Basic Character Modelling - Cinema 4D.

The Past two Process and Production sessions I have attended with Jay have been an introduction to basic Character Modelling using Cinema 4D. 

Here are a list of instructions that we were given to follow to help guide us through the process of building our characters:

Preparing a scan:

1. Photoshop/ open scan.jpg

2. Image/ adjustments/levels - adjust scan to suite

3. Crop tool/ trim around scan to get rid of waste

4. Drag around front of character/ save for web/ save as "front.jpg"

5. Cmd+Z to undo crop/ Crop again on side view of character

6. Save for web/ save as "side.jpg"

7. Close photoshop

Preparing C4d for Modelling:

1. Open C4d/ Create a plane/ Create a material

2. Material/ Colour/ add an image - "front.jpg"/ add material to plane

3. Change plane size to match image size

4. Change plane axis to -Z/ change segments to 2x2

5. Duplicate plane - Cmd+drag in object list

6. Duplicate material - Cmd+drag in material editor

7. Change image in second material to "side.jpg"

8. Replace material on second plane with new material/ change plane size to fit image

9. Rotate second plane -90 deg

10. Switch views to 4 view

11. Front & side views/ Display/ turn on Gouraud shading with lines

12. Also under display/ turn on wireframe

13. Move both planes so feet touch the ground

14. Arrange planes so they are separated and behind the centre of the grid

15. Name planes front&side/ name materials also

16. Select both planes in object list/ right click/ add to new layer

17. Go to the layer panel (bottom right panel tab)

18. Lock layers so they don't get moved

19. Save file as "start.C4d"

Start Modelling:

1. Create a Sphere/ reduce to fit belly of character

2. Change Display to Gouraud with lines so you can see polygons

3. Front & Side views/ wireframe

4. Select sphere/ Basic/ X-Ray

5. Sphere/ object/ segments = 16

6. Sphere/ Rt Click/ Make editable

7. Polygons edit mode (left hand toolbar)

8. Click & hold on live selection button (top toolbar)/ Rectangle selection tool

9. Attributes window/ Options/ Untick "only select visible elements"

10. Drag around half of sphere/ delete

11. Go to points edit mode/ Rt Click/ Optimize (gets rid of errant points)

12. Delete top, crotch & leg opening polygons/ Optimize again

13. In points mode/ select points & move to shape of scan front & side

14. Create a flow with polygons

15. Go to edges edit mode/ select crotch edges

16. Rt click// Bridge tool/ join crotch/ Rt Click/ Knife tool

17. Click& drag to divide crotch bridge three times

18. Points mode/ side view/ shape crotch

19. Top view/ shape leg hole to make it round-ish

20. Edges mode/ Shift+select leg hole edges

21. Cmd+drag edge to extrude (copy) polygons in any direction

22. Use scale tool to fit leg shape/ use points mode to adjust poly flow

23. Repeat this process to build character shape

24. save regularly

This is where I started with my character before i built her up limb by limb:

    

These are the two final screenshots of my rendered Character:

I really enjoyed using Cinema 4d to create my character, I found it quite difficult at first to get the hang of. However, as the process was quite repetitive, I found that around half way to three quarters of my way through modelling, I was understanding it quite well. For my first attempt, I think it's safe to say it worked out okay. 

2d to 3d Animation using After Effects.

Today we created simple animations using 2d vector images to create a 3d looking animation.

I started off with a flat image of a nice, simple landscape, created in Illustrator.

After importing my assets into After Effects, I made sure that each layer of my asset had a "3D layer" turned on. 

Once all my layers had the 3D effect on them, I added a camera into my composition to pan from the back of the composition to the front, so as the footage plays you can see all the layers appear one by one. 

Another effect that we learnt in this Process and Production session was the "page turn" effect. I decided I wanted this effect of my "mountain" layer. I achieved this by going to Effect and CC Page turner. 

When adding the final touches to my animation I found a texture to make some of my layers more interesting, and I created a little leaf which I animated to fall off the tree. 

