ANIM 3004 Major Project

ANIM 3004

Major Project
Name: Arianne Callicott Project title: Major Brief Date: 13/01/2013

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ANIM 3004 Major Project

Section 1: rationale

For this project I want to predominantly show my skills in character design, modelling and narrative to use in my show reel but will also demonstrate the animation key principles to help aid the narrative. This will show my attention to detail when designing characters and how this is transferred into creating the 3D product. I have a large interest in wanting to looking into character design for a future career so this project will help me display my skills.

Section 2: aims

For this project I want to create an animated Informative campaign type product, with comparisons to the 'Change 4 Life' adverts where the animation is to teach and advise, giving it a purpose. The product is to assist a Rattery in helping them teach new owners how to properly look after their rats with what not/to do when caring for rats. This animation will feature some of the most basic points of rat keeping which get overlooked and they will be assisted with an animated character acting out some of them and including text. There will be ONE rat character which will act out some of the points to make the animation interesting and appeal to the audience. This character will also help narrate the animation to again, appeal to the audience and keep all of the components together as one product. There will be text on the screen accompanying the animation to make the audience more involved and active with the animation rather than passive, this will make it informative as reading the information will help it sink in better. The character will be 80% rat orientated with 20% of the character having anthropomorphic qualities to appeal to the audience. This will be done to change the stereotype of rats by replacing them with more human emotions to make them more identifiable to the audience. This animation will be a better and newer version of the monotonous word documents that plague other ratteries and will create more of an impact on the audience. This Animation will be versatile in where it can be placed as it will be posted on a number of different sites to widen the audience.

1. To create an animation explaining the basics of how to care for a fancy (pet) rat. This will demonstrate my consideration of the audience through gathering information for the pre-production and also applying animation to an informative format by manipulating the narrative. 2. To create 2 scenes where the first scene consists of 40 seconds of animation and the second consisting of 5 seconds of animation to control informative and animation content but to also display narrative layout and editing. 3. To produce an animation created on Autodesk Maya to show 3D software skills and other skills that lead on from using a computer generated software. 4. To create a stylised and fun animation to interest the viewer into learning the information which will also show my narrative, preproduction skills and abilities of using sound to accompany an animation. 5. To pass down knowledge through the animation to again show narrative abilities. 6. To create a likeable character that appeals to a generic audience of all ages that can demonstrate my abilities in character modelling whilst also demonstrating key character animation principles. To also show rigging, animating, facial animation skills and observational research skills. 2 _

ANIM 3004 Major Project

7. By creating a stylised character I can also show skills in timing for lip sync and movement. 8. To show actual information and knowledge that is applied in real life to demonstrate my ability to collect information and apply it to the animation so that it can be used afterwards effectively. To give the animation a purpose. 9. To inform and entertain the audience without losing interest, by using a carefully designed frame set and props. (Including character and narrative)

Section 3: objectives

1. My primary task will be paying close attention to rat anatomy and how it works to use in reference to my character design and production, this will be an ongoing task throughout the project as it influences around 80% of the projects outcome. 2. Another of my main intentions will be to get in contact with major rat fanciers (owners of pet rats) and fancier groups to gain information of the basic but most major knowledge that comes with owning rats that not every owner knows. Gaining this knowledge from new and old owners will help me depict the most useful information to use in the animation. 3. To create a stylised and likeable character I will be looking at human happy, angry, sad and excited facial, body gestures and acting to convert so that it applies to my animation by giving the rat an anthropomorphised design and character. 4. I will also be looking at rat facial and body gestures, looking at the same categories. 5. To get resources for the movement of the character I will also look at the way rats move in general to keep some of the reality that the character will be a rat; looking at walking, running, jumping, cleaning themselves, breathing, eating, sleeping, interacting with objects, anything to do with the natural movements and procedures of the everyday fancy rat. 6. One animation will be to show general care for a rat 7. second animation will be to abolish the generalised stereotypes of rats. 8. Third animation will feature the Pumpkin Rattery brand where the animation will replicate the brand logo and fade to the 2D logo directly.

Section 4: technical requirements

1. Maya will be used to create and finish the model of the character and the props (including rigging, weighting etc). 2. Mudbox or Zbrush will be used to add delicate details onto the character model. 3. Photoshop will be used to create the textures for the rat and the props. 4. Maya will then be used again to add the textures and finish the modelling to then be used to animate the shorts. 5. After rendering out the finished animations they will be put onto After effects to be edited and have sound added. 6. Encore will end the process by burning the project on to a disc. 7. I will use word for my research report, Research and Development file and for the preproduction such as script, treatment, etc. 8. Wordpress.com is where I will write my blog to also be a recording of research and development but only for the biggest milestones and pinnacle development. 9. Facebook will help with research and information retrieval 10. General internet will be used to help towards all of the project. 3 _

