Tarri's Wild 2014 Ride
on the
Academia Train
December (2013)
3rd Year Personal Project
In anticipation of the 3rd Year Personal Project for the following year, I began keeping a visual diary, compiling ideas for my future animation.
On December 10th, I began by listing what works I had already achieved:
Cascade and the Storm King (Year 1 2D Animation)
Tarri the Sky Dragon Pup (Year 2 3D Animation)
Dreamspace / Splash - Volume 1 (Year 2 Graphic Novel)
I also made a list of characters I had initially wanted to model during the summer:
Splash (from Dreamspace / Splash)
Tarri (a fox/fairy creature I had in mind)
Autumn (an Earth Sprite, from the Dreamspace story universe)
Zephyr (a Wind Sprite, also from the Dreamspace story universe)
I also had other potential ideas which I jotted down:
Deer (stag) - Forest
Fennec Fox - Forest, Unknown/Supernatural
Something with steampunk, airships
Sail ships, dragons, pirates
Meteors/Apocalypse
Ice/Snow planet (Earth)
I immediately began my sketches - I attempted a deer-like creature, which was not part of my Dreamspace story universe.
I then sketch Splash, followed by Autumn, and then Zephyr, which are all part of the same story universe.
On December 12th, I made my first sketch of the Fox/Fairy, which I also designed for the Dreamspace universe, and began to settle on this character as my protagonist for my 3rd Year Project.
On the 15th, I made a few light and quick sketches for an antagonist - since I had designated my fox character as a fairy, I decided the antagonist should be designated with death.
February
Advanced Animation
The first week of the year brought us straight into Advanced Animation, at least, the day after O-Week started, where free food was the main priority (and rightly so - the limits of a student's hunger knows no bounds). We started off with getting straight into learning about Cloth Simulations, creating basic polygon shapes and turning them into cloths with different presets.
The second week brought everyone's childhood past-time of kicking a ball through your mother's bed sheet, which was hanging on the line to dry. This meant attaching one edge of the sheet to the pole, so that it would not fall, and creating sections of the sheet to tear as the ball passed through - if not for the tearing segments on the geometry of the sheet, the ball would not rip the sheet, the sheet would react instead with the momentum of the ball, letting the ball past before continuing it's response to gravity.
Gaming Cinematic Project
We began discussions for our Game Cinematic, and we had to come up with our own ideas. Some ideas included post-nuclear worlds with a protagonist that could use abilities such as telekinesis, teleportation, and telepathy. It had mutants, and was Avatar: The Last Air Bender-esc.
Another idea talked about utilising the five elements (earth, fire, water, air, and ether), with four nations, good vs evil, combining elements, prophecies and sub-elements... so basically, Avatar: The Last Air Bender.
Another talked of mushroom forests with dinosaurs, giant insects, mammals, and... fish? And Laura also suggested somewhere in the discussion that you should be able to eat babies for power-ups.
My idea centred on a young tribal girl, in which her village was attacked, and the spirits of the people were were stolen by an antagonistic entity, in order to gain greater power. This results in the victims being turned to stone without their spirits in their bodies.
The girl, teenage to young adult, only had half her spirit removed, however, without her full spirit, she would not survive long. In order to free the spirits, she herself needs to borrow spirits from various creatures to prevent herself from turning to stone. When extracted, these creatures turn to stone, however she only holds onto these spirits temporarily. Once finished, they return to their original bodies. While using the various spirits of these creatures, she gains special abilities and traits attributed to the spirit in question, and in other cases, she can literally fully transform into the creature.
3rd Year Personal Project
In the visual diary I had began keeping for this project, I drew up a few more concepts. From trying to come up with a decent antagonist (which I felt went no where), to the inclusion of a fairy-bird, as well as a fairy-deer, which would be part of the same world as the fairy-fox's world.
I also created a digital painting of the fairy-fox in Photoshop.
March
Advanced Animation
Initiating the process of virtual slave labour, we kidnapped an unlucky chap (which is hereby referred to as a model, as is the term we have been taught to use) to use for our cloth experiments. This lucky fellow, who goes by the name Theseus, was given a cape, first connected to his shoulders and let drop with gravity to see how it would react with his body, and then by making him using an invisable monster (at least, that's what I told him).
After these, we began work on clothing the poor guy (because he was naked, and winter is coming - we can't have him... stark naked (oh yes, I went there).
The Cloth Report in this regard was ditched for a long time due to a sudden phone call, where I had to drop everything and rush back home, where soon after there was a family death.
Gaming Cinematic
We began creating biographies for ourselves in order to be put on the Physical Realm website. Oh yeah, we're called Physical Realm, which I personally am not too fond of, name-wise. I agree with Laura that it sounds like we are a gym.
Dammit, people! Animators don't know the meaning of the word "exercise!" I supported, and will always support, Sky Manatee. Now that is a name you can be proud of, blubber and all. Sea-cowabunga, dudes!!
Anyhoo, my initial biography, which was to list our name, who we were, and where we would be in five years time, read as follows:
Name: Tarri GJ Marinkovich
Who: Student at SIT, studying the Bachelor of Digital Media.
