CG Asset Creator and Illustrator

Week 6: Animation, Tracking, and Structural Changes

05/01/2025

Last week, I decided that I wanted to get a rough animation done, then fix my scene's camera tracking and adjust the animation as necessary. I also mentioned wanting to UV map the skateboard to apply a texture and improve the reflections on the glass in my scene. Over the weekend, I ended up spending a lot of time creating a more structured file system and writing documents to help keep the team organized. I wanted to address the severe lack of organization preventing us from progressing in a timely manner, and as of Tuesday, I am now the team's VFX supervisor.

Current Progress

While I ultimately spent more time this week working on trying to get the team organized and back on track, I still made sure to get as much done on my own scene as possible. I have not managed to fix the camera tracking yet, but I have a rough animation for the fish based around a still camera frame. The crab is still completely stationary. Furthermore, I partially UV-mapped the skateboard, doing just enough to put my board design on it and improve the reflections in my renders. As I was working on the animations, I also took some time to fix some more rigging bugs in my models. This is the main reason for the crab's lack of animation, as fixing certain issues with the legs caused previous iterations of the animation to become unusable.

A draft animation of the fish swimming towards the camera in an arcing motion. The crab is stationary, but is intended to walk towards the camera as well.

After class on Wednesday, we recruited Sav Cook as a composer to help with the sound on our project. We are currently discussing the specific requirements with her, but the plan is to have punk music and unique sound effects for each skateboard shot.

Upcoming Work

This weekend, my top priority is to bring my animation closer to the final version, which in turn requires that I fix the camera tracking. In order to do so, I need the full-resolution stabilized version of my background plate, which due to previous lack of organization, has yet to be given to anyone involved in the CG-heavy parts of this project. Due to some unexpected events at home, I will not have as much time to work as I would prefer, but I still intend to put together a presentation to show in class on Monday.