Month: February 2023

Week 7: Immersive Experiences

Post author By Veronika Butkevich
Post date 24th February 2023
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Part 1:

This class was about creating a MetaHuman using an Unreal Engine Meta Human software. It helps to create a unique model (including animation) of a highly realistic human.

I also tried to make a model of my classmate Gloria since at the previous class I have made her scan. The result was impressive:

Part 2:

This week we have also visited a Frameless exhibition. It was an incredible immersive experience that have inspired me a lot.

Part 3:

This week we had our regular meeting with our group members. The focus of the meeting was more on the model on the main building and VR effects used for the characters.

We have also discussed that it would be very helpful for the experience as well as for the animations to make ghosts glitching.

Since the models I could use for the animation were still in production, I focused on some ideas for the “memories”.

Specifically I have chosen to work on the ideas for propaganda posters and a diary.

Propaganda posters references I have found:

At first we were thinking of going more towards the communist style as shown in the references, but after a discussion we agreed to have less agitation in the posters.

The animation behind the posters would be to create some movement in the scene and also add voice interactions. An example of the moving image of the poster was taken from the newspapers in the Harry Potter’s world:

The other idea for the “memory” interaction was a diary. To better describe my idea I have added a few references on the diary itself and the way cockroaches would escape after opening it:

Advanced and Experimental 3DCA Techniques Project 1

Week 7: Previs

This week I have been improving particular previs shots after I received a feedback from George.

First detail to change was to add a movement of a bug after the hand lands on the tree. It will create moving dynamics and look more realistic.

Second improvement was to add more movement in the 6th shot. My animation is very slow-moving and there no much shots to show good body mechanics, for this reason we agreed on adding more obstacles for the character to show a more interesting body movement for the animation.

In this shot I decided to add a bit of movement of the character so it moves together with the camera and looks less still.

The same goes for the next shot. I will be adding more of the camera movement as well as character movement – specifically them going from one direction towards the bush.

In the last shot we agreed that placing a camera closer to the objects of interest will create more intimacy and look visually better in general.

Robot Arm:

For the robot arm I continued working on the details and textures. For the nice detailed effect I was using a lot of extrusions, bevel and other modelling tools.

Thesis Proposal

Week 7: Literature Review

Post author By Veronika Butkevich
Post date 22nd February 2023
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Main body structure:

1. Underrepresentation of females in the industry

Reasons why
The increase of representation over time

Representation in the role of modelers/animators and top positions

2. Who can influence the representation on screen?

Modelers/animators
Top positions such as directors, producers

3. An increase of female leads and female representation in animation in the most popular animations over time

4. Does the increase of females in the industry has a direct relationship to female representation on screen?

Bibliography:

Smith, S.L., Choueiti, M., Choi, A., & Pieper, K. (2019). ‘Inclusion in the Director’s Chair: Gender, Race/Ethnicity, & Age of Directors Across the Top Films From 2007-2018,’ USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved from: http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-directors-chair-2019.pdf

Smith, S.L., Choueiti, M., Pieper, K. & Clark, H. (2019). Increasing Inclusion in Animation. Investigating Opportunities, Challenges, and the Classroom to the C-Suite Pipeline,’ USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved from: https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-inclusion-animation-201906.pdf

Furniss, M. (2000). ‘“Color and Line” in Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics,’ London: John Libbey. Rev. edition: 71-74.

Collaborative Unit

Week 6: World-Building

Part 1:

This class was all about creating our own world. Thinking of all the detailed aspects of the world is highly important since we communicate with the viewer through it. We need to know what rules are established in the world, what creatures are there (if any), what is their purpose, what is the history of the world and so on.

We have also worked with Photogrammetry in reality capture. With the help of learning the interface, we tried to scan the given object (in my case it was my classmate Gloria) and put it into the software:

The result needed cleaning which I did with the help of a lasso tool and added texture:

Part 2:

This week we had another meeting with our group members. On the meeting were presented first drafts of one of the models that we can later use for the animation. It is a model of the mother the main ghost in the story.

We have also been shown examples of particles that would be attached to the ghosts. For me it was very beneficial because it showed me how much detailed the animations will have to be.

Before the models will be ready for me to animate, I was developing the ideas for “memory” animations:

Some of the “memories” I could animate are

A broken kids toy
A hand scanner
A hologram

I have also suggested an animation with the diary where the player will be able to open it and several cockroaches will run away from it. This animation could not only show how much time have passed since the building was crowded with people but could also illustrate the last thoughts the owner of the diary had.

This suggestion was turned down by the external collaborators.

Advanced and Experimental 3DCA Techniques Project 1

Week 6: Moving Previs

This week I am continuing working on my previs for the animation I have chosen.

To get a better understanding of timing and camera angles, I made a moving version of each shot.

The fist shot has a slight zooming out.

This shot has a zoom out to reveal more of the character’s face.

Here we see a movement of sitting down. The shot will be a bit longer, as the character will also look around before noticing the firefly.

The movement of pointing out will be slowed down.

In the beginning of the shot we will see the bugs on the tree.

The following shot.

The character hides behind the tree where we see other bugs not in focus.

The character is observing the bugs. At first bugs are in focus then the focus shifts to the person.

I changed this shot to a high-angle view to shot that the forest has a power over the character.

The camera is panning from left to right revealing the bush where the firefly will fly.

Zooming in on the millions of fireflies that the character reveals behind the bush.

The character is amused by millions of fireflies in front of them.

As for the last shot I decided to add a close up on the character’s face while they are looking at the fireflies.

I want to show emotions of the character as well as the changing lights on their face from the fireflies.

For the better movement I have filmed a few references:

Robot Arm:

I have continued working on the forearm and upperarm and created the elbow mechanics.

I have also changed a piston position closer to the elbow. In this case when the elbow rotates, so does the piston.

