Animation

The characters used in these playblast were modelled and rigged by mohamed warsaw, and animated by myself Frank Eagan, the group met on various occasions and we would decide on pieces of animation that we would do amongst ourselsves, according to what was required for the short film, i did a child walk cycle, an individual getting shot, a man seated at a table who stands to hes feet, an interaction between two men in the street ( one of the men points out the trouble then spins to make a swift exit, whilst the other man involved in the interaction turns to see the source of the probem, who alos in hes best interest runs to safety.Problems i encountered where due to the rig, i was unable to animate finger movements as the fingers were not rigged limiting certain movements within the animation, also the shouders , were not able to rotate, proving near impossible to counter balance the body in hip rotations. the model deformed in certain positions, resulting in less exagerated posses. i was set specific scenes to animate for the short film, which as a group we decided in our meetings.

Dynamics (alias maya)

After i did the flag test and the falling cloth test, and was pleased with the result, i decided to merge the two different techniques required to make the flag test and the falling cloth test work into one scene and see if i could apply them successfully to achievea blowing effect on a umbrella of canvas, the playblast shows it works and i then decided to apply it to garment hanging from the umbrella stand at a market stool. i was pleased, with the outcome as it was the exact effect i was looking for , and i have now become familiar with the dynamics of Ncloth,

Character head model (alias maya)

I modeled this head in maya and am very pleased with how it turn't out, as i think i managed to incorporate and maintain the 2D style i had established on the film and had decided on. I drew a profile and a front view in 2D as a referance and template for me to sculpt tHe head in 3D.

prop modelling (alias maya)

I did prop modeling for the short film cARARA, variuos prop modeling included barrels, damaged crates, wheel burrow, tables, fruit, bowls, the palm tree was not actually used, as they did no grow in a part of somalia that our film was based, i was pleased with how my modelling came out, however i should have been more conscious of the polly count of the wall, being taht so many bricks pushed the poly count up high, and having to be cut from the film.

hyena studies

I briefly looked at hyenas as the director instructed me that he had decided on using hyenas in the film, also the idea of a montage of 2D hand draw shots were being discussed, so i decided to have a look and do a few sketches of hyenas, to capture there form. and see if i could refine the style we had decided on into the look of an animal.

background

I created the background to be used in a series of 2d slides, that were originally planned to be hand drawn by myslef, however the 2d slides were replaced by real photographs, as suggested by the tutors.
i created the background shot by painting over the photograph in photoshop, creating a water colour look.

Refining a style

I established a style that i liked, keeping with larger hands and feet, i also made the heads of some of the characters very rounded with black eyes. I presented the director with the style, he liked it and it was agreed that we would keep with it throught the film and act as a style to achieve in 3D. Once the style was decided i was able to study the attire of rebels and progress with colouring the characters, using photoshop to create a base colour, and a light shadow and a harsh shadow.