It's over.... It's finally over!

Well. It's rendering at least!

After many moons, many struggles, many lessons and one mini heart attack. It is done.... And sweet sugar it feels good.

As I watch the render tick down.... I began to remember everything, And i think its fair to do a pretty big blog to recount it :P

Idea
A short animation where a character finds music and reacts to it emotionally.

Software
3Dsmax
Photoshop
Sony Vegas
Adobe Audition

Readings

• Gahan, Andrew. 3ds Max Modeling for Games: insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling. Amsterdam: Focal/Elsevier, 2011. Print.
• Jackson, Chris. Flash Cinematic Techniques: Enhancing Animated Shorts and Interactive Storytelling. Oxford: Focal, 2010. Print.
• O'brien, Flora. Walt Disney's Donald Duck: 50 Years of Happy Frustration. Tucson, AZ: HP, 1984. Print.
• Wells, Paul. Understanding Animation. Abingdon: Routledge, 1998. Print.
• Marks, Aaron. The complete guide to Game Audio for composers, musicians, sound designers and game developers. Burlington, MA: Focal/Elsevier, 2009. Print.
• Thomas, Frank, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Hyperion, 1995. Print.
• Wells, Paul. The Fundamentals of Animation. Lausanne: AVA, 2006. Print.
• Colborn, Gene L. and David B. Lause. Musculoskeletal Anatomy: A text and guide for Dissection: For students in the Allied Health Sciences. Pearl River, NY: Parthenon Pub. Group, 1993. Print.
• Collett, Peter. The Book of Tells: How to Read People's Minds from Their Actions.London: Bantam, 2004. Print.
• Whitaker, Harold. Timing for Animation. London: Focal, 2009. Print.

What I learned

• Rigging - I taught myself to rig efficiently and effectively.
• Animating by scenes - As I had only previously animated for games I enjoyed making animations to my storyboards designs and I am glad that I took that extra time in pre production to break the scenes up.
• Animating to music - To get the final effect I had to redo plenty of scenes to make sure they fit.
• Animating cameras - As i had never worked with cameras in 3Ds Max before it was a new experience and the overall effect has been carried into my other pieces of work.
• Using cameras to build a scene - Using the cameras to create speed and effects was also a new experience that I feel worked well and created a better final piece.
• Overall I also planned an entire project and set myself deadlines that I had to adhere to.

What went bad?

Although I am generally positive about how the project went down and was created I feel that there were a few small issues I should have looked into more to make the assignment more comfortable for me.

Although I loved this idea and was adamant to create it, Most of the time while working on it I felt disheartened by it and was constantly convincing myself that it was a bad idea to pick this to show animation skills and that I would be better off creating a complex model and doing some animations on it.

Though this was a comment from the start from a tutor I still say that I am glad that I took the plunge and stuck to my guns. Although this idea was a risky move and wasn't advised from day one the feeling of completion I got from it when it was all done was incredible and I am glad that I did decide to stick with it.

I do wish that I did take that extra bit longer looking into research and constantly stayed on top of work rather than the occasional build up (Not that I ever fell behind!)

The piece

EDIT - So it looks like someone doesn't want it to be embedded....

HERE is a link :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FydjlCk3kHQ

TA DA!

Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. (No really!)

Hope you all enjoyed reading my blog and my pursuit into animation.

Jack Stalley

The final Post

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