Semester 2 Blog Post 1 - Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

We are now well on our way into semester two of our thesis!!! Woohoo!!! I'm glad we got a break, but I'm also glad we are starting to work on it again. I'll be honest I missed my teammates, and the general project itself. There's just something so nice about working your way through a large project like this, even as stressful as it is. I was in dire need of a break by the end of last semester, but luckily I managed to regain my energy over the summer!! I came back with new ideas to implement in our asset and shot list, and more concepts on how we can better improve our concepts and storyline!! We created some emotional maps together previously, and then we also worked on standardizing all of our files before moving on to continue from where we left off.

I had a lot of fun working on the new asset list and shot list. I added separate columns for each section of the creation process, so that now we aren't constantly wondering if a certain step is done and completed or not. Now we know for sure. I also added some new variables to the drop down menus so that everything is clearer and more easy to understand. There is now a distinction between "Not Started Yet" and "Currently Being Worked On". There wasn't a distinction last semester. It also looks much more organized this time too. I'm hoping that since they make more sense, everyone will keep up with it more and update things more often. I'm a little sick of constantly checking to make sure that the asset and shot lists are actually up to date. I don't like file hunting. I think I might nag them a little more about this this semester. As long as I'm not mean about it that's fine right?? We want this project to be perfect, after all. Or, not perfect, Good Enough(TM), maybe?? I want us to be proud of what we end up with at the end of the school year.

Rianne wants me to animate a test walk cycle of one of our characters before the first Production Pass. The thing I'm worried about is that she currently states that she's not done enough with it to give it to me, and we only have about three days before the first day of the Production Pass. I am not confident in my ability to get a whole walk cycle done to a decent degree by Tuesday at this point. Of course I'm still going to work on it, but it might be something that waits to be shown until next production pass. At this point I feel like I will just have a simple feet and body movement thing to show, and not an actual walk cycle. Just the barest of minimums. But I'll let Rianne know and we'll figure this out together. I am confident that her rig will be workable, at the very least, and we can troubleshoot it together!!

I'm a bit worried about the state of our models' UVs, actually. We have a large amount of assets, and each one needs to be UVed to at least some degree in order for good textures to be placed. There is of course a hierarchy of what does and doesn't need to be done, but currently some of the UVs for blend shapes of our hero characters aren't fully finished. And those characters are going to start being rigged this weekend!! I've kept in contact with everyone who is working on UVs, and luckily they all seem to understand what is needed from them in order to get it properly done, but that doesn't stop me from worrying. I'll admit I have nightmares sometimes about that story Jeremy told about that one group who's UVs were different for rigs vs textures and had to completely redo certain parts. I just really don't want that to happen to us. Luckily though, I do believe we're doing fairly well, and are on track to have a Decent (TM) film by the semester's end. And hopefully, by the end of the school year, we can have a Good Enough(TM) film!!!