This last animation project was a huge challenge, but also really exciting to get a taste of 3D animation.
Using Adobe Fuse, we created humanoid characters using customizable presets. We then uploaded this character to Mixamo to find animations.
In Unreal Engine we began building our 3D environments. This was the hardest part for me, just orienting myself in the 3D modeling space was a challenge. Gaming engines are powerful pieces of software, so the majority of my feelings of being stalled was not from lack of ideas, but from fighting with the program.
Most of my problems came from having to work on different production laptops at school and not knowing how to save properly. Unreal Engine allows you to save different parts within one larger file, so I think that’s what tripped me up. In addition, I tried to continue from the file we began in class since animation imports were successful. Despite having only one skeleton, I couldn’t get the new animations to sync with it, and they keep looking like jumbled messes.
WHAT A MESS. WHERE ARE HIS BONES?
Ultimately, I had to start from scratch and reestablish a better workflow right from the beginning. By that time, I had already developed my brief story about an Ogre that is tired of the brutish nature of his species and just wants to be a graceful dancer.
My greatest discovery in Unreal was the ability to change weights of the animations, this allows you to blend them more seamlessly together like an ease in/ease out sort of thing. I could even add static poses and animate them this way to fit into the sequence.
While, I felt like I was cheating a bit using pre-made assets, I found the creativity came is how the narative was formed, building the world, and using interesting camera angle to lead the story.
In the future, I would love to delve more into how to create creates, rigging them in 3D, and then creating those animations myself!
The final project is a solo effort showcasing this Ogre and his big dreams.