Finally, I have handed in my 3 animations for this module:
It has been a great module and I have learned a lot. In this module I have really gotten to explore how it is to animate the face of the character as early as at the blocking stage and it has proven to be extremely beneficial as it has helped me to put myself into the same emotion as the character I am animating. It helps me to avoid over-animating things as well which is another field I have gotten to explore in this module. Doing extremely subtle movements so the character doesn't look too floaty.
Doing lip sync before the block on 11 second club was also a very interesting experiment. It does actually work quite well but I guess doing it afterwards wouldn't be too much of a problem either though. What I do think was nice is to get the lip sync over and done with at an early stage. The fact that the characters aren't moving either is good as well. I know that of course if the characters are moving, doing lip sync shouldn't be any problem because we can constrain a camera to the character's face for the lip sync. But based on the previous module, even doing that after the character is animated can give one some challenges as I experienced things obscuring the camera.
The dance that I did in AP2 is a perfect example of this as the two characters kept on obscuring each others face cams and it made the lip sync a longer process than it had to be because I had to do it in the perspective view.
When it comes to the animations I've done for this module, I am satisfied with what I've managed to deliver.
I didn't add the extra animation to the mime for him to better define the wall though. The reason for this is simply, I didn't have enough time for it. I decided it is better to leave it out than to try and put that animation in there and it would look half finished in the middle of the sequence. In simple words, quality instead of quantity.
The staircase would benefit from one more pass, refining and smoothing out the movements.
The 11 second I would do over again if I could to give it even better flow.
All of the 3 animations could have been done better but I guess that's the curse of being an animator, one just can't let the animations go and they're never good enough.
Even though they all could be better, I am also glad to let them go now as I have been working around the clock for the last 1-2 weeks and I'm pretty burnt out now and I need something new to work on (after 1-2 days of rest).
This concludes Acting for Animation.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Mime WIP 7
I have now smoothed out the animation in the end when he walks in front of the door to paint the doorknob.
When he goes back behind the door however, I came up with another idea. Instead of having him just walk back, I wanted to try something more cartoony, allowing me to experiment a little with Squash and Stretch. Personally I think it works quite well and after showing the following clip to my fellow students, Jo Christian Figenschou, Lauren Orrels and Daniel Natland, we all agreed that it worked and looks better than the original idea:
So now I'm working against time rushing through the final frames before I'll render and hand in my animations.
When he goes back behind the door however, I came up with another idea. Instead of having him just walk back, I wanted to try something more cartoony, allowing me to experiment a little with Squash and Stretch. Personally I think it works quite well and after showing the following clip to my fellow students, Jo Christian Figenschou, Lauren Orrels and Daniel Natland, we all agreed that it worked and looks better than the original idea:
So now I'm working against time rushing through the final frames before I'll render and hand in my animations.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Staircase WIP 8
In my last version I had animated the sequence ready for polish up to the point when the character places his first foot on the staircase. I did expect to spend a lot of time on the part where he looses balance but still surprised it has taken me close to 8 hours on that small part of the animation alone.
After working for 1 hour trying to make it work, I realized that my current poses did not work at all and my reference video did not help me either as I could not see much what was going on with my pelvis or legs so I made a new one to help me through this part of the animation:
As soon as I've gotten passed this point, the rest of the animation wen fairly quick as it already had some really good poses where very few breakdowns where necessary in order to achieve respectable animation.
I have also now added animation to the items on the tray, I even tried animating fluids.
This version is pretty much the final version, the only difference is that it is not rendered:
Could it be better? OF COURSE! there is still room for a lot of improvement, it always is! Especially with him going off balance. But as hard as it is, I have to let the animation go now so I have a chance to finish my mime before the deadline.
After working for 1 hour trying to make it work, I realized that my current poses did not work at all and my reference video did not help me either as I could not see much what was going on with my pelvis or legs so I made a new one to help me through this part of the animation:
As soon as I've gotten passed this point, the rest of the animation wen fairly quick as it already had some really good poses where very few breakdowns where necessary in order to achieve respectable animation.
I have also now added animation to the items on the tray, I even tried animating fluids.
This version is pretty much the final version, the only difference is that it is not rendered:
Could it be better? OF COURSE! there is still room for a lot of improvement, it always is! Especially with him going off balance. But as hard as it is, I have to let the animation go now so I have a chance to finish my mime before the deadline.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
11 Second Club WIP 6 and Final
Based on all the feedback I've received, I have now refined the animation as much as possible before I textured the characters and rendered the final version for submitting to 11 second club.
I think I have ended up with a quite decent result, but if I had the time, I would have started over on blocking, making stronger poses to animate from as I think I got too focused on my reference videos.
The latest WIP before the final is actually still a stepped version but still looks quite smooth because I have taken most of the animation down to 1s. It has given me a lot of new experience to really nitpick on every frame like I've done with this animation. The result is a curve editor that looks like this:
So here is my latest WIP and the final version:
It is very exciting to compete for the first time, I can't wait to find out which place I end up on.
Only a few days left before the module deadline now so my focus now turns to the staircase before I return to the mime.
I think I have ended up with a quite decent result, but if I had the time, I would have started over on blocking, making stronger poses to animate from as I think I got too focused on my reference videos.
The latest WIP before the final is actually still a stepped version but still looks quite smooth because I have taken most of the animation down to 1s. It has given me a lot of new experience to really nitpick on every frame like I've done with this animation. The result is a curve editor that looks like this:
So here is my latest WIP and the final version:
It is very exciting to compete for the first time, I can't wait to find out which place I end up on.
Only a few days left before the module deadline now so my focus now turns to the staircase before I return to the mime.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
11 Second Club WIP 5
After posting my previous WIP on Facebook I received the following notes:
Lauren Orrels: Remi, what those guys need are hawaian shirts! XD hehe! In terms of the animation I think it's coming along really well. There's a definite contrast in body language and attitude in the two characters.
Siobhan Fenton: Love the backdrop Remi, v effective [and the shirts!] Still think your guy in red needs to look away [full of himself] when the other guy looks at his watch OR you need him to notice the guy look at the watch and react to that in some way. Very good stuff.
I do think Lauren's idea about the shirts is cool but it's not what I had in mind and I'm not sure they will come across as door salesmen if I do so.
Siobhan's suggestion to make the main character appear more full of himself was a good idea and I have addressed that in this version:
Lauren Orrels: Remi, what those guys need are hawaian shirts! XD hehe! In terms of the animation I think it's coming along really well. There's a definite contrast in body language and attitude in the two characters.
Siobhan Fenton: Love the backdrop Remi, v effective [and the shirts!] Still think your guy in red needs to look away [full of himself] when the other guy looks at his watch OR you need him to notice the guy look at the watch and react to that in some way. Very good stuff.
I do think Lauren's idea about the shirts is cool but it's not what I had in mind and I'm not sure they will come across as door salesmen if I do so.
Siobhan's suggestion to make the main character appear more full of himself was a good idea and I have addressed that in this version:
Thursday, 28 April 2011
11 Second Club WIP 4
When I started this animation, I thought it would go much quicker for me than with the mime as this is only 300 frames in comparison to 1200 frames.
I was wrong. Walk cycles are the most difficult thing to animate and here I have two characters doing walk cycles and I really want them to obviously be two different characters walking differently. And after all as I said, it is two characters. That's twice the work as it is with one.
So far I have animated the first 100 frames on 5s and this is what I've got so far:
Also I have started preparing for render when taking some short breaks from the animation and I've done a test render:
I have also posted these things to Facebook to see if anybody has any more comments and feedback.
I was wrong. Walk cycles are the most difficult thing to animate and here I have two characters doing walk cycles and I really want them to obviously be two different characters walking differently. And after all as I said, it is two characters. That's twice the work as it is with one.
