Course: Computer Animation III
This semester’s most important project, took half the semester (~3 months). The assignment is to animate a character either pushing or pulling something. There are two parts: the “natural” version and the “exaggerated” version. The “natural” version is a somewhat realistic animation, as seen in most 3D animated films (Kung Fu Panda, Tangled, Frozen, etc.); of course it’s still cartoony, as the usual animation terms such as arcs, anticipation, etc. still apply, but nothing over the top. The “exaggerated” version is even more cartoony and unrealistic, however subtle or extreme (Looney Tunes, Marco Macaco, Hotel Transylvania, etc.).
Since I did a human character in the previous semester’s major project (Sit-Stand), I decided to do a non-human this time. I came up with a circus monkey who is fed up with his current life and tries to escape his cage. This way he can push and pull, he can do things that humans can’t (use his feet as hands, hang upside down, etc.), and he has a tail that I can showcase overlap with (like the ponytail in my Sit-Stand project).
I already see huge improvement in animation from my most recent projects, and I am very happy with my natural and exaggerated versions. I did not intend to make the exaggerated version so long (the maximum time limit we were allowed was 15 seconds, but mine is 27 seconds), but I’m glad I managed to finish it in time.
The background music is the 10th track from the original sound track of the Korean drama My Love from the Star (I don’t like dramas, but at least I found the suitable music from all that torture), sound effects are from freesound, YouTube, and the college archives.
I can only get better!
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Push/Pull -character
Push/Pull -natural
Partially modeled in ZBrush, retopologized and animated in Autodesk Maya, textures in Photoshop, rendered in Renderman, composited in Nuke and Adobe Premiere.
Completed in 2014 December 4.
