Reflection On The Week: (Week 31): Starting Monday 12th May

The week started off with a Programme Meeting to discuss this Semester's assessment and have a look at previous years work. This film from a couple of years ago was of particular interest due to the hand-painted textures on 3D models - which is what we would like to do for the Tug of Biscuit film:

Also this week I've been creating some artwork for the Production Bible. Not very much concept art had been produced for the props and garden plants in the environment. I took some more detailed research and reference photos in the back garden to help with the designs, modeling and texturing:

These are some watercolour sketches and drawings I produced to explore how these might be translated and textured into our watercolour-styled environment:

Helped Giorgos out on Monday by having a look over the dog model. The tail needed to be slightly wider to appear a bit more furry, so that when it is animated there is more of a swoosh to it:

I thought the top of his head needed added to, because he didn't seem to have any forehead. I suggested to make it rounder as it it might help him look younger:

Had a look at the dog model progress again on Tuesday and it was definitely looking like a younger dog! Just needed a slightly wider nose and then it was complete. I did some eye tests with the finished model to check that the eyelids would look ok when stretched over the eye for blendshapes - all good!

This week I also re-edited part of the animatic which needed some timing/camera changes:

For shot 6, previously the dog's head had been moving around to fast to fit in him looking at the biscuit, the sky and the tree. To fix this, the dog now enters the frame already looking up into the sky, searching for the bird, before looking down at his biscuit and then over to the tree where the next scene will take place:

A shot was needed to break the previous shot up from the next one, as the dog was seen in one place and then suddenly in another. I therefore added a close-up shot of the bird on the garden who appears to watch the dog as he walks over to the tree:

The next shot is more zoomed out and follows the bird as it creeps over to the biscuit, as the dog is distracted digging a whole for the biscuit:

Once these changes had been made to the animatic, I updated the shot list to reflect the changes:

Reflection On The Week: (Week 30): Starting Monday 5th May

Monday 5th May
Making progress with the animatic.
Human model has been finalized! Dog still priority though.
Organised to have a meeting this Wednesday.
Wrote some notes out for going live report.

Tuesday 6th May
Finished all of the playblasts for the 3D animatic.
Imported the clips into Premiere Pro to teach myself some more about how to use it, it is very similar to After Effects, but I couldn't  get the Timecode effect to work. I looked up the problem and it seems I will need to download a patch to fix it.

So just to be time efficient for now I went back to After Effects to edit the 3D animatic together:

(Fox Rig 1.0.0 available here to download - LINK)
(Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com - LINK)

Gathering all work for relevant blog posts and for assessment.

Wednesday 7th May
Group meeting for Tug of Biscuit:

• Reviewed the 3D Dog model.
• We've decided to make weekly goals to achieve for each Wednesday. For next Wednesday:

Sheng - Human model UV-mapped plus some texture tests.
Lilly - Production Bible finished, 3D animatic finalized and shot list updated.
Giorgos - Dog model finished and UV-mapped.
Kirti - Shot List updated, basic environment model finished plus UV-mapping.

• Also a production schedule for semester 3 needs sorted.

Also been updating the blog today.

Thursday 8th May
Put together some notes for Giorgos on the Dog 3D model with some possible adjustments to be made:

Working on blog updates for all of my Going Live work.

Oh no! Coming down with a cold! :[

Reflection On The Week: (Week 29): Starting Monday 28th April

Monday 28th April
Finished putting together all of the Going Live PowerPoint Presentation, then went through the presentation with Kieran, figuring out what we're going to say for each slide. Also tested connecting my laptop to a TV screen and seeing how the videos play back and look on a bigger screen.
Here are all 30 slides of the presentation (all the black screens are video files):

Got 2 more shots done for Tug of Biscuit Animatic.

Had a quick look over Kirti’s model of the Owner for Tug of Biscuit. Will have a better look over it tomorrow as been too busy preparing the Going Live Presentation today.

