Day 8: Class

1230 - 1240 PM

• Moodle instructions > Download tutorials file

1245 - 210 PM

• Looking at animation-type-stuff in the Montserrat Gallery as well as the rest of the Gallery
• I like most of them, but I'm not completely bought off by the music and or content of one and another. Just the heads : cat head, Walt Disney head, and Disfigured head. They all disturbed me.
• Though the one that we watched : Say Something I liked, I'm more curious about it than anything seeing as it was done with really simple character designs

210 - 225 PM - BREAK

225 - 250 PM

• Checking into tutorials for rigging

Day 6: Hw

1240 - 1130 PM

• Edited character design
• Description : Insights desire, Name : Dream Taker

Day 7: Class

1230 -145 PM

• Listened to and responded to the Uncanny Valley Assignment
• Researched/searched fro the character designs for Kakurenbo > for a while it was a fail but in the end turned out fruitful (they were on the artist's site Yakumotoswork.com)
• Drew out 3 character designs half-heartedly trying to keep it simple >chose the 3rd one (did that one after I had found the site I was looking for in the aforementioned statement)

145 - 320 PM

• 1st attempt : Sphere set at 10  > deleted
• 2nd attempt: Sphere set at 13 > cinched the waist > deleted
• 3rd attempt: Sphere set at 15 > extruded legs & feet > deleted
• 4th attempt: Sphere set at 12 > inner extrude/extruded the legs(later rotated) > inner extrude/extruded start of the neck > inner extrude/extruded arms (rotated) > shaped the legs > shaped the body > shaped the arms > inner extrude/extruded the neck (rotated when needed) > Created head (extension of the neck), made to look like a tv screen > Saved as Yokai.c4d in folder 9_23
• Compressed and emailed to self (since I'm not using morphs I should be able to easily work on this assignment outside of class at home)

Day 6: Class

1230 - 310 PM

• Rendered out relationship project
• Class presentation and discussion on projects
• Presentation of next assignment: Yokai
• Break
• Tutorials on youtube: octopus, cat, cow
• Continue going over the Yokai assignment in further detail > keep the idea simple > it will be given bones, made to walk and preform a gesture at the end of the cycle > use the list of Yokai link posted in moodle as a means of gathering ideas
• Idea for the Yokai project are due on Tuesday > we will start working on them in class > they will be due next thursday (30th) > post description of the yokai onto assigned spot on moodle
• 240 - 300 PM : Research for yokai

Day 5 : Hw

*Note: On Friday the 17th I checked on my version of C4D and found that there was no morph tool that I could use with this project at home so it took me until the time recorded in this log to do what I needed to do

9/20 - 9/21

1145 PM - 1210 AM

• Went into the child morph and added the head bob
• Before doing the parent I'm double checking the placement of the head bob

1210 - 1255 AM

• Parent is animated to move forward with the head bob at a rate of 50m per keyframe
• Child will thus have 25m per keyframe maximum for movement

1255 - 130 AM

• I went through and animated the child at the rate specified above
• I considered going and making their bodies also have a bob motion but seeing as I have a 955 AM class tomorrow I'm going to leave the animation as it is. If I have time at the beginning of class then I'll do it

Day 5 : [B]

130 - 150 PM :

• Looked up quadruped walk sequences on Youtube

150 - 315 PM :

• Animated the parent object > recycled walk sequence
• Animated the child object > recycled walk sequence
• Tried putting a head-bob into the animated sequence and have come across some problems: The head will stretch to a point that is different than when I had it set at the same percentage. I think that I have to refresh after each animation I do of the head in the morph toolbar, I'll try that first.
• The only primary thing left to do is to make the objects move forward which I plan to do at home this weekend (But I'm not sure whether or not I have the morph function as an option in my version of the program, I need to check that ASAP!)

