I haven't done nearly as much animating this year as I would have hoped but here's my animation reel.
LINK: Ben_Wardle_Animation_Showreel
LINK: Ben_Wardle_Animation_Showreel
I'm Ben Wardle, an animation student at Falmouth University focusing on 3D character animation.
Showing posts with label 2ndYear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2ndYear. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 May 2014
Friday, 23 May 2014
Deep
So Deep is done and dusted. For this module anyway, unfortunately my group and I didn't manage to finish off the shots but what we did do looked good.
I roughed out my shots frame by frame (on 2s). I wanted the animation to be done in this traditional way but it suffered a lot of morphing and boiling because my drawing skills were holding me back.
After this I cleaned it up but I used symbols instead of frame by frame. this kept it together but the animation wasn't as fluid. I still hand drew a few frames to loosen it up a bit.
Fairly happy with this. It's the first time I've done lip sync and it worked ok. It can always be better and I would have preferred frame by frame animation.
I roughed out my shots frame by frame (on 2s). I wanted the animation to be done in this traditional way but it suffered a lot of morphing and boiling because my drawing skills were holding me back.
Fairly happy with this. It's the first time I've done lip sync and it worked ok. It can always be better and I would have preferred frame by frame animation.
Saturday, 3 May 2014
More 3D animating: Heart Of The Tree
More animation I've been working on this week. This is my favourite piece of animating I've done to date and I'm really pleased with the out come.
This shot took me 2 and a half days but I actually did a version before it that wasn't working and started from scratch so it probably only took a day and a half. I'm glad I did start over as this version is a lot stronger.
Making the jump in look natural wasn't as tough as I thought it was going to be I think it works, had I have had more time I could made that section better by working on the stumble at the end and generally polishing it but given the time constraint I'm pleased with it. I also like the pause and breath he takes before reaching up to the fruit. A breath like that isn't something I've really added to any of my characters before and it adds a lot to it.
I'm particularly happy with the bite action from the hyena, I feel like it's a strong pose and a good arc in the neck, you can see the force that he's putting in to it. And I pleased with the swing of the fruit and the little grape popping off tops the shot off nicely.
The thing I'm the most happiest about though is my progression as an animator, I'm starting see my work getting better with each shot and I'm feeling more confident. I'm looking forward to my next shot.
This shot took me 2 and a half days but I actually did a version before it that wasn't working and started from scratch so it probably only took a day and a half. I'm glad I did start over as this version is a lot stronger.
Making the jump in look natural wasn't as tough as I thought it was going to be I think it works, had I have had more time I could made that section better by working on the stumble at the end and generally polishing it but given the time constraint I'm pleased with it. I also like the pause and breath he takes before reaching up to the fruit. A breath like that isn't something I've really added to any of my characters before and it adds a lot to it.
I'm particularly happy with the bite action from the hyena, I feel like it's a strong pose and a good arc in the neck, you can see the force that he's putting in to it. And I pleased with the swing of the fruit and the little grape popping off tops the shot off nicely.
The thing I'm the most happiest about though is my progression as an animator, I'm starting see my work getting better with each shot and I'm feeling more confident. I'm looking forward to my next shot.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
The Heart Of The Tree
Here are a couple more shots I've been working on for The Heart of The Tree project. This first one is a run cycle that will be used in the chase sequence. I would like to make changes to this if I get a chance, the motion and the weight work for me but I feel like the back could snap more when the hare is at full stretch.
This next one is just a simple block through, the scene has actually been animated since but I thought I'd share it anyway:
This next one is just a simple block through, the scene has actually been animated since but I thought I'd share it anyway:
Animating on The Heart of The Tree
I've finally started animating on a 3rd year project. I say finally because I've spent all year doing design work and pre planning that it's nice to actually do some animating for a change and as 3D animation is what I want to do this is a good project and I'm enjoying it.
