Major, to put it bluntly, has been a much different experience to what I expected, especially when comparing it to the Minor project that came before. Oddly enough, it wasn’t nearly as negative (or as much of a mess) as I’d believed it would be when I walked into it. In fact, it’s actually been one of the more positive experiences I’ve had across the entire course.
I have, admittedly, caught myself multiple times thinking about how disappointed I am that I didn’t finish my animation, especially over the last few days - wondering about what could’ve been and what I didn’t quite achieve - but I’ve also come to an understanding that, with or without certain external factors impacting me (once again more health-related than anything else), I still managed to walk out of this having achieved at least a good portion of what I had originally set out to do before the deadline.
Naturally, my goals have changed with the progression of the three projects. Having been confident all the way up until the end of Minor that I would have at least three quarters of my film completed, this clearly never ended up being the case, but I’m proud of what I managed to get done as it aligns with the alternative agreed-upon outcome that I proposed.
In terms of animation, I’m pretty happy with what I managed to get done, even if I would’ve liked to have spent more time on perfecting the bits I finished. I think my animation skills have improved slightly since the last time that I animated in a 3D space properly (which would be the Collaboration project). Weirdly enough, I found myself struggling more with animating objects, such as the ball bouncing off of the wall or the paper airplane… though characters weren’t nearly as difficult for me to get a hold on. This is the reverse to what I expected, as I found the character rigs pretty daunting before I started posing them for their renders. I would have liked to have been able to include the colour and saturation changes in the shots I animated as well, but I feel that configuring lighting setups would’ve taken too much time away from what little I had left to animate with.
As for my characters themselves, I severely underestimated how exciting it would be when they finally came to life after I added their facial rigs in; it surprised me how unique they actually ended up looking despite sharing the same base model, and that my designs did successfully translate from 2D to 3D even though I had major doubts throughout the entire process. I’d even say that I’ve grown somewhat attached to these characters (which is something I wouldn’t have ever thought possible, considering how indifferent I was towards them and how jaded I was towards the entire project for a majority of its run). The rim lighting effects definitely added to the quality of the models, too, and I’m glad I had time to apply it to everyone. If I were to come back and improve the facial rigs specifically, I’d probably give all of the cast a larger variety of facial expressions as I was forced to cut down a lot due to time constraints. While the expressions that they do have were sufficient for the film, it would’ve been nice for all of the characters to exhibit a wider set of expressions.
I would’ve liked to have spent more time on the 3D rigs to perfect elements like buttons, dresses, hair, and ears, and at a push, I might’ve even have liked to give my animal characters mobile tails. A more detailed rig would also have been nice to have had, with things such as extra shin and forearm joints and a different spine perhaps making things look a bit nicer. However, what I ended up with works well enough and gets the job done to a decent enough level that I’m not particularly bothered by this. I wouldn’t be averse to taking these characters forward into the future with me, though, and trying to work with them in other ways or expanding on what I’ve already done but in my own time.
I am relieved that I didn’t run into nearly as many problems with the rigging and skinning processes as I’d initially anticipated (and even found myself putting it off at first, what with the problems I had with Jetpack Jones that contributed to me feeling very anxious and too intimidated to get a move on with it sometimes). If anything, I’ve come to realise that the thing I enjoyed least about these projects was actually modelling the characters, even though I walked into this thinking I was going to absolutely hate the rigging and skinning processes… and even then, I didn’t dislike modelling them at all.
Something else that I feel was successful during Major’s run was my environments and props. I’m very happy with how they turned out; everything looked the way I planned it to in the concept art (though, of course, I revised some design choices where I felt they could be improved in a 3D space). If I could revisit these, I’d probably make the environments a bit more detailed by designing and adding more decorations and making changes to the room layouts. This is because I think they’re a little bit bland, and I liked the extra shape I put into the hallway environment, with dips and protrusions in what would’ve otherwise been straight walls. I’m happy with them, though, and the process of creating them was very enjoyable. Finding solutions when converting a set of concepts from a 2D to a 3D space proved to be both fun and challenging, and I enjoy modelling sets and objects a great deal more than characters.
My capabilities in Autodesk Maya have improved too, as well as with other software like Adobe Photoshop and the like. Of course, I have to continue to work at refining and expanding these skills in the future (I still have a very long way to go!), but I’m happy with what I’ve learned. If I could have a conversation with myself in first year, I probably wouldn’t believe that I’d been able to do what I have, as Maya was something that had always been incredibly daunting to me. I can confidently say that I’m at the very least comfortable with the software now.
Unfortunately, I am disappointed in myself for shutting myself away even more than usual in regard to interacting with the course itself during the Major project. I think this might have been due to a combination of me becoming further accustomed to working at home, and also because I spent a lot of my time (on a near-daily basis, even) with a small group of peers where we could exchange and share opinions and advice for our work amongst ourselves. This did help to ground me and build confidence in my work as well as helping to push me to strive to improve, especially when it couldn’t be done in a face-to-face environment. Outside of this, I found myself becoming increasingly avoidant as reaching out became difficult and anxiety-inducing for no particular reason that I can pinpoint. I think myself fortunate that I never found myself with any major problems.
On a personal note, I do think that I’ve handled this project the best possible way that I could have in terms of looking after myself and learning when to put things down… which was something I’d never done before during my time in this course. Where I once would’ve been constantly over-stressed and pulling all-nighters, I managed to slow down this time around. I’ve learned that rushing for the sake of getting it done at the expense of both my health and the quality of the project isn’t something that I wanted to be - or should have been - doing. Planning ahead, managing my time better, and looking after myself, I believe, have contributed to a better quality of work than I might have otherwise put out. For example, I actually like my ‘making of’ document this time around where I was embarrassed about all of the other ones I’d made for other projects including the previous two.
Though the Major project has had its fair amount of ridiculously stressful moments and there were times when I felt like I was fighting a losing battle, I still believe that I tried my best despite everything. Not only has my outlook changed towards my work and what I’m capable of, I’ve been able to make peace with the outcome rather than putting myself and my work down as I might’ve done a while back. Ultimately, where I once felt cynical - and at some points, even ashamed - of this project, the world I’d created, and the characters within it, I now feel proud of them.