Day 5 : [A]

1230 - 115 PM :

• Opened file Relationship.c4d and changed name to Relationship1.c4d and put it into a folder called 9_16 
• Created a copy of the object labeled parent and called it child, I went to test the morphs on the child and they are set to the same coordinates as the parent which translates to them being over-extended
• So I started to try changing the morphs but I couldn't get the magnet tool onto the right size setting and thus cleared the morph selections and changed the magnet tool to a manageable size and remade the morphs for the child

Day 4 : Class [A]

(Was late to class by about 10 or 15 minutes)
[So all times are approximate]

• 1230 - 100 PM : Going over morphs and how to animate them
• 100 - 200 PM : Playing with the the morph function, creating something that could be considered a creature of sorts and animate it then compressed the file and saved it to the designated spot on Moodle
• 200 - 210 PM : Break
• 210 - 312 PM : Starting work on Relationship project

What's been done and What's to be done

• I've created a morph called parent and have given it 14 morphs to use in the animation process
• I'm going to duplicate the object labeled parent and rename it child
• From there I'm going to make a walking sequence of the two side by side: child will look up to parent, and parent down to child, maybe a snuggle btw the two
• If I can get those movements in then I'll try out my story-board plan

Day 3: Hw [D]

1042 -1051 AM

• Watched tutorial posted on moodle

1100 - 1120 AM

• Started and completed youtube Tutorial

Day 3: Hw [C]

9/12/10

1200 - 130 AM

• Looking for an idea for Relationship story-board
• Started drawing out plan

100 - 130 PM

• Relationship Story-board completed

Day 3: Hw [B]

1230 - 100 PM

• I was continuing the work I had already done (adding swivels and jumps) but when I had played it the animation was far too erratic (I believe that I posted that) so I created another file. I now have files named: CylinderSB_lT_1, CylinderSB_lT_2, CylinderSB_lT_3.

300 - 510 PM

• I took the last saved file listed above and deleted all the frames and started from scratch (CylinderSB_lT_4)
• Created a second file :  CylinderSB_lT_4_1
• Going along with manually creating and placing jumps and swivels at a different interval (approx. 1/4 of a second [every 5 frames]) to get the erratic effect without it being jerky and overly done.
• Around 4:15 I played it and found that the swivels look more like twirls (I only had two at the time), for the time being I left them and put more thought into avoiding doing that with the last one that I have in the scene
• In order to avoid it I've put a frame in between at one point so it goes back and forth between two points and then to the third point into a jump (I'm at frame 204)
• I've also made sure to animate the position of the mesh separately
• Just completed the jump to the off screen and set up placement of the next on-screen frame
• ALMOST DONE!!! (with the build that is, I'm still going to have to render and arrange it properly... I'll think about that when I come to it)

510 - 530 PM : Break

530 - 645 PM

• Animated the last sequence of the cylinder
• Animated the camera (finally!)
• Rendered a preview
• I didn't like the color of the lighting and I'm going to change it yet again (god I'm annoying to work with)
• Me being me I not only changed the light's color but animated it too...
• Okay I'm not going to do another render preview I'm just going to render it so that I can add the sound later

Day 3: Hw [A]

• 1200 - 115 PM
• I got the duplication of frames to work in the timeline window > Edit > Copy > (then the finicky part of the endeavor) Hold CTL while clicking on the segment(s) that were copied (they still have to be highlighted from when they were copied or it won't work at all) and make to drag the segment over to either side of the original and release > Behold, the copy!!!
• Upon getting that crap out of the way there is still one thing that I have to do (and am hoping to memorize the process of so that this weekend goes by smoothly) changing the positions of the copied frames in a way that they still behave normally
• Alright I did the math and plotted out the replicated placements but now I can't get the above sequence to work for me again. Goddamn pain in the neck. Well my solution to that is to simply replicate it when I need it and otherwise make it up as I go. It's supposed to be pretty erratic anyways, it'll probably be easier to do manually than to rely on a faulty function that works under particular conditions.
• 141 - 244 PM
• Changes perspectives
• Set up the camera with a protection tag
• I started the animation process and have gotten up to a little over 105 frames but I'm looking at it play through and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to ignore the frame placements for the actions and just set them up as I go  because this is too erratic for me

Day 3 : Class [A]

• 1230 - 115 PM : Going over Timeline, materials, cameras, lights, sky, floor
• 115 - 145 PM : Looking over everyone's Cylinderjump exercise as a class, open discussion
• 145 - 200 PM : I changed the color of the lights and experimented with the texture attributes until satisfied with a rustic orange (I'll probably add another color that's close to it at some point) [I saved before continuing]
• 200 - 235 PM : Made numerous attempts to  duplicate a group of frames and am still failing. I looked it up multiple times and have received the same answers that I've already tried. I can duplicate them one by one but then when I set them up in the timeline and have it play it doesn't repeat the same motion at all!!!! I'm extremely frustrated!!!!! 

