Part of me feels like I should have more to show for the end of the first semester but looking back on the progress I've made puts my mind at ease. It's hard to imagine but just a year ago I had absolutely no clue how to model in Maya, not even a cube. I spent the previous summer learning all the most basic information about modeling, lighting and texturing. Last semester I took my first actual class in modeling and started this semester with almost no idea how to create a functioning animation rig on the level than I needed.
Most of my energy has been spent this semester rigging. I am left with a functioning rig that needs a little more attention before it's ready for use. There are some ugly deformations occurring at some of the joints. I may add a few more controls here and there as needed but otherwise I am happy with what I've ended up with. The video above is the latest animated test of the rig and I will continue to work with it until all the kinks are worked out.
I also spent a lot of time refining my story. The alien story was the one I had been planning on working on coming into senior studio. At the beginning of the semster I almost went an entirely different route, favoring some storyboards I had created centering around a "Little Red Riding Hood" story. I was afraid Grandma VS The Alien was too long, and any cuts I made were going to ruin it. People were generally bummed I had ditched the old hag and the goofy little monster, so after some soul searching I decided to go back to Grandma VS The Alien. This meant completely reimagining the story and creating dramatically different characters. I recreated the storyboards from scratch, cut as much time wasted introducing characters as possible and boiled the interaction between the characters down to one major gag. I was never very happy with my original storyboards because that version of the tale relied heavily on dialogue for interest. This new version is much leaner, funnier for the right reasons and more manageable being half the length of the original.
Just like last summer, I will be spending this summer preparing for my return in the Fall. My goal is to be ready to animate so I can spend the majority of the semester focusing purely on the animation. That means I will have to complete both my Alien and Grandma rigs. I will have to model and texture all the characters, props and sets. I will have to create lighting and effects. Maybe most importantly to proceed with animation, I will need to record all my dialogue and sound effects.
There is a lot of work ahead but I'm not worried about anything. The most important thing is that I'm happy with my story and know my project is worth working on. If I didn't like it then all this would be a huge chore but knowing the final product will be great if everything proceeds as planned makes it more of a sense of anticipation than dread. I'm excitied to see how it all comes together.
