Critique Reflection

For my character animation (see previous post), I received critique from my classmates on the design, technical aspects, and plot. They said the plot was simple and easy to follow with a good inciting incident and climax/resolution. Also, the the modeling of the house, furniture, and character were well done, especially with the time restrictions. Motion was good, and many people liked the first-person view. They liked many of my shots and camera movements which were smooth and followed the Rule of Thirds. However, a few criticized the fact that at one point a closing door went through the camera and that the door handles didn't turn as the main character (camera) opened the door. Next time, I will work on the minor details and focus more on working within time limits.

Character Animation - The Nightmare

My Blender Character Animation

"The Nightmare" -- The Thrilling Tale of a Zombie who Only Wanted a Hug

First, I will describe my thoughts the process of bringing this animation to life.

The modeling of the character was likely the most irksome part; he is low poly and hollow, which is sometimes visible at certain angles. His hair is almost nothing like I imagined, but I couldn't take the time to make it properly and instead just sculpted it out of a large UV Sphere.

Next, learning to rig a mesh was actually quite easy, though it could have been executed better. A full class tutorial would have probably helped us to know exactly what was expected of us while rigging our characters. I was specifically confused on how to make it loop naturally, and I certainly have not perfected this yet.

We simply were not given enough time for the animations themselves if we wanted a finished product that we could be proud of. There are several things that I had to rush and even completely skip over (like the window panes I wanted to add), and I was forced to use other models from sites like Blender Artists when I would have preferred making these props on my own, though I made sure these models were available for non-credited use. Rendering took a very long time as I had a much longer video than some of the other students with a larger file size, so this I did outside of class. Surprisingly, my own laptop at home runs Blender fairly well.

The post-processing for the video was definitely the easiest part. I was able to make most of what I wanted for audio in GarageBand, and I was able to work out any of my issues with relative ease, though the audio/video syncing problem had me momentarily stumped. I chose only beginning credits because that was all that was needed, though I might have added some eerie music at the end had I had end credits.

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Throughout the project, I was able to focus quite well, and though there are often conversations at my tables, they do not distract me from my work. Quite the contrary, when given the option to choose when to talk to my friends or keep silent, I am more productive. There were multiple times that I was frustrated with my work, as it did not always meet expectations.

Finally, I was successful with modeling my character (Neo's) face, but his hair and body suffered. Neo's movements were also a little rushed, but they weren't the central focus of the video. I chose a first person point of view in the storyboard phase. Were I to do this again--which I likely will as I would like to be a video game designer (most likely for an indie developer as I really appreciate being my own boss)--I would like to focus more on quality over deadlines. Thus, I am really looking forward to the independent portfolio class next year.

Really a great project!