Show Yourself

This past week I experienced both my third mentor visit as well as the FISD Research Showcase, where I could present all that I had done for the fall semester. When I met with Mr. Barsoum the day before the showcase we discussed my progress on the UV unwrapping. I did originally plan to have the character rigged by the end of the week, but I did not plan for unwrapping to be such a hassle. I had only done it once, Freshman year, and my model was much simpler than it is now. However, I am still proud that I accomplished so much in so little time. Moving through each stage also made me recognize how much work actually goes into professionally made animation assets, and I appreciate the games I play much more, as I notice details beyond good animation. During the visit I also learned about the next step for my project, and I am glad I talked over it with my mentor before jumping in. I learned the steps to attaching a skeleton to my model and enabling it to be animated properly. This skinning process will most likely take longer than my UV unwrapping did, but I am optimistic that I will learn a lot from it and that it will pay off in the next section. Before I began the next process, I was able to show my textured model off at the research showcase. It was a really unique experience to show off my work a little and meet other students doing animation-related topics. It was exciting and did give me more confidence to take on the next skinning phase so that I can present something even better at the end of the year. This week I need to get into the skinning process so I can keep up my schedule and start animating as soon as I can.