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Experiments

On this page I have a collection of experimental animations which include scenes from projects that didn't make it into the final outcome of my university project, along with character, vehicle and creature animation.

I am currently updating this page with experiments post-graduation

Forest Walk

I did this animation in hopes that I could try and get animated grass to work and have collision with the rigs used through the use of Xgen. Unfortunately I was unable to get the grass animations to work meaning there is no wind or collision movements, it is still a step in the right direction as I do now know how to create large clusters of grass, I just need to spend some more time working on getting the grass to move and figure out what the errors were that i was running into.

Bow and arrow

This animation was for me to test how the Link rig worked as well as some body mechanics. I thought it would be interesting to create a short animation using the bow and arrow and I am very happy with the outcome of this and how it looks. Originally I wasn't going to add in the cloak, however I decided to add it as that way I can have a go at clothe animation, and a simple flip is a nice way to start that learning process.

Multi-Storey car park scene

This was a scene that was going to be added into 'The Chase' however due to technical issues with exporting a playblast I had to make the decision to not finish and remove the scene. This scene was a sudden thought and was not in the original story board for the animation as I felt that this would have added some more tension and atmosphere to the project if this scene got fully finished.

Roundabout scene

This scene is the first iteration of the roundabout scene in 'The Chase' which I created to try and help me figure out how I wanted the final scene to connect to it. In these shots I had the car drive around the whole roundabout to start driving back on the road they came from. However I wasn't really fond of how it looked, as it did seem a bit confusing as to how far around they went, so I decided to re-do the scene to make it more clear to the audience how far they are traveling and where to.

Creature roar test

Just like I did with the creature walk cycle, in order to try and get a better feel of the rig and all of its controllers (since the walk cycle only focused on the legs), I created this test as a way of trying to give the creature some personality/character and as a way to help me decide on what mannerisms I wanted to give it.

Creature walk cycle

To help me get a feel of how I could animate the creature for my project I started off with a walk cycle using reference of how lobsters move. I went through many different iterations using different animals to try and get the movements of the legs to feel right. Spiders were my first thought of how I would animate the creature, however due to the size of the model in my project, the movements of a spider turned out of be too fast, even when adjusting the keyframes. Despite using a lobster for reference in this walk cycle, I decided to reference Mr. Waternoose from 'Monsters, Inc.' (2001) for the movements in my final project outcome.

Peeking around Lift door.

This short animation test was going to be part of a rooftop parkour sequence in 'The Chase'. I wanted to animate this whole scene since it would allow me to improve upon character animation and showcase the improvement, however due to time restraints I decided to not finish the whole scene. I took reference footage of peeking around a corner to help me animate the head and hand of the model to try and make the movements feel realistic.

Wall climbing

While I was planning out how I wanted 'The Chase' to play out, before it became a full car chase, I was thinking of having the character do some parkour to try and escape the creature alongside the car chase, so I did a rough animation of a body mechanics rig climbing up a wall. Completing this rough animation showed me that I needed to add more weight to the character as the first grab onto the wall, and to have more anticipation as they start pulling themselves up.

Vehicle animation test

Due to my final university project being a car chase, to help me get familiar with the vehicle rig I have chosen to use, as well as getting used to vehicle animation as a whole, I did a small experiment where I animated a car to drift around a couple corners since thats what I would be getting it to do in the project. It feels alot more 'cartoon' like due to the speed the car takes around the corners and the amount it leans, so in my final project I made sure that the car movements looked like thats how it should.

Lip syncing

I was thinking of putting voice lines in my final university project, however I have previously not done any lip syncing, so I used a line from 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' (2014) to help me practice how lip syncing is made. Upon completion I am happy with how my first lip syncing turned out, however I could add a lot more emotion/character in future lip syncing to get a better idea of the situation the character is saying it in.

'Make it Manifesto'

'Make it Manifesto' was a quick project at the start of my final year of university where we created an animation of which represents us in some form. For this project, the model represents how I want to keep on animating, but also how I would like to work on an action based animation. All objects except the model, chair and gun were modelled and textured by me.

Fight scene

This is the original fight scene and camera movements before they got moved into the final scene in my collaboration project. There was not that many changes to the camera movements in the final project, as when the characters started fighting the camera went back to its original movements.

Character running test

This is a quick test of a scene idea I had for my Metamorphosis project, and also allowed me to see how my run cycle would look in motion. Due to wanting to add some 'parkour' elements I added in a box to this sequence as an obstacle for the character to jump over, helping me learn how to animate other movements instead of just walks and runs. It also allowed me to recognise that I need to spend time focusing on weight distribution of landing the jump and starting, just to make it feel more real.

Run cycle

My 'Metamorphosis' has a run sequence, so before animating the cycle with my chosen model for the project, I used a body mechanics rig to help me practice a run cycle as I had not made one prior to this project, so using a simple rig was a good way for me to get an understanding of how to make one.