Tuesday 29th April
Spend part of the morning in the library to write out my notes for the presentation tomorrow. Also had a (in my head) read through of them with a stopwatch to check how long my part of the presentation is.

Also had a run through of the presentation, where we showed the rest of the class the presentation and mentioned roughly what will be said for each slide.

Had a better look over Kirti's model of the Owner for Tug of Biscuit. Took down a few notes, then sat down to discuss them with Kirti and also Giorgos who will be rigging this character. Once we had finalized the adjustments, I put together a quick document which Kirti can use as reference the final adjustments:

Also had a quick look over the Dog model which Giorgos is working on. Looked at the anatomy of dogs to check how the back leg should look for rigging, to make sure the geometry will be suitable. Also suggested to make the tail rounder and thicker, to give it more 'swish'. The back legs were slightly further apart than the front legs which is maybe what was giving the model a bull dog look. It might just be fixable though by simply moving the feet once the rig is set-up.

Carried on work with the 3D Animatic.

Packing and prepping for tomorrow's trip to Glasgow!

Wednesday 30th April
Today was the road trip to Glasgow with the class to present our finished Going Live film to AXIS Animation. Myself and Kieran presented the PowerPoint which was then followed by a Q&A session with everyone. I think we're all extremely happy with how well our film is being received :D

Photo taken at Axis Animation by Phillip Vaughan

Then went over to Digimania to speak to artists there about their production pipeline - which was very interesting to see!

Thursday 1st May 
Catching up with blogs, working on animatic.

Friday 2nd May
Supervisor Meeting with Phil at 11am:

• We should prioritize getting the dog character ready for animation first as it is the most featured character in the film.
• Definitely experiment with painted textures - this will help our film not look so '3D'.
• See if we can cut the film down to 1min 30sec - after finishing the 3D animatic.
• Create milestones for the new production schedule.
• Keep allocating team members jobs.
• For the animation, take a stylized realism approach to it - plenty of overlap/follow through to help the animation not look stiff.
• Move the cameras like real cameras - already started this by setting up the camera in Maya with controls such as Pan, Tilt, etc.
• Use blendshapes for the facial animation - this will be the easier approach.

Weekend
My film happened for real and I missed it!! My dog took a biscuit out into our garden, got distracted by something and then a big black crow swoops down and steals her biscuit! I did manage to observe her behavior afterwards which was entertaining to watch - confusion and sniffing around everywhere trying to find her biscuit!

Reflection On The Week (Week 28): Starting Monday 21st April

Monday 21st April
Going Live Meeting:

• Me and Kieran going to be main speakers at Axis presentation.
• Made a list of all areas need to cover in the presentation.
• Created a new folder in the shared GoingLive folder for everyone to add all their development and final work to be included in the presentation, in order to collate everything into a powerpoint/video presentation.
• The film has now been made live online here: https://vimeo.com/92521991

Also today, had to install an updated version of the animation picker on my laptop.

Added a few things to Shot 1 in the 3D Animatic, including some clouds and 3D text for the title of the film:

Started sketching out a layout plan to work out where the characters move to and from within the environment, also sketched a new idea for the shot where the dog goes back to ask for another biscuit:

Tuesday 22nd April
Talked to Kirti - the Owner model is being aimed to be done by Monday to pass to on to Giorgos to rig.
Sent a message to Giorgos to ask about starting dog model this week as he had said before that he was interested in doing that.
I carried on work with the Tug of Biscuit Animatic, working on Shot 2 today.

Wednesday 23rd April
Spent today setting up my model for Going Live for a turnaround. It involved some re-modelling in order for it to sit flat on the turntable. Also been working on some rigging screenshots/renders for the presentation and assessment.

Thursday 24th April
As we are compiling all of our Going Live work together for next week's presentation, I wondered if there was a better way to present rigs instead of just a screenshot. I searched for a way to make rigs visible in renders and came across a relevant tutorial and article.
These are the steps I went through: Click here for relevant blog post link.

