Week 3 – Further Concept Changes, Roles and Plans

Changes in the Project Plan

Wind Theme

We decided on the torrential/ excessive wind natural disaster. The environment will look like the aftermath of a hurricane, and still windy. This will mean that all we have to do to fit the theme is alter the animations accordingly. It will not be necessary to add fires, smoke rain or ash, like with the other possibly used natural disasters. Which will be more work for the group, and save time to focus on the other animations (the more wildlife I can add the better).

That is not to say that having a wind theme in our animations is easy, contrary to initial believe this will pose some challenges. Considering the visual effect and physics accuracy is essential to make the animation look realistic and scientifically accurate. Each animation will have to fit together, in terms of wind speed, gravity and direction. As well as presenting the theme clearly in important areas such the title sequence. To show this in the title sequence the bee animation should show struggle when flying, resistance from the wind. The same goes for any other freely moving objects in the mise-en-scene.

Personal Note: I and/or David will need to collect visual reference for each animation such as the grass or flowers blowing in the wind to observe its movements.

The Bee Controls

Because of the wind theme, it would be suitable to have some resistance and wind blowing effect on the player’s character’s movements. As though they are fighting against the wind to control the character’s movements.

The Game’s Ending

The meeting concluded on a ‘think about later’ for the ending of the game.

Meeting 2 Notes

Decided Group Member Roles, Tasks and Responsibilities

Hisham – Director and game mechanics.

Sophia – Environment leader, and games design.

David – Animator.

Mesha – Producer, meeting scribe and animator.

We chose roles that best fit what we were naturally doing already. Hisham seemed to be quite outspoken and proactive about his ideas within the project, therefore it resulted in him becoming the director of the group. I naturally like to be organised and know what every one is doing or when we will meet regularly. I also naturally take lots of notes for circumstances such as group meetings and other less official discussions, so I became the meeting scribe. We have a OneDrive shared file to collect all of our task progress.

Progress After the Second Meeting 28/01/22

Animation Asset Assignment:

David:

• Title sequence
• Cut scenes
• Flying birds
• Tumbleweed
• Spider

Mesha:

• Bee
• Flower
• Quadrupeds
• Cloth
• Swarm of bees

Since our course is mostly animating, and yet I want to model each animation asset from scratch, I need to save time somewhere. The rigs will be taken from online.

Unassigned animations (if have time, consider later): Clouds, Small insects, rabbit and fireflies etc.

Animation Category of Priority

While debating on the animation ‘asset’ count, we decided on “essential” and “extra” animation (and perhaps “other” as well). The essential animations are ones that the game cannot do without. Extra animations are things that are not essential but we will try to add long as we have time. Other animations include ones that are not necessary to the game or additional assets, but can be added if we have time.

Essential Animations Include: Bee, flower and title sequence.

Extras: Spider, deer or wild dog, cloth blowing in the wind, swarm of bees, flock of birds, tumble weed.

Other: Clouds, small insects, smaller animals (e.g. rabbit or mice), Dead fish, fish swimming.

Note to self: Double check when the games designers need the animations to move on standstill or if they actually need a movement. Since, we decided that much of the movement can be done in Unity accordingly.

Timetable/ Project Structure

The games designers decided that they would need our animations to input into their game Unity scene no later than about a week before the deadline. David and I (the animators) decided that we should have one animation asset (one item from the list above) completed each week. After receiving feedback from the group about improvements, we will give the games designers our animation assets each week as soon as they are done. This way they can add them to the scene as we go along, saving time. However, as I mentioned above, the latest deadline is the last week before the deadline, which will be needed for refinement.

Meetings

We decided to ‘meet’ or catch up twice a week. On Monday we will check in, as for feedback, show progress in our tasks and have a discussion or even a group online chat if needed. On Friday, we will have a group meeting in person to show our progress and show how our tasks come together in person. Essentially we will have one main meeting a week and have the other assigned as a day we should think about communicating with the group, as a day to work together on the project.

Pipeline

Timetable

Mechanics Timetable

Environment timetable

All together timetable

Talking to the Teacher about How to Animation

I inquired about a few animation methodologies before starting the tests since I was unsure how certain animations may work in Maya or Unity…

Hair and Grass

I received a confirmation that the grass should be handled by the games designers in the Unity scene. I still want to try a couple of tests using the Maya Xgen system, and if this animation can be imported into Unity somehow. The same is the case for the bee’s hair, we would prefer if the bee’s hair could be influenced by the game’s environment, such as the wind. Especially since the theme is wind based, therefore, the game would loose a good opportunity to show this theme is the aesthetic qualities of the main character.

