Final Evaluation

Through out this module I have learnt a lot in the area of 3D animation. I also feel as though this has been an opportunity for me to focus express my particular interest in the area of character design. There have been a lot of aspects to this module which I have found really challenging, because I have had very little experience using Maya, so I was definitely taking a big step out of my comfort zone. Also, this is the first time I have properly collaborated with another student on something like this, so I have been able to get used to working under different circumstances, as well as managing my time and communication not only for myself but also for my partner.

One of the main stages of production that I have become familiar with, and gained a much better understanding of is the stage which took me from modelling, right up to the point where I was able to animate my character.  Being given video guides for each of these stages, has been extremely helpful for me, because I do have quite a low attention span and it sometimes takes me a while to retain information, especially when I get a lot of it in one go, so having the video guides and being able to use them in my own time has really helped. This also made it much easier and quicker when it came to modelling, rigging, orienting and binding my own character. There are some areas that I would need to improve upon the next time I do anything like this. Firstly, I think Ollie and I as a team were slightly over ambitious with our idea at the start, we origioanlly wanted to create realistic water, and after much contemplation and conversation with tutors and other classmates, we realised that it just wasn't realistic in the time we had. Also, I had to do a lot of tweaking to my character, because she was too complex. I underestimated how long the process of getting a model ready to animate would take. Also, at the start, both mine and Ollie's character did not look right together. I decided to shrink my character down and make her slightly rounder, because originally she looked to elongated and slightly threatening. This has definitely taught me to be more open to the possibility of there needing to be adjustments and improvements to make an animation work better as a whole, even if it means extra work. However, there are parts of this model I am pleased with. Considering I have had very little experience in the area of 3D animation, let alone Maya, the work I have produced is much better than I imagined it would be at the start. I have started to pay more attention to smaller details when it comes to positioning and animating a character. This was also something I learnt quite early on with the "Strike a Pose" study task.

During my time working on this project, the way in which I think of a story or a potential character has changed. Now that I have a much better understanding of how 3D animation works, it has influenced my thought process for the better, and not just for this kind of animation. I have learnt to keep things more basic at the start and to not get sucked into the excitement of a new project by thinking that anything is possible. If I were to do this again, I would asked more questions at the start, because I don't think I quite appreciated how long it would have taken to stick with the original design ideas Ollie and I had. I have also become more used to working with somebody else, which is something I am not used to, because I like working alone. However this project has made me realise that sometimes, collaborating can have better results than always working alone. This has been very beneficial because I think this is something I need to get used to before stepping into the industry. However there have been a couple of down sides. This module has made me realise that I need to be slightly more vocal about my thoughts and to try and keep up communication, because there were some areas where this resulted in a disadvantage. Such as, Ollie and I at one point had different  ideas on how to transition from one scene to another, but this wasn't apparent because we didn't speak often enough.

The study tasks, also helped with the technical side of things, in a way they prepared me for what was to come. The model that I created from Matt's tutorial videos was quite challenging but at the same time, really helpful because it helped the information to sink in, and made me feel a bit less scared to use Maya in the future. I was pleased with my final outcome of this model, but was aware that there were a few things that were't quite right with it, such as some of the influence weights, and some of the heir achy, so some of the body parts were incorrectly influenced by other areas of the body. There was also a problem with the eyes, this was also an issue with my mermaid model, however I managed to fix this so that they eyes moved with the head. There are a few little glitches with the final animation, for example there is a scene where one of the mermaid's eyes sinks inwards, however luckily this wasn't too noticeable due to the positioning of the camera. I would definitely spend longer next time, making sure that little mistakes like this were rectified. However overall, I am really pleased with the outcome of this module and feel that I have learnt a great deal. I no longer feel afraid to use Maya, and honestly believe that over time I will improve further.

3D modelling in Other Fields.

Something that is often forgotten is that 3D software are often needed in other areas. For example, 3D renderings and animations are used for architecture. Often a company will present some single 3D renderings along side some animated footage in order to give a realistic idea of a plan for what they will produce. There are a lot of well known companies who use this strategy when working with clients, such as "American Institute of Architects" and "National Association of Home Builders."

