Sarah Higgs 3D Artist

Walk Cycle

2008-06-13T08:15:00.004-07:00

Walk Cylce

2008-06-13T08:15:00.003-07:00

Walk Cylce

2008-06-13T08:15:00.001-07:00

Photo

2008-06-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

This is a the photo I did in Photoshop for the end scene where the camera zooms out from ginette photo frame at the end

Animation

2008-06-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

Due to having two talented Animator's in my group It was hard to get any scenes of the film to animate.

However I did manage to get one scene given to me. I admit I found animation hard as I hadn't practised in a while.
I had problems animating Ginette from her chair as her legs and arms where extremerly short. I couldn't get her to come down from the chair naturally so I asked Dan Dalli advise which really helped with the final film.

I am pleased with the way it turned out

final playblast

animation test

Lighting

2008-06-13T05:44:00.001-07:00

Scene 7

Scene 7

Scene 7

Scene 7

Scene 7

Scene 6

Scene 6

Scene 6

Scene 6

Scene 6

When we where rendering I found out that Aminata had just copied and pasted the same lighting in every scene of the film which made some of the scene look really bad.

So I had to relight some of the scenes that where particlarlly bad. With Aminata telling me what she wanted.
I was really pleased as lighting is something that I really didn't know about till now and I was really pleased with the outcome. I think I achieved that pastel effect that the whole group wanted.

Props dam laptop!!!!

2008-05-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

Due to my Laptop completely wiping out every file I had put on there I lost the props that I had been wroking on the last couple of days!!!

Everything else on this project is backed up on my external harddrive its just the last week I have forgotten to back up

so here are some of the props I have been doing. Some are different than before as I couldn't find the texture I used so I just changed it.

I am almost finshed as you can see I only have a few more props left I will be finished by tomorrow!!!! its annoying that I lost a couple of days but hey can't help the laptop going crazy and hey Im a poor student and can't afford a new one!!!!

prop texturing

2008-05-03T18:26:00.001-07:00

Here is the original texture affect I created in Adobe Photoshop

Here are some texture effects I did for our environment which didn't end up being used I wanted to experiment with photoshop to get that pastel look to our bulidings.

I painte most of it but I also but a few filter effects sush as clouds to give the added effect.

As you can see Im not quite finished here because I can't seem to remember how to get rid of the white on the bell I been having a blonde moment tonight and just can't seem to remember how you do it however I know I'll have a lightbulb moment soon!!!!

here are some of the props I have done. I have done two more a wardrode and an umbrella but for some reason I cannot assign the texture to them which is really confusing however I'll speak to Aminata tomorrow and ask her. But the textures are ready!!!

Boulargerie improvements

2008-05-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Final rendered shots

Aminata's rig

2008-05-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

After I gave my rig to Aminata she made a few changes to make the rig a bit more simple which was disapointing for me as I really felt that my rig was working well however Aminata does have more experience than me so I decided to trust her judgement

although most of my rig was kept it was just the skirt bones she removed and someother small adjustments

She gave the rig back to me and asked me to redo the foot role as she deleted by accident she also asked me to do the set driven keys for the hands.
as I was redoing the footrole I don't know what she had done but I had a problem with the left foot going funny everything I moved it I didn't have this problem before!!!

as you can see I managed to overcome the problem!!! :0)

RIGGING AND WEIGHTING FUN FUN FUN NOT!!!!!!

2008-05-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the progress of my rigging

Here is the front view of my first attempt of rigging to be honest everything so far seems fine and for my first time rigging to be honest I acturally quite please with myself

side view

orginal foot role worked really well

Aminata gave me a fantastic tutorial that I had been following I feel I have learnt a lot from it and although I need to practise I feel this is a good start as far as rigging goes

However WEIGHTING!!!! I hate to be honest I have been having such a problem with it I find im really slow at understanding the whole process so I did my best then seeked Aminatas help and she re weighted everything as we really didn't have time for me to be slow so I had no problems handing it over I will go back at some point in my own time and practise more and if I'm lucky I'll get Aminata to sit down with me again to show me but it will be after the project in my own time and we can't afford to waste any more time

Personal Timetable

2008-03-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

Boulangerie

2008-03-06T15:45:00.001-08:00

These are pictures of the boulargerie that Marcel will be walking out of in the beginning I started modelling at the beginning of term but this week I have remodelled the whole thing because I have learnt so many new things this term about modelling. One of these things is keeping my mesh clean and making sure I rename everything. Using the outliner keeping that clean. Also I now remember to delete history and freeze transformations lol!!!!!

Blend Shapes

2008-03-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Ginette Milimelo

2008-02-16T06:59:00.001-08:00

Final render's

chris final

2008-02-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

update

2008-02-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

Right I have been really busy cleaning up my models this last cuple of weeks. I have also been making changes for Aminata. The husbands mesh was far too messy so I had to remodel the torso legs and arms. Aminata wanted me to add a skin texture she had so I changed that but I also had to give the jumper an extra texture so I changed that. The eyes needed a little more shape so I spent time reworking that. I also had to seperate the hat to the body.

Ginette's mesh was a little messy but I managed to clean it up without remodeling anything. Aminata asked me to reshape the legs to adjust the hair so it wan't semetrical on both sides and to smooth it out a bit. I also had to separate the scarf from the body.

Husband Progress

2008-02-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

more Ginette progess

2008-01-18T05:25:00.001-08:00

heres a better picture

Ginette progress

2008-01-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

as you can see it is coming along however from Aminata's feedback I still need to work on the hands a bit (I need to make them chubber) and I also need to work on the legs and slippers after I can texture whahoo!!!

p.s The scarf is seperate now

Week 2 overview

2008-01-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

This week I came in on Tues day to get some useful advice from Jared for my Dissertation. This helped alot. On Wednesday I came in to see Mike and my group. Well we did not get to see Mike however we used the time by discussing the cameras shots for our film. I suggested to Aminata that the silent movie scenes require more research. Silent Movie's don't have alot of camera movements and the character in them appear to be moving a bit ridged this is because it is jumping frames. I asked Aminata weather the animation in our films are going to be the same? I said we also need to research what kind of camera shots are used in a silent movie before we decided on ours. Aminata is going to bring in on Tuesday a charlie Chaplin movie and I am going to try to get a few others to help us with this.

I also showed Aminata and the rest of my group my modelling she seemed very happy with them. However she gave me some feedback on how to improve. This was very useful feedback.

This weekend I am going to focus on my dissertation overwise I'll start to fall behind.

week one overview

2008-01-18T04:58:00.000-08:00

Ok I admit I didn't get as much as I would like to have got done over christmas I think this is due to decating time on my dissertation research which managed really well.

However I did finish modelling and texturing chrisopher. By the end on the christmas holidays I managed to have ginette almost done whaoooo!!!!!

It's been a nice break but it's time to start pulling my hair out again heee hee!!!! :0(

This week I have started modelling the boulargerie which was a bit silly as I haven't finished Ginette yet and started organising myself and the group.

Its my role as producer to set up a timetable for the group so I have done that this week. I have also been writing my my own personal schedule which seems a bit basic but over the next few weeks envoles lots of modelling and texturing.

personal Timetable

2008-01-13T02:13:00.000-08:00

Blougerie progess

2008-01-08T18:20:00.000-08:00

ok not much yet but I'll promise it will look fabulous when it's finished!!!! :0)

Balcony pretty much done!!!

First Day Back

2008-01-08T18:05:00.001-08:00

Ok I admit I didn't get as much as I wanted done at christmas due to severe chocolate eating time etc. However I do feel I have produce enough work to put me ahead of schedule.

Tonight I have started writing my disertation 500 words done whahoo!!!! only 7500 to go doh!!!! However I have done a little bit of modelling of the house tonight and Im thinking I might try and finish that tomorrow then go back to the Grandma and I want to aim to finish Ginette by Saturday busy busy busy!!! wish me luck!!!!

Sarah x

The New Timetable

2008-01-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys!!!

New Term! New Timetable! ok let me explain it so every one understands

Yellow/ stands for date, days
Orange/ is time we have lectures
Green/ is the time we spend together as a group working
Blue/ is the group discussion time this time will be used to communicate with each other any personal problems we have that will affect our work. also includes problems with each other.
Pink/ holiday break Prague
light green/ time off for dissertation and time to get on with it!!!!!

Ok hopefully that explains everything!

Ok also same rules apply which are as follows.

- If you are not going to turn up to group meeting you have to let Aminata or I know ASAP No Excuses!!!
- If you are late you have to let Me or Aminata know ASAP No Excuses!!!
- Bring your ideas and input for Aminata and the rest of the Group to see!! (even if it is only a little bit!! Aminata especially needs to make sure everything is on track just in case she has to change the work schedule or something!)

These Group Meetings are to benefit everyone! they are a chance for everyone to share there ideas and to ensure there is no communication breakdowns. Please Note I will again be doing a group attendance record and this will be going on the blog if you fail to turn up without an explanation I'll just mark you absent and that will look bad when Mike reads it be warned!!

Ok that is all let me know if there are any problems or anything with the timetable! Sorry that it sounds harsh but I want to be clear to everyone from the beginning!!

see you when we get back!!

Sarah xx

The Grandma my progress

2008-01-08T17:57:00.001-08:00

The husband my progress

2007-12-18T08:59:00.000-08:00

inspartion

2007-11-30T05:36:00.001-08:00

Click To Play

Young Ginette designs

2007-11-27T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is my favourite pattern design

I decided to try the dress with a pattern

this is my faviourite

The last colour designs I did were too bright. They wouldn't have bright colours clothing in the 1940's so I decided to do them again but in darker duller colours

Colour Houses

2007-11-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

my Favourite
I think the red works really well

block out problems

2007-11-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

The amimating of the block out is taking longer than expected as the rig's for the dog have been causing problems. I have also been having problems with my laptop tonight fortunatly the work I have done is saved and backed up. I'm borrowing a friends laptop tomorrow to finish it as mine keeps cutting out, the animation will not run smoothly etc.
Until then I won't be wasting time I'll be getting on with my drawings.

Group discussions

2007-11-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

There was a meeting today as there was concern of a communication breakdown.
To improve things next term I (sarah) will arrange a group meeting an hour a week to discuss not work but each other.
This will be a chance to get everything we really feel out on the table that we feel might be affecting the work progress. As an example:

-time keeping
-Quality of work
-Meeting Deadlines

This gives Aminata (our director) a chance to give us her weekly feedback and and vice versa. This will give us a chance to also improve teamwork and avoid a communication breakdown.

Week Six Overview

2007-11-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

This last week or so my main focus has been my essay's that unfortunatly has been soaking up some valueable time or project work. I have now finished my character design for the dog and a young Ginette which took longer than expected as it had to be reworked a few times. I have also been cleaning up my mood boards and I am happy with the outcome I used the incredibles as reference but decided I wanted to do the mood boards in my own style. I have also been modelling the blockout for the group which I have now finished modelling. However I need to animate the blockout, experimenting with different camera angles. Using our final animaticc as reference this I hope to get done by Monday night. Having the blockout done before christmas will allow us to focus on modeling our character's and evoirments over christmas. I am so pleased with our final animatic and I am even more excited to be working on this project.
I have been working really hard on this project hardly sleeping this week while juggleing my essay's and project work together. But I feel I have pulled it off and I know it will be all worth it in the end.
Although I think there has been a little bit of a communication breakdown in my group this due to the stress I think. I do feel that most of the group work really well together which will show in the finishing result