Group Meeting for Tug of Biscuit:

• Had a look over the human model Kirti is working on. We all decided a simple mouth with no lips would work well with the cartoony style. Also discussed how the scarf/snood should look - it will help cover the join of neck.
• Also looked at the dog model Giorgos has started. We were worried that it was starting to look like a bull dog again, but we thought it might just be an illusion, as it's a cartoon dog, some of its proportions have been exaggerated which might be making it look bull dog-ish.
• Sheng is going to continue working on the environment model, before starting texture tests.
• I'm continuing to work on the Animatic.
• We also agreed that a production bible should be put together before the end of this semester, so that all pre-production is completed. Need to write out a list of props and do some plant and foilage designs for the garden.
• I wrote out a calendar so I could see all the important dates in the one place:

Starting to pencil in our new up-to-date production schedule - the human model is due to be finished for next Monday by Kirti, and then passed to Giorgos to start rigging.

Discussed the Going Live Presentation with Kieran. Started by writing out a bullet point list of everything that needs to be covered. Then started putting a PowerPoint together and worked out what additional material is needed for the presentation, turnarounds etc. We've decided that I will be talking through the Pre-Production work, and Kieran will talk through the Production work.

Friday 25th April
Spent most of today collating everyone's work and putting it into the PowerPoint Presentation for Going Live:

Ran through the PowerPoint towards the end of the day to the rest of the class, to check with everyone how it was looking an if there was anything missed out.

Reflection On The Week (Week 27): Starting Monday 14th April

Week Summary
Finish animation for Going Live and checked it with the Director, Kieran. Made a few adjustments using a lattice.
For the final piece of animation for each of the characters, I deleted everything else in scene except for the camera, including textures and render layers etc, ready to be imported into Shot 1.

Now that all of my animation work is finished for Going Live, I am switching my focus back to the Advanced Production project, which has taken a bit of a hit. Will be getting back to work on the 3D animatic. Will still need to gather all my Going Live work together so it will be ready for the Axis Presentation and this semester's assessment.

Had a programme meeting with tutor on Friday. My group's supervisor for Tug of Biscuit has changed, so will be organizing a meeting with new Supervisor.

Reflection On The Week (Easter 1): Starting Monday 31st March

Week Summary

Advanced Production - Have set up the Maya file ready for animating the 3D animatic. This also lead me to research and learn how to use an animation picker. This is quite a useful tool to learn how to use as it is sometimes used in the animation industry. Discovering how useful this tool is, I will be integrating it into my animation pipeline for when I'm animating the final shots for Tug of Biscuit.

Going Live - Finished the rig I was working on. Picked up the shot I am animating in. Referenced in the characters, and started Layout with the characters, also adding animation for the camera. Rough animation is started and the goal is to have a more finalized animation during next week.

Monday 31st Mar
Put the Shot List up on the Going Live Board in the studio, so it is in a central place for the whole class to see it. Hopefully it will be helpful for us all to keep track of production in these last few weeks on the project.

Fixing the weight painting on the Going Live model.
Next is to add the controls. Decided it might be faster and easier to use the tutorial I followed last year. Also imported my Maya Shelf from Maya 2012 as it has all the useful scripts and buttons I created last year, which are very useful for rigging!

Tuesday 1st April
Pick up Shot 1 for animation in Going Live.

Animation research for Going Live using Pinterest.

Adding controls to the rig.
Finished it!

Wednesday 2nd April
Move onto 3D animatic TOB.
Worked on the 3D animatic for Tug of Biscuit today. Installed an animation picker, learned how to use it with a free rig, then created my own for a different rig for the dog character. Imported characters into the adjusted scene. Checked timings in animatic against the old one and the shot list, so I am using accurate timings for the 3D animatic.

The picker I created for a free dog rig to practice with in the 3D animatic. Allows for easy selection of the controls when animating.

Thursday 3rd April
Start animation for Going Live. Needed to animate the camera first though.

Friday 4th April
Working on Animation for Going Live.

Weekend
Went along to the Undergraduate's fundraiser for Animation, Dee-Con!

