Group Project

Hi there, this is my Blog for the group Environment Project. For this we will be working with IDEAS students who will be presenting their ideas to us tomorrow. I will do some initial research before this to get ideas to enhance my ideas while the other students present. I will be working with Lydia and Andi for this project, although more people may yet join.

I would ideally like to animate and model during this project as these are the areas I may move into when I have finished University, yet I am willing to learn about texturing and lighting as part of the process.

The brief is as follows:


Unit Introduction
This unit focuses on the development of students’ skills in environmental computer visualisation. Students begin to exploit the possibilities of animation within an environment to create a virtual setting to support dynamic character interaction.

Working in teams to simulate conventional animation industry workflow, students are introduced to the visualisation and creation of an environment in 3D using modelling, texturing and lighting techniques. They learn how to create and populate this environment with contextually appropriate assets, in a consistently defined and implemented visual aesthetic that is derived from their drawing and research into environments both actual and virtual.

The Unit aims:

To introduce industrial, team based, animation workflows;
To develop personal reflection upon individual contribution to group endeavour;
To develop UV mapping and texturing skills;
To develop the ability to generate considered and analytical visual responses to research.


Project Brief
For this project you will be working in teams of four or five students. You will all be working towards a final collaborative short film but will have the opportunity to fulfil clear and separate roles within the team.

You will be working to create an animated environment.
You will be collaborating not only with the other animators in your team, but also with designers from the environment design course.
Their designs will form the starting point for your work.

This environment will be modelled in 3D, UV mapped, textured and lit based upon the research of materials and environments as initially designed or propsed by IDEAS students. This research will consist of practical site visits (such as the trip to Barcelona and alternative London based venues) and associated drawing and photography, as well as academic research via the web and the LRC.

This environment must demonstrate integral animation, it could be mechanical such as machinery, doors, windows, windmills etc, or it could be more organic, and atmospheric, such as the effects of wind on plants, weather conditions etc. It could be a much more long term animation to show the effect of years passing, rather than minutes. For those of you who feel that you are more character animators than computer visualisers you can focus upon contextualising the designed environment by populating it with characters using that environment, it may be that the environment is being used in an unintended or unexpected way that has evolved through public interaction with the space. (Was the South Bank designed for skateboarding or parkour?).

It may be easier for you to think about defining the way in which you will approach this project by choosing one of the themes listed below.

a) Changes over time (historic).
b) Changes in weather or lighting (climatic).
c) Changes in use of the environment (contextual).

Although you will be working as part of a team towards your final animation, you will also be required to provide evidence of your individual contribution to the project via a blogged design journal where you will document your personal research, experimentation, and acquiring of new skills.


Schedule:

Week One:
• Gather team members so I know who I am working with
• Research different types of location that we could possibly create for our environment.

Week Two:
• Define topic of research for final ideas
• Do the actual research
• Concept stage for initial ideas

Week Three:
• Finalise concept
• Planning – where everything will be placed in the environment
• Begin modelling

Week Four:
• Modelling
• Begin to think about colour schemes/ palettes
• Storyboards

Week Five:
• Modelling
• Texturing
• Animation Tests
• Camera shots

Week Six
• Texturing
• Animation definition (which will be used and where)

Week Seven:
• Lighting
• Final bits of texturing
• Finalise animation
• Possibly start rendering

Week Eight:
• Rendering
• Compositing
• Add sound effects and music