My Journey on the NextGen Games, Animation & VFX Course

  Final Major Project 2022 (Evaluation) I've made this blog to specifically to evaluate and reflect on how I think the Final Major Project went.  Personally, I think it went alright. Not good, but not bad either. I've encountered a lot of errors & techincal difficulties along the way and it got me drained mentally. If it weren't for that and if I was a lot more resilient, I would've gotten a lot more done, I would've gotten the animation done, one which I wasn't able to do. On the miro board, I've set "Managing my time better" as one of my targets and I'm ashamed to say that I've failed.  There was going to be much more in this project than what I've done, for example, in my storyboard, my CG Character would come to life and make me a cup of coffee the old-fashioned way. And I would've used fluid simulations to animate him pouring the coffee into the cup. I've encountered a lot of technical difficulties along the way. One of...

  Non-Lethal Weapon  Project Our teacher has instructed us to make a non-lethal weapon. It can be anything we can think of, as long as it doesn't cause harm. I've decided to go with a gun which dispenses milkshakes.  Task 1: My Ideas & Inspiration (Concept Art, Moodboards etc.,) When beginning this project, I've had several ideas before but they didn't feel generic to me. But, I've found my idea whilst browsing through Sketchfab. I saw a post of a 3d model called "The Espresso Gun".  The user made it for a very similar project, but it was a challenge instead of an actual assignment. Never the less, I took inspiration of that model & began thinking about a potential "Hot Chocolate Gun". However, I recognised that hot drinks can cause harm because of the high temperatures, it can burn on the skin & such. So, I decided to go with a Milkshake Gun instead.  Another form of inspiration which enabled me to go forward with the "Milkshak...

  3D Animation  (Learning How to Rig a Model Pt 1) Our main teacher for this course returned after his absence from illness (wishing him the best recovery!) and he'll be teaching how to rig a model in Blender. However before doing that he set us a fun & entertaining yet slightly stressful task which was to get into partners & draw each other standing & sitting down. We also had to draw as best as we could, too. The only catch was, Our teacher timed us three times for each person drawing. The first try was 10 minutes, then the second was 5 minute, and the third try was 1 minute. However there's a reason why we had to this drawing exercise.  I'll explain later after talking about my each drawings. This was my first drawing from the "10 minute" time frame. As you can see, the proportions are somewhat questionable, I just jumped in and started drawing without giving the subject a second thought at how his proportions are etc., . Everyone else in my class d...

12 Principles of Animation First introduced by Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston, the 12 Principles of Animation are used to make it seem that animated characters were adhering to the laws of physics. The 12 Principles of Animation are used often & are still used today. Squash and Stretch Squash and Stretch is one of the most important principles of animation. Squash and stretch gives the character some elasticity & the illusion of mass, flexibility, gravity & weight. In this example (see image above) we see a ball is about to hit the ground, keep in mind that the ball is in its normal shape. When it lands, the ball kind of squashes down and bounces back up. As it bounces we see the ball reforming into shape as it bounces off the ground. That is an example of squash and stretch. Anticipation Anticipation is another principal often used in animation. It prepares the audience for what's about to happen next.  The GIF above is a perfect example of anticipation, the charact...