T Pose

My model is complete, and the unfold from the t-pose looks straight forward so far. The tougher part for me now will be learning how to rig and animate my character (how grateful I am for online tutorials). I'm concerned about the type of movement I will get but I plan on continuing with 3D lessons in school, so as I (hopefully!) progress in that, I can continue this project along with it.

Here she is:



and her unfold:



I've been thinking about what sort of purpose I have for this project, besides keeping myself occupied... I've wanted to do a puppet animation for some time but I've never felt the patience for dealing with the actual puppet and twisting it to the actions I want it to perform. There are the problems with gravity, and creating that illusion of movement when everything seems to be fighting it back... I want a puppet that I am not contorting, but is custom designed for the moment it is capturing. This is probably already possible, however, my reality is that I am using shareware and have spent 15 dollars so far on cardstock. My budget is pretty limited.

The technical aspect of it is fascinating to me. There are 3D movies I love, but most often with 3D special effects or features I know I am going to be harshly critical of it- it doesn't mesh with the film, it's too smooth, it looks cheap, etc. I think it is the interpolation in the movement that really gets me. I haven't seen a lot of 3D that uses snappy timing, everything is very calculated.... they list along their paths. There is a lot of seemingly erratic factors in real movement, caused by things not noticeable to the naked eye, for example, a table may appear smooth and varnished on first glance, but there is no doubt to be the most minute dips and curves on its surface, and these do have effects. They are tiny but they are there. I don't think these things can be seriously calculated into the animation process, but they can certainly be emulated. With drawn animation I think it is emulated already, naturally, just by the tiny differences that vary from drawing to drawing.

What I am hoping to gain from this project is to be able to utilize that precision and detail from 3D modelling, but to bring it back into an 'imperfect' 2D animation environment. It looks so good in my head right now, I just hope it doesn't stay there.

Modelling

I'm starting on my model but I'm afraid it might already be a bit complex for making a few papercraft models so testing time:

The model:


The unfold:


Yeah. Already too complicated. Unless I want to spend the rest of my life making paper models.

The Pepakura Project

The last thing I expected with finishing my first semester this year in school was a frustration that arrived without the ominous loom of a project being due. It is here though, and it feels worse than the gut wrenching agony of forbidden love, or stomach flu, both being a terrible affliction anyways. No, it feels like a cold, hollow emptiness in my girl-suit skin, so instead of lying around like a manatee (as most Christmas breaks would allow me to). I need to do something. Enter the Pepakura Project!

I've been thinking about things I have wanted to experiment with lately and I have been thinking about building a scene and animating it with stop-motion somehow. That is as far as I have gotten. I've been thinking about the FUTURE and instead of being terrified I feel like I should take some action, so I don't want to half-ass this- going to think, document and do. I found the Pepakura program (found here: http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) in an article about things every geek should know (yeah) and I have never tried papercraft but it is something I have always wanted to. What makes it appealing to me as an animation tool right now is that the program has the ability to take a 3D mesh and 'unfold' it to a papercraft template, including the textures. I'm not a huge fan of 3D animation in general and I like this idea of using it to aid a more traditional form of animation.

Today was testing out the programs to make sure they work.


I imported a Maya file of my first ever model, a very shitty spaceship. OH YEAH. Pepakura seems to be compatible with quite a few 3D programs, but not Maya files specifically, so I had to export it as a .obj file. Importing it triggers the program to simplify it further and get rid of any smooth faces. Clicking unfold created the pattern for printing and cutting. Very simple so far. Hopefully will remain so in terms of the program!

I've never felt so desperate to work like this, it really does feel terrible. I hope I keep it forever.