So far I have animated the first 100 frames on 5s and this is what I've got so far:
Also I have started preparing for render when taking some short breaks from the animation and I've done a test render:
I have also posted these things to Facebook to see if anybody has any more comments and feedback.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
11 Second Club WIP 3 Feedback
I have received some more feedback from Siobhan on Facebook:
Really like being able to see them come close to the camera at the end. You might find you keep the character in one spot and they walk up to it - you could look at that but I do think it works well with them closer in the second half.
Personally I think it is working quite nice now as it is and I really want the camera to track down the street in front of them so the mailbox isn't revealed before a little later.
Really like being able to see them come close to the camera at the end. You might find you keep the character in one spot and they walk up to it - you could look at that but I do think it works well with them closer in the second half.
Personally I think it is working quite nice now as it is and I really want the camera to track down the street in front of them so the mailbox isn't revealed before a little later.
11 Second Club WIP 3
I have now done changes to the camera as suggested by Siobhan as well as making the main character look behind him more as he walks off. He walks off looking for a reaction at the same time as he is looking down on the second character:
I have also posted this to Facebook for more feedback
I have also posted this to Facebook for more feedback
11 Second Club WIP 2 Feedback
After posting the video on Facebook, I received the following feedback from Siobhan:
Very good so far. For the camera - it would be nice to see their expressions especially just before the 'How's that again' You could, for example, have the camera move with the characters [just as you have now although the camera could be a little closer] then hold the camera and have them walk closer to the camera [for a mid shot] so that we can see your right hand characters expression when he says 'Hows that again' and the other guy walks out of shot.
Your character on the left appears to be VERY keen to get the character on the rights attention, his eyes are focused on him whereas the guy on the right looks fed up. But then the guy on the left walks off. Think about status relationships because if the guy on the left has the higher status and is in charge [which is what is suggested at the end when he walks off] THEN perhaps the guy on the left would look for a reaction but not be so eager to please, ie he would have a high power centre and down at the other guy - just now the status is unclear in parts. If he is going to walk off, he needs to have a more full of himself posture - hope that makes sense.
Some really good pointers here that I will definitely take care of. The camera I haven't set completely either and I do agree that I wanted a closer picture of the second character but at the same time I want the framing to show him left off alone as the other character walks off.
I will tweak around with the camera to make it work more in the way as Siobhan has suggested.
Also I will make the main character look more behind him as he walks off to look for a reaction in the second character.
Very good so far. For the camera - it would be nice to see their expressions especially just before the 'How's that again' You could, for example, have the camera move with the characters [just as you have now although the camera could be a little closer] then hold the camera and have them walk closer to the camera [for a mid shot] so that we can see your right hand characters expression when he says 'Hows that again' and the other guy walks out of shot.
Your character on the left appears to be VERY keen to get the character on the rights attention, his eyes are focused on him whereas the guy on the right looks fed up. But then the guy on the left walks off. Think about status relationships because if the guy on the left has the higher status and is in charge [which is what is suggested at the end when he walks off] THEN perhaps the guy on the left would look for a reaction but not be so eager to please, ie he would have a high power centre and down at the other guy - just now the status is unclear in parts. If he is going to walk off, he needs to have a more full of himself posture - hope that makes sense.
Some really good pointers here that I will definitely take care of. The camera I haven't set completely either and I do agree that I wanted a closer picture of the second character but at the same time I want the framing to show him left off alone as the other character walks off.
I will tweak around with the camera to make it work more in the way as Siobhan has suggested.
Also I will make the main character look more behind him as he walks off to look for a reaction in the second character.
11 Second Club WIP 2
As I have written earlier, when we were filming the reference footage my idea got changed so I have made some new thumbnail drawings based on this new idea and video reference:
And here is my first storytelling block
And here is my first storytelling block
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
11 Second Club WIP 1
Earlier before we actually filmed the reference for this clip, I was lucky to find the source of the sound clip on YouTube which can be seen in this video around 3:50min
I was kind of surprised by the whole situation of the original scene as well as the characters as I did not imagine it to look quite like this. The main character for instance, I pictured to be larger built and most importantly, I thought he was the one with higher authority.
It is interesting to find out it was actually the opposite.
Well well, over to the animation;
I have chosen to try lipsyncing before blocking out the rest of the animation because of the workflow I have I'm not sure how to move on to lipsyncing after the other animation as I am keying everything , including the face and I would be left with a lot of keys to delete in order to do the lipsync.
It might not be the right workflow but I'll give it a try and see how it works for me.
For this part I have just been focusing on the jaw and lips. The rest of the face will come later as I progress and this is what I've got so far:
I was kind of surprised by the whole situation of the original scene as well as the characters as I did not imagine it to look quite like this. The main character for instance, I pictured to be larger built and most importantly, I thought he was the one with higher authority.
It is interesting to find out it was actually the opposite.
Well well, over to the animation;
I have chosen to try lipsyncing before blocking out the rest of the animation because of the workflow I have I'm not sure how to move on to lipsyncing after the other animation as I am keying everything , including the face and I would be left with a lot of keys to delete in order to do the lipsync.
It might not be the right workflow but I'll give it a try and see how it works for me.
For this part I have just been focusing on the jaw and lips. The rest of the face will come later as I progress and this is what I've got so far:
Monday, 25 April 2011
Mime WIP 6 and Showreel for Double Negative
Phew. I have had a lot of work. I thought I would be finished with this animation by now but I still have like 200 more frames to go. Next to this I have also prepared my showreel for Double Negative. I haven't even gotten to touch my staircase unfortunately but right now I just have to put both of these animations on hold and get started with the 11 second club as the competition is over in 5 days.
My mime animation is now taken all the way up to the point where I could call it polishing stage except from the last 200 frames. I have now added all breakdowns offsetting body parts as well as defining the brush strokes when he paints the door. Since I have put this in my showreel, I have also bothered with the effect of him painting the door.
So here is my latest Mime WIP as well as my showreel:
My mime animation is now taken all the way up to the point where I could call it polishing stage except from the last 200 frames. I have now added all breakdowns offsetting body parts as well as defining the brush strokes when he paints the door. Since I have put this in my showreel, I have also bothered with the effect of him painting the door.
So here is my latest Mime WIP as well as my showreel:
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Mime WIP 5
Most of the animation has gotten so far now that I dare to show it in splines as it it working quite nicely. I have also rotated the head more towards the camera as he is pushing on the wall and I think it works great. The last bit is still floaty though because it needs more poses as well as when he paints the door it needs more breakdowns to give the wrists a more natural painting feel.
It pretty much counts for the whole animation really to add that extra pass with breakdowns to offset things.
But this is what I had to show in class today:
There wasn't really much to say about what I have so far except from that it is looking good and I just have to keep on working.
I am hoping to be done with this animation over the weekend so I can fully focus on 11 second club next week until the deadline.
Also if I get the time during the weekend, I will pick up the staircase animation and try to finish this as well.
It pretty much counts for the whole animation really to add that extra pass with breakdowns to offset things.
But this is what I had to show in class today:
There wasn't really much to say about what I have so far except from that it is looking good and I just have to keep on working.
I am hoping to be done with this animation over the weekend so I can fully focus on 11 second club next week until the deadline.
Also if I get the time during the weekend, I will pick up the staircase animation and try to finish this as well.
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Mime WIP 4
I have now added a lot of breakdowns and really worked with the bounce in the wall making it very clear he is hitting something hard. I have also addressed Siobhan's comment on giving him that extra beat of realization of what just happened after hitting the wall.
Also I have made stronger poses as he is pushing on the wall and adding shaking arms to strengthen this illusion. Still need a lot more breakdowns in the last half as he paints the door.
After showing this in class today there were some arguments from Andreas Hansen about if he should look forward when pushing against the wall, but I disagree as if he would do this, his head would go through the wall and simply if it was a real wall, it would not be possible.