For the easier animation have been added different controllers.

Thesis Proposal

Week 6: Research Methodology

Post author By Veronika Butkevich
Post date 15th February 2023
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Qualitative vs Quantitative Methodologies

• Qualitative: Explores peoples’ perceptions, ideas and feelings, and therefore, it can be considered more subjective.

• Quantitative: Investigates the hard numbers and statistics, and therefore, it can be considered more objective.

My research will combine both qualitative and quantitative types. However, the principal component will be a quantitative analysis of the percentage of women working on films correlated with data showing female representation on screen. To support these statistics, literature will be analysed to extract data collected by other researchers.

Collaborative Unit

Week 5: Work in-Progress Discussion

Post author By Veronika Butkevich
Post date 10th February 2023
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Part 1:

This week we had to present our project to the whole class. This was very important as we were able to introduce our tutors and classmates to our work, show the workflow, describe the project and specifically the part of the project that we agreed on creating.

We have also had a second meeting with our project members where we were able to discuss more specifically what are we going to do.

In this meeting we started to discuss objects that can trigger “memories” of the ghosts. Most of the “memories” are shown with animations. We brainstormed what can be found in the chosen environment hundreds of years after and how it can help understanding the environment.

I gave ideas on what animations can be done to each specific object. For example, a teddy bear could be held by a child and then accidentally left behind because their mother made them leave the room; a photograph of a family could start to move while the player interacts with it; a framed newspaper or a poster could also start to move when the player sees them and etc.

At this stage we have also discussed the floorpan for future navigation in the VR experience:

Part 2:

This week we also had a second Unity introduction with Herman Ho.

He showed us how to make objects move in a loop.

Advanced and Experimental 3DCA Techniques Project 1

Week 5: Previs

For this week I had to develop a previs for my chosen idea of the animation.

The first shot is establishing the environment. The viewer sees that the location is a dark wistful forest.

The viewer also sees a character – a female-looking person, who is lying in the middle of the forest with their eyes closed.

The action in the shot will be a firefly flying above the character.

The location is the same.

In this shot we see a firefly flying around the face of the character and eventually sitting down on the face. At first it irritates a bit the skin of the character and then they wakes up.

This shot follows the movement of waking up.

We can see a firefly flying around. And a character looking around the place and then focusing on the firefly.

At this point we understand that the character doesn’t know where they are. We also see that its not an ordinary forest.

In this shot a character is amused by the firefly and tries to touch it until it flies away.

At first we see a tree with some bugs on it and then a hand appears.

This shot is more of an ‘in-between’ but it still shows us forest details such as its habitants.

This is a following shot.

The person is walking around the forest, stepping over a fallen tree.

In the from we see other bugs on the tree but they are not in focus. The reason is to show that the forest is living on its own.

This shot will show the environment of the forest.

The character is turning around and observing it.

The character looks at the bugs on the rock.

At first we will see just the bugs in focus and then the character will appear and the focus will switch to them.

In this shot a character sees a firefly as in the beginning and follows it.

A firefly moves from left to right and hides in the bush.

The character follows the firefly.

Behind the bush a character sees thousands of fireflies all in one spot.

In the last scene the character is amused by the fireflies and is just staring at them.

My animation leaves an open ending.

Robot Arm:

We modelled a piston by creating basic cylinders and with the help of locators and parent constrains it was able to move and follow the hand.

I have also created basic hardware inside the hand.

Thesis Proposal

Week 5: Developing an Investigation

Post author By Veronika Butkevich
Post date 8th February 2023
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For my Thesis research I have to read lots of books and articles on the topic of feminism, production structure and female position within this structure, as well as analyse top animation movies on the amount of women working on these films and if it has female main characters.

Literature reviews are, then, important in:

supporting the identification of a research topic, question or hypothesis;

Identifying the literature to which the research will make a contribution, andcontextualising the research within that literature;

building an understanding of theoretical concepts and terminology;

facilitating the building of a bibliography or list of the sources that have been consulted;

suggesting research methods that might be useful; and in,

analyzing and interpreting results.

Literature searching and locating information sources

There are a number of different tools to assist in the identification and location of documents in each of the categories discussed above. These include:

library catalogues – good for locating books held by a library, and journals towhich they subscribe;
search engines – good for locating web pages, with simple keyword basedsearches; and,
on-line databases or abstracting and indexing services, which provide accessto journal articles, papers in conference proceedings, reports, dissertations and other documents.

Guidelines:

•Use headings and topic sentences to inform readers what the subject is and what point the material is contributing to the discussion.

•Do not just point to the existence of literature on the topic; compose about methods or results in the studies you discuss.

•Test sentences for relevance to the main point.

•Put citations where they don’t distract from the line of thought you are presenting.

•Utilize active verbs that are strong and rich in content.

•Make use of transition words.

Collaborative Unit

Week 4: Avatars

Part 1:

In this class we discussed the concept of avatars – what are they and what is their purpose.

Avatart is a static or moving image or other graphic representation that acts as a proxy for a person or is associated with a specific digital account or identity.

What is the role of avatars in digital spaces?

We also had to create a 3D avatar from the drawings we did during the exquisite corpse game:

Part 2: Unity

This week we also had our first lesson with Herman Ho who introduced us to Unity. He told us about the animation industry and showed unity interface. We were also able to create and navigate the whole scene:

We have also imported assets that Herman created for his own project and with the help of those we recreated a Japanese street in Unity:

Herman showed us how to experiment with different lights and effects and create an actual experience:

Part 3:

This week we faced with our first challenges in the group project – scheduling a meeting. Since this projects contains of more than 11 people it has been quite challenging to agree on the time slot that is convenient to everyone.

I have also shared it on the pallet board and it seemed a quite common issue for other groups too: