Eleanor Spence - BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester: 2019

After discussing the current position of my project, I've decided on some changes for my final animation. The original idea was to create a video showcasing Adelaide's Journal as an interactive book, instead I'm going to focus on finalising and animating my models. Rather than animate the creatures in a cell setting, I want to present them on what appears to be a page of zoological/anatomical studies (examples below). The creatures will be textured to look like drawings on the page, as though Adelaide had sketched them, then begin to move.

This will also change some of the design and layout of my "Art Of", adding "fig.1" notations to the drawings.

The mock-up below shows an approximation of how the page would look. With certain parts and features of the creature showing short, looping animations, whilst the full body version has a longer, more detailed animation.

Page Mock-Up

This minor project has been a new experience for me, especially in comparison to last year, prior to my interruption of studies, where I struggled greatly to make sense of my project and motivate myself to work on it. I'm still aware that my work is not as far along as it should be, but I can say with confidence the work I have this year is better and far closer to being complete.

Cutting down how many creatures I was planning on designing has allowed me to focus on others for longer, such as the Rolling Calf and Tikbalang, which would not be as well developed had I been working on a larger number of creatures. Taking the time to do studies also helped greatly in the design process, improving the form and believability of my designs.

I still find Maya to be a frustrating program to use, something that greatly slows down my time working with it, but I'm proud of my Wendigo model so far, and aim to feel the same for the Bukavac as it nears completion. The frustration begins to feel worth it as the models progress, and get closer to how I want them to look.

Overall, there is still a lot to work on, and I have not completed as much of the work as I planned to for this point in the project. My aim now is to stay motivated, and stick to plans I set for myself, so that my project can reach its full potential.