Major Project Reflective Statement

 Comparing my minor project to my major project is unfair, but I will do it nonetheless. During the first term in year 3 I felt that every day I tried to work on my project, it moved further away from my grasp but through the course of the major project, I felt that I was able to build that confidence back up again, slowly and day by day, but I did it, so a very big part of me is proud to say that I have indeed a project that I can hand in.

 I am aware that the animation is not perfect, and I have realised that my timing in Maya is too slow, but that I am unable to judge the timing unless the animation is fully rendered and I can play it as a video rather than a playback, so in that regard if I would have done the animating a month ago and rendered it straight away, I would have noticed the flaws. But I would have also spent a lot more on render farms, soooo…. I guess I should have asked a few more people for opinions? But I could not bear to ask people too stressed to think clearly for their opinion, as they clearly needed their energy elsewhere.

 The models and choices of colours are my pride and joy, as they have turned a formerly square and grey project into something, cute, round and colourful and therefore seem to be at the heart of the animation, especially the field scene with its bright and vivid colours continues to excite me every time I look at it.

 This is possibly the hardest I have ever worked on a project, and if I would have been more organised I could have sampled the sounds earlier, as I feel that freesound.org was sadly lacking in choices I really would have liked. The piece of music used on the other hand was a lucky find, as I feel that it has something of the wild west with cowboys and daredevils (which goes hand in hand with kids and ponies) and a country music vibe, but absolutely directed towards children with a lot of fun and energy in the melody and rhythm, so I could not have been happier.

 Overall, I have grown a lot during this project, and I have also used it to reflect of what my choices are after the degree (as Chrissie said, children’s toys are a huge market and I would fit right in with bright colours and cute shapes) and I feel that I know a lot more about myself as a person.

I am happy with the animation I’ve produced, and even though it may have parts that are lacking slightly, I can’t wait to receive some feedback that I can possibly use for the minor project.

Major Project Submission Post

Paddock Academy Art Of by MailinatCAA on Scribd

Choice of fonts

I was looking for something whimsical but bold and chunky, I think my favourites are Cooper and Lucida.

More Lighting tests

Ready to render :)

Lighting Test - Why are my shadows red?

I tried the point light first but because it's an outside setting the directional light works a lot better but in both cases some shadows are red? Not even all of them :p My shadow colour is navy in the first picture and black in the second, no change in shadow redness!

Lighting Test Amended

Alan showed me which lights and shadows to use and I played around a little, but after I thought I was done I realised that the first image looks very grey, sterile almost "like the 8am sun when you first leave the house" (Tumo's words) so I added some yellow into the light (all those tack rooms have lights with a yellow tinge, otherwise you'd be able to see what you're doing!) and then added some white back in, but I think it looks pretty ok now. I really love the shadows!

Edit: I've turned up the intensity because it just seemed too dull and grey still, a little better now.

Lighting tests

This one seemed too dark.

I did not like the grainy shadows.

These shadows look nice if a bit sharp, and seem to fit the style.

Last frame.

First frame.