AGI Day 2

Day 2

After the consultation, I decided to change my topic from characters animation back to the virtual environment.

Why I changed the direction:

I am going to make a project that will help the Studio 4 research. The reason for changing the direction is that I realised my research topic is about the environment design, so making animations for the characters is off track. Since there is no point of adding character animation into the existing studio 3 animation, I will make another small environment setup with the same strategy and workflow used in the Studio 3, and perhaps in different art style. Before I tell the reasons behind it, here is the background of my research topic. The aim of the research is to provide a strategy for an individual to transfer their art style into 3D space. The reason why I am making a new setup with the same strategy again is that this practice could be the extra resource and practice for the studio 4 research. Furthermore, the reason why I’m going to try a different art style, is that the individual who wants to use my strategy might have a completely different art style from mine. Therefore, using a different art style for the new setup could prove that my strategy is doable for various situations. 
The plan is to produce concept art for the environment in the first week and then put it into a 2D and 3D hybrid setup. 

Rational of developing stylised a 2D and 3D hybrid setup:

For the most animators who might be producing animation for either games or animation film, the efficiency is one thing that they are looking for. Especially for independent practitioners, they don’t have a studio or a large group to work on the project. If an individual wants to produce a stylised animation or game, to use 3D objects to simulate 2D hand-drawn effect probably is the most efficient way. Furthermore, the trend of the audience’s desire on the visual in animation and game industry is changing. For the animation industry, it was first dominated by 2D traditional hand-drawn style, then it went for 3D and photorealism, and now there are more stylised 2D and 3D combination pieces showed up. One of the significant reasons for making a 2D and 3D hybrid, is to remain the artist’s style as well as the nostalgic of the traditional hand-drawn style, and meanwhile, avoid expensive labour at the same time. Another notion is that a unique style can help the piece to pop up from others in terms of marketing.

Method: I will use photoshop to create a concept art for a small scene and use Blender to set them up in the 3D space.

Context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJhiR3SOyXs&list=PL3qdWZJa4ASkvgaLP-F-siZQl1MF4O1Fj&index=7&t=0s

Fluffy Stylized Foliage - 3D Game Modeling Maya By 26PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QYp7c4keAU&list=PL3qdWZJa4ASkvgaLP-F-siZQl1MF4O1Fj&index=29&t=149s

2D Looking Water – Tutorial By Olof Storm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuk3gZZyNrg&list=PL3qdWZJa4ASkvgaLP-F-siZQl1MF4O1Fj&index=30&t=0s

2D&3D Combined - Animated Water By Olof Storm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2TbpDd2gEc&t=7s

2D&3D Combined - Field of Grass By Olof Storm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzOUO-ove0c&list=PL3qdWZJa4ASkvgaLP-F-siZQl1MF4O1Fj&index=36&t=0s

Modeling with a Grease Pencil (Blender 2.82 eevee) By Open Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx8m9w4YyNo&list=PL3qdWZJa4ASkvgaLP-F-siZQl1MF4O1Fj&index=31&t=1s

How to properly Billboard sprites & particles in Blender By TooEazyCG

Overall outcome:

A series of concept arts of the environment and a rough 3D models and layout will be produced for folio1.

Today’s outcome:

A moodboard for the environment design.