5 Years: Grazing in a meadow of flowers.
Sadly, after sending my bio in, it was returned to me, and I had to change the last statement to something else. Apparently, delicious flowers were not on the menu in my near future.
We continued to discuss the ideas, and we narrowed the ideas down. I liked Laura's idea: it was then discussed further, into a scenario of a small, sleepy town, surrounded by natural barriers on all sides - mountains, lake, forest, etc. In this game, you play as the protagonist, and strange things are happening; a demon-esc entity, which had been long since sealed away by layers of stone, wood, and bone. The town itself had "destroyed" the wood seal by exploiting the forest for timber, and with the seal broken, things start to deteriorate. It is later that the remaining seals would be destroyed, and as an additional bonus, an earthquake strikes, cutting the town off from the outside world, in both communications and any hope of escape (or chance of help reaching you from the outside).
You would be able to use your phone at first, however as the game progresses, there is increase static. Talking to some of the people would reveal that they are slowly being affected by something, although at this point you are unaware it is the effect of a demon. The situation becomes more and more dangerous as the game progresses.
I also created a quick digital painting of the town, perceived from the only road out of town.
3rd Year Personal Project
I drew up another character of mine, a kiwi, in my visual diary. And while he is not part of my Dreamspace universe, he is a central character in another story of mine. I also made a very light and incomplete sketch of the antagonist, a haast eagle.
I also created two new digital paintings, one of the fairy-bird, and one of the fairy-deer.
For the fairy-bird, I used a fantail as a reference, and as a result, I began referring to the bird as a "fairytail" (combination of fairy + fantail).
The fairy-deer required me to look up photos of stags, so that I might get the proportions and overall shape correct.
I also came up with some antagonist ideas, the most popular with me being a creepy humanoid undead creature, similar to the redead in the game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
They scare the hell outta me.
I also came up with a basic idea for a plot - and while there is no physical storyboard or thumbnail, it has remained prominent in my mind.
April
Advanced Animation
I rejoined Advanced Animation halfway through learning to use the functions of hair simulation, so I did miss a couple of the basic tricks, which I need to look up at some point - I heard that grass could also be simulated, and if that is true, it could be very useful for my personal project.
For now, I had to worry about catching up on my Cloth Report, and finishing my Hair Report on time. I seemed to catch on quite quickly to the hair simulations, however given the recent events, things seemed to chug along a bit more difficultly.
Game Cinematic
I had missed a significant portion of the project given events, so putting that aside, I began by helping source materials for production of props and sets. Laura and I were teamed up, and we sourced a whole heap of polystyrene, some metal (such as drums, and various metal parts), and even a few bits of alloy, as well as other various bits and bobs.
Over the Easter Weekend, I also contributed by cutting and smoothing bits of bone into finger-shaped pieces, to be used as the handle of a weapon. I have to say, it came out quite well, especially since it was the first time I ever worked with bone before. I have some photos somewhere, however not on me at this time. I will have to remember to see if I can find them.
3rd Year Personal Project
I sketched out one part of the scene I had in my head, where the fairy-deer lowers his head to sniff the fairy-fox's nose, who in turn sneezes. I also drew another sketch of the fairy-fox.
May
Advanced Animation
I continued working on my Hair Report first, given that it was the one with a still valid due date for myself, and that I would continue with the Cloth Report later. At this point, I can only work on one assessment at a time, since given my current frame of mind, spreading any kind of focus over multiple assignments will result in no real progress.
I managed to get my Hair Report complete on time, and handed in.
Yes, I gave my sky dragon pup hair.
The only issue with this version is that, unlike the previous test-render, the hair seems to buzz throughout the animation. This happened after I made the dragon's geometry a passive collider, so that his wings might interact with the hair, rather than pass straight through.
After I had the Hair Report handed in, I went straight into completing my Cloth Report. Using the file I had already begun with before I had to rush back north, I attempted to get the clothing working right with the Theseus model, however I had a lot of trouble with it.
I then decided to start over, and create some new clothing, which I felt looked quite smashing. I also had a lot of trouble with this simulation as well, which I felt was quite disheartening, given the successful progress I had made with my Hair Report - it mistakenly gave me the impression that the Cloth Report would play ball just as similarly... but no, the Maya simulations were a pain in the ASCII. I worked meticulously on the report, trying to get it right, with many problems. In the end, I had to give up on trying to perfect it, as it took far too long to get done, and I had many other assignments to catch up with.
So I fixed what I could, then finished the report.
I have to admit, my feelings towards the frustration in the amount of time it took me was taken out on the model, as illustrated in the final render.
Game Cinematic
Bones, bones, and more bones. I suppose that became the focal point of our production on our end, we began pumping out various bones, which we created in Maya, and using Mudbox to texture and colour them... it was rather fun, once I knew how to successfully do it in Mudbox, and then successfully pick the right settings in Maya.
I created a set of three leg bones - the one thigh bone (the femur) and two adjoining leg bones.
I also created a bird skull, which I have to admit has to be my best one, I just find it pretty damn awesome myself, and it is a testament to my continuing progress and abilities.
I feel so modest.
3rd Year Personal Project
I cannot say there is much, if not any, news to add at this time on my personal project.
