Animation Reel

At last, here it is.  The final culmination of the past several weeks of work.  Utilizing my knowledge I obtained in prior courses dealing with both storyboarding, as well as digital editing techniques, I compiled my portfolio pieces into a smoothly-transitioning presentation of a reel.  My skills learned in 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe AfterEffects, and others made this possible.

Print Portfolio

One aspect of animation that I have taken a liking to is the conceptualization phase.  The point in a project in which assets come to life through brainstorming and ideas become reality on both paper and in other digital mediums.  Being a big fan of science fiction, comic books, and video games as a whole, I am passionate about them as much as I am taking inspiration from them to place into my work.  I feel my strength lies in character creation and costume design.  As demonstrated above with these concept sketches, they all show significant variation while being associated as superheroes and villains with a technological twist.

3D Character Animations

I am going to be perfectly honest.  My experiences with character rigging, skinning, and animation have not been the best.  Between hardware limitations, file corruptions, and a slew of other issues that would frustrate the most patient of individuals, I have regretfully not learned as much about this as I would like.  Considering this is one of the most important and highest demanded aspects of 3D modeling and animation, it is a necessity that I will have to overcome in the near future.  In any case, for what I have learned and managed to accomplish despite hardship, these are adequate representations that could use improvement and use of advanced techniques learned after the creation of these renders.  I have a firm understand and representation of the principles of animation, but portraying them into a three-dimensional space is another work-in-progress.

2D Exterior Environment Concept Art

 

These pieces, though simple, help lay the groundwork in shaping general ideas before adding the detail and polish.  These are environmental concepts for the same project that I mentioned with the 2D Character Concept, they are both part of the same idea.  Essentially, this is to be a near-future, utopia-like urban environment utilizing many new-age, experimental technologies and ideas as a setting.  Architecture, scope, mood, and overall artistic design is meant to reflect this.  I am content with these as introduction pieces, but I will be doing new versions now that I have basic concepts down that will feature higher detailing and more realistic rendering.

3D Exterior Environment

 

This is both something I am proud of and at the same time, recognize its flaws.  I suppose one could say it has nostalgic value to me.  Reason I say this is this was my very first scene modeling attempt that is now nearly 3 years old.  I acknowledge that it is quite mediocre, but the scale and what I accomplished at the time was and still is something I am proud to announce.  Incorporating multiple teachings of camera operation, scene setting, use of Reactor for the physics-based simulation aspect, as well as my first attempt at a particle system to reflect the phenomenon of rainfall.  I intend to completely rework this projects from the ground up and see if I really can amaze myself with what I have learned since then.

3D Interior Environment

Environments are important aspects of 3D art and animation.  Just as with their 2D counterparts, they can set the scene, establish overall mood, and provide a logical background for events transpiring or being represented.  I have never worked with environments before, only brief flirtations with abstract object creation and character modeling before attempting this.  Utilizing an approved freeware model, I learned the process for skinning and applying textures to scenes rather than objects.  In reflection, this can use improvement in the form of applying bumpmapping, as well as atmospheric lighting rather than directional.  The latter is something I learned of and was made aware after the creation of this scene.

3D Particle System Animation

Particle systems are complex 3D procedural generated objects.  They are not true objects, but rather a deception of the system to reflect them.  Particles are utilized to represent many natural-occurring phenomenon such as clouds, flames, dust, smoke, water, and many other elements that have unique attributes and are often dynamic rather than static.  I utilized a 3DS Max 2012 plug-in known as Caveman for the creation and manipulation of the flames.  Overall, considering my lack of skill with particle systems and their complexity, I am pleased with the end result aside from the end of the smoke particle lifespan issues.  Nothing a little tweaking won't solve.

3D Character Model

Character modeling is a staple of 3D art and animation, regardless of what chosen career field.  This was a request made by a client to model a concept 2D character that they designed and sketched.  At the time of creation, I was still unfamiliar with a majority of 3DS Max's various tools and systems that are normally implemented into model creation.  That being said, this model is polygon heavy and is yet to be rigged, skinned, and ready for animation.  All of the above are on my to-do list as priority as soon as time is allotted, possibly even a complete reworking of the model to favor something more efficient.

3D Physics-Based Animation

Physics-based simulations are a staple of 3D animation.  It is a core component and fundamental to understand the concepts utilized.  Simulations are real-time animations ran based on the physics of the virtual worlds that were established through variables such as mass, gravity, surface fiction, and many others.  This is my first foray into learning such fundamentals utilizing 3DS Max 2012, as well as a plug-in known as PullItDown to generate procedural destruction of the tower based on collisional circumstance.