The first scene that I worked on was this:
This proved to be quite fiddly as I was still trying to work out the best way to animate using this rig. What I did here was to move the whole model including the world control rather than making the hare hop away from his original position. Basically what this means is that's it's effectively a hope cycle that is being dragged across the scene. This was a mistake. I have now had to go back and animated the feet frame by frame so they don't slide around when he lands so it's proved to be very time consuming with poor results. I know better next time! Other than that I'm fairly pleased with this as a first attempt and I'm looking forward to seeing this rendered and in the final film.
The second shot that I've been working on is this one:
I'm really pleased with this, I feel like I've got some good emotion into the character as well as believable movement. It was obviously a lot simpler than my previous shot and I had fun with it. And it only took a day which is good as it means I'm speeding up which is something I've been worried about in the past.
The first scene that I worked on was this:
This proved to be quite fiddly as I was still trying to work out the best way to animate using this rig. What I did here was to move the whole model including the world control rather than making the hare hop away from his original position. Basically what this means is that's it's effectively a hope cycle that is being dragged across the scene. This was a mistake. I have now had to go back and animated the feet frame by frame so they don't slide around when he lands so it's proved to be very time consuming with poor results. I know better next time! Other than that I'm fairly pleased with this as a first attempt and I'm looking forward to seeing this rendered and in the final film.
The second shot that I've been working on is this one:
I'm really pleased with this, I feel like I've got some good emotion into the character as well as believable movement. It was obviously a lot simpler than my previous shot and I had fun with it. And it only took a day which is good as it means I'm speeding up which is something I've been worried about in the past.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
The Body Humans
Here are just a couple of concept pieces I worked on last week as part of a pre-production project. I was given a choice of 6 different 'jumping off points' to use in order to come up with a short pitch for a film or TV show.
I used the artist Henrick Kley who is know for playing around with size in his art work. Think Gullivers travels or A Bugs Life.
My idea was a mini series called The Body Humans where by the human body is made up of tiny little humans all working towards keeping the body running and each episode they would have to deal with challenges such as illness they have to fight off or how alcohol would effect them etc...
The way it would work is that the brain would be the bosses and the scientists that tell the other workers what to do. The heart (shown in this first concept piece) is an industrial pump that works 24 hours a day.
Other ideas included the stomach being a canteen where the workers would all congregate to eat and any injuries to bones and other body parts would be fixed by construction workers.
Obviously the arse would be one big sewage system.
I used the artist Henrick Kley who is know for playing around with size in his art work. Think Gullivers travels or A Bugs Life.
My idea was a mini series called The Body Humans where by the human body is made up of tiny little humans all working towards keeping the body running and each episode they would have to deal with challenges such as illness they have to fight off or how alcohol would effect them etc...
The way it would work is that the brain would be the bosses and the scientists that tell the other workers what to do. The heart (shown in this first concept piece) is an industrial pump that works 24 hours a day.
Other ideas included the stomach being a canteen where the workers would all congregate to eat and any injuries to bones and other body parts would be fixed by construction workers.
Obviously the arse would be one big sewage system.
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Modelling a simple 3D Enviroment in Maya Tutorial
Yesterday I made a simple 3D wooded area in Maya and I just thought I'd show you how I did it:
I began by creating a polygon plane by clicking: [Create - Polygon Primitives - Plane]
I added subdivisions in the [Attribute Editor] on the right hand side of the screen. I gave it 100 x 100 as I wanted the hilly sections to look smooth as they are going to be covered in snow in the final scene.
By [right clicking and scrolling down to paint] I brought up the [sculpt] menu where I used the pull tool to drag hill shapes out of the plain before smoothing the hills off with the smooth tool.
Once I had my hilly surface I added some colour by [right clicking on the plane and navigating down to assign favourite material - Lambert]. The in the [Attributer Editor] I changed the colour to white to give it the snow effect I wanted.
To make trees I started off with an EP Curve by clicking [create - EP Curve]. I then opened the [front view] and drew out the wavy line that my tree trunk would be based on.
