Cyberlackey Game Trailer
Storyboard camera draft on scrap paper
The task I focused and worked on was setting up clear and engaging camera shots based on the storyboard.
I kept in mind and practiced the design cycle of innovating, evaluating, and reworking when creating the camera shots.
The way I utilized these principles was in the storyboard. I planned what I wanted the shots to generally look like first and then reiterate them to see if the pans or cuts made sense motion wise. Then, while blocking the scenes in 3d space, I would make adjustments to the angles and field of views for the cameras so that they match the storyboards while also accommodating for the changes in perspective from drawing to 3d space. Sometimes the shots need to be redone and tackled from a different perspective completely, demonstrating evaluation and reworking from the design cycle.
An example would be the third shot, where in the original storyboard the shot was supposed to be a straight on front headshot of the character eating, but was changed to a 3/4 angle shot to make it look less awkward since it didn’t transfer well into 3D.
Comparison between the storyboard close-up shot (up) and the reworked close-up shot (down)
About the Project
Process Analysis
This 3D Animation is a project I worked on with peers at BCIT using MAYA and Unreal Engine from September 2022 - December 2022. We were tasked with creating a mock game trailer and producing it, simulating the industry pipeline. The trailer depicts a robot character we made sneaking into an apartment to grab a data cube without being caught by a drone.
The main take away for me from this project was to practice skills based off of our chosen roles, my role for this project being Lead Animator. In this project I sharpened my key posing, coming up with dynamic character poses that match and or improve upon our storyboard.
The resulting product is a finished 15 second 3D rendered animation in Unreal Engine that demonstrates non-humanoid character acting and multi-shot sequences.
I ended up learning a bit from this project, mainly what type of camera shots and pacing I will need to have for my subsequent projects. I need to shorten my shots further and find better and more engaging camera angles that tell the story elements clearly.
Conclusion