Minor - Reflective statement

I feel that from the beginning of my project, Minor has shown how I am able to transfer my creative skills into many different areas. I have created characters, scenes and assets, as well as scripts, an art of document and different animatics. I have also been able to experiment with the use of textures on my models using Photoshop files, bump maps and lighting techniques. These are a few skills that I hope to show more of during my Major project and final animation as I am looking at a future career as a CG texture artist.
I do feel that I have created each part of my Minor project successfully but I do believe that there is always room for improvement.

I originally started this project within my Premise project in 2019. I had a few different ideas before I chose the final one but I believed that choosing a project that was more personal to me made it easier for me to incorporate my emotions into the character and narrative. While coming up with different ideas for the animation, I considered creating Diabetes as its own character so I began to look at how the design could be used to represent how the character feels. I then looked at the script I had created for my premise project and adapted it so that it would seem as though I was having a conversation with the character and explaining to the audience why he acts the way he does on screen, this was so that it did not sound a story. In order to do this I removed any unnecessary information and rambling from my script. I was advised to write a script as though I was having a conversation with somebody about how I found out that I had Type One Diabetes and how it effects me. I did attempt to write the script without speaking to somebody by I found it easier to record myself speaking to someone and then writing the script from that. After I had completed the script, I then moved on to finalising my character's orthographs and final design.

Final script pages 1 -2

Final script pages 3 - 4

Final script pages 5 - 6

Original character design

Final design

After a few discussions I decided that in my animation I wanted the Diabetes character to look as though he is made out of plasticine. This is as I had decided that I wanted my animation to look like it was stop frame animation and I wanted to focus on the realistic textures that would be on the objects and the character. From this I then progressed into creating my character out of plasticine. Doing this enabled me to work out how to form the character digitally on Maya and it also meant that I was able to create a texture and bump map of the plasticine from the reference images. Once I had completed creating the plasticine character model, I then took images from the front, back, both sides and the top views so that I was able to use the images as 'real life orthographs' which I imported to Maya, this then enabled me to start modelling the character from them.

Step by step making process

Real life orthographic views

Un-textured character model

I then wrote down a list of the images of objects I needed for real life orthographs of the animation's assets and took pictures of them. From there I imported those images to Maya and created the objects. Creating the objects in this way meant that I was able to see every detail from the reference images and create the objects as realistic as possible. I feel as though I did struggle sometimes when creating some of the objects so I did ask for help on a few occasions with ensuring that the mesh was correct and would be seen correctly on the renders.Although I have been creating 3D Maya models for nearly three years now, I do believe that I still have a lot to learn and therefore believe that, if I have time, I could go back through each object and fine tune them. 

From there I then moved on to texturing the objects. In order to do this I laid out each object's UV's and created a UV snapshot file. I then imported this file to Photoshop, created a new layer and painted the textures onto that layer over the UV's, I would then turn the UV snapshot layer off and save the files as .TIF files or .PNG files if the texture had any transparency. If I wanted to provide some more depth into the texture I created a Bump Map for the texture on a separate Photoshop file and then input this file into the texture on the attribute editor. Although this process was very time consuming I did find it very interesting to experience and I believe that it has grown my love for texturing. I did struggle with ensuring that some of the textures were seen correctly when rendering the files but I was able to ask for help and experiment with the textures in the attribute editor to get the desired effect. (Please see pages 101- 257 in the Art of document below for 3D model pictures and texturing)

Diabetes monster - Rendered turnaround

Art of Little Monster


Computer asset - Turnaround



Next was creating a skeleton, skinning and rigging my character. I found it easy when creating my character's skeleton using the online tutorials as I remembered a lot of the information from completing the Jet Pack Jones tutorials earlier in second year. I was able to skin and paint weight the character's mesh to the character's skeleton but I did not have enough time put aside to ensure that my character was completely rigged ready for the Minor submission deadline. I do regret this as I wanted my character completed for then. I do believe that I spent too much time on texturing the character and the objects and that I should have split my time 50/50 as it would have made it easier for me to achieve my deadline goal. On the other hand, I do believe that my texturing is good on the objects and character but could be improved further going into the Major submission.  


I then created character and asset turnarounds so that all of the asset models and character model where able to be viewed in 360 degrees. This makes it easier to see all of the textures and mesh on the objects as well as find any issues that can be improved upon in the Major project. I do believe that I could have provided better turnarounds for my assets, this is as I did not realise how long it would take to completely render the 200 frame turnarounds for each object. When each of the textures have been improved I will create new turnarounds for the objects and character.


In conclusion I have found that the Minor project has allowed me to be very expressive with my own ideas and character. It has allowed me to completely experience how to would be to work in multiple positions within a studio. It has also allowed for me to look at each section of the project and the different career paths that I could take, although I do still believe that I would like to be a CG texture artist, due to my increase in interest while texturing. Looking forward, I would like to improve the textures on the asset models and character model either through Photoshop and Maya or through other software such as Mudbox and Substance Painter. This is so that I am able to understand a variety of different software for future career opportunities and so that the textures are of a higher quality and are able to look more realistic. If I have time, once the assets and character are re-textured, I would like to create new turnarounds so that they look more professional and could be used on a professional show reel within the future. I will also double check that the paint weights on my character are correct so that I am able to rig the character correctly. I am looking forward to receiving the feedback from my Minor submission as then I am able to continue with my project and begin to set the scenes up to animate.