Nelly Luckett : BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester

Third year has definitely proven itself to be a year of new experiences for me. In ‘Pugwash and the Young Adventurer’, I took on a project full of new opportunities and challenges to create something entirely out of my comfort zone. I wanted to use this self-directed project to push my understanding of what Maya could do more and to broaden the way that I could produce work. Creating a 2.5D world definitely provided a new system to work in, as well as lots of challenges. Not being able to rotate characters in the traditional sense, and only being able to use the front view definitely made me think about alternate ways of working. I couldn’t build a scene and then choose my camera angle, the scene had to be very specifically designed and built in order to create the shot I was intending. This was very different to working in a traditional 3D pathway. I have also gained a lot more understanding of the limitations and differences that a 2D rig has compared to a 3D rig. There are som

  Pugwash and the Young Adventurer When approaching the subject of what I wanted my major project to be, I wanted something very personal to my own experiences, and something that would take me down an entirely different path to the other projects we had previously completed. I felt that it also needed to give me an outcome that was directed towards the career path that I intend to pursue after graduation. I am interested in projection mapping and bring animation into 3D and performance spaces, to break the barrier between animation and the ‘real’ world. This led me to wanting to produce a more experimental film that forced me to learn new methods of producing animation, outside of the standard 3D pipeline we are taught throughout our three years on the course. As a self-directed project, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to discover something new.  After exploring a number of different narratives and concepts, one particular story or memory presented i

This is the animated 2D turn around for Ellie. As with Pugwash it wasn't possible to do a 360 degree turn around, so here is an animated 2D turn around.

This is the animated turn around for my 2D Pugwash rig. Since the rig is made entirely out of 2D planes, it is not possible to do a conventional 360 degree turn around, so instead I have animated him in each of his views to create a fun turn around effect and allow you to see all sides of our friendly pirate.

Today I completed the cave set for the film. This is where Pugwash and Ellie fly in the boat to hide from the error messages. I am happy with the fact that the light looks like it is coming from the outside. This back-lit effect is something I'm very happy with. I also did some debug renders to show the level of complexity in this low light scene. Basic  Occlusion Wireframe

Today I have been focusing on getting the lighting correct on the shot of the outside of the party room, as this corridor needs to look quite foreboding and threatening as the narrative is discussing how Ellie is feeling concerned and confused by the situation she is in. I am quite happy about how the scene looks overall, however the lights in the ceiling are casting strange orbs around the light on the ceiling. This is something I will need to rectify in the final renders.