After some discussion we agreed that it is not possible to look straight ahead but Andreas still suggested to turn his head a bit more so we can see more of his face. This I will try to do and see how it works.
Also Siobhan suggested to give him more time to feel the wall and define it before he starts to push on it. It is a nice idea and I will try to put this in later but first I will try to get through the whole animation like it is currently and if I find the time, I will add this extra animation.
Also I have made stronger poses as he is pushing on the wall and adding shaking arms to strengthen this illusion. Still need a lot more breakdowns in the last half as he paints the door.
After showing this in class today there were some arguments from Andreas Hansen about if he should look forward when pushing against the wall, but I disagree as if he would do this, his head would go through the wall and simply if it was a real wall, it would not be possible.
After some discussion we agreed that it is not possible to look straight ahead but Andreas still suggested to turn his head a bit more so we can see more of his face. This I will try to do and see how it works.
Also Siobhan suggested to give him more time to feel the wall and define it before he starts to push on it. It is a nice idea and I will try to put this in later but first I will try to get through the whole animation like it is currently and if I find the time, I will add this extra animation.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Hollywood Opportunity update
After asking Chris about how quickly I should apply, it turns out I won't be able to finish this module before applying for this job.
It is kind of a slap to the face as right now I feel like I have more than enough work to do but I will try my best to also get a show reel up and going ASAP.
My lecturer encourages me to apply as it is a great opportunity as if I would get the job, there should be a way of solving the issue with my degree, in terms of possibly making my internship my final project.
And of course as stated before. It is a great opportunity which is too good to miss and I agree with my lecturer (Siobhan Fenton) that it will be a great experience.
At the same time it might be nice to see where I stand.
It is kind of a slap to the face as right now I feel like I have more than enough work to do but I will try my best to also get a show reel up and going ASAP.
My lecturer encourages me to apply as it is a great opportunity as if I would get the job, there should be a way of solving the issue with my degree, in terms of possibly making my internship my final project.
And of course as stated before. It is a great opportunity which is too good to miss and I agree with my lecturer (Siobhan Fenton) that it will be a great experience.
At the same time it might be nice to see where I stand.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Mime WIP 3 Feedback on Facebook
After posting this on Facebook I got a note from Siobhan:
Much better. Also - when your character bumps into the glass, consider having a moment of confusion [a beat] before he places his hands on the glass just to give us a moment to understand what is happening.
I do agree that it will help the animation giving him that tiny bit of extra thinking time so I will address this for my next version.
Much better. Also - when your character bumps into the glass, consider having a moment of confusion [a beat] before he places his hands on the glass just to give us a moment to understand what is happening.
I do agree that it will help the animation giving him that tiny bit of extra thinking time so I will address this for my next version.
Mime WIP 3
I have now gotten rid of the teapot and the feedback from my lecturers after sending them the new clip by email is positive so all I have to do now is to take the mime to the next stage.
Mime WIP 2
After a lot of hard work, I have now finally gotten through my whole sequence with the storytelling block. In addition to adding the remaining storytelling poses, I have also addressed the feedback I received on Tuesday and this is what I had to show in the class today:
After showing it to my class I got to know that it is really starting to come along but they did not see the point of the teapot.
I was suggested to get rid of it as well as they did have troubles understanding what he was doing when he was getting his paint from his paint palette and painting the door.
When it comes to the teapot, I'm actually happy to remove it as it will save me from some hundred frames and the nightmare of trying to get dynamics to work as I wanted it to break into pieces when hitting the floor.
The movements he does when painting will make more sense as I get more breakdowns defining a swirly motion in his hands I believe.
After showing it to my class I got to know that it is really starting to come along but they did not see the point of the teapot.
I was suggested to get rid of it as well as they did have troubles understanding what he was doing when he was getting his paint from his paint palette and painting the door.
When it comes to the teapot, I'm actually happy to remove it as it will save me from some hundred frames and the nightmare of trying to get dynamics to work as I wanted it to break into pieces when hitting the floor.
The movements he does when painting will make more sense as I get more breakdowns defining a swirly motion in his hands I believe.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Deadline Extension
Siobhan brought some good news on Facebook today.
We have gotten one week extension for our tasks. Even though the new module will start as normal, this is great news as I absolutely need that extra time quite badly as I have now come to realize how much work I have to do with my mime.
We have gotten one week extension for our tasks. Even though the new module will start as normal, this is great news as I absolutely need that extra time quite badly as I have now come to realize how much work I have to do with my mime.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Mime WIP 1
Over the night until the lecture today, I had done as much as I could with my storytelling block for my mime. I wish I had more to show my class today but this is what I had so far:
One major difference that I've done from the storyboard is to remove the trunk and make him get what he needs from behind his back like in most cartoons. This is to simplify the idea and to shorten the animation as it is already quite long.
My classmates and lecturer thought it looks good so far but I need to make it more clear that he hits a wall as well as improving the poses when he is pushing against it, making him go down a bit and start pushing upwards.
When it comes to him hitting the wall, I'm sure it will look a lot better once I get more breakdowns in there as now it is a very rough block.
Still a lot to do, I'm barely half way so I will do what I can to have the whole block ready for Thursday's feedback session.
One major difference that I've done from the storyboard is to remove the trunk and make him get what he needs from behind his back like in most cartoons. This is to simplify the idea and to shorten the animation as it is already quite long.
My classmates and lecturer thought it looks good so far but I need to make it more clear that he hits a wall as well as improving the poses when he is pushing against it, making him go down a bit and start pushing upwards.
When it comes to him hitting the wall, I'm sure it will look a lot better once I get more breakdowns in there as now it is a very rough block.
Still a lot to do, I'm barely half way so I will do what I can to have the whole block ready for Thursday's feedback session.
Eyes in Slow Motion
When I was reading on Carlos Baena's webpage some days ago, I came across his post about eyes in slow motion, where I could see this video:
It is a really interesting study to see how eyes behave and move. What I found especially fascinating was to see how wobbly the iris actually is when moving about. It almost looks like jelly. Even though it won't be of much relevance when animating at 25fps for something which is not Slow Motion, it is still cool to know about it.
It is a really interesting study to see how eyes behave and move. What I found especially fascinating was to see how wobbly the iris actually is when moving about. It almost looks like jelly. Even though it won't be of much relevance when animating at 25fps for something which is not Slow Motion, it is still cool to know about it.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Ed's Feedback on Staircase WIP 7
Already?
I'm surprised how quickly he has responded this time as I thought I now could put this task aside and focus on my mime while waiting.
But here are Ed's words on my animation so far:
I like that bit where he kicks the toy off the side of the steps. Everything is there for the exercise. You have succeeded in getting him to go upstairs for a reason, and you have conflict for him. I'm not hearing any sound on the animation now, so it is not possible to judge whether or not his reactions are good. That is still a heck of an obstacle course on the steps!
Nothing negative there really, but I can't believe that he still complains about how many toys I have in the staircase!
I have really cut it down a lot I think and it is after all supposed to be an obstacle course. Why would the character be so irritated if there was almost nothing to get passed?
I will ask in the class tomorrow and see what my fellow students and lecturer thinks about this.
For now, I still have to put this animation on hold so I can get through my mime as well as I still haven't finished my storytelling block and I can't wait to get started on my 11 second club piece.
I'm surprised how quickly he has responded this time as I thought I now could put this task aside and focus on my mime while waiting.
But here are Ed's words on my animation so far:
I like that bit where he kicks the toy off the side of the steps. Everything is there for the exercise. You have succeeded in getting him to go upstairs for a reason, and you have conflict for him. I'm not hearing any sound on the animation now, so it is not possible to judge whether or not his reactions are good. That is still a heck of an obstacle course on the steps!
