Home Sweet Home Animation Short

Here is a very good animation short that I just watched called 'Home Sweet Home' created by the talented Pierre Clenet, Alejandro Diaz, Romain Mazevet and Stéphane Paccolat, made in Supinfocom Arles during their last year in 2013.

This is a great example of the essence of animation; to evoke emotions towards a character and to truly connect and empathise with them no matter what they look like. Please take your time and watch this enrapturing animation about a house who picks up his stilts and decides to hit the road finding friends along the way.

Updated Website and Showreel 2015

Hi! I have now updated my website with my latest showreel which can be found below. Please don't hesitate to ask me about it I will be thrilled to share. I also have my past projects as well as my artwork so feel free to check it out! http://www.ambreeze-animation.com/

Here is my 2015 Showreel featuring work from my recent university projects: Poseidon Rising, Red Bull Advert and Too Good To Share whilst also having personal projects that I have been working on. Everything in this showreel was animated and rigged by myself. I hope you enjoy!

Music by Mint Royale - Show Me

Robot Rig Demo

Here is my Robot Rig demo featuring various set driven key techniques to achieve a folding out gun as well as node connections for revolving cogs. A fun project which I enjoyed through to the end, I am very happy with how it has turned out.

Poseidon Rising

Here is our final Poseidon Rising animation, I had a great time working on this project with my university friends, we worked very well together and I am very proud of what we have produced.

My responsibilities for this project was to Animate and Rig both characters in the short. This was a challenging ordeal as I was originally only supposed to animate however after fellow team member dropped out I had to step up and do the rigging. I learnt a lot of new skills from this project including advanced facial rigging and new skinning techniques to create great realism. I thoroughly enjoyed animating both characters especially the creature due to its unique design (George Skodras) it was quite the challenge, especially to find good reference which in the end I was unable to find any, so had to do it purely from my imagination.

Poseidon Facial Rig

Here is the facial rig set up using a nurbs curves for the GUI. In order to create the facial deformations I used set driven keys to control the expressions by keying the 125 joints. This was a very long winded process which I understand now, was not the best way of doing a facial rig set up however I think the results I have achieved has worked well. 

Poseidon Rig Demo

Poseidon Rig Demo:

Here is my set up for the Poseidon Rig, I have made a predominately FK set up however the arms have an IK to FK switch so that the animators can have the freedom of either. I have also made an advanced facial rig set up involving over 125 joints in the face alone. Including a fleshy eye set up.

I will upload a rig demo for the face shortly.

Robot UV's

Arm UV

Body UV

Gun UV

Leg UV

Robot Smoothed Low Poly

Robot Smoothed Low Poly

I am happy with how the low poly has turned out I think the edge loops are good and I have managed to put in a sufficient amount of detail. The next steps will be to take unwrap and then take the mesh into Mudbox to add some finer details like surface scratches and I want the end result for the robot to appear battered and weathered.

Robot Low Poly Turnaround

Robot Low Poly Turnaround

Robot Modelling

Arm Claw Cogs

Inner Arm Cogs

Arm Shell Hidden, to show cogs

Neck Detail

Back of Leg

Side Leg

Creature Rig Demo

Here is my rigging demo for the creature rig. I am happy with how it has turned out as I have included everything I wanted to and think there shouldn't be any restrictions with animation.

Creature Rigging Requirements

In order for us to have enough time to animate for the Poseidon project I have had to start rigging first and hold back on my personal projects for now.

Here is the creature design that George Skodras has modelled.

For the rig We will need:

1. IK Spline for body so that when the end is pulled that the mesh will follow the curve of the Spline curve.

2. IK Spline for all tentacle controls with FK Nurbs curves controllers.

3. All tentacles and fins will need to be rigged. 

The main idea for the design is so that the side spikes will act as movement senses so they will be vibrating vigorously. In order for this to work smoothly it'll be a good idea to use IK Spline so that a nice curve can be created for the animation.

