QI's MA 3D Computer Animation' Blog

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George week1-20

Week 3:Mood Board and Camera Movement

This week’s task is to create a mood board and shot storyboard based on the selected story. Here is my work for the week

Regarding camera movement, based on my storyboard, I have incorporated camera movements, including some basic techniques such as zooming, panning, tilting, and tracking, as well as transitional and linking effects to make the short film more cohesive.

In terms of the story, based on last week’s feedback, I have added a beginning and an ending to my narrative. I have endowed the protagonist with a new identity. The story now revolves around a monk, eager to vanquish demons, who is deceived by a mentor—actually a demon in disguise—within the monastery, and thus embarks on a pilgrimage, only to be corrupted by the demon. Ultimately, he is transformed into a demon himself and continues to assimilate new monks arriving at the monastery.

This week, I searched for a lot of interesting references to add various environmental effects to my mood board. My references mainly come from film and video game works. In terms of film, I primarily referenced “Dune” and “The Witch,” among others. For video games, I mainly looked at “Dark Souls” and “Bloodborne,” and similar titles.

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George week1-20

Week2:Storyboards

This week’s assignment required contemplating three distinct stories and illustrating them as storyboards. After much thought and creation, the following are my three storyboards.

1.The first story: A pilgrim journeys to a holy land for pilgrimage, only to be ultimately assimilated into a creature of monstrosity.

2.The second story: A student who is bullied at school rises up and fights back.

3.The third story: A girl cleaning at home is startled by a suddenly appearing insect, but eventually grows fond of the cute-looking creature.

After discussing with George, I have decided to use Story 1, but modifications to the story structure are necessary, including the addition of a beginning and an end. He shared with me the concept of the Hero’s Journey, illustrating what constitutes a good story and how a well-developed character grows.

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Design for Animation,Narrative Structures&Film Language

Presentation

Here is my presentation of my critical report for module 1.

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Design for Animation,Narrative Structures&Film Language

Week 9:Topic change

After with my advisor last week, I revised my topic. I plan to shift my focus from exploring the psychological impact of color on audiences to examining how color sets the tone for an entire film. Specifically, I will investigate how different colors affect the overall perception of a movie. I intend to focus on “Batman” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” using a comparative approach to demonstrate how different color palettes influence films differently, thereby validating my perspective.

My topic, “Color and Cinematic Tone: Unveiling the Subtle Cues of Film Atmosphere,” explores how color affects narrative and emotions in film. I chose this study because, as an animation student, understanding color’s impact on audience emotions and connection is essential. Analyzing color use in films reveals its contribution to narrative depth, valuable for future projects. Additionally, as modern storytelling evolves, the complex functions of color warrant thorough exploration. 

By role of color in film, along with its effects and influences, we can see that the selection and application of color can significantly impact the audience’s emotional responses and their understanding of the narrative. Variations in contrast and saturation can amplify the emotional effects of the story, drawing the audience’s attention to key moments that shape character development. This is one of the ways to drive the plot forward.

Through an analysis of the role of color in the emotional tone of films, it becomes clear that color is not merely a visual element, but also a powerful means of expressing emotions. For instance, different colors often represent various emotions and cultural symbols. Red is commonly associated with passion, love, and violence, while blue typically conveys calmness and loneliness. Additionally, warm colors in a scene can create an inviting and joyful atmosphere, whereas cool t ones may lead the audience to experience feelings of oppression and tension.

By examining how color is used, some directors can manipulate the saturation, contrast, and tonal variations of colors to evoke different emotional atmospheres. As Williams stated, “the choice of color can significantly affect the audience’s understanding of the plot, helping them to engage more deeply with the progression of the story.”

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Unreal engine

Term 1 Design proposal Presentation

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals Unreal engine

Term1 Showreel Submission

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3D Computer Animation Fundamentals

Week 10:Air Guitar

This week, I continued to refine my body animation to make the movements smoother and better reflect the sense of gravity. I also added some squashing and stretching effects to it.

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Unreal engine

Week 10:The Final Project–Pilgrim

This week, I imported the animated cache created in Maya into Unreal Engine and made some adjustments to the lighting and atmosphere for each shot. I have basically completed the production of this project and may add some background music later. Looking back at the process, Unreal Engine is very powerful. I primarily created biological models, rigged them, applied materials, and created animations. For the scene part, I mainly used assets to adjust the atmospheric feel of the scene.

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Unreal engine

Week 9:Unreal rendering

Today we learnd about the use of Movie Render Queue.

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Unreal engine

Week8:PostProcessing

This week, I continued to advance my project by refining the characters in my scene, unwrapping the UVs, and applying textures. After that, I performed the binding and weight painting.