the carnival of the animals- an art of

8/13/2019 The Carnival of the Animals- An Art Of

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- An Art of -

Joey Ku


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About MeI am currently a third year student studying for mydegree in CG Arts and Animation at the Universityfor the Creative Arts in Rochester, Kent (UCA).

The idea of creating an animated short as a yearlong project is because of my interests in creatingunique characters and worlds from 2D to. With thisin mind and also having an interest in developingmy production and animation skills, this led theproject dividing into two sections.

This specific Art of document shows the progress

made so far for the first half of the project:Character Design and Modelling along with someextra work made in preparation for the animation.


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The ProjectThe Carnival of the Animals is a year long project divided into two parts, The Minor

Project and The Major Project.

The main intention of this year long project is to create awareness about animalextinction in a scenario similar to a wildlife campaign as a 1-2 minute animated short.

The Minor Project is the first half of the project which comprises of 14 weeks focusing oncharacter design and modelling. Because character design and performance as wellas improving my skills in creating an animated short are the main focus , environmentswill be kept simple to help add more emphasis on the characters.

To make things more challenging, Ive also chosen to make not one, but six animalsranging from different shapes and sizes with textures applied and would be presentedas turnarounds at the end of the first half of the project. Also as an extra, Ive decidedto rig, skin and animate one of the characters as an early exploration into a

quadruped skeletal rigging. The majority of my time was spent on perfecting thetopology of the characters and perfecting the animated walk cycle on the riggedmodel.


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Art DirectionTo help create awareness, theshort is inspired by the colourfulyet unique animals leading tobe further inspired by the likesof Charley Harper and EricCarle by their use of textures,colours and simple shapes. Thisled to the idea of the animalsbeing emphasised by theirstrong bright colours in a worldthat darkness never exists.With the art direction chosen,music was needed to aid theanimation. Hearing FrenchRomantic Composer, CamilleSaint Sans s piece TheCarnival of the Animals inparticular the finale, this helpscreate an atmosphere ofcelebration along with thecharacters vivid colours.Shock impact in the musicwould help aid in making theanimation more serious.


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Pre-Production:Storyboard

Heading into the pre-production stage helps plan out what steps areneeded or developed to make a successful animation. This includesstoryline, storyboards and concept art surrounding the characters,

environments and the art style.

To create the story, Ive listened to the music piece and quickly maderough drawings and taking notes on how the story goes. As thestoryline became more clear, this was laid out onto a storyboard for

visual guidance which would be further developed and made intoan animated storyboard or an animatic.


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Storyboards


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CharactersChoosing what animals to include in the animation was tricky asthe common animals that we know are extinct such as the Do-do or the Tasmanian wolf cannot be used or else it would be astraight giveaway to what the animation is about. Ive decidedto research some animals that were well known between 16 th and the 20 th century due to either hunting, pollution or due tonature itself . Overall, I have chosen six animals from differentenvironmental areas: land, sea and air.


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Animal Thumbnails


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Chosen Selected Animals


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Early Concept Art

The following are early concept art which later had to be changed asintroducing dark colours could ruin the storyline as well as making it look

distracting. This later changed to the idea of introducing colouredshadows/ coloured rim lighting in front of a white backdrop which is laterseen during modelling development .

The next set of images shows the changes made in response to the early

concept art. The coloured rim lighting is later made during 3D characterdevelopment.


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Stellers Sea Cow


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European Sea Sturgeon


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Eastern Elk


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Xerces Blue Butterfly


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Haasts Eagle


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Sea Mink


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Final Concept Art


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Animal Turnarounds


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Animal Turnarounds


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Animal Turnarounds


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Modelling- European SeaSturgeon

Unlike the Stellers Sea Cow, thiswas slightly difficult at first as thearrangement of the nose andmouth were completely different tothe Sea Cows and a humans. Butupon closer inspection it is notedthat the flow of the lower jaw is thesame as a humans or to plan it out,think of it and treat it as if it is a clay

model and how to sculpt it.


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Modelling- Haasts EagleGetting into the grips ofmodelling and gettingmore used to topology,modelling the Haasts

Eagle was slightly easier.The wings were slightlyharder to make and planout where the vertices oredges should go.

However, thinking of the abirds skeletal structurehelped plan it out.


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Modelling- Xerces BlueButterfly

The Xerces Blue Butterfly was easy to model as it doesnot require any facial modelling or limbs but just abody and a pair of wings instead. This model was oneof the quickest models to make.


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Modelling- Eastern Elk

Creating a quadruped model was a bit difficult at firstin terms of edge flow and how or where the edgesshould go. Again, treating it like a humans modelling,modelling the Eastern Elk made things a bit clearer.


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Modelling- Sea MinkReferring back to the Eastern Elks modelling, it hadgave me a rough idea on how to model the lastcharacter of the group, the Sea Mink. The head is

slightly similar to modelling the Sea Cows with theexception of the lower jaw and including eyelids forthe mink.


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Grouped Models


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UV ProcessApplying UVs to my characters were vital especially whenit comes to making textures onto another software. To UVthe characters, some of the models had to be taken apartbefore reattaching them back together again.


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Texturing the CharactersThe textures made in the concept art consists of many layers withdifferent blending modes. To retain the look, it was better to havethe textures painted onto the model using another software,Mudbox. This was far more easier to work with in particular whenworking with seam lines, which could be painted overlay. Ive madean experiment beforehand texturing on Maya, however seam lines

were noticeable and it did not have the look I have in mind.

S ll


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Textures- Stellers SeaCow


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Textures- European SeaSturgeon


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Textures- Haasts Eagle


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Textures- Haasts Eagle

T X Bl


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Textures- Xerces BlueButterfly


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Textures- Eastern Elk


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Textures- Sea Mink


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Textures- Sea Mink

G d T d M d l


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Grouped Textured Models(without lighting or shading)


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Rigging and SkinningI thought rigging the mink would be a good place to start as it isthe only character that would have a unique skeleton rig. Thespine would contain a ribbon spine for squash and stretch, thebody overall would have a quadruped skeleton, and as for thelegs, theyre slightly humanoid. Skinning the character wasslightly easier through using painting skin weights.


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Animating a Walk CycleLots of research was made as to how a mink, or its closest relative,the ferret would walk and run. With the ribbon spine applied and theright timing, this helped create a squash and stretch movement onthe mink model.


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Setting up TurnaroundsHaving a plinth for a character to stand on helped create space for thecharacters to perform their turnarounds in rather than just a white space. Toretain the look of Eric Carle and Charley Harpers colourful yet texturedappearance on the models, ambient lights were used to whiten thebackground and also brighten up the characters and eliminate anyshadows. Rim lighting was also added onto the characters, using colourstaken from other animal models to make them feel more of a group.


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Rendered Images


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Rendered Images


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Rendered Images


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Rendered Images


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Rendered Images


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CD and Front Cover

the carnival of the animals- an art of

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