It's been quite a long time since I've updated my blog. I have been quite busy working on several projects and not all of them are related to media arts. It's probably not very smart to do several projects at once but I'm not sure if it's something that I can change for the time being. I guess it's really not a good excuse to put aside about 30 minutes of my time just to make a new post. In other words, I'm too lazy to make a post update. Well it is a new year so I will try my best to change that. Despite all the projects I'm doing, I will at least try to do a monthly update for anything related to my current projects in media arts.
With that being said, I should start on explaining about my latest project. For my latest project, I've decided to do a fight based on the Chicken Fight series from the show Family Guy. I'm pretty sure there's no need to explain where my inspiration comes from for this animation so I'm going to skip that and tell a little bit of details for the project. I'll still be using AutoDesk Maya as my medium but I'll be using a style I have no prior experience with: Toon Shader. The name is pretty self-explanatory so I won't go into too much detail about it but basically, I'm going to attempt to make the animation a 2D feel. For the characters, the animation will see the return of the characters Zero and Grey (hence the above picture), the two characters I used in Tigerade. Truthfully, the reason I'm recycling the two characters is because I didn't feel like I was able to challenge the extent of their rigs in Tigerade. I think this project will be able to bring out the full extent and limitations with the rigs. After all, fights usually have a lot of movements so it's a good chance to see how everything turns out.
My motion reference will be based on the first Chicken Fight from Family Guy. Besides replacing the characters, I'll also be changing up some of the fight sequence. After all, I don't want to fully copy someone else's work. Details of the changes will be posted as soon as I get to that point. I'll also try to incorporate dialogue within the animation but there isn't a lot of it since I'll be using the same dialogue as my reference video. I'll have to find two people to record dialogue with but that won't happen until post-production so that's not something important for the time being.
Now for the progress report. A detailed explanation of the project can be found under the Current Project tab and it will be updated as progress is being made. Anyways, the planning process for me began in mid-December. I've got a storyboard all drawn out for the entire animation and I have quite a few notes for each scene. I began to model a setting for a couple of scenes shortly after the new years. The setting is currently completed and I am in the process of doing the animation for all the scenes within the built setting. I've got 2 rough screenshots at the end of this post of what it looks like so far. It's not exactly pretty, especially since it's my first time using Toon Shader but it'll at least show what I'm trying to go for.
Well that's it for now. I apologize for the overdue post but like I said, I will at least try to do a monthly update. There's no excuse to not do one in a month's time after all. Anyways, if there's any questions or comments, feel free to contact me. If you have an idea for an animation and would like me to try it out, I'm willing to listen to you. Any idea will challenge and make me a better animation so suggestions are greatly appreciated. Anyways, until next time!!!