Quadrupeds

The collaborators and I wanted to include some sort of four legged animal that shows the type of climate and aesthetic theme for the game. The original idea was a deer, which I think is quite typical. A wild dog may be a more suitable choice. Either way, it would be great if I could simply copy the rig and animation onto a different model. To reuse everything I make for one, to create another animation very quickly with not a lot of effort needed. Although, I may not have enough time for this since there is only a week in my plan for each asset. Nevertheless, the teacher confirmed that this was possible. He explained that I would need to downsize the rig for the smaller animal. I will need to research this further when I begin making the quadruped assets.

Spider

My plan for the spider animation is to have the web as an n-cloth material which blows in the wind. The spider will need to be parented to the web. I had a question whether it was possible to move an object around that was parented to another object, whether it would stay on it. His answer was that it could work fine, but t needs to be baked.

Bee’s Wings

I wanted to ask about eth bee’s wings, since I wish to make a slightly cartoony- quick and with a motion blur effect. Although I have yet to look at reference, this is how I imagine it for now. Therefore, I am slightly unsure about how this would work in Maya. The discussion with my teach concluded that while I can make motion blur in Maya, to put the motion blur effect in the game scene, this is something the games designers should do in their Unity scene. By adding motion blur to the bee object.

To make the animation in Maya I have two options, which I will test out. In terms of timing, the wing speed, up down motion, could be between 1-5 frames. Once I make this animation, I can just adjust the speed of the frames accordingly. The first animation option includes a simple rotational up down movement with a flat wing. The second includes more of a fluid, curved motion like a tail or chain swinging, for this I should use a rig.

Can make a rig for the wings. like a tail (or my previous chain animation) but should look at reference for a bee’s wing movement. While there is a curved movement, it should be a pulling motion, not dragging. The wing at the vertical position should be straight out at 90 degrees. I will make some tests where the wings it completely straight and simply rotating quickly, and more fluid motions like I mentioned above.

Animation Experiments that Need to be Done:

• Grass blowing in the wind – How to make grass and animation duplicate in mass. Then, we will probably have to make the grass after the landscape is made so it can be placed on top. (Test cancelled- Sophia will do this in Unity).
• Bee hair – How to model the hair and make the flowing effect transferable to Unity.
• Bee wings – Speed of flutter, visuals and shape of wing positions.
• Quadruped animal run-cycle – I have never made an animal animation yet, let alone a run cycle. I will need to find observational videos to implement behavioural characteristics (like when the deer is idle and exploring or feeding). Not only this, I would like to test out reusing a rig and animations for different animals. If I can do this, then I can add multiple quadruped animals quickly. Otherwise, to be safe time-wise, I should move on after I have made one animal.
• Flower – How it moves when idle but still effected by the wind and also when it has been pollinated by the bee. I feel as though this shouldn’t be just random movement. While I can make some tests to show it moving in various directions, I want to make reference footage to see flowers moving in then wind. Either that or make the flower physically effected by the wind in the scene. Not sure how, perhaps by making it an n-cloth, one with a lot of rigidity to stay upright? (Not necessary anymore – David will do this animation asset).
• Spider – Rig and movement. Plus need to parent the animation onto the web (does that work?).
• Cloth – Ragged fabric flowing in he wind on the trees. Test rigidity of wind movement.

Art Style Plans

Here I used secondary references to describe the level of realism, style of art, and 3D models that I want to create. I used the repeated image of a wolf since I am sure I would find the most visual references for a wolf than other subject, however, this note/plan relates to any character concepts that I will make throughout the project. Out project may also include a quadruped deer or wild dog, so I can use this as a related reference for that.

On the first row, is the level of realism from figures showing hyper-realism, digital painting, cartoons, low poly and Minecraft pixel characters. Low-poly designs may be suitable for this game concept, however, I believe that out art concept trajectory is more towards the cartoon style. Just like the ones that I have circled in the image above.

The second row includes certain art style qualities that I would like to note and chose from. This is mostly regarding their character designs. These qualities are those that alter the style of the concept as a whole, therefore, I wish to mention them now, so that I can think about the inclusion extent of these. The second-row characters above include variations in size, shape, simplicity or complexity in design, decorative features such as the 5th image, or expressions of character such as in the 4th image. The 3rd and 6th images show an or interpretation of the character’s context, their innate abilities, or their narrative purpose through visual design aspects. by this I mean that these characters fit their style purpose. For example, the 3rd image may be for a mundane purpose with realistic looking concept. In this sense I mean how the dog is shaped ordinary (not that the geometry in model design is extensive). Another example can be seen in the 6th image, here the character would fit more in a sci-fi or fantasy genre concept.

The third row focusses more on the 3D model that I will make and certain details that should be mentioned in my model design decisions now. The model will be simple with only the essential geometry and then smoothed. Very similar to the 2nd image, except if I make a quadruped, I think the back legs would be straighter (that would be easier to rig and animate), like the 4th image.