War or Peace:
The final major project for college, unlike the other projects, the brief didn't require certain softwares or any other context to obey, this was the chance to do whatever I like, while also showcasing how far I have come. As a result, I aimed to make an animation which attempted to provide a message that going for a simple life is better than a life of war, showcasing that you can make your own choices, even if you're as dense as a robot. This animation follows the first-person perspective of a robot, who figures out he was made for war, and so after seeing a protestor, and refusing the call to action, he decides to find a place to live, and so he leaves the robot making factory and goes out to the city of robots, as he eventually finds a home, finding a life he wants.
This animation was a combination of After Effects, Premier Pro, and Maya. As well as expanding on my modelling and 3D animation skills, this animation is where I had my first go at texturing, colour grading and enhanced sound editing. The first-person perspective of the robot was actually as Maya camera that was animated, to replicate the movement of a hovering robot (who you see at the end of the animation). From my main identity of creating simplistic and colourful imagery, I did apply it to this animation, creating 3D robots and settings which could look just as good on paper or via digital 2D. This was also the first animation that had a lot going on within a single 3D scene, many robots and vehicles move around at once, which did add to the render time (alongside the use of coloured ambient lighting within the building which was where the rendering took the longest), but it did result in creating imagery I never made at this point, so it was certainly worth it. Colour grading was more than just adding to the visuals of the animation, it did go from a purple filter within the building, alongside a greener filter for when outside the factory, even the music matches with mood of the colouring, which was a good filmmaking choice of mine, and I do like the mash of colours for when the robot exits the building, almost like how our eyes try and adjust to immense lighting after being in the dark. Finally, the sound editing was more complex, as it required good timing and a sense of continuity, to create convincing vehicle sounds and a variety of robot noises. On top of that, my 'Space and Ships' title sequence was applied to the TV at the end of the animation, which was a cool cameo idea of mine.
Overall, alongside the many new things I've tried for this animation, most of it which I am pleased with, this animation has aged overtime, this is because there are some instances where the camerawork is too quick, and some of the modelling and texturing which could have been improved upon. Even the narrative I think is a bit simplistic, and not everyone would get the visual storytelling unless I explain it to them, as a storyteller myself, I wish I can apply more storytelling elements in there considering how much I have learnt since I made this animation, which is nearly two years old as I write this. Despite some weaker practical and thematic aspects, it does remain as a nostalgic animation, representing the end of my college days, which has a bunch of other new techniques which continue to be useful to this day and attempting to apply some deep subtext which I never tried until this point. With my college animations all explained, this is where you would see my university work, where I learnt far more, and expanded on everything I knew, resulting in work which is more professional, experimental, and the amount of content would have also increased too.
This was yet another example of a brief which was split into two, a pre-production side, and a production side. However, unlike the other projects where you had to wait for the production side unless you are confident enough to do some areas of production before the brief occurs (like I do), this final major project brief does give you the freedom to make a start of the pre-production first, and then you can start the production whenever you are ready, despite the pre-production having a due date being slightly sooner compared to the production deadline, but both parts of the brief were within the same page. The pre-production took a fortnight while the production took months at a point where it was completed two weeks before the deadline, because as the 'Apocalyptic city' page states, this final major project's last few weeks is where the VR project came along, which encouraged me to complete the final major project earlier thanks to the time I put in. The production for this project took three months, the first month is where I complete my Maya setting (with all the models and animation) and the last few weeks of the production is where I placed the renders and other composited aspects together. However, in between, this is where I experience the longest render ever, not only did some of the frames take thirty minutes, but I had an error that prevented the render to go on its own. I had to render all the frames manually, which was very tedious. Luckily, all the rendering was done, which allowed me time for the compositing and sound effects too.