This week focused on feedback and having a guest speaker review our work. Mai Vu started by showing some of her pieces and explaining how she works. I really liked how she experiments with mixed media, because it gave me a clearer idea of the kind of approach I’d like to explore myself, or at least combine in future work: illustration, 3D, After Effects, and maybe even physical materials like scrap paper. We then looked more closely at one of her stop-motion works, and I loved how carefully everything had been made and how much detail each part needed. That part of the session made me think more about the value of slow, considered making, rather than trying to force ideas too quickly.
After that, we reviewed Hunter to Prey, and some of the notes I wrote down were about clarity and audience understanding: whose story it is, who the audience should relate to, and how the first shot should set things up properly. We also discussed making the underdog, the innocent guy, feel smaller through performance and movement, and thinking more about how he would walk if he were scared and then suddenly noticed the other character. Those comments were useful because they reminded me that the story has to be readable before anything else.
For my blocking and blocking plus, I’ve gone a bit crazy and feel completely lost about how to approach them. I have keyframes for the first 100 frames, with a key every 3–4 frames, as mentioned in class. From the camera view, it looks okay, but from another angle, the rig was completely broken. Looking back, I think I overanimated and put in too many keys, to the point where I was no longer sure where I had keyed and where I hadn’t. I also got stuck on the bag and the constraints because I wasn’t sure how to handle everything properly — not just the touchpoints, but also the grabbing, dragging, and changing the object’s attachment.
Here’s some screenshots of my Maya:
Because of that, I haven’t submitted this week, and I’ve asked for a tutorial the following week so I can start fresh. Even though the next assignment is supposed to be polishing and moving it into Spline, I’m still going to be in stepped mode for now.
As for the connecting of the three facials, I used the fixed version from last weeks feedback and it was promising attempt, but the head still feels a bit floaty, and the transition from the second-to-last face to the last one needs further refinement. In particular, the eye movement and head movement need to be adjusted so they follow the nose more consistently and feel more grounded.