Over the summer, I had to think about exactly what I wanted to do for my dissertation, and one of the main ideas I wanted to do was 3D animation. I have delved into it a bit in college and I really enjoyed creating it and it was something I want to take to the next level. So, it would of been a case of, I modelling the environment, the assets in the environment and the characters.
(left: This is a screenshot of the first 3D animation I created, Ending - used simple animation that wasn't too difficult to do)
(right: the second 3D animation, Glove Battle - this one had gloves rigged - it wasn't the best of animations but it's something I can learn from)
So, I e-mailed one of my lecturers about it and he actually gave me some really good advice on how to go about the whole thing. He also gave me a good piece of advice that helped me consider:
"A superbly observed and executed twenty second sequence of an elf sprinting into an imaginary battling, loosing arrows and barrel rolling and evading crossfire will do so much more to inform a good grade than a three minute story-driven sequence of character relationships which would spread you far too thin."
That really helped me a lot because it made me realize that as long as I can get the point of what it is I want to do - which is to get better and more acquainted with animation. So I have since then decided to rethink the original idea.
So, after talking it through - I've decided I am going to do 3D Character animation. It will be a case of finding copyright free models or using models a friend of mine at another university, rig the skeleton to the model, skin the rig to the model (and cleaning it up) and then animating it. So, my marks will be on how well the rig is, the skinning of the model and then the animation itself. I did consider getting marked on modelling but that would be taking on too much and the criteria I want to be marked on is broad enough already. This is something that goes quite broad because there are many things that uses 3D animation of characters, be it games, film, television commercials and so on. Animating in the games industry will always be the one I will strive for but there's no harm in keeping options open.
The only problem I am having with at the moment is deciding on which software I am going to be animating in. I have heard that Autodesk Maya is the software that is mainly used for animating whereas 3DS Max is mainly used for the modelling. It sounds like there is only one answer, but the fact of the matter is I have used 3DS Max for the past three years I have been studying this course though I have used Maya in the past for animating and haven't really used that software recently. So, it's a case of going by what the experts say or try and be the person who has the skills in both software packages - even though I know that it doesn't stop there, eventually I will need to be efficient in using a number of software that do the same thing.
I will keep you all posted on updates as the project goes on, I hope you all tune in and enjoy the journey and wish me luck :)
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