Nothing negative there really, but I can't believe that he still complains about how many toys I have in the staircase!
I have really cut it down a lot I think and it is after all supposed to be an obstacle course. Why would the character be so irritated if there was almost nothing to get passed?
I will ask in the class tomorrow and see what my fellow students and lecturer thinks about this.
For now, I still have to put this animation on hold so I can get through my mime as well as I still haven't finished my storytelling block and I can't wait to get started on my 11 second club piece.
Opportunity to work on a Hollywood Movie
Also during the week that's passed, I've received a very interesting email from Chris Williams where he wrote the following:
"
Hi,
Your name has been forwarded to me as a candidate for a potential opportunity to work on the upcoming Hollywood movie John Carter of Mars, Pixar's highly anticipated first foray into live action.
The University has been approached by Double Negative Visual Effects in London and asked to nominate who we think are animation students who are best placed to work on a summer internship on the movie down in London.
The work will be for a period of 8-12 weeks and payment would include return train travel to/from London, accommodation for the duration of the placement and a small salary (£14000 pro rata). You would be working on crowd animation as part of the production pipeline.
This is a fantastic opportunity for you and I would hope that you are willing to apply.
You will be competing against graduates from a small, select group of Universities in the UK and Europe for a limited number of places, but I know that you are more than capable of winning a place.
To apply, you need to send the following:
- your showreel
- a shot breakdown
- CV
- covering letter
Remember, you are applying for a role as an animator so everything you send should be targeted accordingly. Here is some info on the opportunity that was sent by DNeg:
"John Carter of Mars is a film based on the 1912 serial "A Princess Of Mars" written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. John Carter is a American Civil war Captain who whilst hiding in a cave from Apaches dies, and is mysteriously transported to Mars. Here John encounters various tribes of aliens, including 10 foot tall one with four arms and tusks, as well as many other strange creatures. This is a truly exciting project for the company, with 450 artists working on 1300 shots, and is especially interesting for our 100 strong team of animators.
For more information please look on Wikipedia and the MARTIAN HIERARCHY.
We will be looking for Junior animators to help us with crowd work and some of the simpler animation. We want the most talented students to do this work, and they will be required to work hard, but this will be a fantastic opportunity for them to get production experience."
As soon as you are ready to send your work, please get in touch and I will let you know where it needs to be sent.
If you have any questions regarding this opportunity, please drop me a line.
Best regards
Chris Williams
"
I actually can't believe I have been so lucky to be chosen for this opportunity as my dream is to work for Pixar one day, this is the perfect chance of both getting some studio work experience as to actually work on a Pixar film.
The only concern I have is how I will be able to do this internship next to my degree. Of course the chance of me winning the position is extremely slim but there is always the possibility of "what if".
I really want to get this module finished before putting together a showreel but I will have to ask if I have the time for that as well as what to do if I would be so lucky as to get the job.
It still is a super exciting chance that I don't want to go to waste.
"
Hi,
Your name has been forwarded to me as a candidate for a potential opportunity to work on the upcoming Hollywood movie John Carter of Mars, Pixar's highly anticipated first foray into live action.
The University has been approached by Double Negative Visual Effects in London and asked to nominate who we think are animation students who are best placed to work on a summer internship on the movie down in London.
The work will be for a period of 8-12 weeks and payment would include return train travel to/from London, accommodation for the duration of the placement and a small salary (£14000 pro rata). You would be working on crowd animation as part of the production pipeline.
This is a fantastic opportunity for you and I would hope that you are willing to apply.
You will be competing against graduates from a small, select group of Universities in the UK and Europe for a limited number of places, but I know that you are more than capable of winning a place.
To apply, you need to send the following:
- your showreel
- a shot breakdown
- CV
- covering letter
Remember, you are applying for a role as an animator so everything you send should be targeted accordingly. Here is some info on the opportunity that was sent by DNeg:
"John Carter of Mars is a film based on the 1912 serial "A Princess Of Mars" written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. John Carter is a American Civil war Captain who whilst hiding in a cave from Apaches dies, and is mysteriously transported to Mars. Here John encounters various tribes of aliens, including 10 foot tall one with four arms and tusks, as well as many other strange creatures. This is a truly exciting project for the company, with 450 artists working on 1300 shots, and is especially interesting for our 100 strong team of animators.
For more information please look on Wikipedia and the MARTIAN HIERARCHY.
We will be looking for Junior animators to help us with crowd work and some of the simpler animation. We want the most talented students to do this work, and they will be required to work hard, but this will be a fantastic opportunity for them to get production experience."
As soon as you are ready to send your work, please get in touch and I will let you know where it needs to be sent.
If you have any questions regarding this opportunity, please drop me a line.
Best regards
Chris Williams
"
I actually can't believe I have been so lucky to be chosen for this opportunity as my dream is to work for Pixar one day, this is the perfect chance of both getting some studio work experience as to actually work on a Pixar film.
The only concern I have is how I will be able to do this internship next to my degree. Of course the chance of me winning the position is extremely slim but there is always the possibility of "what if".
I really want to get this module finished before putting together a showreel but I will have to ask if I have the time for that as well as what to do if I would be so lucky as to get the job.
It still is a super exciting chance that I don't want to go to waste.
Staircase WIP7
It is kind of in the last minute but here is the new version I will be showing Ed.
As you can see, I have now removed a lot of the boxes in the staircase and changed it with larger and fewer toys. Hopefully Ed will think it looks better now.
I have also started on my next pass, adding more breakdowns during the first 250 frames.
As you can see, I have now removed a lot of the boxes in the staircase and changed it with larger and fewer toys. Hopefully Ed will think it looks better now.
I have also started on my next pass, adding more breakdowns during the first 250 frames.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Video Reference for 11 second club and today's lecture
Even though I could not work with any of my animation in Thailand, I at least got my hands on the 11 second club clip for this month so I could start preparing for the green screen studio today.
When listening to the clip, I kept on thinking of salesmen or lawyers. I decided to go for a car salesman and I made the following sketches before going to the studio:
While we were in the studio, we started to play around with various ideas based on this one. We ended up with an idea of having two door salesmen, where one is full of himself, bragging about what a good liar he is as they're walking down the street.
Here are a couple of the takes which I will use for my reference:
Acting out this scene was so much fun and I can't wait to get started animating but for now I have to focus on my mime as I have barely gotten started.
In today's lecture however, we were reminded that we will send another version of our staircase to Ed over the weekend so this means I will have to delay my mime even further so I have more to show Ed. It is very unfortunate as I do know I have a lot of work to do with my mime as well.
When listening to the clip, I kept on thinking of salesmen or lawyers. I decided to go for a car salesman and I made the following sketches before going to the studio:
While we were in the studio, we started to play around with various ideas based on this one. We ended up with an idea of having two door salesmen, where one is full of himself, bragging about what a good liar he is as they're walking down the street.
Here are a couple of the takes which I will use for my reference:
Acting out this scene was so much fun and I can't wait to get started animating but for now I have to focus on my mime as I have barely gotten started.
In today's lecture however, we were reminded that we will send another version of our staircase to Ed over the weekend so this means I will have to delay my mime even further so I have more to show Ed. It is very unfortunate as I do know I have a lot of work to do with my mime as well.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Back from Spring Break
It has been a lovely holiday in Thailand, even though I did not get to do any more animation during this time, I had a lot of fantastic experiences as well as re-charging my batteries.
What I did manage to do while away though was to read through some material on acting as well as doing some sketching:
Now I must quickly pick up where I left off and get started on my mime animation once again.
I'll finish this post with a few pictures of my time away:
Well well, it might not be relevant to animation or this course but at least now you know what I've been doing with my time while away for spring break.
What I did manage to do while away though was to read through some material on acting as well as doing some sketching:
Now I must quickly pick up where I left off and get started on my mime animation once again.
