WEEK 4: Game Project Development DESN 3010: Assignment 1 Due Today, Assignment 2 starts

Your first assignment is due today at the start of class. We'll have a one-on-one critique to discuss the outcome and make a plan for your next milestone.

Remember that your project must be approved by me before proceeding. Please dig right into the planning process as soon as you can.

Here's the level of what's coming out of animation programs of just 8 months:
http://www.animationmentor.com/animation-program/animation-body-mechanics-advanced/

Spend some time looking at demo reels from around the world on Vimeo. You need to reach that target and that requires focus. Animation is your focus. Forget about all else for this class and dig into the details. Plan, test, and build your scene in layers and along the way seek feedback - it's what your tuition pays for :)

Please upload your progress to Trello's Milestone 2 board.  Use handbrake or adobe media encoder to compress files under the 10mb file upload limit.

Milestone 2:  ex 5-10 second piece of animation
Value: 20%
DUE DATE: WEEK 7 Oct 17th @ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
In-class you would want to show:
WEEK 5: thumbnails
WEEK 6: rough posing in 3D
WEEK 7: final animation - Playbasts are fine. No rendering required.

FILE NAMING:

3010_ m2_lastnamefirstinitial_001.mov (mp4, m4v, etc)
ex: 3010_m2_donovant.mov

Please read the post about file formats here.

WEEK 4: Asset Development 1 DESN1083: Assignment 1 Due Today!

Hooray! Due date for Assignment 1!

Make sure you don't leave without handing in your assignment or your work will not be graded. 

Today we'll start straight in on Assignment 2 while I critique each person's work in class.

Beretta cake I sincerely hope was not for a kid's birthday party

Assignment 2 -
Beretta Final Concept Art: 25 marks

DUE DATE: WEEK 7 October 17th

@ BEGINNING OF CLASS

* Late submissions will receive ZERO marks.
Assignment 2 is a continuation of the gun concept explored in the previous assignment.

Progressing from the last revised design pass, produce a detailed and polished rendering of your final gun concept.

Image should be 3/4 perspective to capture the overall design and feel of the gun concept.
Orthographic drawings are also acceptable (front, back, side).

Final Concept Art
PSD SOURCE FILES, JPG
2348(W) X 1280(H) pixels 72dpi

FILE NAME: 
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_YOURNAME.PSD
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_YOURNAME.JPG

ex -
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_TARADONOVAN.psd
ASSIGN2_NEWBERETTA-FINAL_TARADONOVAN.jpg

WEEK 4: Motion Studies DESN1136 Assignment 1 DUE TODAY IN CLASS

Today is a critique day for your first assignment. 

First we'll be going over your next assignment consists of "thumbnails of your action". Thumbnails, thumbnailing, thumbnail posing... in animation these terms get tossed around a fair bit. They all refer to drawing quick, small gestures in planning animation.

Thumbnail examples from Animation Mentor

Drawing is the premier means of visual communication and it's absolutely essential in collaborating with other artists.  Drawing is a learned skill that comes more easily to some than others -- but make no mistake, a few hours of dedicated study can make all the difference. Animators have to draw so darned many drawings that they've spent a century developing a list of tricks to streamline the process.

Thumbnail translated to 3D

This week I'll give you some of the most important tricks I've learned to help you get your gestures down quickly to convey maximum information in a minimum of lines.

Click here for more information: Animation Mentor article "Animation Tips & Tricks: THUMBNAILS"

DESN1136 Assignment 2: Animation Thumbnails

% of final grade: 20%
Assigned: Thursday, Sept 26th
Due: WEEK 6, Oct 8th in class

*Late assignments are worth 0

Please work on paper or digitally (ex, PSD) in high resolution but SUBMIT only JPGs following the image formatting guidelines from this post.

Max 1200 px wide @ 72 dpi

Filenames:

1136_a2_donovant_thmb_001.jpg

Description: 
Plan the animation for a sequence in your virtual game. It can be built around the travelling sequences such as the walk, run, and jump cycles to be animated in the second half of the course. It could also focus on another significant part of the game. Drawings need not be clean but they should be clear, dynamic, and detailed. Consider using live action reference for this challenging assignment.

Rubric:
Exemplary - In-depth planning of all the movement and surrounding actions for animation sequence showing the character's specific personality and style of movement.

Excellent - Detailed movement study of animation sequence showing all major actions with some personality.
Acceptable - Simple study of most of the planned actions for the animated sequence.
Not Acceptable - Sparsely detailed study of a few of the key poses of the animated sequence.