Reflection On The Week (26): Starting Monday 25th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Spent the start of the week working on the big presentation on Wednesday. That is now the module finished which should hopefully free up more time for the other 2 modules! :D I think the presentation went well. This module has definitely helped me to start researching animation that I'll be specifically working on for Advanced Production.

Advanced Production - This week's supervisor meeting was postponed again, but had a team meeting anyway to discuss everything we need to do, especially as Kirti will be away for 3 weeks from this weekend. So we made sure we all know what we're all working on.

Going Live - Been working on rigging mostly this week for the model I've been working on. Should be able to start animating next week!

Monday 25th Mar
Putting presentation together for Reflection On Practice module.


Tuesday 26th Mar
Supervisor Meeting has been postponed till at least next week. Still had a team meeting though for a catch up:
- 3D animatic - needs to be finished before next supervisor meeting.
- Shot List is done, just needs the environment locations added once the 3D animatic is complete.
- The Production schedule needs to be re-evaluated.
- Flesh out Production Bible, including Prop designs and foliage designs. (dog house, dust bins, rake, football, biscuit, tools by shed, lawn mower, brambles, leaves, plants, trees, stones)
- Human model to go through the list of adjustments, then re-assess before it goes into rigging.
- Example of mouths needed.
- Bird to be modeled next.
- Who models the dog is yet to be decided, will evaluate how production is going and who is working on what, could find someone else to model it for us if we are all too busy?
- Environment continue to be modeled.
- Texturing tests to be started - with the watercolor look of the concept art.
- Sheng has volunteered along with Kirti to work on the Sound effects.
- Need to find someone to do a soundtrack for the film.

Writing out notes and practicing for the presentation tomorrow.

Wednesday 27th Mar
Mock Conference all day. Presented using the PowerPoint I put together. It went well, glad that's one module finished now though, more time to work on the other 2 modules! :D

Baked some cakes to add to our fundraiser raffle prizes tomorrow night :)

Thursday 28th Mar
Had a class meeting to discuss Going Live and the fundraiser tonight. Kieran and I went discussed the rough Shot List which I'll be drawing up for the wall, so we can all keep an eye on how the production is going and what still needs finished.

Done some more rigging for the Going Live model I've been working on.

Iced the cupcakes I made last night for the raffle, then it was time for our class's fundraiser! Was a great night! :)

Weekend
Done some observational drawing: Click here for relevant blog post link

Drew out the Shot Checklist for Going Live:

Finished the rig for my Going Live model. Now onto weight painting. However I came across a problem where my weight painting never stayed how I had just painted it. Researched the problem and found out it was redistributing the weights every time. So the way to fix it is to switch on the padlock in the Paint Weights Tool Box.

Reflection On The Week (25): Starting Monday 17th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - My priority for the first half of the week was finishing the Conference Paper. Now that it has been submitted, I already feel it has freed up time to work on the other modules. Will now be taking my paper and using it to inform and mold my presentation which is next week.

Advanced Production - Done some observational dog sketches, which were for my paper, but as the paper was reflective on practice, they are also helpful for the film project. This also includes the human/dog anthropomorphism sketching exercise.

Going Live - Helped out with the 3D animatic, animating the camera and characters to sort the timing out.
Started rigging the model I was working on. The rigging needs to be finished next week. Animation is also scheduled to begin later next week.

Monday 17th Mar
Presented my work to the External Examiner, talked about what I want to achieve with the Masters course and what I want to do once I graduate.
His advice on animating was to limber up and do simple animation tests before moving on to the final piece of animation.

Meeting with Sharon to look over my Conference Paper.

Group Meeting with the External Examiner. A piece of advice he gave us all was about what to do if there is more than one animator on a project, how to split up the animation jobs. Auditioning for it could be a way to solve this. All the animators could try doing the same shot, and then the group can pick the one that works the best.

Going Live 3D animatic:
Have taken the first shot in the film to block in the action in the animatic and sort out the timing. Talked over what happens in the scene with Kieran, and discussed ideas.