Some of the work that is produced as part of planning is to such a high standard that it looks photographic. The fact that 3D animation can be used to such a high standard for business purposes shows that it has the potential to lead to the creation of some fantastic architecture, which in itself will presumably be there for years and years to come. It could be argued that in this case, 3D animation has the potential has the potential to go much further in comparison to 2D animation, because it is a vital part of development for people who work in a range of other fields, and not just animation specifically.   

Final Animation!

I'm really happy with the outcome of this animation, especially because I have had very little experience in the past using Maya. I was especially happy with the lighting and how the natural sun and sky setting in Maya turned out. However, there is always room for improvement, and after watching this back a few times I can now see changes that I would have made if I were to do this again. 

• If there had been time, we would have liked to add some 2D ripples to the water, to give it a bit more life, as well as some 2D visual splashing to match the sound effect when the robot falls into the water. 
• Just after the mermaid pushes the robot into the water, I think it would have looked better if she then dived under the water herself, because she appears under the water in the next scene. 
• If we had more time, it would have been nice to have added some 2D or 3D elements to the background, such as birds or bubbles. 
• There is some inconsistency with the horizon, at one point it is all grey and then in another scee it becomes blue. This is something we would have fixed if we had a bit more time. 

One change that Ollie made to the underwater scene was that he added another layer over the top and animated it slightly in After Effects, in order to make it slightly more water like. This worked really well and I'm glad that we deiced to do this because it looks a lot more effective! 

Post Production Part 6 - creating the sound

When it came to adding the sound, we used a range of resources. We researched the web for potential sounds, created some ourselves and also looked at the sound fils that were available in college. I focused on the ocean sounds, and the sounds of the mermaid. I decided that recording my own sounds for the mermaid would be better because it would add more comedy, plus I was able to watch the animation whilst recording, so I knew I would get the timings right. 

Ollie focused on finding sounds for the robot, so once I had finished editing in the background sounds as well as my character sounds, he was able to crack on with his part. Editing the sound in didn't take as long as I thought so we were ahead of ourselves slightly, which left a little extra time to make sure we had all of our documenting up to date. 

One of the sound transitions that I added in, was the change from above water, to under water. Ollie and I decided that this would be really effective because it made it clear not just visually, that the environment had suddenly changed. We knew we wanted the sounds to also go over the credits at the start and end. This was because, the ocean sounds really help set the scene, so it was a good idea to have the sounds there before the actual environment wad visible. Also, at the end, the continuation of the electrocution sounds added more comedy, which is what we wanted. 

I found the recording of the mermaid sounds to be quite fun, because she doesn't speak, she just makes odd noises, so it wasn't too stressful! The robot sounds that Ollie added in really helped bring the animation to life, because before hand there was still quite a lot of just plain background noise. Ollie also added in one of the robot sounds just as the ending credits draw to a close. This made it even more funny, because it sort of indicated that the robot was concerned that he had somehow caused the mermaid to be electrocuted. 

Luckily, this whole process of recording the sound, and then getting it all into Premiere wasn't stressful and didn't take long at all.  

Final Storyboard

This is our final storyboard for our animation. looking back at this now and seeing our final result, I'm really pleased with how well we stuck to the idea we had, and how well we stayed on track with it. 

Orienting, Binding and Weights

 When it came to orienting the controllers to the joints on this model, I did struggle at first because every time I clicked "orient" things kept going a bit wonky. However it turned out that it was because "maintain offset" was turned off.
Once that was turned on, everything was fine.

I then went through and simply oriented each controller to it's respective joint. This enabled the skeleton to be influenced by the movement of the joints. It was then time to bind the mesh to the rest. I did this by selecting the skeleton, appart from the end joints, and then selected "skin" and then smooth bind. This enabled the mesh itself to be moved by the skeleton.


Painting the Weights



The weights on the body needed to be changed in order to make sure that parts of the body weren't getting moved around and influenced by wrong areas of the geometry.