Here is my final animation:

Landscape animation from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

YCN - Feel Good Drinks research

Feel Good Drinks Company launched in 2001 and have been continuing to produce a range of 100% naturally blended fruit drinks with flavours such as; Orange and Mango, Cloudy Lemon, Apple and Blueberry, Cranberry and Lime, Orange and Passion fruit and more which are all being sold in fifteen different countries.

I have created this moodboard, mainly full of colour and different fruit to help with the start of my experimentation toward the brief.

YCN - Feel Good Drinks research

I think that on average, most people spend around 30-45 minutes per day for their lunch break, so to have a drink that will help boost energy is what people will be looking to but. Not only energy boosting but healthy and delicious too.

As the target audience for this brief is 18 to 35 year old women, the brand colours need to be bright, fresh and subtly in your face.

I have been searching around, and at the moment I think the main competition in the market for fruit juices are; Innocent, Naked, Copella and Aloe. 

Here are some images of the fruit juices I have been looking at to get an idea of what is selling strong in the soft drink market at the moment.

YCN - Feel Good Drinks brief

The Challenge:

We want you to re-engage 18-35 year old females with the Feel Good brand, and are very open minded as to how you go about doing it.­

We want you to spread Feel Goodness, driving awareness and inspiring people to engage with the brand and buy the product. 

We want to remind and reassure the target audience that Feel Good is relevant for them, that it’s simple and honest and that it delivers against their needs of wanting healthier cleaner drinks.

This is a deliberately very open brief, and you are free to demonstrate your creative thinking in any medium or combination of media you see fit.

We are open to ideas for new campaigns such as pressadds,PR, Packaging, social media, sampling, on-pack promotions, in-store engagement; concepts for grabbing people on the streets or fresh thoughts for how our bottles and packs look.

We want you to think about the moments, formats and contexts in which we can most successfully engage with our target audience.

How can we spread positivity and connect with this audience in fresh and memorable ways?

Range of refreshing good, honest, great tasting drinks:

• 750ml Sparkling fruit juice
• 275ml Still & Sparkling Fruit Juice
• 400ml Still Fruit Juice Drink

Stones around the sun - Lewis Watson (cover) Lyric Animation.

On Wednesday's Process and Production session with Sara, as a group we were learning the same technique that I used last week while creating my animated name sequence. I was so happy to find out I was creating something else using this technique as I really wanted to enhance my skills with this.

As I have quite recently been playing a lot of guitar, and had learnt how to play a new song called "Stones around the sun" by Lewis Watson, I decided I would use a recording of my playing the song as the audio track for my animation and that the animation itself would be a short lyric video for the song.

So here are my three images that I used to create my animation:

I created each scene (if you like) separately, using the same techniques as last weeks experiment:

1. Importing all jpegs into After Effects as jpeg sequences.

2. Looping the footage.

3. Creating a mask with the pen tool on the images.

4. Creating a stroke effect.

I then decided to create a more interesting look to my animation, I imported a textured background to each part and changed the colour of the pen lines on my drawings. 

This is the texture I decided to use, an old, worn looking piece of paper:

Once each "scene" of my animation was complete i edited them together and imported in my audio track to finish off. Overall I am so happy with Wednesdays Process and Production session!

Here is my final animation:

Hand drawn animation from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

Motion Go Name Sequence.

In motion go today we all had a go at creating our own name in a technique we all enjoy using. I decided to go for something new, something I hadn't done before. My aim was to make it look as though my name was being hand written on the screen.

Name sequence from Emma Perrett on Vimeo.

To create this piece was so simple yet so effective, all that is needed is three copies of the same assets. So i wrote my name and traced over it twice using a light box, the aim is to match them as precise as possible, but the slight difference adds to the "handmade" look I was going for. 

The next step is to import the three images into After Effects as a jpeg sequence. When you play the footage, you will notice it will flicker, you then need to make it loop to create a longer lasting footage.

Then using the pen tool, adding one mask, you draw round each letter or line in whatever is in your assets in the same direction as though you were drawing with a normal pen/pencil. 

Finally, going to effects, stroke, making the stroke larger than the line in your assets, it will playback the image as though it's drawing itself on your screen. 

I'm really impressed with the outcome of this, and will love to use this technique again.