Research of early Pixar shorts

I have started researching early Pixar films to get a better understanding of more simple modelling and rendering, to both inspire and help me with Maya. I've always been a huge fan of their early work, as it was way ahead of its time and stunned people visually and emotionally. The two I have looked at are 'Tin Toy' from 1987 and 'Knick Knack' from 1989. Their simple and both professional charm creates a masterpiece which has stood the test of time, and still looks great. These two films both one awards when released, and rightly so.

Knick Knack - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuJasJ5uHGU

Tin Toy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_n6KT9nukU

Edit of young carers project

Courtney and I have edited together a shortened version of the video archives from the carers project. We picked out what we thought was interesting moments, and complied them into a single edit.

Awareness of space and scale in 3D modelling

Character designs on paper

Here are my rough sketches and ideas for my two character for my carers project. They are two Teddy bears, one being the younger sibling, who is cute and scruffy. The older one is cleaner, but strict.

Fur in Maya

I have added fur to the bears to give them a much more realistic look. This was achieved in Maya - and as you can see both bears have different fur attributes to separate their look and feel. The bigger bear is a clean new bear, and the smaller bear is very old and quite fragile.

Character designs in Maya

Below are pre rendered character designs for my two bears:

Working in Maya, and creating my first project.

In the last couple of weeks, I have picked up Autodesk Maya again, and taught myself the foundations of 3D animation, and have started to work on my own project. So far, I am pleased with it, and perhaps somehow I could incorporate it in to my carers project.