I'll finish this post with a few pictures of my time away:
Well well, it might not be relevant to animation or this course but at least now you know what I've been doing with my time while away for spring break.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Spring Break
As I've mentioned in the previous post, I am now going on a vacation to Thailand during the spring break. It might seem like a bad time to leave for a vacation but at the same time I think it will be good to charge the batteries. Since it is a long way to travel and I will be spending quite some time doing that, I will spend this time to work on my sketchbook as well as reading through some books related to this module.
See you after the break =)
See you after the break =)
Mime WIP
I wish I would have gotten more done with the mime by now, but a lot of time has been used on tweaking the rig and preparing it for this task as well as the last task.
The reason for this is because I am now leaving on a vacation during the spring break and I want to have everything as ready as possible so I can completely focus on animating when I get back.
The scenario I have chosen for the mime is Scenario 2B (He paints the door and ends up crossing through his invisible wall).
I have simplified the idea a little bit though. Instead of having a trunk in the scene, I'll just have him get his brush and brush palette from behind his back like you can see in most cartoons.
I have recorded a reference video which you can see here:
As I just mentioned earlier, I wish I would have been done with the storytelling block by now but I don't have the time to finish it right now and since I don't have a complete storytelling block I'll leave it for later to show once it's done, what I can leave you with is a screenshot from the scene and a thumbnail storyboard:
The reason for this is because I am now leaving on a vacation during the spring break and I want to have everything as ready as possible so I can completely focus on animating when I get back.
The scenario I have chosen for the mime is Scenario 2B (He paints the door and ends up crossing through his invisible wall).
I have simplified the idea a little bit though. Instead of having a trunk in the scene, I'll just have him get his brush and brush palette from behind his back like you can see in most cartoons.
I have recorded a reference video which you can see here:
As I just mentioned earlier, I wish I would have been done with the storytelling block by now but I don't have the time to finish it right now and since I don't have a complete storytelling block I'll leave it for later to show once it's done, what I can leave you with is a screenshot from the scene and a thumbnail storyboard:
Staircase WIPs
So it's been a bit quiet lately and I've kept things to myself without updating what's been going on.
After the feedback and some discussions with my tutors I decided to shorten the opening (tightening it) so now he reacts quicker and this is what I showed to my class:
People agreed that it was an improvement and i received some feedback about making the camera start moving later (as he takes his first step).
Also there were some feedback on why he would push the slinky over the edge since it was not in the way and finally I got a tip to try to make him turn around quicker in the end (turn around as he exhales)
With these things in mind, I addressed them in the next version as well as improving some of the timing:
Instead of moving the slinky, I decided to make him just kick it off the step without placing his foot there. The camera now does only start to move as he takes his first step on the staircase. The ending I'm not quite sure I want to do the changes suggested, since I want him to lead with the eyes but I guess I will figure it out better as I go along adding more frames.
Here is a refined version based on the previous block:
I'm still awaiting feedback on this one though. I have also started preparing for the mime task.
After the feedback and some discussions with my tutors I decided to shorten the opening (tightening it) so now he reacts quicker and this is what I showed to my class:
People agreed that it was an improvement and i received some feedback about making the camera start moving later (as he takes his first step).
Also there were some feedback on why he would push the slinky over the edge since it was not in the way and finally I got a tip to try to make him turn around quicker in the end (turn around as he exhales)
With these things in mind, I addressed them in the next version as well as improving some of the timing:
Instead of moving the slinky, I decided to make him just kick it off the step without placing his foot there. The camera now does only start to move as he takes his first step on the staircase. The ending I'm not quite sure I want to do the changes suggested, since I want him to lead with the eyes but I guess I will figure it out better as I go along adding more frames.
Here is a refined version based on the previous block:
I'm still awaiting feedback on this one though. I have also started preparing for the mime task.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Mime Ideas
Over the weekend and yesterday I have also worked on the script for my mime idea.
Using the same base idea I have now come up with 3 different scenarios where the first scenario is the original ending inspired by the scene from "A Goofy Movie".
When putting a trunk into the scene, I started thinking about various objects he could pull out of it to get him passed the invisible wall and I quickly realized I can come up with some quite interesting sketches but I also want to get started animating this ASAP so here are my Mime ideas:
Sketch
Goal: Get in touch with the audience
Obstacle: Invisible Wall
The mime artist is on stage, looks at the camera and starts waving. He starts to walk towards the camera (audience) but stops unexpectedly as he hits an invisible wall.
He walks from side to side searching for an opening or a way passed the wall without finding anything, his eye catches on an invisible trunk.
He goes over and opens the trunk.
Scenario 1
Inside the trunk, he finds a large and heavy hammer. He tries to pick it up but it's too heavy for him. He looks at the audience as he gets an idea. He uses his thumb against his mouth and blows himself up to become stronger and picks up the hammer quite easily this time with a satisfied look.
He moves over to the wall and hits it with his invisible hammer. To his surprise, the wall is actually now a breaking glass in front of him. The scene ends with his surprised facial expression.
Scenario 2
He picks up an invisible brush with a brush palette (of course illustrating what he is holding in his hands) and paints a teapot out of thin air (which becomes visible).
He looks at the audience as his eyebrows moves up and down and it is obvious he's got an idea.
He goes over to the wall and paints a door, puts down his painting equipment and walks through the door ending in a "TADA pose".
OR, TAKING THE IDEA EVEN FURTHER......
He tries to get through but the door won't open. He goes into a thinking pose which quickly changes to "another idea pose".
He picks back up his painting equipment and actually walks through the invisible wall to paint a doorknob on the other side. Satisfied, he walks back on his original side of the invisible wall, puts away his painting equipment and walks through the door ending in a "TADA pose"
Scenario 3
He picks up an invisible helmet. Puts it on his head. Rubs his hands as he gets into a starting pose for running.
He starts running towards the wall to break it down. The scene ends as he hits the wall and bounces back and falls on his back "unconscious"
OR
He starts running and the wall for some reason is gone and he simply runs off stage, crashing to the floor.
I will show these ideas to my tutor in class today and get some feedback on which on is the best.
Using the same base idea I have now come up with 3 different scenarios where the first scenario is the original ending inspired by the scene from "A Goofy Movie".
When putting a trunk into the scene, I started thinking about various objects he could pull out of it to get him passed the invisible wall and I quickly realized I can come up with some quite interesting sketches but I also want to get started animating this ASAP so here are my Mime ideas:
Sketch
Goal: Get in touch with the audience
Obstacle: Invisible Wall
The mime artist is on stage, looks at the camera and starts waving. He starts to walk towards the camera (audience) but stops unexpectedly as he hits an invisible wall.
He walks from side to side searching for an opening or a way passed the wall without finding anything, his eye catches on an invisible trunk.
He goes over and opens the trunk.
Scenario 1
Inside the trunk, he finds a large and heavy hammer. He tries to pick it up but it's too heavy for him. He looks at the audience as he gets an idea. He uses his thumb against his mouth and blows himself up to become stronger and picks up the hammer quite easily this time with a satisfied look.
He moves over to the wall and hits it with his invisible hammer. To his surprise, the wall is actually now a breaking glass in front of him. The scene ends with his surprised facial expression.
Scenario 2
He picks up an invisible brush with a brush palette (of course illustrating what he is holding in his hands) and paints a teapot out of thin air (which becomes visible).
He looks at the audience as his eyebrows moves up and down and it is obvious he's got an idea.
He goes over to the wall and paints a door, puts down his painting equipment and walks through the door ending in a "TADA pose".
OR, TAKING THE IDEA EVEN FURTHER......
He tries to get through but the door won't open. He goes into a thinking pose which quickly changes to "another idea pose".
