Maya rigging tutorial with complete model

Fantastic Voyage Pre-vis Build-up to scene

This is the build-up to creating this interior of the body, intended to simulate paper unfolding itself, as the cell structure forms together to create interior tissue. The petals start small and then are shown to form one singular piece that unravels itself.

As the small pieces are all rigged, I'd still like to add more movements and ripple effects in the scene. With the textures, I can add a bump map to accent more of the paper design, as it doesn't look clear enough with the current textures.

Pitch reflective statement

I think my pitch to the client Doctor Klappa went well, in terms of what he wanted from a scientific perspective. I don't think I chose a design style that was too metaphorical or hard to understand in correlation to cancer. The main thing I was worried about was how open the audience and the client would be to idea of using a paper craft style, whether they would question if it would be appropriate of using an aesthetic that can be quite whimsical and use it to describe cancer, but I think I managed to convey why it could work with the context of my chosen audience, and to be a source of information and design being used to peak interest for an off-putting subject matter. I think it's very important for people of a young age to gain a clear understanding of what cancer is and how it develops because of how many people it affects. I was able to gauge that from the client, the audience and my tutors that they really appreciated this sort of mixed media animation style, so I believe I have the full go-ahead for the idea and concept.

What didn't work well in the presentation of my animatic was a clear negative reaction to my colour choices and font, which juxtaposed with the idea I was pitching, and made it appear to have a moodier tone. Though I explained beforehand that the text was in the place of a narration that should be added in the final piece, the font was too jarring for this context. What I wanted for my animatic was to quickly convey the movement and texture style I wanted to use for the final piece, to show how I'd like the paper to unfold and create the environment, in a stop motion kind of style. These were just basic textures I had to hand, but it didn't fill my client with confidence as it created some confusion of what the final product would look like from the animatic. Going forward, I think I should take time to clean up and present on my blog environment designs that are more focused for an audience and in particular, really pinpoint on correct colour as I realise now it can really impact tone and it may of created some unnecessary worry for the client.

Another thing I think should be updated are the designs of my cells, being mean to be just simple but I was told be careful of shape as they look to similar to eyeballs and the cancer cell too much like a fish. It may be best to go even simpler and maybe not worry about getting the designs too similar to actual cells. There could be a tighter correlation between both cells as they look too different and there needs to be some sort of relationship between them, as cancer cells come from regular cells that have just mutated and become much bigger than they should be.

I think if I work quickly on re-tweaking these designs, there will be less cause for my tutors to worry because of their wondering if  I could get this done in time and get it translated into a 3D animated film in the weeks I have left. I believe since I am trying to go for a simpler designed world, I know what I will realistically be able to get done in that time.

Fantastic Voyage Pitch

Fantastic Voyage Pitch 2 by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

What is Cancer: Script

What is Cancer? by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

Soundscapes Submission

Life Drawing Master Post 13/03/17

Fantastic Voyage: Initial idea thumbnails

Starting with a simple cave tunnel aesthetic, with making distance easier to see, it gave me a few ideas to later work it into a 2D cut-out design.

Research into Fantastic Voyage subjects

Fantastic Voyage Ideas by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

From Script to Screen Animatic (No Sound)

This is the early version of my animatic with no sound added yet.

From Script to Screen Storyboard

From Script to Screen: Building up my Pre-vis animatic

This is the build up to my simple exterior shots of the Space Station in my story. I intend it to be pretty basic, but I'd like to know of any thoughts of what I could add or remove building up my shots. 

Maya Tutorial: Deformers Part 1

Audition Lesson 4: Mixing Audio in Multitrack

Using what I learned from the previous lessons, I was able to put together a short clip of a song I edited together.

Audition Lesson 3: Generating sounds

This week we looked at ways to generate sounds using Audition rather than with a recording. There are 3 types of sounds you could make digitally: tones, noise and voice. Tones and voices can be filtered with effects like the doppler effect, echos, reverb and pitch distortion. 

Audition Lesson 2: Fixing audio files

Taking an audio file of a song and trying to clean up background noise. Unfortunately since some sounds mix and form part of the same frequency, it's hard to get rid of all the sound that I want. I cleaned up the file using the noise reduction filter and the auto-fix selection tool.

Audion Lesson 1: Sampling audio

Taking some sample audio files into Adobe Audition, I was able to create a mix-down audio edited from the growls of wolves, lions, dogs and the purr of a cat. From fixing and distorting the audio, it has been completely transformed into a entirely new sound.

From Script to Screen: OGR 2 (First Draft)

Jingle Blues From Script to Screen OGR 2 First Draft (new) by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

This is my first iteration of this OGR. I'll be posting a more complete version including character designs for my second character, prop designs and influence map and my completed storyboard, as soon as possible.

Storytelling & Commission: Script Version 2

Jingle Blues V2 by Zoe Thornton on Scribd

This slightly revised version of my script aims to fine tune and sharpen the pace and wit I want to convey in the final piece. I decided to give the character of Santa a slightly more foreboding presence, to bring about tension if the Elf doesn't get the doors open and the whole facility working in time.

Storytelling & Commission: Script Draft

Jingle Blues First Draft by Zoe Thornton on Scribd