A Rookie’s Journey Begins: Becoming a 3D Animator
Our Student, Sam Senpai, embarks on skill-enhancing projects, constantly refining his techniques for efficiency and effectiveness. Sam offers a glimpse into his learning journey, showcasing his projects in this Rookies article.
Sam Senpai is currently a student at the Asian Institute of Design, Bangalore. With a passion for sketching, watching anime, animation films, superhero movies, and video games, Sam was inspired by the many artists creating the moving images he enjoyed watching. This passion for these arts has motivated Sam to create new, skill-enhancing projects, with each one teaching him new techniques that make his work more efficient and effective. In this article, he provides insight into the learning journey he is on, sharing projects featured in his Rookies portfolio.
The Routine:
As for my daily schedule, it’s a structured routine. I work from 9 am to 6 pm at AID (Asian Institute of Design). My day kicks off with setting up my workspace, ensuring it’s clean and ready for a productive day. The first task is checking my email, making sure I’m up to date with any important messages.
Then, I sketch for about an hour. Prior to my classes, I take a moment to review my animation files, and if I have any doubts, I ask my mentor for help.
After attending my classes, I dedicate my time to animations, allowing my creativity to flow. I find that also helping my classmates with their animation projects is not only fulfilling but also a fantastic learning opportunity. During this process, I also make sure to take short breaks to recharge.
My mentor plays a crucial role in my journey. Regularly, he checks my progress on the animation front, offering guidance and corrections when necessary.
Once my animation reaches the rendering stage, I return home, where I set it up to render overnight.
Workflow:
Here is my general workflow when I approach a new project:
- Concept: I come up with an idea or a story with a theme.
- Reference gathering: Start to collect multiple references that match the idea – I use YouTube and Instagram.
- Asset Sourcing: Try to get good props and models for my animation – I use Sketchfab, Turbosquid and CGTrader.
- Rig Selection: Choose an appropriate rig that matches the Idea.
- Scene Assembly: After all the references and models are ready, I import them to Autodesk Maya and start to Layout and keyframe the reference.
- Blocking: Blocking the key poses with timings.
- Refinement: Animate in-between and Breakdowns.
- Adding Elements: Add Overlap, stretch and squash.
- Polish work: Clean up and polish the graph.
- Lighting and rendering.
- Color correction in Premiere Pro.
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