Finished animation. Final render.

Here it is, my finished animation, complete with all the sound.

I am really pleased with how my first maya animation has turned out, although I would have liked a couple more sound effects when the door closes and maybe some background clinking glasses, but I couldn't find the sounds I wanted online and I did not leave myself enough time to record them myself.

I also would have liked to add some minimal animation to the background characters, unfortunately I ran out of time for this as well.

Overall though I'm really proud of my first 3D animation and I look forward to doing more as I've really enjoyed maya.

Final crit.

Today the course saw my what I had done so far and I got some feedback on my animation.

It was suggested that as moom is in a tavern, is a pirate and is drinking, to maybe loosen up some of his movements and make him look a bit drunker. 

It was also suggested that I add more sound, which I was intending to do but I had not yet gotten around to it.

All I need to do now is loosen up his movements, and render out my full animation and add sound. 

UPDATE: Bar scene lip sync.

I have lip synced my animation! I still need to add in some hand gestures and make him look more alive but the lip syncing is done now. I have left a gap between the last two sections of speech to add in another drinking sequence as the mood between the two lines of speech changes quite drastically.

UPDATE: Improved walk cycle.

I took the advice of Mike and Rosy to smooth out the walk cycle a bit. I also lowered the body of moom so that he was less bouncy and dragging his feet more as his character is supposed to be having a really bad day. I also made him hang his head a bit more. 

I have made him sit down at the bar and get a drink in as well, I think this part moves really smoothly and well and I used his arms to make it look like he was lifting himself onto the stool at the bar.

UPDATE: Walk cycle.

I've created a walk cycle for my moom, however it's too jumpy and unnatural and I can't work out how to fix it..

Rosy suggested exaggerating the hip swing and Mike has suggested looking into the graph editor and evening out spikes and getting rid of flat lines to make it move smoother.

UPDATE: Blocked out movement

I've blocked out the movement that moom will be walking from the door to the bar to work out timings. Next I will do a walk cycle for moom.

Scene building.

I designed the scene for my animation as a tavern or old fashioned Pub, and tried to make it as Pirate-y as I could manage, while also keeping it pretty simple..

I created barrels for the chairs and kept the tables, bar and bar stools a simple shame. 

I found most the textures I needed on google images. I think I need to adjust the window to make it a bit higher up, but other than that I'm pretty pleased with how my first scene setting in maya has turned out. I just hope I've made it the right size for Moom, although it won't be too hard to adjust at a later date if it's the wrong size.

Interim Crit

THE CRIT.

Today I presented my project so far, including my idea generation, storyboards, reference and the final idea to get feedback from my peers.

The feedback included suggestions about camera angles... David suggested that I use a shot of just the character's feet walking across the floor for a more dramatic effect. Mat suggested a silhouette of the character walking in against the light from the door, which was similar to my idea, but with a the camera angle being head on instead of slightly diagonal.

I'm considering dressing my Moom in a coat, but Mat suggested this might be a lot of work and so I will be doing this if I have time after designing all the backgrounds.

I mentioned the idea of background pub noises and people talking in the tavern, Anna suggested I include people sat around tables in the tavern to give it more of an atmosphere.. however the room would be really dark so I might not need these- will see how it goes when I've put it all together- If I do include people they would just be extra Moom characters and have little- no movement.

Look up 'Puppeteer' the PS3 game. apparently would be useful for this scene.

TO DO:
Work out what voice I am going to do and record it.
Create the tavern and backgrounds etc.
Lighting tests- work out how to make a dim candle light...flickering?
Re-shoot the reference video with smoother, better movements now that I know what I'm doing.
Make the animatic and refine the storyboard.

Reference Video

My reference video. The sound needs a lot of work, I haven't yet worked out what voice I need to do, but this shows the sort of movements I will need to reference to animate my Moom character.

I need to work on the movements and facial expressions when he's sat at the table, as the ones I have done are not exaggerated or convincing enough.

Storyboard.

Here is a rough storyboard for my animation. I need to work on it a bit more as there is not much going on in the storyboard.

It roughly shows the inside of the tavern, shows how the light would flood in when the door opens and shows where my character would sit, however I need to do it in slightly more detail with more movements.

I have also been experimenting with different facial expressions on Moom, and I've added some props to see how they fit with my character.

Maya Moom rig fun

We have been given a character rig, moom, to work with for our character and narrative projects, so that we don't have to learn how to build and rig a character straight away while learning how to animate in maya. As I am using a pre-rigged character that I am not familiar with, this is a short playblast of some experimentation and some fun, just getting used to how Moom moves and what he can do.