Week 10 Part 1 – Evolution so far

Ten weeks have passed and so far I have mixed emotions about how I am going so far. Having a wide range of emotions going day to day sometimes changing a million times in a short space of time. At this stage I would have liked to have a lot more done, I would like to have had some of the rendering done for certain shots.

I believe this comes down to a number of reasons. The main reason for this as mentioned previously is rigging. At this stage, while I am confident doing basic rigs, I have reconstructed Molly many times which is holding me back to do my favorite aspect of the project, animation. While I recognize rigging is a major and important component of 3D animation, at this stage I do lack confidence in this area and more practice is definitely required.

When it comes to paint weighting the rig/character, I also lack in confidence. I have redone Molly so many times I have lost count, to a point it has got frustrating and slowed me down quite considerably. Rigging and weights are two of the most frustrating aspect I have found so far in this entire project. I dreaded it at the beginning and adopted the script to suit my lack in confidence and this has proven to be correct. This is one of the reasons why I have asked Seon to work on the rig for Dr John, The Butler and Bradford, as they are simple and aren’t that complex.

Despite my lack of confidence in the rigging and having done many minor changes during this period (many of the problems with the rig has been discovered during this period which has led to frustrating and stress), the animation process has been fun, exciting and enjoyable. This is an aspect I enjoy and have confidence, spending hours blocking, doing in-betweens, clean up and tweaking. This is where I see the film coming alive and I can see this with Molly. Over a few days, I blocked all scenes, and then worked on the in-betweens. It was also during this period that I have really enjoyed doing clean ups (it has been frustrating at times, mostly with the eyes, fingers and arms), making sure it complies with the principles of animation. However, if I have found problems with some aspects of the rig, if possible I have decided to cheat and hide any problems behind something be that a body, wall or furniture or not have them in shot. This is a decision I made during the animation to hide my rigging problems or difficulties. As of week 10, most of the animation for Molly has been finished, and has been enjoyable. I would like to have done this a few weeks ago to achieve a better animation look, but the animation so far is good but not great. However, if time permits (which will not be the case) I hope to improve Molly’s animation, but as my other characters haven’t yet been animated (despite all three having simple animation) I can only assume I will work on this for at least one more work. But now it’s time for lip sych, which I also enjoy and will be starting by the beginning of week 11. I only hope that roughly two weeks will be enough time for this task.

When looking over my entire experience so far, it’s been mixed. I have really enjoyed and loved the entire process, but have been overwhelmed by what has been involved. I have enjoyed the animation and working with my actress Jess, but the aspect of rigging has been a nightmare, that I wish to forget. But as I have been in a team of two (since mid-year), I have to multi-task (rigging and animation), and at times this has put a lot of stress onto myself to get the task right and on time. Seon has done a fine job with modeling and I have asked her to work on the rigging so I can focus on the animation, which I prefer and love. I, like everyone else would like to have been better and it hasn’t helped with my lack in confidence day to day, worried that something could go wrong and everything stuffs up. It has at times been a mental struggle trying to cope with about five tasks at once and aspects of the project have suffered for example the administration of tasks and contacting the relevant people. This, of course, would have been far worse if I was working on my own so Seon has been a great help in that regards.

Overall, this post might sound negative but I need to understand and look back over the last 10 weeks and examine how I have gone so far. I may be worried that I will not be able to finish everything I have hoped to achieve but I will do what I can by the end of the year to achieve my best. I am hard on myself but that is who I am.