The next step was to make a cylinder so I clicked [create - polygon primitive - cylinder] and made a small cylinder and the foot of the EP Line. I then lined it up the that the line was in the centre of the cylinder and the rotated the cylinder to follow the direction of the line.
I then switched the cylinder to Face Mode by [holding down right click and selecting Face from the pop up menu]. I then selected each triangular face at the top of the cylinder by [clicking and holding shift].
Once all the faces were selected I and while still holding down shift I [selected the EP Curve]. I then selected [Polygons from the drop down menu at the top right of the screen] which brought up a new selection of options along the top bar. I clicked [Edit Mesh - Extrude].
I began by creating a polygon plane by clicking: [Create - Polygon Primitives - Plane]
I added subdivisions in the [Attribute Editor] on the right hand side of the screen. I gave it 100 x 100 as I wanted the hilly sections to look smooth as they are going to be covered in snow in the final scene.
By [right clicking and scrolling down to paint] I brought up the [sculpt] menu where I used the pull tool to drag hill shapes out of the plain before smoothing the hills off with the smooth tool.
Once I had my hilly surface I added some colour by [right clicking on the plane and navigating down to assign favourite material - Lambert]. The in the [Attributer Editor] I changed the colour to white to give it the snow effect I wanted.
To make trees I started off with an EP Curve by clicking [create - EP Curve]. I then opened the [front view] and drew out the wavy line that my tree trunk would be based on.
The next step was to make a cylinder so I clicked [create - polygon primitive - cylinder] and made a small cylinder and the foot of the EP Line. I then lined it up the that the line was in the centre of the cylinder and the rotated the cylinder to follow the direction of the line.
I then switched the cylinder to Face Mode by [holding down right click and selecting Face from the pop up menu]. I then selected each triangular face at the top of the cylinder by [clicking and holding shift].
Once all the faces were selected I and while still holding down shift I [selected the EP Curve]. I then selected [Polygons from the drop down menu at the top right of the screen] which brought up a new selection of options along the top bar. I clicked [Edit Mesh - Extrude].
This extruded the cylinder along the EP Curve giving me the wonky shape that I wanted. Then in the [Attribute Editor] I dragged the [Taper scroll bar down to zero (or somewhere near by)] to give it a point at the tip of the trunk.
As this was just a pre-viz mock up of an environment I saved time by just duplicating the trunk and resizing it to make the branches. Once I had found a place on the trunk for each branch I clicked [Mesh - Combine] to stick them to it.
Like with the snowy surface I gave the trees some colour by [holding down right click - Assign Favourite Material - Lambert].
I then duplicated the trees, changed the size of them slightly and shifted them around my scene.
As this was just a mock up to do some tests on we used it to play around with lighting. The scene is set at night so the only light we will see is moonlight. I added a couple of rough block characters to see how the moonlight would effect them as we wanted them to be heavily shadowed.
For these shots I created a direction light by clicking [Create - Lights - Directional Light]. I played around with colour and added some faint blue to it to try and mimic moonlight. These are how the rough tests came out:
Friday, 14 February 2014
3D Bouncing Ball
Thought I'd have another go at a bouncing ball as I haven't done one since I started the course I'm on.
Happy with this, it's a really nice exercise I'm gonna do it more often.
Happy with this, it's a really nice exercise I'm gonna do it more often.
Quadruped Animation tests
I've lined myself to animate on an exciting 3D project called Heart Of The Tree. The two characters in the film are a hare and a hyena and as I've never actually animated a quadruped I've been working on these two tests to help get my head around how they move.
I didn't really know where to start with this. I found some good slow mo videos of dogs walking on on YouTube and referred back to Preston Blair's four legged animation break down for reference:
The biggest help was this brilliant tutorial that I found from Samy Fecih a professional character animator. The tutorial is perfect for somebody using Maya to create a quadruped walk cycle and the way he explains everything is easy to understand and follow.
Here's the link to his tutorial: https://vimeo.com/79022941
So here is my walk cycle:
Even though I followed the basic mathematics and timings layed out by Samy's tutorial I added a few of my own movements like the head bob etc. This is only a start it's far from perfect but it's been a really good jumping off point and I feel like I have a bit of an idea what I'm doing when it comes to four legs now.
Here is a run cycle:
I found this a lot harder than the basic walk. I used the basic principles that I used in the walk but I found it hard getting my head around the dog's (air time). Keyframing the points when he was airborne proved quite touch so I relied on hip and holder movements to add the bounce. Like the walk cycle this could do with some clean up as there is still a bit of a way to go but again, it's a good start and I've learnt a lot doing this exercise so it's been worth it.
I didn't really know where to start with this. I found some good slow mo videos of dogs walking on on YouTube and referred back to Preston Blair's four legged animation break down for reference:
The biggest help was this brilliant tutorial that I found from Samy Fecih a professional character animator. The tutorial is perfect for somebody using Maya to create a quadruped walk cycle and the way he explains everything is easy to understand and follow.
Here's the link to his tutorial: https://vimeo.com/79022941
So here is my walk cycle:
Even though I followed the basic mathematics and timings layed out by Samy's tutorial I added a few of my own movements like the head bob etc. This is only a start it's far from perfect but it's been a really good jumping off point and I feel like I have a bit of an idea what I'm doing when it comes to four legs now.
Here is a run cycle:
I found this a lot harder than the basic walk. I used the basic principles that I used in the walk but I found it hard getting my head around the dog's (air time). Keyframing the points when he was airborne proved quite touch so I relied on hip and holder movements to add the bounce. Like the walk cycle this could do with some clean up as there is still a bit of a way to go but again, it's a good start and I've learnt a lot doing this exercise so it's been worth it.
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Wacky Wild Fact Files Part 5 - Animation
For my project hand-in next week I need to have 1 maybe 2 shots animated and fully coloured so this is my first one. As you can see I'm doing it frame by frame and in terms of movement I quite like this. It does however, kind of look like the lion is growing from a cub to a full grown male as he roars which wasn't the plan but I quite like the idea of it. Perhaps that is something I can push?
Monday, 6 January 2014
11 Second Club Part 4
I came 65th. To be honest I am a little disappointed, not in the fact that I was 65th but the fact my average was less than 4 stars (out of 11). Of course it was my first attempt and if anything it's made me want to work harder and do better but none the less I would have liked better.
The good news is is that over 300 people have seen my work and I did receive a couple of encouraging comments so that, twinned with what I have learned working on this project, all in all it's been a success. And I'm fairly happy with what I've produced so it's all good.
http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/december13/entry/nbMHZt
There is always room for improvement though.
The good news is is that over 300 people have seen my work and I did receive a couple of encouraging comments so that, twinned with what I have learned working on this project, all in all it's been a success. And I'm fairly happy with what I've produced so it's all good.
http://www.11secondclub.com/competitions/december13/entry/nbMHZt
There is always room for improvement though.
Wacky Wild Fact Files Part 04 - BACKGROUNDS
After I was happy with the characters I wanted to make a dent in the background designs. As with character design I didn't feel like this one my strong point so the earlier I could get started on it the more time I could spend making inevitable changes!
I started off by searching for watering holes and images of panel game show sets:
Next I had a quick play around with different technique options in Sketchbook Pro:
I went for a mix between these two and came out with this style. These are all still only concept pieces as I am yet to create my final background for animation.
A also created one to give a sense of the area as a whole which included the audience. Whether or not in the final animation we will see the audience I don't know but they will definitely play a part sound wise so it's helpful to visualize them at this stage.
I started off by searching for watering holes and images of panel game show sets:
Next I had a quick play around with different technique options in Sketchbook Pro:
I went for a mix between these two and came out with this style. These are all still only concept pieces as I am yet to create my final background for animation.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Wacky Wild Fact Files Part 3 - CHARACTERS
It's been a long time since my last post about this project and with term starting again I'm going to be throwing myself right back into it so I wanted to catch you up on what I have done.
At the time of my last post I was still in the very early stages. I had just pitched my idea and received fairly good feedback and from there I was given the green light to go ahead with my production bible.
CHARACTERS: I was confident in my ability when it came to the writing side of this, the summary, character bios, script etc so I quickly made a start designing characters. I felt like this is my weakness when it come to this module so I wanted to get it out of the way.
I started by writing some very brief bios and I always had a basic script in my head so I knew a bit about who these characters were before I put pencil to paper. I knew exactly what types of animals my hosts were and I came up with a selection of animals for the contestants. A lion, a zebra, an elephant, a giraffe, a monkey and a crocodile. I had already done a bit of research into these animals so I started drawing them to try and get a feel for them and their bodies shapes etc.
I started turning the figures into cartoon version and picking out features that could be exaggerated. Then like the 'Babar' style that I was following adding clothing to them. Once I felt like a style that I was happy with was forming I went straight into digital drawing using Sketchbook and a tablet.
Here is a concept piece of all 8 characters:
I gave the two host characters bios and turnarounds. In keeping with 'Babar' I dressed them too. Like most panel game show hosts I felt the rhino needed to look nice and smart.
I had decided that the contestants were going to be children. I felt that this would help the young audience relate to them and give a contrast between them and the adult host characters with all the knowledge.
The shape of the characters were designed specifically to look like children. I did this by making their heads larger and also with characters like the elephant bring their eyes down making their forehead seem bigger. As well as body shape I used their clothing to show their age giving them shorts and t-shirts and adding quirky images that relate to that specific character.
As character design is not my strong point and am fairly happy with how these little guys turned out. As a line up I think they look great together and I'm happy that will work for the show. And though I haven't done any specific research I am hoping that they will be appealing to kids!
At the time of my last post I was still in the very early stages. I had just pitched my idea and received fairly good feedback and from there I was given the green light to go ahead with my production bible.
CHARACTERS: I was confident in my ability when it came to the writing side of this, the summary, character bios, script etc so I quickly made a start designing characters. I felt like this is my weakness when it come to this module so I wanted to get it out of the way.
I started by writing some very brief bios and I always had a basic script in my head so I knew a bit about who these characters were before I put pencil to paper. I knew exactly what types of animals my hosts were and I came up with a selection of animals for the contestants. A lion, a zebra, an elephant, a giraffe, a monkey and a crocodile. I had already done a bit of research into these animals so I started drawing them to try and get a feel for them and their bodies shapes etc.
I started turning the figures into cartoon version and picking out features that could be exaggerated. Then like the 'Babar' style that I was following adding clothing to them. Once I felt like a style that I was happy with was forming I went straight into digital drawing using Sketchbook and a tablet.
Here is a concept piece of all 8 characters:
I gave the two host characters bios and turnarounds. In keeping with 'Babar' I dressed them too. Like most panel game show hosts I felt the rhino needed to look nice and smart.
11 Second Club Part 3
Since my last post I have pretty much finished this animation and I've already entered it into the online competition for December. I'm hoping to get some useful criticism both from other animators online and my course tutors so that in January I can tweak and refine it so it's something I can really be proud of.
So after my original block through I made a few changes, mainly to the run up of character 1. Because of the pace he needed to hit the wall I had top extend his run up and this meant extending the length of the set. This also meant adding a camera to follow his run. As well as these things I made a couple of changes to character 2's reaction. I emphasized the initial reaction to the bang and tried to slow down his turn. I have already added some anticipation poses in a previous block through so this is the linear interpolation version.
In this next version I have added some basic facial expression (ignore those eyes for now please). In the graph editor I have also added slow in and outs and started deleting unnecessary keyframes to try and smooth out the movements. It's starting to get there but there are still things I am unhappy with, such as the look up from character 2 still seems very robotic.
The next step was to add some basic models in here to tell the story so I created the scene out of 1 single polygon cube duplicated over and over to make up a wooden room. I know this is very basic but modelling isn't my strong point and I didn't want to take too much time out of animating to worry about that right now. For my showreel version I will aim to refine this side of it more. As well as the model I have spent time on the face and eyes and more time cleaning up the graph editor as well.
This next version is the what I submitted to the competition. I still don't consider it finished and looking back I know what I want to change and that is the turn to look up from character 2. I think it would be stronger if he holds his position looking towards the camera then does a qucik turn to look up rather than the slow one that is there already. Anyway, as I said before I am hoping for some good crit from other people on this too so there is definitely still work to be done.
So after my original block through I made a few changes, mainly to the run up of character 1. Because of the pace he needed to hit the wall I had top extend his run up and this meant extending the length of the set. This also meant adding a camera to follow his run. As well as these things I made a couple of changes to character 2's reaction. I emphasized the initial reaction to the bang and tried to slow down his turn. I have already added some anticipation poses in a previous block through so this is the linear interpolation version.
In this next version I have added some basic facial expression (ignore those eyes for now please). In the graph editor I have also added slow in and outs and started deleting unnecessary keyframes to try and smooth out the movements. It's starting to get there but there are still things I am unhappy with, such as the look up from character 2 still seems very robotic.
The next step was to add some basic models in here to tell the story so I created the scene out of 1 single polygon cube duplicated over and over to make up a wooden room. I know this is very basic but modelling isn't my strong point and I didn't want to take too much time out of animating to worry about that right now. For my showreel version I will aim to refine this side of it more. As well as the model I have spent time on the face and eyes and more time cleaning up the graph editor as well.
This next version is the what I submitted to the competition. I still don't consider it finished and looking back I know what I want to change and that is the turn to look up from character 2. I think it would be stronger if he holds his position looking towards the camera then does a qucik turn to look up rather than the slow one that is there already. Anyway, as I said before I am hoping for some good crit from other people on this too so there is definitely still work to be done.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
11 Second Club Part 2
Since my last post I have tweaked the idea a little. The original plan was to have a single shot duel screen thing going on but now I have decided to add cuts and close ups. This is so 6that I can use the 16.9 screen space better and also so that I can have a close up of one of my characters faces to show some real emotion rather than just action.
Because of this I have also had to change my rig as Buckid doesn't have facial controls. I still plan on using him for character 1 but the angry character 2 is going to be the Norman rig now.
Norman doesn't have the best facial control of the many rigs available online but I like the fact the he looks like he could be made of wood like Buckid, so it's in keeping with my idea. I then did this very rough little story board, which was just for my benefit so I could try and work out how the camera cuts would work.
Then, as a group, we used the TV studio on campus and recorded some LAV tests. We shared the job of acting each others animations out and directing for our own idea. Here's a quick snap of us in action.
Now it's time to block out my animation: Before I did any animating I made a very rough set in Maya using simple planes, I then very roughly blocked in characters so That I could set up my cameras. Once I had my cameras in the right places I posed my characters and then using the camera sequencer I edited the cameras together.
Here is my rough first pass. Please let me know what you think.
Because of this I have also had to change my rig as Buckid doesn't have facial controls. I still plan on using him for character 1 but the angry character 2 is going to be the Norman rig now.
Norman doesn't have the best facial control of the many rigs available online but I like the fact the he looks like he could be made of wood like Buckid, so it's in keeping with my idea. I then did this very rough little story board, which was just for my benefit so I could try and work out how the camera cuts would work.
Then, as a group, we used the TV studio on campus and recorded some LAV tests. We shared the job of acting each others animations out and directing for our own idea. Here's a quick snap of us in action.
Now it's time to block out my animation: Before I did any animating I made a very rough set in Maya using simple planes, I then very roughly blocked in characters so That I could set up my cameras. Once I had my cameras in the right places I posed my characters and then using the camera sequencer I edited the cameras together.
Here is my rough first pass. Please let me know what you think.
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