Tuesday 18th Mar
Whilst finishing off my conference paper today I did some extra drawings to include, to relate my research to my own practice.
First was some observational drawing of my dog:

I then did some sketches of someone having their food stolen by a seagull:

I then took the human expressions and applied them to a dog character who has his biscuit stolen by a bird, this was to give the dog more expression and show an example of anthropomorphism:

Wednesday 19th Mar
Started to gathering all work into one place for the Supervisor Meeting with Sharon. Supervisor Meeting rescheduled for next Tuesday.
Had a quick team meeting to discuss what we need to do for next week.

Handed in final conference paper after battling with my printer this morning.

Been working on Shot 1 of the Going Live animatic. Added all the rough animation to the 2nd half to sort out the timing within the limited time frame.

Also had a look and tried a variation on the model for Going Live.

Thursday 20th Mar
Done extra modeling and tweaks to the model I've been working on for Going Live.

Picked up rough environments from team members for 'Tug of Biscuit' 3D environment.

Friday 21st Mar
Started rigging the Going Live model I have been working on.
Dylan was in the studio for 3D support today, so I asked him to check the rig I had started and get some advice, so I can hopefully avoid any problems with the rig as it progresses.

Weekend
Downloaded some free rigs of human and dog characters that I can use in the 3D animatic and also use for early animation tests.
Set up a new computer at home.

Reflection On The Week (24): Starting Monday 10th March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Been working mostly on my Conference Paper this week, including anaylsing my findings from the Focus Group. The paper has been my main priority this week due to the deadline being next week.

Advanced Production - Had a look over how the Shot Lists could be put together to convey as much useful information as possible for the production of the film. A team meeting on Friday was a good chance to look over everything and work out what we all need to work on next. The 3D animatic and animation tests will be my priority.

Going Live - Sang had a look over the model I have been working on for the project and got some advice about rigging it. During a class team meeting on Thursday, worked out what everyone is working on, and I then created a personal production schedule for myself so I know what I'm working on. This also created some deadlines for myself as there are only a few weeks left on production for this project.

Monday 10th Mar
Sent Kirti (Production Manager) example pages from the Shot Lists I created last year. I think a document of this sort will definitely be useful for the team to use as reference for all the information about individual shots and also act as a checklist. On reflection, the 2 documents I produced last year (a Shot Stages and a Shot Description document) would have worked better on the same document, for ease of use, with all the information in the same place. Here's an example I put together today:

Working on my paper today for Reflection on Practice module.

Also finished off some freelance work today.

Tuesday 11th Mar
Working on Conference Paper all day, specifically going through the Focus Group transcript, highlighting and making notes, then typing up the report for a chapter in the final paper.

Wednesday 12th Mar
Individual tutorial with Sharon - go over paper and presentation
As I have a lot I can talk about with the Focus Group Findings, putting that chapter at the beginning of the paper might help. I can then pieces of information from that chapter and discuss them in greater detail within the main body of text, backing up with references and relating to my own practice.

Carried on working on my Conference Paper. Rearranged the structure of the paper based on the feedback from this morning. Also have been finding some references to use from a relevant book.

Thursday 13th Mar
Had a Going Live class meeting this morning. We discussed the overall production schedule and what everyone is working on.
My personal schedule:
Mon 17th Mar - work on the the 3D animatic.
By Fri 21st Mar - Have 3D model for the asset I've been working on done, pass to Kieran to UV-map.
By Mon 24th Mar - Have asset rigged.
By Tue 25th Mar - Have collected all animation refs and have carried out some animation tests.
Tue 25th Mar - Begin animation!

While our class was all together, we quickly discussed the upcoming fundraiser and potential bake sale to raise money for our degree show.

Continued work on my Conference Paper.

