Adaptation B: Initial thumbnails

 Initial thumbnails for my recyclable characters. Some of these could work, though I feel like some of the designs are just random shapes with faces on at this point. Now I've tested some shapes out however I understand which shapes will work better.

YPGTTO Speed Paint Challenge 1 : The Map

 Here are some quick speedpaints that I have achieved in relation to the YPGTTO Speed Paint challenge! 

Both ideas where made by simply making brush patterns to the music. The first I imagined as an arena or venue hall as the heart of the city, whereas the second is more vague and  more a looking glass into the city? 

Adaptation B: Character features

Because I have two ideas that I like, I've tried to imagine what could be used as characters and possible traits and features to associate with them. 

Star Constellations 

For the constellations I looked at the mythology behind them as well as looking at their shape. From this I thought about possible traits or features.

Andromeda (The Princess) - Andromeda is represented in the sky as the figure of a woman with her arms outstretched and chained at the wrists.
Features/Traits: Noble, Humble

Cassiopeia (The Queen) - Although she was placed in the heavens by Neptune, the sea-god saw fit to humiliate her one final time (and for all eternity). He placed her so that she is seated on her throne, with her head pointing towards the North Star Polaris. In this position, she spends half of every night upside-down.

Features/Traits: Firm, Graceful

Cepheus (The King) - Cepheus is generally represented as a robed king with a crown of stars, standing with his left foot planted over the pole and his sceptre extended towards his queen.

Features/Traits: Strong, Fearless

Cetus (The Whale) - More frequently, though, Cetus is represented as a whale, which implies no connection to the Andromeda myth--though it certainly is possible that the ancients perceived whales as monstrous creatures. Either way, the constellation is appropriately a large one, and is relegated to the southern sky--far from Andromeda, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Perseus.
Features/Traits: Large, Monstrous

Cygnus (The Swan) - Cygnus is easily found in the summer sky. Also called the Northern Cross because of its characteristic shape, its brightest star is Deneb, which is part of the Summer Triangle with Vega and Altair.

Features/Traits: Elegant, Pure

Orion (The Hunter) - He is generally shown as a hunter attacking a bull with an upraised club, and is easily recognizable by his bright belt of three stars.
Features/Traits: Protective, Courageous 

Taurus (The Bull) - The constellation Taurus consists of only the head and shoulders of the snowy white bull. The representation in the stars seems to show a raging bull, however, always about to plunge into Orion, which doesn't seem to reflect the gentle, seductive bull in Ovid's telling of the story.

Features/Traits: Hostile, Strong

Corvus (The Raven) - It represents the crow (or raven), the sacred bird of the god Apollo.

Features/Traits: Intelligent, Dark

Lyra (The Harp) - Lyra constellation represents the lyre of Orpheus, the Greek poet and musician who died at the hands of the Bacchantes

Features/Traits: Beautiful, Soft

Sagittarius (The archer) - Sagittarius constellation represents a centaur aiming an arrow toward Antares, the bright star that marks the scorpion’s heart.
Features/Traits: Practical, Graceful

Vulpecula (The Little Fox) - It represents a little fox holding a goose in its jaws.
Features/Traits: Curious, Sneaky

Volans (The Flying fish) - It represents a flying fish; its name is a shortened form of its original name, Piscis Volans.
Features/Traits: Happy, adaptable

Recyclable materials 

I also looked at how these materials were made and their properties to find possible features of traits.

Paper: Made from Wood Pulp. Can be folded, scrunched up or torn. Can be textured and colourful. Used for writing, printing and packaging. 

Features/Traits:  Adaptable, Conscientious, Reliable

Glass: Made from heating sand and other minerals. Normally transparent but can be colourful. The thicker it is, the stronger it is. Used for windows, glasses and bottles.

Features/Traits: Emotional, Honest, Sharp

Metal: Made froms rocks and ores. Strong, hard and shiny. Can be made into shapes without it breaking. Used for saucepans and coins.

Features/Traits: Strong, Shiny, Hardheaded

Plastic: Made from chemicals. Strong and waterproof. Can change shape using heat. Used to make bags and bottles.

Features/Traits: Fiery, Manipulative, Fake

In terms of exploring these as characters I have discovered that the Recyclable materials could give me more to work from.

Paper is reliable and organised, fitting into a nerd stereotype. Glass is transparent, their feelings are obvious and their honesty could come across as sharp. Metal is Strong, charming and believes they are correct. Plastic shows a fake personality and can change at will, they manipulate others to get what they want.

In terms of design I'm not sure where I want to go with it yet but I'm going to start thumbnailing what I think they may look like. 

Mudbox Lesson: Velociraptor

 

Over the last two mudbox lessons we could sculpt what we wanted so I decided to sculpt a velociraptor, he still needs claws but I think he's looking okay!

 

Adaptation B: Character ideas

After my research and speaking to Alan it was clear that a way a child plays should drive how I get to my characters. Alan suggested creating characters for an app similar to the way Pokémon Go works. The idea being that the character would be on screen, in the environment for the child to play with. From my research it seemed like environment heavily contributed to how a child plays. So now I have to pick what exactly it is in the environment may influence a character to appear for the child. I also want these characters to be suitable for an animation as they could be part of a television show.

 

To help me figure out what I may design was I looked at what children are studying at school in terms of their environment.

