It’s been a super busy week, moving from generating some content for the weekly tasks, namely a running cycle this week, and moving forwards with my main project. In trying to ensure that I hit the deadline in 4 weeks time, my time has been bouncing around somewhat gymnastically between a myriad of elements. These are the points I’ve been dealing in, with mostly successful outcomes:
- A skip cycle, from an excellent Irish animator and his tutorial on Vimeo.
- A walk and run cycle for the other main character.
- Import tests into Unreal
- Making a landscape terrain in Unreal and understanding materials/textures, material instances and lighting.
Needless to say that some of this spans more than a week, however, many a long evening has been enjoyably dived into this week. I’ve been trying to stay focused upon short, daily wins and tasks too. It’s a tendency of mine, I think, to get too easily distracted upon a related but not immediately necessary ‘problem’ or body of knowledge. Subsequently, I feel a lot more productive and targeted in my creativity.
Here’s a test still, trying to get the hang of all these programs and new knowledge-
The most satisfying element was, and I’d hoped it would be, the importing into Unreal. Having absorbed a huge online tutorial to create a realistic landscape I was thrilled to see my characters skipping through the forest. I’m hoping that when I get through the majority of the animation at the end of this week, I’ll be able to finish the set dressing, texturing and lighting, before really polishing the animation.