I did have a few problems with this:

• At first, the right foot was being influenced by the movement of the left foot, so I needed to go through and paint it with a value of zero so it would not be moved. This is something that needed doing over all areas of the body. 

For the turn around, I decided to keep the pose of this character quite simple, because there were a few issues with it,

• Not all of the influence weights were completely right, so for example, when the left arm was moved up too high, it did effect the left side underneath the arm .
• There was also a problem with the legs, I thin this was because I didn't bind something correctly. The knees were not able to be moved, however the controllers and heir-achy were all in place, so I may have oriented something incorrectly.  
• Also, at the end I realised that the eyes on this character were not moving with the head, so I must have missed out a stage of parenting the head to the eyes. 

Final Outcome

I am really pleased with everything I learnt whilst building this model, because before hand I had no idea how the process worked. However, if I were to do this again, I would pay closer attention to the smaller details. In this case, the character works fine for a turnaround and to show what I have learnt, but I wouldn't at this stage hand it over to somebody to animate, because there are some areas that are not quite right. I am aware that the eyes are not bound properly to the head, so they don't move when the head is moved, and some of the influence weights are not quite right. I had some trouble right at the end with the controllers for the knees, I think this was because I went wrong somewhere when it came to putting in the heir achy.

In all honesty even though there are some areas of this model that aren'r right, it did genuinely help me to improve my mermaid model and make me aware of some problems to try and stay clear of. On the whole however, I have learnt a lot whilst doing this, and really enjoyed it! Asa result of this study task, I was able to Finnish the whole modelling process of my mermaid much faster than I had expected.

Final Turn Around

Post Production Part 5 - Creating the Credits

Because if the fact that our animation seemed to work better without credits showing over the top of it, and because it only reached one minuet exactly, we decided that we would put the opening and closing credits on either end of the animation. At this point I already liked the idea of the audio also stretching over the credits, and the idea of having juts a plain background didn't seem very appealing because it would't really fit with the animation. I decided this was a possible opportunity to refer back to the water backgrounds that I had made.

After some experimenting with the different backgrounds, it made more sense to not use the same background that had been used for the animated under water scene, because at the end it would look quite strange if the character were to vanish and the background stay. I decided to go for the background above, because it the brush effect I used allows it to look like bubbles. Having a separate background for the credits establishes the opening and closing of the animation a bit better. 

Creating the text

Quite ironically, I can actually write with a Wacom tablet better than I can draw, so I saw this as an opportunity to use my strength in this area.  

I decided that it would be nice to have the text the same colour as the mermaid, partly because black or white would have looked slightly too harsh on this background, but also because it seemed like a nice quirky addition to create a connection between the credits and the animation itself.

We also decided that it would be good to have the text itself fade in gradually, because jut having it appear as one looked quite harsh. Also, the gentle fade in fit much better with the gentle wave sounds in the background. (However, we did decide that at the end, we would continue the electricity sound effects over the end credits, to add in the comedy element.)

Post Production Part 4 - Creating Backgrounds

For the end scene, where both character appear underwater, the frames were rendered out as a PNG so that a background layer could be applied in After Effects. We decided that I would work on creating a number of potential backgrounds which could be used in this scene. I had originally had the idea of creating a background using traditional mediums such as watercolour. However, after some discussion, we decided that it would be a good idea to keep it 2D but digital, in order to fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the animation. 

I played around in Photoshop with the gradient tool, because I wanted it to be relatively obvious that the setting had changed from above water to below water. I decided to g with the bottom left background, because it had the best alteration from light to dark, and it looks as though there is sunlight coming from the top of the water. 

Ollie also decided that if there is time, when he incorporates his speech bubbles into the animation, he may add another effect over this background, to make it look slightly more blurred.

Post Production Part 3 - Editing in After Effects

Once the majority of the scenes were rendered, I began to put them into After Effects to get a better idea of how it would run as a whole piece. I was really pleasantly surprised with how it looked, we had definitely achieved the sunny, calm atmosphere that we wanted.
All together, there were 14 scenes to be placed into After Effects.