Friday 14th Mar
Had a group meeting:

• Looked over the production schedule.
• I suggested that we should collate all of our pre-production work into a Production Bible, PDF doc, this also highlighted areas that need some more work. Included in this collection  of work will be: 

- Character Designs

- Character Expressions

- Concept Art and colours (update with new designs)

- Environment Designs (need some designs sheets for the plants etc in the garden)

- Prop Designs (design sheets needed for these)

- Storyboard

- Script

• Shot List
• 3D Animatic - Next Tuesday scheduled to work on it
• 3D models - Discussed the updates on these
• Texture tests - Would be good to start once some models are finished
• Print off work for the walls in the studio

Went over the shot list with Kirti. Decided it would be useful to print off the storyboard thumbnails. Drew on the sheets to work out where all the camera cuts were in order to figure out how many shots our film has. At the moment the total is 20. Also used a blue pencil to pick out which drawing best represented that shot for using in the Shot List Kirti is putting together:

Sang was in the studio offering some 3D support for Going Live. Showed him the model I have been working on for one of the assets. The topology is looking fine. Talked about how it might be rigged and disguised at the beginning of the film story. Could contort and twist the model at the beginning, and then unravel to show what it actually is in the story.

Weekend
Put together a PowerPoint presentation for a meeting with the External Examiner next Monday.
Continued to work on my Conference Paper.

Reflection On The Week (23): Starting Monday 3rd March

Week Summary

Reflection on Practice - Finished transcribing Focus Group audio. Next I need to read through it again to summarize my findings for paper and presentation. Prepared and presented my practice presentation. Will use the feedback from it to help finalize my presentation. Will now be concentrating on the paper since the hand-in date is before the final presentation.

Advanced Production - The dog design has been finalized. This took more time then planned, but it was important to get it right as it is the main character in the film, and the one I will be working with the most. Reviewed the model Kirti has been working on and explained some adjustments and corrections that the character model needed before it is finalized. Had a meeting with my team at the end of the week to go over what we are all working on next, in preparation for next week.

Going Live - Been carrying on with modelling of one of the assets for the project. Also tested out the modelling with a quick rig to test the geometry. Checked over the models progress with the director and some of the team to gain some feedback and make adjustments.

Monday 3rd Mar
Finished transcribing my focus group audio recording... over 4000 words, 10 pages long... next I have to read through it again and summarize my findings and interesting points that I can use in my paper and presentation.

Also done a bit more modelling to the Going Live asset i'm working on. Put a quick test rig into it to see how well the geometry was moving and creasing. I think it will work well for what we need that asset to do in the film, as it will be one main movement needed.

Helped Sheng again with looking over the dog design. Think it has finally been cracked - it was just that front view that seemed to be causing trouble!

Tuesday 4th Mar
Had a Going Live Team Meeting to check where everyone is in the schedule and and what they are doing in the production.
I might have a look into Paint Effects for the asset I am working on. Also showed the current model and test rig to Kieran and John for some feedback. All the objects are smoothed, in order for the edges to catch the light, therefore I need to move some of the vertical lines in the geometry to fix this. But all the horizontal lines in the geometry will be the same as they are needed to allow the asset to bend properly with the rig.

Been doing more modelling for the Going Live asset.

Working on research work for rest of day.

Wednesday 5th Mar

Practice Presentation - Click for relevant blog post link

Formatted Transcript document.

Had a look over the model for the Owner character which Kirti has been working on. Put together a document detailing adjustments that were needed and explained these to all of the team, to allow for any other thoughts and ideas to be discussed regarding the model.
Character model adjustments document:

Thursday 6th Mar
Spent most of today carrying on with modeling one of the assets for Going Live and updated the Going Live blog with my progress. Next for this asset I need to model something additional to help with it's concept, reveal and role within film. (This would make more sense if I could add details about it on this blog, but will unfortunately will have to wait until the project is complete!)

Friday 7th Mar
IBL workshop in the morning: Click here for relevant blog post link

Put together structure of Paper into a word document and added transcript and abstract to it.

