Animation "Alone" 2017 Summer

3D animation project about a bird's adventure story.

Role:
Modeler
Designer
Animator

Intro

Intro

Storyline
The project is based on the first-person viewpoint of a newborn bird who is walking around to find some friends. The bird will experience discrimination and rejection from a different breed of bird. Moreover, he will experience a fight and scramble from same breed. The whole store is a reflection of a human society. The 3D animation is in the birds eye view.

Storyboard

Storyboard 1

Storyboard detail ding of the story is based on a village. The story is about the birds went through a tough environment when he is not belong to any of the social group.

Environment

Character

Wireframe Model 1

Wireframe Model 2

Character is the most important part of the animation project. Based on the animation’s aesthetic style, I adjusted the model to fit the cute style. The first step is to sketch the profile of the main characters - bird A and bird B. Through the concept of the story, the bird A supposed to look adorable and cuddly. Bird B supposed to look aggressive and stronger than bird A. Thus, after some research and comparison, here is our final model.

Character A

Environmental Setting

(to be updated more) We expect the viewers to notice the psychological change of the protagonist. He was sad at the beginning, and was becoming more depressed because of loneliness. While, In the ending the flamingo chased him and comforted him. In the end, the main character is not alone anymore.

Animation Screenshot 1

Animation Screenshot 2

Value

Time management is the key for animators.

At the beginning, when I was doing model for the bird, I was using my imagination to draw the bird shape. It worked fast when I was doing the front view. While, when I was modelling the side view, the problems appears.
In order to fix the problem, I spent the time to draw the blueprint of the bird. Then using Maya to model the bird shape on top of the image plane. The model turned out to be perfect and it is exactly what I want.
I realized that it’s important to have a good sketch for an animator. What you have sketched will be what you modelled.

Also, for the animation part, rigging and skinning are extremely important for animation. Behind every simple movement of the character, it is the complicated skeleton.
After several practice,I found out that it is worthwhile to spend the time to do the skeleton and color paint weight which can save tons of time in the future.

Final Video length 2 mins