Day 2: Hw

Due to poor time management on my part I won't be starting the story-boarded animation until Thursday, on the up side I got the jump animation completed to my satisfaction while in class so it is more than ready to render.

I'll probably show up early for class to get a handle on the story-board animation, since most of the animation is repeated such as the hopping and the swiveling I might need a reminder on how to reuse frames in the timeline.

Day 2 : Overview of Concepts of Animation [C]

• 150 - 230 PM : Practice jumping with Cylinder (I set up a plane and colored lighting)
• Make sure that the second icon down on the tools list is active in order to move the joints
• Joint.1.Pole  is what controls the direction of the joint/bend and will change the movement if its placement is changed (right now I'm leaving the pole inside the object)
• 230 - 300 PM : Personalizing the changes to the jump sequence(s), Checking story boards and timing sheets

Day 2 : Overview of Concepts of Animation [B]

• 1250 - 140 PM : Cylinder Jumping instructions, brief review on the creation of the cylinder
• 140 -150 PM : Break

Day 2 : Overview of Concepts of Animation [A]

• 1215 - 1235 PM : Set up Cylinder from the step by step instructions but I'm having the same problems that I had last class, I thought that I understood what I did wrong and could replicate the cylinder on my own but I was wrong. I'll ask for assistance once the Principles of Animation class discussion is complete.
• 1235 - 1250 PM : Principles of Animation with examples pertaining to current project

Day 1 : Hw [D]

1130 PM - 1200 AM

Completed Story Board

Day 1: Hw [C]

1130 - 100 PM

• Story-boarding and Filling out the Actions Production sheet frame by frame up to 15 seconds... Still need to finish story board

Day 1: Hw [B]

1209 - 105 PM

• Used Real Cylinder for reference on movements
• Decided the sequence of movements desired for 15 Second Animation
• Making a Storyboard
• Made 20 Copies
• Marked Storyboard each square equals 1 second of animation (Visual Timeline)
• Made 20 Copies of the Production/Actions sheet front and back
• Started Filling out Productions/Actions Sheets
• Started filling out storyboard

Day 1: Hw [A]

• 453 - 510 : Listening to A Podcast with Nicholson Baker : The New Yorker : My Son is Killing Me

Response: 510 - 524
I had given this sort of thing some thought years prior to knowing about this article, but I don't see any need for a debate. Whether they be on the topics of video games or if they are age appropriate, as well as parental guidance issues.
Although I don't play video games avidly my 17 year old brother Doug and 13 year old brother Luke do. They are extremely picky about what games they play yet we still have a ton of them at the house.
Most of the games that are played I find to be aesthetically pleasing is story line, picture and/or audio; all of which are art forms that apply to my preferences....


I'm going to reorganize my thoughts and redo this in a couple minutes.

Day 1 : Introduction to 3D Character Animation [B]

• 130-300 : Went over the construction of joints in a Cylinder
• Practiced flexing cylinder
• Tested cylinder movements in real time
• Start planning 15 second animation
• Hw: Complete storyboard and planner for 15 second animation
• Hw: Response to My Son is Killing Me

Day 1 : Introduction to 3D Character Animation [A]

• 1230 - 1245 : Going over the Syllabus
• "" : Brief discussion of Moodle, Blogspot.com, Set up blog, Site to visit for info
• 1245 - 110 : Overview of tools in c4d (Primitives: Cube, Move, Scale, Rotate, Window Toggle, Zoom, Move: Window, Rotate: Window, Default: Perspective, Reset Layout, Object Properties, Naming Objects, Single Direction Movement, Set Movement (Lock Settings), World Coordinates
• 110 - 120 : Individual Interaction with c4d
• 120 - 130 : Break