling Tales

It's the start of a new uni year, and with the new year comes a new brief, which I'm actually pretty excited about because it's giving me the chance to explore and experiment with 3D animation.

For the brief we are required to work in pairs to produce an animated narrative between two characters. Although I'm really excited at the prospect of working in 3D animation, I'm also quite nervous to get stuck into this project, as there is a lot of work to be completed in such a short period of time with a program I'm not all that familiar with. I'm also feeling nervous about working in pairs because it's not something I do often and I'm not used to having to compromise on my ideas.

Nevertheless, I am determined and, despite being nervous, looking forward to see how I will do in this brief.