Polish Our Project
I’m trying to create eye and blinking animations for coral reef creatures in TouchDesigner. I’m really excited about this because the eyes are very cute, and the process is helping me deepen my understanding of TouchDesigner compared to before.
On the other hand, I haven’t been able to create the coral reef creatures very well because my skills and knowledge are still limited. From this experience, I’ve changed my focus from creating the whole creature body to designing the creature’s eyes, so I can at least contribute to the project.
In TouchDesigner, I built the system by connecting nodes as shown in the reference image, and created a blinking eye animation.
To make the blinking feel more natural, I introduced randomness into the timing. In addition, I designed the eyes to be large and bold so that even if the creature itself is small, the facial expressions remain clearly visible and easy to understand.
The mouth does not move in this design, but I emphasized cuteness by shaping it into a gentle curved smile.
Furthermore, background elements such as plants and coral reefs are created as 3D objects. However, the facial expressions of the creatures are designed in a more 2D-oriented way. Specifically, I use a top-view perspective and CHOP-based controls to achieve clear and readable facial expressions within a 3D space.
Project Statement
This week, our teacher asked us to create a project statement for our group project. Together with my group members, I worked on the document and contributed to several sections. In particular, I wrote about our project concept, the characters that will appear in the project, the meaning behind the work, and our current progress.
In the project statement, I explained what we have completed so far and what still needs to be done. For example, we have already created some of the environments and sea creatures for the project. However, we have not yet combined the creatures and environments into a single file, so this will be one of our next tasks. We also need to record a video presentation of our project, and we will have to discuss the best way to present it so that viewers can clearly understand and enjoy our work.
Overall, I think our project is progressing well. Every Tuesday, our group meets in the Digital pace to work together, and everyone is putting a lot of effort into the project. Because of this regular teamwork and communication, we have been able to make steady progress each week. From my perspective, I would like to use the large screen in the Dataspace to display our underwater environment. I believe this could create a more immersive experience for the audience and help them feel as if they are exploring the underwater world themselves. This would make the project more engaging and memorable for viewers.
This project statement helped us organize our ideas, reflect on our progress, and plan the next steps for the development of our project.