Updated PreViz

Here is an updated version of the animation this time with the poseidon model to get a better idea of scale. The main change here is with the ending having a big monster to add more of a wow factor and have an interesting cliff hanger ending.

New Poseidon PreViz

Here is our latest ideas for the Poseidon animation, it is all still very basic stuff but we are just experimenting with various angles.

However our main idea is that Poseidon has been banished by the other gods and now at the time of the new millennium he has returned to his temple to reclaim his beloved weapon. However the creatures he once commanded are now his enemies and the protectors of the trident.

Change in Poseidon Project

Due to one of the team members having a family emergency we are now a member down. He was a crucial part of the team as he was rigging both Poseidon and the archangel character. Therefore now that vital position is open it needs to be filled and so I have been given this responsibility due to me having the most experience with rigging out of all of us.

So my new responsibilities will be still animating half the animation as well as rigging the two characters.

However due to this change in personnel it has also given us an opportunity to rethink the idea as a whole and so we now have decided to remove the archangel altogether and replace him with a monster as we think this will give a more dynamic range of animations and make for a more interesting animation altogether.

Next steps will be to decide on the scenes and what actually happens.

Rigging Preparation Tests

Fake Motion Blur Effect

Here you can see a test I did with a free rig for the multiple arm effect. This is an effect that I saw in the Looney Tunes Ves submission showreel which is a great unique cartoony effect which I hope to be able to include into my animation.

I followed this tutorial to produce this effect: http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/fake-motion-blur-effect-in-maya-for-cartoony-animation/

Rigging Preparation

Final Design - Full Turnaround

Final Design - Expression Sheet

Final Design - Action Sheet

Concepts - Foot Designs and Development

To start off with, again I have just drawn out simple silhouette shapes and have picked the middle as I think it has a good blend of over exaggerated shapes however doesn't over do it.

For the development of the foot I have simply just re-textured with different fur variations. The design I have chosen is again in the middle ground as I only want some aspects of the design to be prominent where as others, more subtle like the fur texture.

Concepts - Hand Designs and Development

Here I experimented with various shapes to see if any designs stand out in particular, I have selected the one in the middle as I think this has a good blend on soft curves as well as slightly elongated fingers to add character.

On this page I tried out various textures and fur appearances and finally went with the plain white one as I think this will appeal more to the cartoon appearance of the character.

Concepts - Head Designs and Development

Here I have experimented with different rabbit head shapes, I selected the middle one because I feel it has the most contrasting and interesting shapes that create a nice overall design.

Now that I have got the silhouette its time to experiment with different fur designs. I have decided to go with the centre design as it has a more simplistic appearance that lightly highlight the individual features.

Concepts - Body Designs

Here are some initial rabbit body concepts, starting off with just silhouettes to get an idea of some shapes that I like.

I decided to choose the smaller design as I think this will create a nicer dynamic between the big round robot character.

Research - Rabbit Concepts and Anatomy

Research - Flexible Character Exploration

Now its time to start researching what my other character will be.

Final Robot Design - Full Turnaround

Here is my final robot design turnaround. I am very happy with how the design had turned out as it has some interesting shapes which I think all compliment one another nicely. I think it will create an interesting animation dynamic against the more fluid character and I look forward to rigging and animating it.

Final Robot Design - Leg Turnaround

Final Robot Design - Arm Turnaround

Final Robot Design - Gun Turnaround

Final Robot Design - Expression Sheet

Here is the character expression sheet. Since the character is made out of metal and won't be very flexible most of its emotions will come from its eyes and the shapes its eyelids create. The jaw is the only flexible aspect to the face because it is a solid metal base that is connected to a concertina type rubber tubing that will be able to stretch at will.

Final Robot Design - Action Sheet

Concepts - Full Colour Designs

Here are the colour variations for the robot. I have chosen the brown/bronze colour because I think it will be best suited to the character and its background as the point in the robot is to be a guard to a farm so therefore would have been built out or simple pieces of left over metal and rustic mechanics by the farmer.