End of Marking Period 3 Blogpost

Intention Definition/Exploration of Ideas:
This marking period I continued working on my theme of emotions and experiences. Over the summer I had this idea of making a skeleton that is just laying back and enjoying themself. Overall I wanted the skeleton to portray the idea of relaxation. Last marking period I began to work on this and focused on modeling the skeleton. This marking period I was able to actually work on this idea and create this series that I have had in my head for some time.

Planning: Once I have reached the beginning of the third marking period, I was ready to rig my model. To do this, I looked at rigify and how to do that so it would take me a couple of minutes to rig my model. In the end, it took a couple of weeks and I did not use rigify because I faced too many problems with it. I also dedicated a blogpost to plan out how I wanted my scenes to look like, which is much more beneficial than just working off of nonsense in my head. It also let me create ideas based off of research on how others relax. Lastly, out of class, I have been working on works for the NAHS shop and I have been playing around with editing images. I enjoyed the realism to it so I did research on how to create hair in blender so I could then use my models instead of random people on google for my artwork.
   
Producing:

Evaluating: Looking at the pieces I have created this marking I really enjoyed the colors that I used and they definitely look well together and make the piece look better. Also, I really like the outlines on the skeleton and definitely looks better than it did in my piece last marking period since they also appeared inside this model and. I also liked how I animated it and although I am not really interested in creating a story, I do like the movement and would like to try this in future works if possible. Originally, I did want this to have shadows but the world would reflect onto the model which I did not like, and when I tried this method out I really liked the outlines and decided to continue with this look. I would like to try and make this method work better for future work but I will keep this series shadeless. One thing I do want to do for future works is to think about what I want to convey and how I should do rather than creating a model off of an idea and then think of the scenes based off of a general idea.

NAHS Art Shop works:

          

Integrating: This marking period the major thing that I learned previously that I used this marking period is the rigging part. Since I and rigify did not get along well, I used a lot of what I learned in 3D animation last year to animate and create the scenes in my skeleton series. For example, I used shape keys to create the skeleton’s face rather than destroying the work I put into it and so I can use it later. Along with this, I used what I learned about weight paint last year to make the appendages move the way I wanted them to which was to be less like a human where everything moves together and more like multiple parts moving depending on the bone. I also used what I learned last marking period about creating a 2D scene to create the scenes for my skeleton.

Work Log:
Monday:modeling scene, and posing skeleton
Tuesday:modeling scene
Wednesday:animating snowflakes
Thursday:animating steam
Friday: Rendering and writing this blogpost

90s/80s Anime Aesthetic

For this blog post, I will explain my interpretation of the 90s/80s anime aesthetic, what I like about it and how I can use it my artwork. I have tried to find ways that explain what it is or what qualifies in this aesthetic but all I can find is the artwork of it so I am limited to my interpretation of these works.

What it is:
 I consider this aesthetic to follow at least one of two criteria: has a blurry/grainy look as an anime in the 80s or 90s would, and/or contains a caption(is usually yellow or white and is centered at the bottom of the image). These images can really almost be anything, but what I noticed with the text is that they usually portray a thought of sorts which with my theme being emotions is something I can use in my artworks. The majority of the works I saw were not really the person's own art and instead are screenshots of animes put together to display a mood. Although this is their common form there are artists that have taken this aesthetic and used it in their own works.


*from Tumblr

 What I Like:
I like how the image in these work does not fit the thought in these images. Although they do not really convey the meaning in the text they are kind of like a post on social media where you take a picture and add a caption which is also why I feel like I can relate to these images. I also like the colors to them. They're not harsh colors and are instead very soft and nice to look at. I also like the captions to the images because you can relate to them.


*from Instagram

 How I can use it in my Art:
As I stated earlier, the caption part of this aesthetic is usually like a thought which relates to my theme this year of emotions. Since these captions are kind of like thoughts, I can take my daily thoughts and use them as inspiration for these images. I also think that this would make thinking of ideas easier because I would think of something and jot it down and create an image to go along with it.


*from Instagram

Work Log:
Monday:Creating Vines
Tuesday:Creating Vines
Wednesday:Creating Flowers
Thursday:Creating Flowers
Friday:Rendering Frames

Vines

I have reached the point of the year when I have run out of ideas for blog posts so for this blog post I am simply going to look at methods that I can use to animate the growing plants in the scene. For this, I want to stay in blender render since I liked the render in blender than I did when using toon shader in cycles.
Animating vines:
Add a bezier circle and nurb path


Go to the curve tab and make sure 3D is clicked


Make the taper and bevel object the circle to obtain the simple vine shape


If you want the vine to be filled click “fill caps” if you want the object to have a point click “map taper”
           

The start and end bevel factor are used to animate the vines. To create keyframes, hover over whichever one you are using and tap “I” on the keyboard


I also wanted to animate the steam in the tea scene but all the videos that I have seen have been in cycles while I have decided to do this in blender so I think I will also use this method to try and create a 2D steam look. One thing about this method I like and do not like is that the vines are very simple. If I am going to use this method I think I will also have to animate leaves separately to sync with the growing vines if I soon think that I need more detail.

Another method:

In this video, a similar method of using curves is used but instead, the creator adds a curve goes into edit mode and deletes it.


He then goes into options on the left and changes the projection depth to surface


He then changes the fill in the curve tab to full


Next he creates the vines by hitting shift+left click and drawing the shapes he wants


I think the method will be more helpful with creating multiple plants and maintaining control of those plants by creating a shape that they will wrap around.

Work Log:
Monday:rigging
Tuesday:rigging
Wednesday:rigging
Thursday:posing and modeling props
Friday:testing out colors and renders

Skeleton Ideas

Currently, I am almost done with rigging the skeleton which means this blogpost is to plan out exactly what I am going to create with this model and what I am going to do to achieve it. I have said originally that I wanted to make this a series about taking a break instead of working all the time so I am thinking of creating about three or more pieces some of them being rendered stills and others I want to try making gifs out of.

To determine what exactly what I want to make I searched up self-care and thought of these designs:



Looking at these designs, the ones that I have been thinking about making gifs only have small animations and I might even try to 2D animate them if I have the time. In terms of color, although I want this series to be about relaxation and blue is known to be a calming color, I want a good majority of these to use the colors pink and orange.

Garden:


I want to use this color scheme for the garden on because I simply like the colors to it and it has green tones that can be used on plants. Using this color scheme I’ve been thinking of making the skeleton the light green color and the background red. With that, I wanted the pots to orange and the plants to be green and blue.
Rendition:


Tea Time:

I do not imagine a lot of variety in this scene so I think this color scheme with minimal variation suits well for it. I am thinking of making the couch black the skeleton white(of course) and then playing around with the blues to fill in everything else.
Rendition:

Might add curtains

Eating:

I knew I wanted an orange and a brown for this scene so I knew I wanted to use this color scheme because of the orange and brown.
Rendition:

Clay Mask:

The last scene that I wanted to have varying colors is the clay mask scene. I want to use one of the pinks on both the blues on the mask because I do not want it all to be varying colors.
Rendition:


Sunshine:

This scene is the scene I wanted to keep simple.

Rendition:

Work Log:

Monday:Fix Topology

Tuesday:Fix Topology

Wednesday:Fix Topology

Thursday:Fix Topology

Friday:Fix Topology