PGDP - DIPLOMA PROJECT PROPOSAL 2016

Project BRIEF____________________________________________________________

In the past I have done a lot of 3D modeling, and most of my works were incomplete and lacked professional tactics. I think in my previous experiences of handling projects lacked time management which lead me to give up my interest once the deadline was over. I never took any project so thoroughly to finish a complete shot. There was not enough understanding the way I should have processed thing within the given time allotted. In this project I wish to address the four main aspects and develop my learning in these areas:

Pre – Production
Inorganic modeling texturing and lighting
Organic modeling texturing rigging and lighting
Experimenting and Learning Character Animation in 3D  

 
I also want to learn to present it in a professional method by giving it my entire potential. I have great hopes that this project will take me to the next level of proficiency. I anticipate that this project will prove my skills, help me develop a portfolio that is suitable to present in a big animation production house.

The four aspects that I intend to focus on in this project are: 
Pre – Production 
Pre – Production is the most important part of making a movie. The whole movie gets a strong foundation. Pre – Production starts with strong research and strategy of how the movie is going to get executed and who are the target audience and what is the budget for the movie how much time and energy is required. An entire time line will be created at this stage for smooth and clear accomplishment. Story Boards are also done to get a better understanding of the movie. From the story board I will be choosing one particular shot to implement in a finished form for this project. 

 
3D Inorganic Modeling, Texture and Light
In the modeling division I want to make high resolution realistic 3D backgrounds. I did the models in a specific way where I studied the places where the light would come in contact with the object and give a bounce light highlighting the rims of the model. I concentrated on the wear and tear of the furniture by giving the scratches and specular ware offs. The details of the inorganic model matters a lot because there are shots in which I will be going very close to the models. I understood that things look realistic only because of the imperfection of model. 

Organic Modeling, Texture and Light
Modeling a character in 3D requires good understanding of the surface topology and perfect references for the front view and the side view. I decided to create my own character by sketching several drawings. The drawback of only sketching is that my visualization was very poor to match the front view of the character to the side. In order to get a better visualization I did clay models. I experimented with clay to get a better understanding of the stretch and squash manipulation of the model which helped me easily with blend shape in Maya.   

Experimenting and Learning Character Animation in 3D   
I intend to learn the basics of character animation in 3D. I will apply this learning to animate my character which is the ant in one particular shot. 

PROJECT DELIVERABLES_________________________________________________
1 Shot of Animation
Music
10 high Resolution 3D perspective anaglyph images

INFORMATION___________________________________________________________
Set of work in progress timeline 
Full set of working drawings explorations (Iterations) 
Photographs of reference and source citation

MY POSITION____________________________________________________________

As a creative practitioner I feel that it is very challenging for me to do a professional shot. I chose to explore on realistic appeal of the character’s movement instead of doing a robot animation and completing my entire short demo reel. I have seen many animated demo reels but I have not seen quality animation. I want to explore more on the characters movement appeals and try different styles of walking or any action for that matter. I am trying to expertise in the smoothness of the animation.
For instance if I see the movie Kochadian the animation in the movie lacked smoothness in the flow of movement. I believe Indian animation industry lacks smoothness in the animation. I am sure with extra effort and time one can achieve clear cut animation shots.     
I will be going through a rough road to achieve my series of hopes towards creating and exploring more in the 3D animation field. What is unique about my project is that I am going to present it in 3D. I am exploring new material shades inside of Autodesk Maya. I am also going to explore how to create 3D Anaglyph images along with my animation shot.  
The key practitioners who have been working in this field are Disney and Pixar studios. I have got my initial inspiration to become an animator from all the classic movies that I used to see as a child

RESEARCH_____________________________________________________________

Story – I had two stories in mind initially. One was about a nature loving girl who finds a cocoon in her garden and takes it back home to see how a butterfly evolves. While she sees the butterfly struggling to come out of its cocoon she help the butterfly. Later realizes that one must struggle in order to fly with colors.The second one was a creative journey of an ant to get the juice inside a man’s house.  

Props Setting – I had to search for old furniture references because ants would build their houses in the modern furniture. I learnt how to do modeling for UV unwrap texturing with detail and explored different maps. I learnt to use new Mila material shade. I explored light linking for different objects.  

Character Designing – I started doing many sketches. I explored how to model characters with clay by doing an armature and add the clay layer by layer to get a good frame work of the front and the side view. 

Animation movements - I will be learning the basics of character animation. I will rig the character by myself and make the controllers for animating it. 

APPROACH/PROCESS____________________________________________________

I have learnt the Professional efficiency of using production methodologies for the project. I created Clay models to understand the surface topology of the ant character. 
I have taken up the effort to understand experiment, explore and research new materials in the software. Also an attempt to use of anaglyph imagery renders. I chose this because during my presentation it would be a new approach if one had to see my rendered images using a 3D glass to see the pop out effect. 

I have also used online YouTube videos and browsers to gain better knowledge.

 
MATERIAL/ RESOURCE__________________________________________________
I use the SRISHTI computer extensively because it has a high speed ram and high end graphic card which enables me to render my scene faster.    

LEARNING OUTCOMES___________________________________________________

I will get a grasp of Pre Production and Production working line flow. I will be able to evaluate my works by myself and make the best efforts of myself to execute one complete shot of movie which I initially dreamt of doing.