Mini team meeting:
Discussed the bird character's wings. In order to work out exactly what movements the bird needs to do I played through the animatic and broke down the movements. There is only time in the film that the bird will be flapping it's wings a lot is during the tug-of-war scene. Apart from that the bird mainly swoops into and out of shots. We agreed that the bird's wings should move fairly realistically in flight. However it might be good for expression and acting to have the feathers at the end of the wings curl slightly or move like fingers/hands.
Looked up some examples of cartoon bird's and real-life birds animation and flight cycles.
Also mentioned that we still need to put a shot list together, this will help out the organisation of the 3D animatic which will be started next week.

Reflection On The Week (22): Starting Monday 24th February

Week Summary
Think my work has been more balanced this week for each of the modules.

Reflection on Practice - Now that I have done my Focus Group this week, I need to finish the transcription and then read through it again to summarize my findings to include in my paper and presentation.
Also started working out the structure of my paper and presentation, so need to flesh the bullet points out with the information and references.

Advanced Production - This week has mainly be focused on fixing the design of the dog, which needed to be right as it is the main character. I do feel this has been achieved this week and am much happier with it. Also through sorting the dog design out we have also sorted lots of the colours out.

Going Live - Started working on one of the Going Live assets, it is currently in the modelling stage.

Monday 24th Feb
Wrote out my exact Focus Group Protocol for tomorrow to use.
Booked and picked up audio recorder for tomorrow's focus group.
I also participated in someone else's Focus Group today.
Then in the evening I baked cupcakes and jammie dodgers for my focus group tomorrow :)

Tuesday 25th Feb
Focus Group day! It went well and there were some interesting answers to the questions I asked which will definitely help with my paper/presentation.
Handed in the signed consent forms to the office.
Fixed a few things on my Abstract and handed the final one into the office.
Started transcribing my focus group audio recording.
Wrote out bullets points to try and summarize the structure of my paper/presentation.

Wednesday 26th Feb
Had a meeting with Sharon in the morning to discuss my final Abstract and the structure of my paper/presentation. Also went over what will be happening next week with the practice presentations.

Supervisor meeting in the afternoon to look over designs and the 2D animatic: Click here for relevant blog post link

Typed more of Focus Group Transcript.

Thursday 27th Feb
Went along to life drawing in the morning: Click for relevant blog post link

Had a team meeting and looked over different dog breeds to decide what one would be best to base the dog design from. Also looked up the top 10 most owned dogs in the UK. Then Giorgos went and brought back a dog book from the library. Searching through everything from bull dogs, to Labradors, to Scottie Dogs, finally decided upon the Jack Russell terrier. It is short-haired. A small-medium sized dog. Has clean facial features - easy to see expression. Is originally a British dog breed.

We all sat around and sketched dogs and tried to help towards the dog design. These are some sketches I did:

As it was the Masters open day today, a group was in our studio and we showed them our animatic. It was good to see new people viewing our animatic and seeing their reactions to it - good to know they laughed at the right places!

More feathers were added to the Bird character's arms/wings. Also the tail was elongated slightly as it wasn't too noticeable before.

Friday 28th Feb

Did some more dog drawing today, trying to help figure out the dog design now that we now what breed it should be based on. These sketches here include testing out a short-haired terrier overall shape and colouring's:

Trying out different colours with the shape I was happy with, based on real dogs:

This one with added jumpers and dog coats to see what will work the best:

Got feedback from the group and, along with me, the dog with the dark blue jumper and red stripes seems to be the current favourite. Giorgos then pointed out that the colour of the Owners clothes might have to change now that the dog's colours had been sorted. So I tried out so me variations:

I then thought that a dark red cardigan might work better, so I used the original colour concept which Sheng had done to test this out quickly to see how it looked against the environment as well, with all the characters:

Sheng's original environment concept with my added dog design, and dark red cardigan.

Same again but with a dark blue scarf as Giorgos wasn't too sure about the Mustard yellow scarf. The dark blue however makes the owner and dog look too matching.

However myself and Kirti thought the Mustard scarf might work better, so I tried it in the other environment concept that Sheng had created:

Sheng's concept art with the added dark red cardigan to test out.

Weekend
Started modelling one of the Going Live assets.