ANIM 3004 Major Project

Section 5: resources

1. Analysis of movements of rats through observation of own pet rats. These will be primary sources by being video recorded by myself. 2. Analysis of body structure by using a 'passed' rat which will be used from a frozen rat bought from a pet shop for snake food. 3. Analysis of skeletal frame and structure by using a rat skeleton owned by a friend. 4. 3D Artist magazine- # 38 character design tips and seamless textures. 5. 3D Artist magazine - # 39 how to sculpt with Zbrush (or for reference for mudbox) 6. Other 3D Artist magazines for tips. 7. Stop staring - second edition and third edition for facial animation concepts, theory, and practical application. 8. For references for the anthropomorphised facial features I will take photographs of my own face. 9. Primary photographs of the different varieties of rats for coat colour, type. Also for ear types of my own rats. 10. The Animators Survival Guide by Richard Williams for methods, principles and formulas of animating. 11. How To Cheat In Maya 2012 : tools and techniques for character animation by Eric Luhta and Kenny Roy. To support me whilst animating. 12. Learning Maya; Character Rigging and Animation - To support me with rigging the character and the animation process. 13. https://www.facebook.com/groups/513661545327495/ - SophistiRat Rattery facebook group page. My rattery social page : to help collect information for my animation. (This group consists of new owners, experienced owners, established, respected and new breeders, NFRS (National Fancy Rat Society) board members, MRC (Midlands Rat Club) members and board members as well as rat fanciers and potential owners all over the world. 14. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RatGenetics/?fref=ts - A facebook page dedicated to the genetics of rats from all over the world. this will be used towards my preproduction in designing my character. To create a certain type of rat it must have the correct genetics to be realistic and appeal to the audience. I will dominantly be looking at the genetics and markings of hairless/haired masked rats. 15. Primary video references of certain actions and sequences of movements conducted by myself for content reference. 16. 'Cheaper by the dozen 2' - CGI rat reference of rats in the movies 17. 'Ratatouille' - More stylised references 18. The art of Ratatouille - book 19. 'Charlotte's web' 1973 and 2006- CGI and 2d rat in the movies 20. Youtube / Podcasts - interviews with animators and director of Ratatouille 21. Deviantart - Character Reference 22. Vimeo - Animation Tutorials

Section 6: deliverables

Length and format - film, TV, large format/ other please specify 3 x 10 second animation shorts (sections) edited into a continuous reel. 1024x 576 Quicktime 4 _

ANIM 3004 Major Project

Delivery format - DVD/other please specify

Animatics, tests, final project, break down- submitted with DVD Animatics, Tests, final project, break down- submitted with Vimeo Link through email project report-Turnitin, email copy, paper copy Research and development (and blog) documents- PDF email Pre-production documents - PDF Email

Documentation - please indicate what these will be e.g. synopsis, treatment, script, shot lists, asset lists etc. List what these are below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Synopsis Treatment Script project Report Research PDF Development Diary Blog Production Schedule

Graphic deliveries - please indicate what these will be e.g. mood boards, storyboards, concept work, character model sheets, background designs etc 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Moodboard Story boards Concept work-Character sketches, development, etc Research sketches - Life drawings - observational drawings Character model sheets Prop concept drawings and designs Background designs and development

Other supporting materials - please indicate what these are e.g. research, 3D models, animatics, pencil tests, style file etc 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 3D model Animatics Style file Research Concept work Design/Character Development Sound research and collected sounds music research and created music. Video references Photographic references

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ANIM 3004 Major Project

Section 7: production schedule and milestone A full production schedule is below, including a milestones table.

Week 19- 07 Feb 2013

Have 90% Pre-production work finished;

Story boards scripts treatments sound collection Video, photographic, drawn reference material concept art observational drawings Mood boards style file Character development and design -ALL IN PDF FORM Animatics - VIMEO LINK Sculpt - HANDED IN Keep updating development document and blog

Week 22- 28 Feb 2013

MODELLING Have a high quality geometry created ready for rigging. Make sure to have geometry cleaned and free of triangles and/or 5 sided shapes. Add definition by using Mudbox to add details Keep updating development document and blog TEXTURING Have all texturing finished. Make sure to use the UV editor to make seamless and high quality textures. Use Photoshop to make quality textures to use in Maya. Keep updating development document

Week 23- 05 March 2013

Week 24- 08 March

Use primary reference and resources for rigging the skeleton of the geometry. Keep updating development document and blog 6 _

RIGGING

ANIM 3004 Major Project

Week 24- 12 March

Weight skeleton and skin by using primary reference. Don't forget to flood all at 0 first to stop any confusion or accidental influence. Keep updating development document Week 30- 29 April 2013

WEIGHTING

use sound reference for timing. Use stepped animation After completing pose to pose upload on to vimeo as development Add inbetweens making sure to keep smooth animation. KEEP REFERENCING THE ANIMATION PRINCIPLES watch timing alongside the script and story boards. Keep updating development document and blog

ANIMATING

Week 30- 23 April 2013

make sure all render settings are correct and for the best results. Allow for enough time to render in case of any problems to allow for buffering time. Render out breakdown footage Keep updating development document and blog

Rendering

Week 31- 30 April

EDITING
Add informational text to footage to add to narrative. Add transitions between shorts join all three animations together seamlessly but with obvious different topics. For break down footage edit separately to original movie but keeping same principal where the footage is one large narrative arc but holds three separate arcs within it. Export as Quick time movie

Keep updating development document and blog

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ANIM 3004 Major Project

Week 31 - 04 May 2013

SOUNDS
Add background sound, lipsync and sound effects to footage on After Effects Make sure everything matches up Export all movies as 1024 x 576 Quicktime movies and upload to Vimeo. (Allow for 30 min uploading)

Week 32 - 07 May 2013

Week 32 -09 May

Save all work as PDF that need to be and attach in an email to Janet and Steve. Export movie and breakdown onto a DVD disk.
Print copy of Report and have binded. Send in to Tunritin. Minus bibliography and appendices.

HAND IN ALL WORK BY 4PM

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