Much Animation. Wow.

Yowza! There's been a lot of time that's passed between my posts! IT'S TIME TO FIX THAT.

The last couple of weeks have been particularly busy because the third round of RPP arrived! We also started up our MoCap training in Animation. Our assignment during those lessons is to do an assignment that merges everything we have done so far (walking, running, jumping, etc.). Let's talk about animation first. ♥

The first step of learning about MoCap was getting acquainted with the Motion Builder software. I made a lot of blunders with it. A lot. Like ... a lot of really simple mistakes. The interface itself doesn't look particularly complicated but the struggle is just remembering every option and procedure without confusing it with another program. After about five times of harassing our instructor over my dumb mistakes, I was finally able to get the animation working! It was pretty gratifying. Though, I know I need a lot of practice on it.

COVER GIRL put the bass in your walk.

After that, we spent some classes in the Motion Capture studio. We learned how to calibrate the cameras, work with the Vicon Blade software to record everything, and how to marker up an actor. Everything is pretty routine, from how it seems, so it's just something we need to get into the groove of doing regularly to properly master it. I'm definitely going to be making some appointments in November so I could be a certified MoCap animator! ♥

As for the long animation ... it's going pretty well! I didn't want to repeat my previous assignments so I opted for something slightly ballet-inspired. Here's the first pass of the animation that I'm currently editing: 

*swan lake INTENSIFIES*

RPP has been particularly busy. Our team has three artists and we reeeeally took advantage of that to make something great. This week's theme was "emergent gameplay". I'll make a separate post about this later but what I CAN say is that I'm very thrilled with how our game turned out! It's definitely difficult, though. I'm consistently terrible with each game I help create. Here's a sneak peak at our WONDROUS SPOOPY GAME. ♥

*this is halloween INTENSIFIES*

An exciting thing about Drawing Fundamentals is that we FINALLY moved on to human anatomy. I could definitely use some work on my anatomy but, for one reason or another, I can't break out of my anime-like drawing style. Working towards versatility will definitely be a process. Coupled in with learning about human anatomy, I've recently been attending the Life Drawing classes and wondering why the Hell I haven't been attending this entire time. Drawing from a live model is a GREAT opportunity for any artist and definitely helps you improve exponentially in a short time.  

Now it's time to work on some animation & 2D/3D assignments!