Category Archives: Advanced Animation

Objective:
Work with a team through the production pipeline to create an animated short that shows off all that you have learned over the last two years.

Method:
Below are DUE Dates for the following processes. Everything will be due before the second class period on the assigned day.

• Feb. 14 – Work Breakdown
• Feb. 17 – Concept Design & Storyboard (Script/Concept Art/Character Sheets/Storyboard)
• Mar. 10 – Models & UV’s (90% complete)
• Mar. 31 – Rigging
• Apr. 07 – Animation (Friday of State SkillsUSA Conference)
• Apr. 14 – Surfacing
• Apr. 28 – Lighting & Rendering
• May 05 – Composition & Post

TEAMS

• Barrientos, Howard, Jennings, Lewis, Torres, Yarbrough
• Alvarado, Alvarez, Beasley, Biggs, Cupp, Gonzales, Hlavin

Turn In:
Make sure to post updates at least twice a week to your blog. There will be Check-In days. Describe the work completed and any issues/problems that you have encountered. Include links to any tutorials used as well as screen captures of your work.

Full Rendered Short is to be submitted to the ExamDrop by May 05.
It also needs to be posted to each team members blog.

Objective:
Work on texturing and lighting a pre-modeled scene to create a high quality rendered still.

Method:
Open one of the scenes from the Q:LocalPublic\Animation\Lighting Challenges folder. Use creativity to make the scene come to life. The scene needs to have animations, textures, and appropriate lighting.

Render the completed project out in HD720 and post to your blog.

Turn In:
Post progress to your blog daily explaining what you have done that day. When finished, render your scene in high quality and post to your blog. Explain the choices you made with your animations, textures, and lights you chose to use and explain WHY you made those decisions. Final render should be posted and submitted to your blog by Friday, February 10.

Objective:
Work with a team in order to create a full animation. Collaborate with team members and assign tasks based on strengths.

Method:
Use the supplied prompt to complete an animated short with your team. Assign roles based on member strength. Focus on camera shots, smooth animations, efficiency. The short must have a clear story.

Groups:
Howard, Biggs, Torres
Lewis, Yarbrough, Jennings
Beasley, Gonzales, Alvarado
Alvarez, Hlavin, Barrientos, Cupp

Turn In:
Story board along with task sheet is due by the end of the first day.

Post progress shots to the blog every other day. The rendered and compressed animation is due to the ExamDrop by the end of the day on January 15. Each member is to post the compressed video to their blog along with an explanation of their role and accomplishments.

Objective:
This week, each student will work on the area they feel needs the most improvement. This will vary with each of you. For some of you it will be modeling, others will be texturing/Lighting, and others will be animating or rigging.

Method:
Use any tutorials you need, to learn new techniques or strategies to gain more skill in your area of weakness.

Turn In:
The link to your tutorial used as well as your finished deliverable is due at the end of the week.

Objective:
Work with a team in order to create a full animation. Collaborate with team members and assign tasks based on strengths.

Prompt:
“Well, that’s a bust.”

Method:
Use the supplied prompt to complete an animated short with your team. Create an asset/task list and assign roles based on member strength. Focus on camera shots, smooth animations, efficiency. The short must have a clear story.

Groups:
– Gonzales/Yarbrough
– Lewis/Howard
– Beasley/Cupp
– Biggs/Alvarez
– Jennings/Torres/Alvarado
– Hlavin/Barrientos

Turn In:
Story board along with task sheet is due by the end of the first day.

Post progress shots to the blog every other day. The rendered and compressed animation is due to the ExamDrop by the end of the day on December 15. Each member is to post the compressed video to their blog along with an explanation of their role and accomplishments.

Objective:
Create a FULL animation from scratch to show current skill level in all aspects of the pipeline.

Method:
Use the below prompt to complete a full animation. Strive to show off your abilities in every aspect of the animation.

Prompt:
• What just happened?!

Requirements:
• Texture – Use only maya files
• Lighting
• Animation
• Fully rendered – HD 540
• Compression – Handbrake to MP4

Order:
• Model
• Map
• Rig
• Animate
• Surface (textures/Lights)
• Render
• Composite

Turn In:
Use Handbrake to compress the rendered AVI file into a MP4 file and post it to your blog. Discuss the decisions you made with your story, how your finished short correlates to your original idea, and what issues you faced throughout the process of creating the short.

Objective:
Using Deformers to manipulate geometry. Easy Animation & Modeling.

Method:

• Deformers
• Modeling
• Animating

Submit:
PART 01: Create a couple of interesting shapes. Duplicate the shape to set it from the deformer. Place several in one scene and render a “Medium Close” picture.

PART 02: Use one of your previous models to create an animation using deformers. Set keys and playblast the animation from a close camera angle.

Post both the picture and playblast to your blog and discuss what you did.

Objective:
Develop employability and leadership skills by maintaining effective working relationships through providing constructive praise and criticism.

Method:
Monday – Group Evaluation of last short | peer review.
Tuesday > Thursday – Revise your animations based on the feedback given from Oualline and classmates.
Friday – View modifications and discuss changes as a class.

Turn In:
Submit compressed .mp4 file to the ExamDrop by dismissal on Thursday and have it posted to your blog by Thursday at midnight. Discuss the changes made and what you liked and disliked about the peer evaluation process.

Objective:
Produce an animated short. I want Dynamic camera shots as well as clear and smooth animation.

Method:
Divide work by your strengths, problem solve, and manage your time wisely.
Focus on your principles of animation. Keep the models relatively simple so you can animate accordingly.
Use any tutorials necessary to get the animation that you want.
Create a project folder in the Animation folder of the Q: drive in order to share your files. BE CAREFUL! If a file is deleted, it is not recoverable.
Discover and work with file referencing in this project. Use this link to learn more about it.

Turn In:
You will continually update your blog with daily progress snip and explanations.

Storyboard – Monday, October 17 – Printed out or submitted to ExamDrop
Models – Thursday, October 20 – Rendered stills with wire mesh submitted to ExamDrop
Rigging & Animation – Monday, October 24 – Playblasted animation submitted to ExamDrop
Textures & Lighting – Wednesday, October 26 – Rendered stills submitted to ExamDrop
Fully rendered animation composited in AE is DUE by Friday, October 28.

Prompt:
“Piece of Cake”

Teams:
Alvarado / Cupp / Torres
Alvarez / Gonzales
Barrientos / Yarbrough
Biggs / Hlavin
Beasley / Lewis
Jennings / Howard