Final Project Tutorial
In this session with Serra, I talked about my idea of using water reflection in my shot. At the start, I was thinking too much about making real waves, like an ocean. I thought I needed a complex system to make the water look correct. Serra told me this is not the main point of my scene.
Serra said my water is closer to a lake or a calm surface. The reflection is more important than big wave movement. He explained that I can treat the water as a designed surface, not a full physics simulation. This means I can make it simple but still effective for the story.
He suggested using small and controllable changes to the surface. For example, I can add gentle motion, small distortion, and slight up-and-down movement. These small layers can make the water feel alive, like it is “breathing”. Serra also mentioned the idea of “points” or “particles”, which I understand as many small details working together, instead of one heavy system.
What I learned most is to think about the camera and what the audience will see. The water effect should support the mood and the character, not steal attention. After this session, I feel my direction is clearer and easier. I will focus more on reflection as a visual meaning, and keep the water movement simple and controlled.
Animation
In Week 10, I worked on character animation in Maya for my Narcissus project. I downloaded a character asset and used the ADV plugin to set up the rig and make it ready for animation. After the rig was working, I filmed my own reference video to understand the movement and timing. Then I started keyframing in Maya, using the reference to build the main poses and add breakdowns.
When the animation was clear, I prepared it for Unreal Engine. I baked the animation and exported it as an Alembic (.abc) file. After that, I imported the Alembic into my Unreal level. This allowed me to test the animation in the real environment and check how it looks with lighting and camera.
I also did a quick material test on the character inside Unreal. The goal was not final shading yet, but to see if the character reads well in the scene and matches the mood. This workflow helped me connect Maya animation with Unreal scene testing, and it made the project feel more complete.