One of the things that Ollie and I did notice, was that there was a greyish strip of colour between the skyline and the water, which we assumed was something to do with the placing of the Indirect Lighting that we applied in Maya. However, after some discussion, we decided that it actually worked quite well, because it looked a bit like land on the horizon. So in this case it was a bit of a "happy accident"




Fixing and Editing

When all of the scenes were together and I played the whole thing back without any credits, I noticed that we were 14 frames short of a minuet. I realised that this was because, earlier in the animation stage, I received a scene off Ollie that he had animated, it was the scene where we see the robot suddenly appear underwater.
The movement of this scene didn't begin until the 20th frame in, so I only rendered it out from there. The problem in doing this was that I didn't think ahead to the fact that this would take away some of our animation time. The way I resolved this was to take the first scene which pans over the ocean, and simply extend that for another 14 frames. This worked for more than one reason:

• It brought a little focus in on the robot
• It would also allow more time for the audio to develop over those few seconds
• It resulted in the time length of the animation to be just right. 

I think this mistake that was made was due to a lac of communication from both myself and Ollie, however I managed to resolve this without it effecting the quality of the animation, and without loosing too much post production time.


There were some things that needed adding to some of the scenes, such as the importing of the speech bubbles. Ollie and I decided that he would do this part, because he had created them. 

Post Production Part 2 - Further Development

In order to achieve an animated texture for the eyes, the best way to go about it was to create a selection of main eye positions, making sure they were in line with the UV maps of the eyes and put them into After Effects to make an image sequence. This process didn't actually take too long, also I only needed to do this for certain scenes.

There were however a few things I needed to make sure of in order fort his process to work:

• The image sizes in After Effects needed to be 256 x 256 so that they would correlate with the sizing of the UV maps. 
• The length of the image needed to be the same as the time length for that particular scene. 
• When this was imported into After Effects, I needed to make sure that I ticked the box which said "Use Image Sequence" otherwise the eyes would have just stayed stationary. 

I kept the eye design quite simple in order to fit with her overall design, because through out the design process this character had been simplified a lot. Also, her colouring had changed slightly and I was unsure as to what colours would work best fort he eyes, so I didn't' go too over the top. 

Render Testing

Before starting to render each scene, I carried out a quick test render to make sure the lighting or everything was right. I was really happy with how my character looked when rendered, because she was still in keeping with the surrounding environment, but the fact that she was green gave her some more individuality. 

Bringing It Together

 As the rendering process was coming to an end, I started to bring each scene together in After Effects to see how it looked. I was actually pleasantly surprised with the how it all looked, because as a whole it all looked quite pale and "minty" which Ollie and I really liked.






The process of bringing in all of the renderings was easy enough, one thing however which I did need to fix was a glitch in scene 4. The problem was that scene 13 had not rendered, so I just had to re-render this individual frame, and then things ran fine after that.

This first section of the animation below is the first 6 scenes put together. This is un-edited, however I have put this up to show, because there were immediately some things I knew I Ollie and I were happy with, however some things that needed to be altered in post. We were really pleased with the colourings and lighting, however we do plan to alter some of the lighting in certain scenes to make it less intense. For example, in scene 3 where the mermaid first rises up out of the water, the lighting is a bit too bright, which has resulted in parts of the mermaid's body to look quite white. Once all of the scenes are together and the timing is right, we will go through and edit the areas which need editing. 

Adding the speech bubbles

Also, another aspect which needs to be added was the 2D speech bubbles. This is something Ollie is  focusing on creating during the rendering time, so they can be added through After Effects. We are feeling optimistic that the incorporation of 2D will give out animation a nice aesthetic. 

We also still need to add the audio, which will be a mixture of robot sound effects, vocal sounds for the mermaid which I will create in the sound studio, as well as some water sounds which can also be created in the studio.  We were originally going to have quite a lot of wave sounds, however now that the water is very calm, it would be a bit contradictory to have those sound effects when the water is making very little movement.