Final Project Conclusion

Yesterday I have finished rendering the animation, added a background sound and my name and contribution to the video in Sony Vegas (as seen in any 3D Demo reel available online) and submitted it, one day ahead. Rendering the animation took way more than I anticipated, especially since I had to render it a second time because of the unsatisfactory results on the first render. Although the overall video quality of the demo reel is not that high, it's way better than the first one where the noise levels were unbearable due to the higher threshold. Rendering the animation for a second time took about 19 hours on my personal computer and 15 hours the first time I've tried. Had I decided to go for a higher quality, it would've easily taken over 30 hours of rendering. I believe the overall quality is not an issue for now, particularly because the project could be rendered again on a better performing machine, at a higher quality.

That being said, when I started the dissertation I had only one goal in my mind: to create a set of high quality animations for a 3D model of choice just like I've seen in the many demo reels I had watched. However, I didn't want my final project to focus only on the animation part especially since the knowledge of rigging a character had always been regarded to as 'a plus' in the 3D animator job descriptions. So I have also added the fact that I will rig the character by myself  apart from animating it.

I have to mention that at first I had absolutely no idea about how 3D models are rigged, which made me feel a little nervous as without a rig I couldn't have animated the model in the first place. What in the beginning seemed to me like a pretty straight forward project quickly became a way more complex task that included hours and hours of research on subjects that I've never taken on to before. In the seven months I've been working on this project I have effectively learned how to rig, skin and animate. I have learned how to better manage my time, plan ahead and organise myself to complete a project before the deadline, all independently.

Although I have successfully taken the project to a good end, there were a couple of issues that I feel could've been circumvented had I researched more in the first place. As I had fairly estimated the time it would take to reach the set milestones, I believe that could've went better as well had I known exactly how long each process will take me to complete. I have lost some precious time for example in the beginning by having to restart the rigging process after finding out that the CAT rig won't allow me to customise it to my preference. There are also several issues with the animation that I feel I could've solved if I had more time.

To conclude, I believe that by taking on to this project I have learned a lot about animation and rigging despite the issues I have encountered on the path. I have also learned that thorough research is the single most important task to complete before starting a project. These skills will serve me a great deal of help in the future as I plan on improving them to secure myself a job in the industry.





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