This week, we had quarter check – walkarounds. Our team decided to make a scene demo to prove our pipeline.  We chose scene 3-4 as our demo.

1. Rachy(Animator) finished animation for demo and worked on the scene 2.
   
2. Angela(Effects Artist) added fluid into the shell.
3. Qing(Material Artist) applied material to all the assets and rendered out.
4. Ryan is still working on the character rigging and here is the demo shows the progress

Problem:

1. We still have problem conducting fluid simulation within high speed container. Thus we tried to only simulate the surface of the fluid. This method can work with far shot efficiently, not as well with close shot.
2. The materials of shell and fluid were transparent enough to show the character animation inside, but did not have enough glowing.

1. Finalized the shell rig.
2. Character rig in progress.
3. Scene 3-4 to Scene 3-7 Animation Test using the new shell rig
4. Animation hitting references
5. Cell material test
6. Fluid simulation in progress. We had a lot of discussion about how the fluid should be simulated this week. Since if the object moves too fast in the animation, the fluid simulation will become unstable, we decided to use mesh to fake fluid movement for far shots. For the closer shots, we are currently experimenting with using a slower movement animation for fluid simulation and then compose it into the real animation in a later stage. We shall see how things go.
7. Trail simulation in progress
8. Environment design and modeling started
9. Team photo is done! Yeah!
10. We have a logo now!

1. Meet with Ruth and John to lock down the storyboard and talked about how asset list can organize this our work better.
2. Worked on the general model for the cell core.Researched on the stretch and squash rigs for the character stalk and cell shell
3. Researched on the character material and worked on the rigs for cell shell. Took  the team photo.
4. PS the team photo and finalize the test rig for cell shell. Researched on the emotion expression and sketched some 2D version
5. Worked on the demo animation by using rigged cell shell Cell shell rigging need to improve further and fluid simulation need to begin
   
6. Found solution for rolling ball rigging and kept working on it
7. Meet with Ruth and John to lock down the story and next week began to work on the production based on the animatics

1. Presented the three ideas to the faculty and decided to work on the Magic Painting Story
2. Got the Post-Production project story line and concept from faculty. Separate the task and list them on the board. Further clear the story line and tried to make some adjustment.
3. Discussed with John and Ruth about the story and decided to change some obstacles to make the animation much more compact
4. Talked about the branding, team photo, logo and website design.
5. Agreed on the new story line and obstacle change. Qing and Rachel worked together to research on the emotions
6. Meet with Ruth and John to lock down the story and next week began to work on the production based on the animatics

1. Looked at some animation references online and talked about advisors’ ideas.
2. Agreed on the idea from John’s three stories (the magic paint brush) and the idea from Ruth (the land of the dead)
3. Came up with some new ideas and voted for two favorite stories: Magic Painting and the Teacup
4. Discussed about the pros and challenges of our own stories and agreed on the Teacup was our final one for pitch
5. Discussed the detail of each three stories. List the pros, cons, and techniques of each one and prepare for the Thursday presentation.