Mid-Year Exam...Eish

the demon knife cabinet from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

So this was my effort for our mid-year exam. We were given three short soundclips, and we had to choose one of them to animate to. The objective was to come up with a coherent story, using the characters we'd created over the semester, and sync the story with the soundclip...a lot like the 11 Second Club does it. I ended up picking the clip that made the most sense to me...but it definitely wasn't the easiest!

Honestly, this could have been SO much better. We had a pretty limited amount of time to do this (two and a half weeks), so naturally, there's a lot of stuff that needs work, particularly the character animation. But anyway, there it is.

Below is the progression of the clip, from animatic to blocking.


June Exam Animatic (V2) from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.


exam shot 1 pass 1 from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.


exam shot 1 breakdowns from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

The model sheets for the knife cabinet...

The final 3D model for the cabinet

 

Some of the planning...

The 1st Semester Reel

Kwabena Sarfo 1st Semester Animation Reel from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

And voila! I have my first 3D animation show reel! Its a compilation of all the principles of animation work done over the first semester. As I've said elsewhere on this blog, it's always humbling to see that you're not nearly as 'advanced' as you think you are, and I feel like that's been the case with me so far. I've still got a LOT to learn. Having said that, I'm pleased with where I'm at as an animator so far, particularly as a 3D animation student.

BTW, the track used in the reel is ''Hidden'' by Bonobo, King 7 and the Soulsonics

Push and Pull

bee boy door open from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

 This was an exercise that combined acting with body mechanics. The IK on the hands and arms (for those who know what that means) of the character just refused to work for some reason; hence the hands going through the wall and door-knob at times. I just didn't have the heart or the time to go and fix it for every single frame...

These are some of the thunbnails and planning drawings done for the exercise.

Surprise!!

little dude take (seriously, again) from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

This was our first animation exercise for the second quarter. The aim was basically to make a character do a surprise take. The fancy animation term is a 'take and an accent'. The character we had to use was pretty limited in terms of expression, so I'm pleased I got as much out of him as I did.

Roundhouse Kick

roundhouse kick from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

I officially hated 3D animation whilst working on parts of this. I came to understand just how TOUGH it is to get a dynamic pose when the model and rig you're using isn't really capable of being twisted in such ways. Then there's all the interpolation stuff! Sheesh! Anyway, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It was our first real body mechanics exercise. I used one of the kicks in this video I found as my reference. The only thing I wish I'd done differently was exaggerate it a little more. I shouldn't have stuck so slavishly to the reference. Below are the prelim drawings I did...

Run Cycle

bee boy run cycle from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

We were given a spot test where we had only a few hours to present a fairly finished piece. We were given a few options of what kind of piece to do. Seeing as I felt character animation would cause me less pain than all the other options, I chose the run cycle option. My first thought after finishing this was that it looked completely horrendous. But after seeing it again after a few days, I thought it was decent. Obviously it still needs a LOT of refining....

Full Walk Cycle

bee boy happy walk 2 from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.

So after having got the basics down, we 'graduated' to animating a full-bodied character. This is basically an adaptation of the 'Milt Kahl type strut' (the animation nerds will know what that means). After having completed this, I felt a lot more comfortable animating in 3D.

Pendulum 2

pendulum 2 from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.
We had to hand in two pendulums, so for this one I referenced a USB drive dangling on a lariat, because I wanted to get that sense of weight hanging on the end of a string.

Pendulum 1 (3 section staff)

This was actually done before the walk cycle. Its just a basic pendulum swing, but I made my life a little more difficult by actually making it stop. If there's one thing that's definitely missing in this, its OFFSETTING! If I'd offset the various sections of the staff the animation would have felt a lot more limber. Alas...

Bot Walk Cycle

bot walk cycle from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.
Our first walk cycle exercise. Seeing as we needed to understand how the legs and hips, the most important parts, function during a walk, we were given a character without arms to animate. I was pretty anxious about this, so I'm pleased it turned out the way it did.

Bouncing Tennis Balls

bouncing tennis balls (show reel) from kwabena sarfo on Vimeo.
Its amazing; no matter how advanced you think you are, the more you realize how much you're not when you have to go back to the basics. That was definitely the case with our first principles of animation exercise; the good old bouncing ball. The foundation of any animation education. So simple, yet SO crucial. I'm basically happy with this, though it took me a lot longer to do than I'd anticipated...