 

Children learn about:

 

Living Things- Birds, Fish, Plants, Microorganisms

Earth and Space- Earth and the Solar System, Day and Night

Environment- Conservation, Waste, Impact of Humans

Materials- Rocks, soils and fossils, Solids, liquids and Gases

 

From this I have thought about characters influenced by:

 

Microorganisms: Bacteria, Archea, Protists, Fungi and Plants

Star Constellations: Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Caelum, Comlumba, Lepus, Canis Major

Waste and recycling: Glass, Paper, Metal and Plastic

Rocks: Igneous (Granite, Basalt), Sedimentary (Sandstone, Limestone), Metamorphic (Marble, Slate)

Gems: Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, Citrine, Garnet, Peridot, Topaz

Minerals: Quartz, Halite, Olivine, Calcite

 

  Out of these ideas my favourites are the Star Constellations, Recycling and Gems.

 

 

 

Adaptation B: Research

In a previous tutorial Alan suggested I spend some time around children to understand them better. 

Yesterday evening I borrowed Emma's Children and their friends to ask them some questions and just see what they were up to. 

I asked them about what they found boring and I didn't actually get a lot from them, infact they had a much easier time talking about what was interesting to them. I also asked them about characters and cartoons but it seemed they preferred games. While I got most of my answers from Alex and Emily who are the oldest, seeing Lucy play was pretty interesting. She was playing with a big pink car with Anna in the drivers seat and when the cars was doing flips I asked if Anna would get hurt to which she replied it was a "Powerful Princess Car". I later learnt that the car could fly and it had to be in the lines of the floor. Lucy described the car as lovely because of it's eyelashes and flower wheels. 

When I asked about Cartoons and characters I found out Alex liked Pokemon because it was immaginative, colourful, cute and had interesting characters. He felt like stories were important and that he liked nice looking animation. He also spoke to me about Chihiro from spirted away and said he liked her because she's relatable. 

Here are the lists I collected. 

Boring

• Cleaning
• Homework
• Waiting

Annoying

• Siblings
• When siblings make you late

 Embarrassing

• Pictures

Interesting

• Games - 3DS, XBOX
• Call Of Duty
• Batman
• Lego Games
• Pokemon
• Books/Comics
• Homework (can be interesting sometimes) 
• Harry Potter
• Star Wars
• Animals (Dogs are fluffy)
• Music

Maya Tutorial: Dynamics Part 4- Directional Emitters

Maya Tutorial: Dynamics Part 3 - Omni Emitters

Adaptation A: Infographic and Art Of Submission

Infographic

Art Of Document

Adaptation A: Icon Sheet

Sheet of the icons used within my infographic.

Adaptation A: Infographic without SFX

Infographic without sound effects, it has music but I'd like to try adding sounds and see if it improves it!

Adaptation A: Test 3

Now that I can see most of the animation together, I can see that the text needs slightly longer on screen, I like the pace of the infographic itself however.

I just need to refine what I have here. To do:

• Complete post it notes
• Refine areas where ring or other objects blend in
• Refine Map and create footsteps to animate
• Create Cat animation in Flash
• Create Skydive animation in Flash

Adaptation A: Test 2

Another test for my inforgraphic, I'm just checking if the audio still syncs up and if I like the pace. I think the pace is okay, though it may be a little fast, there's still some adjustments to be made so I might look at keeping some of the text on screen longer?

Adaptation A: Test 1

Wanted to test out what I have so far. I need to draw out a TV and put that in but that shouldn't take long. My concern at this point is that the text doesn't seem to interesting, not really sure if I should change it.

Adaptation A: Animation progress

Here's some progress for the title, the audio and text were synced up in After effects but for some reason the audio was delayed when I rendered it out.

I took the video into Premiere to see if it'd sync back up with the music as it was in after effects, which it did, therefore something during the render process in After Effects is causing that delay. I'll try to figure out whats causing it but for now at least I have this method just incase.

For now I'm currently blocking most of the animation out therefore I can come back in and refine it as I go along.

Mudbox Lesson: Masks

 

 

Sculpted some hair onto a head by using a mask.

@Alan Adaptation A: Animation Ideas

These are the animation ideas I have for each item of my infographic. 

Play a Game 

Two controllers and a tv can be seen, within the gameplay "Will you marry me is spelled out". (I thought of possibly showing space invaders destroying a block to show this?)

Pop a Balloon 

Several balloons pop, confetti/glitter falls out with the last one revealing the ring.

Pizza Box 

As the pizza is eaten the ring is revealed.

Local Newspaper 

A newpaper cutting shows the proposal advert.  As it zooms out it reveals a newspaper with a horrible news title.

Message in a bottle 

The bottle bobs along in the ocean, it reaches a small island.

Post it Notes 

Post it notes spell out "Will you Marry Me?".  One post it note has a shopping list on.

With your Pet 

Ring is put on the collar of a cat, cat scratches at it and knocks it off. 

Scavenger Hunt 

Person starts at one point of the map, the animation shows them getting lost and going in the wrong direction.

Skydive 

Person is on the plane ready to jump and they drop the ring, they skydive after it to catch it. 

On One knee…. At the top of a mountain.

The person is on one knee proposing, it zooms out to show that the person is on the top of a mountain.