The development of the Block out

2007-11-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

a young ginette rough model and rigged for the blockout

the husband rough model and rigged for the blockout

after I modelled the block aminata wanted to add a little colour just to make Ginette's buliding stand out

these were my original models

Girl Designs

2007-11-25T11:22:00.000-08:00

Different hair colours

different dress and shawl colours

different dress and shawl colours

This is the design I really like however I have now found out that Aminata wants a scarf instead so I will be reworking it

wedding veil design

character poses

character poses

model sheet

different hair styles

rough sketches

research wedding veils for young ginette

2007-11-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is my research for a young ginette as she is wearing a wedding veil in the flashback

shawls research for young Ginette

2007-11-24T13:48:00.001-08:00

Aminata wanted young ginette to have a shawls just like the old ginette to help the audience identify her as ginette

The New and Improved Mood Boards

2007-11-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

I decided I wanted to re touch on my mood boards I think this has made a big difference and I am really happy with them

Concept a young Ginette

2007-11-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

Final design of a young Ginette

colour tests of a young Ginette

Colour moods research

2007-11-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

here are some examples of some colour I found in a book I brought (the making of superman returns)

Colour Moods

2007-11-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

Here I have done some colour moods this will give me and my group and idea about the sort of colours we will be using for the film

Group timetable

2007-11-17T15:55:00.000-08:00

Link to beauty of life

2007-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

link to movie The beauty of life

Week 5 Overview

2007-11-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

This week I haven't done as much as I hope as I have been focusing on my essay's but Aminata, Yemi, and I came in today. We showed Mike Hirsh our animatic he gave us alot of useful advice in improving it. We and now debating on whether we neet the bakery scene. We also need more inbetween's for our animatic to help explain things more. Aminata and I have decided that she will carry on with the story boards once it is finished I will do the colour for the storyboards. This will help us with light and hopefully we will understand what colour tones we want for our film more.

Aminata has also made me producer so as off now I will be keeping a record of people who have been absent. I have also written out A new timetable for our group. This show's the times and dates for the group meetings till the end of this term. I have also written and email to each group member describeing a few new rules I have put in place.

1. All must attend to group meetings
2. If you cannot attend you must let your group know as soon as possible
3. you must send an e-mail describeing your reason for not attending this will be put on the group blog for teacher's to see

My Storyboards

2007-11-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Here are my own story boards they never got used because Aminata decided to keep the story board in one style

Here is my story board research it's from a book I brought the making of Superman returns I thought they were good refrence for our storyboards

Week four overview

2007-11-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

This week Aminata and I worked on the music for our film. We started adding music to our animatic that Aminata had found a few weeks ago. It sounds good but we still have to add some sound affects. Aminata has approach a sound student within Ravensbourne hopefully she will be able to get this student involved with helping us develop the sound effects in our animatic

We also showed Jared our animatic. Overall the feedback we got was excellent however he did suggest we clean up the animatic by adding more frames and redoing some or the background so Aminata and I have been cleaning up the storyboards this week.

In my own time I have been charcter designing. I have come up with a final dog design however I am waiting on feedback from my group. In the mean time I shall move on to designing the final charcter of a young Genette.

Final design

2007-11-07T14:08:00.000-08:00

This was me favourite design

Colour test

2007-11-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

I decided to try out different tones

Small eyes Large eyes test

2007-11-07T13:58:00.000-08:00

When I was colouring my design in Photoshop I decided I didn't like the eyes
so I decided to try them out smaller which I perfere.

here are some fur textures I collected

final dog design

2007-11-07T13:56:00.000-08:00

dog sketches

2007-11-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

character poses

character expressions

character expressions

character expressions

Dog facial research

2007-11-06T05:10:00.001-08:00

Rough Sketchs I do not like

2007-11-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

A young Genette Wedding

a young Genette

a young Genette

The husband

The dog (Micheal)

A young Genette (Boulanderie)

2nd November

2007-11-02T06:56:00.000-07:00

Today I came in at 10 and stayed till four. Aminata and I went throught the music for the flim matching it up with the animatic. I am really pleased with the outcome once we add the sound affects I think it will be really good. I enjoy working with Aminata she is a strong Director and I think we work well together.

