Major Project/ Year 3 Evaluation

This post pretty much sums up what I've been up to during my last year of studies at UCA. I've been working on a collaborative animated short called Kinnaree with Dayle Sanders as Mango Mercury studios and recently submitted our last piece of work for our 3 year Ba (Hons) Computer Generated Arts and Animation course. 

Kinnaree was a major challenge for both of us. Taking up a project for the whole year was a wise decision which enabled us to spend more time on animating and explore pathways that half  a year's project wouldn't allow us to do. One part of the project which was completely new to us was editing which is partly why Act 3 of the animation is not resolved at the moment. I've learned a lot through this project; like what it's like to be part of a team, professionalism in work, time management, art direction, editing, character performance and of course technical approaches in Maya and Mudbox. 
A lot of the small errors in the animated short we submitted will be tackled during the next month and a half for the upcoming New Designers exhibition in London in July which I am very excited about. I am overly satisfied with our work so far and would never admit our decision to make this a year long project. The updated version of the animation will be uploaded on this space in July. 

Final (WIP) Animation

Art of Document

Kinnaree Major Project Art Of by andriana_laskari

Technical Paper

Major Project Technical Paper by andriana_laskari

CD Design

DVD case design

Demo Reel

Promotional Stills

Major Project Update 2

For the past month or so I've been getting deeper  into quadruped animation and learning so much about this complicated field. Looking back at my very first animation tests I can't help but cringe at how 'horribly abnormal and awkward' they looked. This is in a way positive, as it shows that I know it can be improved even further in order to work better.

Animation in this project could go on forever, but due to its tight deadline we have to keep looking at it from an overall point of view and do the amount of work required to meet the deadline.

So here is my progress so far in animating Hemmy:

This was my initial scrapped run cycle.

And this is my latest one.

At the moment I am working within the final scene and  using the pre-viz camera to help me with timing the shots.

These are some of the great dance sequences my group partner Dayle Sanders is working on with Kinnaree.

This is some progress on the environment that I've been working on. At the moment we are discussing the possibility of rendering everything in layers and render passes which will help in gaining control of the different 'chunks' and improve the look of the animated short.

Overall, I am very satisfied with our progress so far. To make make the most of our left time we are going to start rendering as soon as Kinnaree gets her dynamics sorted out and we can keep on animating in the mean time.

Watch this space for more progress on Mango Mercury!

Major project update

This is a summery post of what me and Dayle Sanders  have been up to since the Minor project submission on the 11th of January. So as mentioned, the Minor Project is extended throughout the Major. We started off by putting together a new proposal below:

Major Project Proposal by

One of our main concerns was getting the Pre-Vis together as it was hard to visualise the 3D environment through the 2D animatic. So initially we made a diagram with colour coding to figure out the layering of the props and space.

I also did some experimentation with gobos by linking images to spotlights. They will be used on the background of the forest to imitate depth and closure.  

These are a few more of the prop designs we've been working on.

Apart from the environment Hemmy's rig was enhanced and could finally get him to walk with a rough walkcycle.

Minor Project Update

Hello everyone again,

Apologies for not posting for so long but my blog was under construction and I was too embarrassed to post up any of my work. But now, after working on my blog's professional look with the great help of Ryan El, I will update you with what I've been up to during my 3rd year Minor Project.

It all started around June/ July 2012 when me and Dayle Sanders decided to work on a collaborative project for our 3rd year Minor Project. Our collaboration comes with the title of Mango Mercury.  We researched what we could work on and came across Thai Mythology, a cultural subject in which we were both interested in. Since we both aspire to become Character Designers and Animators , the project will be a character-oriented animated short with limited attention to the environment. Towards our submission we noticed that our Project was way too demanding to be completed by the Minor's deadline. To make the most of our final year we came to the sensible decision to extend our Minor throughout the whole year and treat it as one project assessed by two criteria: Character Design and Character Performance (or animation).

Below is what we handed in for our Minor (Character Design), including the characters' final turnarounds and the Art Of Document. If you want have a look at the progress behind this visit the Mango Mercury Blog.

Minor Project First Assessment Hand in  11/01/2013

Here

Presentation for Kinnaree Minor Project Hand-In 2 by

Our project will continue with preparing the characters for animating and eventually bring them to life, refining the editing with a Final Pre-Viz for the story and enhancing the environment around them. Stay tuned for more updates.