He picks back up his painting equipment and actually walks through the invisible wall to paint a doorknob on the other side. Satisfied, he walks back on his original side of the invisible wall, puts away his painting equipment and walks through the door ending in a "TADA pose"
Scenario 3
He picks up an invisible helmet. Puts it on his head. Rubs his hands as he gets into a starting pose for running.
He starts running towards the wall to break it down. The scene ends as he hits the wall and bounces back and falls on his back "unconscious"
OR
He starts running and the wall for some reason is gone and he simply runs off stage, crashing to the floor.
I will show these ideas to my tutor in class today and get some feedback on which on is the best.
Staircase - Ed Hooks' Feedback
Yesterday I received Ed's feedback on my staircase animation and it was as follows:
Nice stuff, Remi. Two suggestions:
(1) Do not have him stop and think about things at the bottom of the stairs. It looks like maybe he is considering not taking his (wife?) breakfast in bed after all. Instead of that, have... him come out of the kitchen and head directly up the stairs. Not rushing, not running, just let his decision to go upstairs be made when he is still in the kitchen. We don’t need to see it.
(2) You have WAY too many little things blocking the stairs! That is a true obstacle course. With that many items on the stairs, it would make more sense that he put down the tray and clear the steps before heading up. Consider maybe having one fairly large object, like a big stuffed teddy bear or something like that, on the steps.
Removing some of the obstacles is of course no problem as all the boxes are just placeholders and I was thinking of adding some larger things instead as I get them modeled.
When it comes to the opening however, I'm not so sure that's what I will want to do as the opening with him reacting to the mess is a key moment in the scene, at least for me.
I know about the term "Kill your darlings" but this one is hard to completely kill. After all, it seems like Ed must have misunderstood what I'm trying to convey with that part of the scene. It's not a matter of the character deciding to go up the stairs or not. He is simply disappointed and irritated at his kids for not cleaning up their mess.
We have been told by Ed to think of the scene as one scene in a longer film and with this in mind, I believe the audience would understand that the character is irritated as I have written in the script that he has already told his kids to clean up the mess (which would have been an earlier scene if it was a film)
I could of course do what Ed suggests and make the character just walk straight to the staircase but then it really doesn't seem like he is reacting to the mess (considering he is expecting the staircase to be empty)
So through the day that has been, I have been emailing with my tutor, Siobhan Fenton and asked her what she thinks herself. The first email I got, she replied that she also likes what I've done with the beginning of the scene but would look more at it later and get back to me.
Today I received her email and she wrote the following:
Hi Remi
Just been watching your film a few times in relation to Eds notes and been looking at the camera for the lecture today. Here are some thoughts:
1. I think the initial fed up expression at the beginning works well [as you do] but your animations would benefit from us seeing that then getting on quicker - just to make it a little snappier and don't let us spend too much time .....
Have him walking through the door, looking at the tray smiling, but that have his eyes see the mess much sooner AS he is walking in, REACT then step forward and CUT.
2. The timing on the negotiating over the obstacles works v well and yes you could take some of the obstacles away for him to get through, maybe that was too many!
3. I am going to mention this in the session this afternoon but it relates to [1]. You need to cut on the action in your first edit. He isn't moving in the first shot but he is in the second. Get him moving / stepping forward in the first shot THEN cut as he is moving. The edit will be smoother then AND it means we are not spending too much time with him at the beginning.
4. Finally - if you get time, consider having the camera reveal what he is fed up with sooner maybe having that first cut a little sooner [again this is related to point 3.
This is much stronger work by the way, I am just trying to get you to improve even more and there are times when you spend too much time on the poses so it appears quite slow. There are times when you need to do this but just look at that beginning and end sequence and think about making it a bit tighter.
To me it all seems like a good idea about the start and I will definitely tweak that. The stuff about the camera however is correct already. The camera DOES cut on action but since this is such a rough block, one can't see the character is moving.
Nice stuff, Remi. Two suggestions:
(1) Do not have him stop and think about things at the bottom of the stairs. It looks like maybe he is considering not taking his (wife?) breakfast in bed after all. Instead of that, have... him come out of the kitchen and head directly up the stairs. Not rushing, not running, just let his decision to go upstairs be made when he is still in the kitchen. We don’t need to see it.
(2) You have WAY too many little things blocking the stairs! That is a true obstacle course. With that many items on the stairs, it would make more sense that he put down the tray and clear the steps before heading up. Consider maybe having one fairly large object, like a big stuffed teddy bear or something like that, on the steps.
Removing some of the obstacles is of course no problem as all the boxes are just placeholders and I was thinking of adding some larger things instead as I get them modeled.
When it comes to the opening however, I'm not so sure that's what I will want to do as the opening with him reacting to the mess is a key moment in the scene, at least for me.
I know about the term "Kill your darlings" but this one is hard to completely kill. After all, it seems like Ed must have misunderstood what I'm trying to convey with that part of the scene. It's not a matter of the character deciding to go up the stairs or not. He is simply disappointed and irritated at his kids for not cleaning up their mess.
We have been told by Ed to think of the scene as one scene in a longer film and with this in mind, I believe the audience would understand that the character is irritated as I have written in the script that he has already told his kids to clean up the mess (which would have been an earlier scene if it was a film)
I could of course do what Ed suggests and make the character just walk straight to the staircase but then it really doesn't seem like he is reacting to the mess (considering he is expecting the staircase to be empty)
So through the day that has been, I have been emailing with my tutor, Siobhan Fenton and asked her what she thinks herself. The first email I got, she replied that she also likes what I've done with the beginning of the scene but would look more at it later and get back to me.
Today I received her email and she wrote the following:
Hi Remi
Just been watching your film a few times in relation to Eds notes and been looking at the camera for the lecture today. Here are some thoughts:
1. I think the initial fed up expression at the beginning works well [as you do] but your animations would benefit from us seeing that then getting on quicker - just to make it a little snappier and don't let us spend too much time .....
Have him walking through the door, looking at the tray smiling, but that have his eyes see the mess much sooner AS he is walking in, REACT then step forward and CUT.
2. The timing on the negotiating over the obstacles works v well and yes you could take some of the obstacles away for him to get through, maybe that was too many!
3. I am going to mention this in the session this afternoon but it relates to [1]. You need to cut on the action in your first edit. He isn't moving in the first shot but he is in the second. Get him moving / stepping forward in the first shot THEN cut as he is moving. The edit will be smoother then AND it means we are not spending too much time with him at the beginning.
4. Finally - if you get time, consider having the camera reveal what he is fed up with sooner maybe having that first cut a little sooner [again this is related to point 3.
This is much stronger work by the way, I am just trying to get you to improve even more and there are times when you spend too much time on the poses so it appears quite slow. There are times when you need to do this but just look at that beginning and end sequence and think about making it a bit tighter.
To me it all seems like a good idea about the start and I will definitely tweak that. The stuff about the camera however is correct already. The camera DOES cut on action but since this is such a rough block, one can't see the character is moving.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Staircase task - WIP3
Even though I was supposed to send the previous version to Ed, there has been some emailing back and forth between me and my tutor about the camera move at the end.
As this does not make sense from a storytelling point of view, I have now kept the camera still and instead I fade to black.
I have also added more "stuff" in the scene to make it look even more messy. All the boxes in the staircase are placeholders for toys that I will be modeling later on.
So unless it is too late for it, this is the version I will send to Ed for some feedback:
As this does not make sense from a storytelling point of view, I have now kept the camera still and instead I fade to black.
I have also added more "stuff" in the scene to make it look even more messy. All the boxes in the staircase are placeholders for toys that I will be modeling later on.
So unless it is too late for it, this is the version I will send to Ed for some feedback:
Friday, 11 March 2011
Staircase task - WIP2
Based on the feedback I got, I have now addressed the changes I was suggested.
