For my 3D animation I chose to convert the Point Break bank robbery scene into a horror!
Rather than copying the scene shot for shot, I instead used it to inspire my own story and replicated individual shots. The one element I did copy from the original was the rubber mask and suit. I played with this idea a little and decided to make this the focus of the scene. The main reason being that having a faceless/masked character would make the scene eerie and creepy, not to mention I wouldn't be required to animate any facial expressions.
(The mask from Point Break)
Once I moved onto concept development I then began to plan out what my character would actually be doing in the scene. I looked at a few different movies/games for inspiration and decided I would do something similar to the horror game “Slender”. I really liked the idea of seeing everything from the victim or ‘hunted’ perspective, the faceless character would also work really well with this idea.
After a bit of brainstorming I decided to base my character off of an old-school mobster. Armed with a Thompson Gun stored within a violin case, he was a mobster who had been reincarnated and is out seeking revenge & retribution. I named my character Salvatore, which is the Italian name for “Savior”. His mask is melted, a symbol of his fiery death with his suit torn and charred. I was really happy with my final design, even if the story didn’t fit point break I liked that I had come up with something independent to the scene I was basing it off. I also felt like my character fit the converted genre really well and was looking forward to starting the modelling process.
(My final character design)
When we did move onto using Maya, I found it a lot easier than I was expecting it to be (luckily). And thanks to a bit of help from my classmate I was even able to get ahead of the class. The only problem with this was I felt like I was wasting my time watching Keat’s tutorials. The positive was that I was able to help a lot of classmates with their projects since I had already finished modelling mine. With my new and improved knowledge of Maya, I can see all the flaws in my own model. But for a first attempt, I’m really happy with how it turned out, especially the hands!
After modelling came texturing, which I really enjoyed until I realised just how difficult UV mapping is. I’ve since gone back and made another character from scratch to practice UV mapping, but I still feel like I’m bluffing my way through the process. But I got there in the end, and I’m happy with the end result. I even experimented with bump mapping, which although it slowed down the render, made the gun look a lot better.
I found the controls (after a few attempts) weren’t all that hard to make, so once again I was ahead of the others. I also did my foot & hand controls different to everyone else. I used the node editor for both, using a tutorial for the foot control but doing the hand control entirely on my own - so I was amazed when they worked properly. Again, I helped others from the class, even going as far as fixing someone’s rig for them over the weekend.
Skinning has to be the hardest part of the rigging phase. I won’t go into much detail with skinning, but it really is the absolute worst. I was able to complete the skinning on my character eventually - once I finally figured out how the hell skinning works. I tried to help others understand skinning, but I feel like I was mostly there for moral support, consoling them as they saw a week’s worth of work crash and burn before their eyes.
Animating was a piece of cake, especially when compared to 2D. There are a few things I would’ve liked to have changed on my animation, but when it came to putting in all the effects, background & sound, as well as rendering it all out.. I just didn’t have enough time left. It had gotten to the point where with each step I would find more & more faults, and since my knowledge of Maya was ever growing I was beginning to pick on things I’d done wrong back in the modelling phase. At the end I just had to come to terms with the fact that this was my first ever 3D animation, and nobody was expecting it to be perfect.
Overall, I really enjoyed working in 3D, and I much prefer it to 2D. I have no idea which part of the semester I enjoyed the most. I really liked the character design stage & the 3D process - aside from skinning & UV mapping. I can’t say I had any specific strengths or weakness’ either, since I seemed to pick everything up really quickly. I did really enjoy doing the sound for the animation, however this wasn't even a part of the project. I’m also really glad I was able to get ahead and help everyone out, since it helped clarify the process by going over it multiple times. I was also able to see how different characters were built & where the changes had to be made which will help me with any future projects - which I’m already looking forward to.
