The Apothecary Week 22 - First Blog Post of the New Year!

Dated: 23 January 2025

The last time I wrote down anything was in 2024 and I am so excited for the opportunities and events for 2025. Over winter break, I just focused on animation projects for my demo reel and to help build and develop my skills as a 3d animator. I didn't work on any production material as I understand the rest of the semester will be fast paced and aggressive to complete our final project.

In the first week of school, we are taking and implementing feedback that we received from our midway winter production screening. We got feedback from other students, professors, friends, & family. Some of the feedback that our short film got is that our set feels too open & our layout/animatic needs some help on the camera angles, breaking of the 180* rule, etc. Oliver is currently focusing on shrinking the interior asset of the set so our film feels cosy and person for the viewer. I am personally working on adjusting our layout so the shots flow better together and the film overall will be more cohesive.

Next steps will be redo-ing the rig for Basil. We didn't have any of the UVs before rigging and we wanted to update some of the geometry. Shown in the photo above, the left side of Basil's face had a pretty large bump under her eye which followed the contour of Basil's eye edge loops, but it isn't a creative decision that we intended so I went ahead and fixed that. I also adjusted the area under Basil's check, next to her lips was acting a bit strange. The right side of this image is the up to date version of Basil's character model.

After I finish Basil's rig, I will work on a up to date version of the old lady rig. I don't want to spend too much time on it as it isn't that important. I think our group is in an okay spot. We have a ton of work ahead of us and we are unsure if everyone on our team will be working on the project throughout the semester so I have my fingers crossed.