I got rid of the opening camera move as well as changing the first camera to a closer shot. I also made the camera follow the character more slowly up the staircase so the audience has a better chance of seeing him kicking the slinky over the edge.
Also I have tried to speed up the animation in some areas, working on the timing. But still I will have to add more animation to further enhance the timing as it can be close to 100 frames between the storytelling poses due to the character standing still and balancing the tray before moving on.
Based on my reference I noticed this big gap between my storytelling poses, which is the reason why I have decided to keep most of my timings until I have more animation to work with.
The most obvious changes to the timing is speeding up the head shake in the beginning and the turn around to continue walking up the stairs in the end after he has passed his obstacles.
As you might have noticed, I have also added more stuff to his tray so it now looks like he is doing a surprise breakfast on the bed.
The boxes in the staircase are placeholders for toys that I will be modeling later on.
With these changes, this is the version I will be sending to Ed Hooks for more feedback and I will start working on my mime task while waiting for his feedback.
I got rid of the opening camera move as well as changing the first camera to a closer shot. I also made the camera follow the character more slowly up the staircase so the audience has a better chance of seeing him kicking the slinky over the edge.
Also I have tried to speed up the animation in some areas, working on the timing. But still I will have to add more animation to further enhance the timing as it can be close to 100 frames between the storytelling poses due to the character standing still and balancing the tray before moving on.
Based on my reference I noticed this big gap between my storytelling poses, which is the reason why I have decided to keep most of my timings until I have more animation to work with.
The most obvious changes to the timing is speeding up the head shake in the beginning and the turn around to continue walking up the stairs in the end after he has passed his obstacles.
As you might have noticed, I have also added more stuff to his tray so it now looks like he is doing a surprise breakfast on the bed.
The boxes in the staircase are placeholders for toys that I will be modeling later on.
With these changes, this is the version I will be sending to Ed Hooks for more feedback and I will start working on my mime task while waiting for his feedback.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Staircase task - WIP1 Feedback
I just came back from class and luckily they liked my animation.
I did get feedback about removing the cameramove on the opening which I will remove before sending the clip to Ed.
I also got some feedback on the timing might being a bit slow so I will look into that as well and try and tweak it.
I did get feedback about removing the cameramove on the opening which I will remove before sending the clip to Ed.
I also got some feedback on the timing might being a bit slow so I will look into that as well and try and tweak it.
Staircase task - WIP1
I thought the dance from AP2 was a challenge, it seems like I have given myself quite a challenge this time as well. Here is the storytelling block of the staircase task:
I'm not 100% sure the timing is spot on yet as well as the camera move in the opening. I will have to wait for the feedback from my class as well as Ed.
From the last module I also concluded with that I from now on would try and block the facial animation as well and now I definitely see the huge advantage of doing this. It is not just more fun to animate, but it also helps me avoid doing over-animated scenes and especially helps me to get into the same emotional state as my character to portray his feelings and thoughts on the screen even better than before.
I know that it would be optimal to have the mime sketch ready as well but because of the work with the rig and delays with the feedback on task 1 (and me not being smart enough to spend that time starting on task 2) I have now prioritized to get this storytelling block finished for the show and tell in the class as well as having it ready for Ed to look at it so I can now focus on finishing the sketch for the mime animation and work with it over the weekend.
I'm not 100% sure the timing is spot on yet as well as the camera move in the opening. I will have to wait for the feedback from my class as well as Ed.
From the last module I also concluded with that I from now on would try and block the facial animation as well and now I definitely see the huge advantage of doing this. It is not just more fun to animate, but it also helps me avoid doing over-animated scenes and especially helps me to get into the same emotional state as my character to portray his feelings and thoughts on the screen even better than before.
I know that it would be optimal to have the mime sketch ready as well but because of the work with the rig and delays with the feedback on task 1 (and me not being smart enough to spend that time starting on task 2) I have now prioritized to get this storytelling block finished for the show and tell in the class as well as having it ready for Ed to look at it so I can now focus on finishing the sketch for the mime animation and work with it over the weekend.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Staircase storyboard thumbnail sketches
Even though I have already filmed the reference video, I also made some sketches based on the story so I can sketch down some storytelling poses/ideas:
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Rigs for 3Ds Max
Even though I really enjoy working with 3Ds Max and I'm very comfortable with this software there is one thing that absolutely sucks with the software. It is not the most used software in the industry when it comes to animation and because of this there are barely any cool and appealing rigs for Max. All the good rigs are for Maya and unfortunately for me, I don't know this software and I don't have the time to start learning it now.
During the weekend, I browsed CreativeCrash for some rigs for my new tasks as using the Max rig is completely out of the question as I simply hate the way it is constructed when it comes to the facial animation as well as all the gimbal problems all over the body.
Not surprisingly, there were extremely few FREE rigs for 3Ds Max that were usable, appealing and generic at the same time. I did come across a couple of really appealing and cool rigs but they can't be used as they are not bipedal and not generic enough.
Just for "fun" i decided to browse through the Maya rigs on the same page and vóla, 13 full pages of FREE rigs for Maya and most of them appealing and full of cool features.
When it comes to using rigs for 3Ds Max, I have usually ended up with two alternatives: The Max Rig and Dee by Manuel Sierra.
I prefer the Dee character as a rig but I don't like the looks of the rig because it looks like an alien and it is just not appealing.
As I browse through the Maya rigs I come across an interesting rig, "New Dee Rig for Maya"
Of course this rig looks SOOOOO MUCH more appealing than what we have for 3Ds Max and I got to admit I got kind of angry and jealous looking at what Maya users get which we Max users don't. So after seeing this I decided to start modifying the looks of the Dee rig for Max to make it look more like the version for Maya.
I do realize that I should be working with my animation but I simply can't start doing that before I have a proper rig which is why I've been working on this rig and it is about finished, just working on the final tweaks to make it fully functional after modifying it's looks:
Looks a lot more appealing, doesn't it? At least now he looks more human and I feel ready to start working on my animation.
During the weekend, I browsed CreativeCrash for some rigs for my new tasks as using the Max rig is completely out of the question as I simply hate the way it is constructed when it comes to the facial animation as well as all the gimbal problems all over the body.
Not surprisingly, there were extremely few FREE rigs for 3Ds Max that were usable, appealing and generic at the same time. I did come across a couple of really appealing and cool rigs but they can't be used as they are not bipedal and not generic enough.
Just for "fun" i decided to browse through the Maya rigs on the same page and vóla, 13 full pages of FREE rigs for Maya and most of them appealing and full of cool features.
When it comes to using rigs for 3Ds Max, I have usually ended up with two alternatives: The Max Rig and Dee by Manuel Sierra.
I prefer the Dee character as a rig but I don't like the looks of the rig because it looks like an alien and it is just not appealing.
As I browse through the Maya rigs I come across an interesting rig, "New Dee Rig for Maya"
Of course this rig looks SOOOOO MUCH more appealing than what we have for 3Ds Max and I got to admit I got kind of angry and jealous looking at what Maya users get which we Max users don't. So after seeing this I decided to start modifying the looks of the Dee rig for Max to make it look more like the version for Maya.
I do realize that I should be working with my animation but I simply can't start doing that before I have a proper rig which is why I've been working on this rig and it is about finished, just working on the final tweaks to make it fully functional after modifying it's looks:
Looks a lot more appealing, doesn't it? At least now he looks more human and I feel ready to start working on my animation.
Monday, 7 March 2011
Rango
I watched Rango in the cinema this evening. Based on what I've seen in the trailer, I thought it was going to be a good movie but unfortunately I had to leave the screen disappointed.
Despite the movie having beautiful renders, it is just not enough when the story isn't good enough. Story is KING.
Since I felt the story wasn't as good as it could have been and I didn't enjoy the movie as much, I started noticing several small "story faults" as well as weird character behaviors. By this I mean how the main character made his choices and how he acted based on what type of person he is.