Concept

2007-11-02T06:47:00.001-07:00

The boulangerie (rough sketch)

Genette's street (rough sketch)

Water colour Paris

Week Three overview

2007-10-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

This week Our group has got a lot more than expected done which is good. We together finished the storyboards by meeting up everyday and reworking the story. Then Me and Aminata stayed till late on Friday to finish the first draft of the animatic. From this we were able to see that the flim was too long (2min 30's) and had to cut out scenes such as the resistance scene. We felt that it just didn't quite fit and the story could easily be told without it. We also felt that some scenes were too rushed such as the wedding scene we want to make this scene longer when she is dancing in the street. I have been working on Photoshop this week in my own time developing a style for when we model and texture the street I was extremerly pleased with the outcome as were my group. We haven't yet decided wether we want the watercolour filter effect on or not. I have also been collecting research for charcter design. I have looked at different breeds of Dogs and started roughly sketching the character. We decided that Genettes dog is going to be a bassett hound we felt that the dog had to reflect her charcter which a bassett hound does. I then started looking in 1950's women and started sketching a young Genette I really like the design however I would like to experiement with hairstyles more.
Next week we are going to add music to our animatic. We all want to work on our character desgins . We have decided to use Aminatas design for the corridan and Genette. We have also decided to use my design of the dog. However the young Genette and husband has not been decided. I am going to colour my dog on Photoshop and have a model sheet finished by next week I am also going to do a few more waterclour painting's of Paris. I will also start sketching more for a young Genette and the husband. Hopefully I shall have a few model and expression sheets next week so I can start modelling these charcter's.

Rough charcter sketches

2007-10-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

A young Genette

Rough sketches for genettes dog (micheal)

Research pictures

2007-10-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

Research pictures for a young Genette and husband

Research pictures for the dog

Photoshop concept

2007-10-23T01:56:00.000-07:00

Ginette's house

I used the same drawing and ran filter affect on it (watercolour)I did this because we have already decided we want our film in a watercolour style. However I think I prefere the other one

Ginettes house

I used Yemi's drawing and coloured it in on photoshop I really like this and think it will work great with the rest of the film

week two overview

2007-10-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

This week I have been getting on my concept I have done two watercolour concepts which I am pleased with, However I want to experiment with watercolour more to get the best possible style for our film. I did a few more sketches this week but I don't think I will use them I feel I can do better as I don't think the drawings I have done so far are strong enough.
The week has gone well we have reworked the story to make it better and started thunbnailing our story. However I do feel next week we need to move things along a bit by cracking on with the storyboards so we don't fall behind.

Watercolor concept

2007-10-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

The Granma window

first shot of france

My sketches

2007-10-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

Ginette

Ginette

cordian man

Tilly the Cat

a young Ginette

Ginette

Ginette's flat

Inspiration

2007-10-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hector Guimard

Hector Guimard

Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido)

Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido)

Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido)

Dave Mckean

Dave Mckean

David Mack

David Mack

Week One overview

2007-10-15T04:09:00.000-07:00

We met up this week first thing Monday 8th Morning to discuss the story:Ginette's Milimelo. All group members were present(Tim, Yemi, Aminata and me). The story as it stood had great ideas and potential but didn't resolve itself properly, the ending needed work. We discussed the story, broke it down and together restructured it. I really liked the idea of the women coming out of the picture, I thought it had potential to be visually fantastic. Unfortunately as soon as we established the beginning middle and end we realised that the story was too long for 2 min. we ended upcut out unnecessary work, such as the pigeon and the girl coming out of the picture. I was disappointed but understood that it was necessary.
Once we established the story, I collected research (pictures) from the Internet and looked into inspiring artists such as David Mack (a comic book artist), Dave Mckean, Hector Guimard etc. I also brought in books such as Blacksad Artwork,The making of Superman Returns and David Macks Kubiui Dreams.
I used this research and discussed different styles for the film.
In the third meeting Aminata brought in a couple of french abulms. We listened to them all and chose four Paris Musette track.
After the meetings I went away and brought some watercolour's I could experiement with, I also did a few sketches ready for next week .