[Major Project] 50: Water Character; Skinning 01 - Skeleton Complete

Once I've created Water's leg IKs, it'll be on to creating the smooth skins and painting skin weights, before rigging her.

Perspective

Front

Side

Top

Water's Joints Group within the Outliner

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@Phil [Major Project] 49: Conflict Scene Posed - Various Shot Tests

I'm getting this scene complete first because it is the most complex of them all, since there are so many interacting pieces. For this scene I will be using multiple shots, so I have tested out various camera angles. Hannah suggested beginning with Shot 1, switching to Shot 2 when Hydrogen 01 lunges at Oxygen, and then to Shot 4 when the chemistry equipment begins to fall. Any feedback on camera shots and/or character posing would be greatly appreciated!

3^RD-PERSON OXY pulls a silly face at HYD 01, making HYD 01 furious. HYD 01 rises up as he raises his fist to punch OXY & lunges at him, knocking the table & causing chemistry equipment to fall toward the floor. Both OXY and IRON reflexively try to catch the falling equipment but OXY accidentally slams into IRON’s chest, causing sparks. Meanwhile HYD 02 tries to hold his brother back, failing this he falls on HYD 01’s back instead. HYD 01 continues to lunge and contacts OXY at the exact moment OXY slams into IRON.

Individual Shots

Shot Test 01

Shot Test 02

Shot Test 03

Shot Test 04

Shot Test 05

Shot Test 06

Shot Test 07

Shot Test 08

Shot Test 09

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[Major Project] 48: Mini Animation 01; Oxygen & Hydrogen Atomic Structure

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[Major Project] 47: Primary Chem Equipment Modelled & Rigged for Animation

Bunsen Burner

Bunsen Burner L>R: Wire-on-shaded, Smooth and X-Ray

Bunsen Burner Outliner

Gas Tubing

Gas Tubing T>B: Wire-on-shaded, Smooth and X-Ray

Gas Tubing Outliner

Bunsen Burner Gas Tubing - Main Influence [source]

Gas Taps

Gas Taps T>B: Wire-on-shaded, Smooth

Gas Taps Outliner

Erlenmeyer Flask

Erlenmeyer Flask L>R: X-Ray + Wire-on-shaded, X-Ray + Smooth, Smooth

Erlenmeyer Flask Outliner

Tripod & Wire Gauze

Various Tripod & Wire Gauze Shots

Tripod & Gauze Outliner

Orthographics & Primary Models

Orthographics with X-Ray Wire-on-shaded Models

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[Major Project] 46: Mini Animations 02; Loading Screen Complete (Silent)

I imagine this would be accompanied by a couple of nice sound effects, such as bubbling/fizzing and popping. I have provided earlier versions of the animation in a separate video; I received various advice from Phil, Jackie & Alan during the creation of the animation.

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[Major Project] 45: Lip Syncing 02; Iron Character - First Lip-Sync

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[Major Project] 44: Classroom Lighting Development 01

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[Major Project] 43: Various Chemistry Equipment; Orthographic Projections

These were all created with my Hydrogen & Oxygen characters hands in mind, particularly Oxygen's humanoid hands. Once modelled and UV mapped, the relevant equipment will be duplicated and scaled up within Maya to suit Iron's massive hands. The red & blue colour scheme is only for clarity and does not represent that of the final 3D modelled objects. Not included in the orthographics are a plug socket, water tap and a sink.

Using a combination of Maya's measure tools (in centimetres), and a Photoshop canvas in which 1000 pixels represents 1m, 10px = 1cm, and 5px = 5mm, I was able to more easily figure out dimensions that would work with the characters.

Measuring the character...

Figuring out pixel dimensions...

Creating a correctly-sized shape...

I have also provided an expanded Classroom Influence Map, which now includes the images that helped me figure out the equipment's scale relative to each other & their basic shape.

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[Major Project] 42: Lip Syncing 01; Oxygen Character - First Attempt

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@Phil [Major Project] 41: Mini-Animation 01; Test Shots & Influence Map

My mini-animation's style takes strong inspiration from the BBC Key Stage 3 Bitesize: Chemistry - Periodic Table activity, such as the use of an overlaid paper texture, and the appearance & layout of the loading screen; the paper textures are free & royalty free from textures.com. 

I chose this as inspiration because Bitesize is a high quality online educational platform that many UK school children would be familiar with, so giving my animation this aesthetic will hopefully benefit the viewer & the animation itself. I chose KS3 because "Key Stage 3 is the first three years of secondary school education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, for pupils aged 11 to 14." - BBC, my target audience is 11 - 13 year olds. 

In the animation Oxygen & Hydrogen's faces will fade out to reveal their inner structure. The dotted lines represent the left-over spaces for electrons, in Oxygen's case he has space for only two more electrons.

@Phil would my loading screen look more suitable with or without the atom symbol in the background?

Oxygen atomic structure

Oxygen atomic structure with face 50% opacity

Hydrogen atomic structure

Hydrogen atomic structure with face 50% opacity

Loading Screen V01: Without background symbol

Loading Screen V02: With background symbol

Paper Texture Tests

Oxygen face with paper texture 01

Oxygen face with paper texture 02

Oxygen face with paper texture 03 (chosen)

Initial Electron Designs

Originally I had tried designing the electrons with faces inspired by the characters they reside within, attempting this with Hydrogen made me realise that I was overcomplicating things, so I reduced my atomic structure design to simple yellow circles orbiting red protons & blue neutrons. Here are my abandoned designs... 

Abandoned Hydrogen electron thumbnails 01-11

Influence Map

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