In some cases he did things that didn't seem natural to his profile at all.
The movie was a standard 1,5 hour long film but it felt more like 2 hours and that's not a good sign.
Tangled in comparison is night and day. Tangled was over too quick I felt. Of course because it was such a great movie on all points.
Rango isn't the worst I've seen but neither a movie that will get stuck in my memory.
Despite the movie having beautiful renders, it is just not enough when the story isn't good enough. Story is KING.
Since I felt the story wasn't as good as it could have been and I didn't enjoy the movie as much, I started noticing several small "story faults" as well as weird character behaviors. By this I mean how the main character made his choices and how he acted based on what type of person he is.
In some cases he did things that didn't seem natural to his profile at all.
The movie was a standard 1,5 hour long film but it felt more like 2 hours and that's not a good sign.
Tangled in comparison is night and day. Tangled was over too quick I felt. Of course because it was such a great movie on all points.
Rango isn't the worst I've seen but neither a movie that will get stuck in my memory.
Video surfing - Sintel
Many years ago when I was trying to get into 3D by myself I tried various softwares and among those were Blender, a completely free, open source 3D package. I remember trying to learn the program back then without much success and the program still suffers from the same thing today as before. An absolutely HORRIBLE user interface that looks nothing like any other 3D package I've had my hands on.
Anyway, I thought I'd check in to look around and see what's new as I do know the software is getting better and better with new features all the time like any other software and hopefully they will do something about that UI of theirs someday.
Looking around on the webpage, I looked through the gallery of movies which are made using the software and I come over a movie called Sintel.
I know it's not a new movie but I have just never sat down to actually watch it before and I was stunned by what I saw.
I've seen other movies made with Blender before and no one seemed to impress me on all points. Sure, Big Buck Bunny was eye candy all over on the visuals but I think it had a poor story and the animation could have been so much better. What really bugged me with the whole movie was the characters goals and motivations that simply did not make any sense to me.
Anyway, after watching Sintel, I was impressed by how beautiful the movie looked like visually as well as the story being quite solid to my taste and what impressed me most of all was the quality of the animation. For a completely independent movie project made with only free software I was impressed and this is definitely a movie worth seeing if you haven't seen it yet:
Anyway, I thought I'd check in to look around and see what's new as I do know the software is getting better and better with new features all the time like any other software and hopefully they will do something about that UI of theirs someday.
Looking around on the webpage, I looked through the gallery of movies which are made using the software and I come over a movie called Sintel.
I know it's not a new movie but I have just never sat down to actually watch it before and I was stunned by what I saw.
I've seen other movies made with Blender before and no one seemed to impress me on all points. Sure, Big Buck Bunny was eye candy all over on the visuals but I think it had a poor story and the animation could have been so much better. What really bugged me with the whole movie was the characters goals and motivations that simply did not make any sense to me.
Anyway, after watching Sintel, I was impressed by how beautiful the movie looked like visually as well as the story being quite solid to my taste and what impressed me most of all was the quality of the animation. For a completely independent movie project made with only free software I was impressed and this is definitely a movie worth seeing if you haven't seen it yet:
Friday, 4 March 2011
The mime idea
As I mentioned some time ago I have been thinking about my Mime task and what I have been thinking is a short piece where the character giving a performance to an audience gets a big surprise himself.
The basic idea is to use the well known "glass box" trick and kind of end the scene with the mime artist trying to break out using an invisible hammer or some tool and to his big surprise REAL glass shatters in front of his eyes.
The inspiration to this idea comes from Disney's "A Goofy Movie" where there is a scene when Max and Goofy meets a mime artist holding an invisible rope and Goofy clips off the rope using his fingers as scissors, resulting in a piano falling on the mime artist.
You can see this scene in the video below. The exact scene I'm talking about starts at 9,5 minute in:
There is still missing a beginning and middle of the scene and this is the part of the sketch I'm still spinning some ideas about in my head.
The basic idea is to use the well known "glass box" trick and kind of end the scene with the mime artist trying to break out using an invisible hammer or some tool and to his big surprise REAL glass shatters in front of his eyes.
The inspiration to this idea comes from Disney's "A Goofy Movie" where there is a scene when Max and Goofy meets a mime artist holding an invisible rope and Goofy clips off the rope using his fingers as scissors, resulting in a piano falling on the mime artist.
You can see this scene in the video below. The exact scene I'm talking about starts at 9,5 minute in:
There is still missing a beginning and middle of the scene and this is the part of the sketch I'm still spinning some ideas about in my head.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
New reference filming and feedback from Ed
During the filming today I also finally received my feedback from Ed about my story and his notes were the following:
You crack me up, Remi. Cholesterol! Growling stomachs!
Domineering spouse! LOL! I want to party with you. But, listen the exercise is for a character to go up the stairs, not down them. You are giving yourself far too many things to worry about. If you want to have him sneaking some place in the house in order to do something he does not want his wife to know about, try imagining that he is an alcoholic and has a bottle of whiskey hidden in the dirty clothes hamper in the upstairs bedroom. (One of my many fathers actually did that!) We want to keep the focus on the guy climbing the stairs. You are doing a good job of evoking an emotion in the character, it is just too complex, that's all.
Not too bad I must say. But as I suspected, Ed did care about the fact that he was going down the stairs. He did have some interesting ideas though but as interesting as it would be to animate a drunk, I feel I have a big enough challenge already as it is so animating an alcoholic is kind of out of the question for me at this point. Another thing I reacted on was his suggestion to the character going upstairs to get his bottle of whiskey hidden in the dirty clothes hamper IN THE BEDROOM. I have absolutely no idea how I can communicate to the audience WHAT he is going upstairs for in this scene if that was his ultimate goal.
I discussed this with my tutor as well as mentioning the idea about the surprise breakfast and my tutor liked the idea so I decided to go for that and film my reference footage for it. I have also rewritten the scene to fit this new story:
BREAKFAST SURPRISE (THE NIGHT SNACK RE-WRITE)
It is mother's day and Lars has gotten up early this morning to surprise his wife with breakfast on the bed. Before heading to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast, he has stopped by his two children's rooms and asked them to clean up their mess and remove their toys from the staircase while he makes the breakfast.
After spending almost 1 hour in the kitchen preparing a delicious breakfast, he heads for the bedroom upstairs.
The scene starts with Lars exiting the kitchen with a tray coming around the corner to the staircase.
As Lars walks around the corner, he has an excited smile on his face which quickly changes to a disappointed expression as he stops in front of the staircase.
He shakes his head slowly and sighs and takes the first step carefully placing his feet to avoid the toys still laying in the staircase. He makes his way up the staircase carefully balancing his tray as he avoids the toys and shovels some of them away using his feet.
As he has gotten past the worst mess he stops and sighs relieved, smiles and heads for the bedroom.
ALTERNATE ENDING
As he has gotten past the worst mess he stops and sighs relieved, smiles and heads for the bedroom still looking the same direction as he takes the first step and therefore stepping on a toy car. The scene cuts to black as he starts his fall while sound effects reveal what's happening.
With this new story I have also tried to put together a character profile:
Name: Lars
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Health: Good
Physical Appearance: Slim, athletic, straight posture, blue eyes, short and brown hair.
Job: Currently a Bookseller but wants to be a writer.
Education: High school and a Bachelor in literature.
Cultural Background: American
Intelligence: Just above average.
Hygiene: Takes good care of himself, uses cologne almost daily.
Diet: Normal, balanced between junk food and healthy.
General Psychology:
Approachable, but not the type of person who is going out very often as he enjoys spending time reading a good book at home. Very kind person who always stands up for his friends and helping people around him. Observant to the people around him.
How Does the Character Feel about him/herself? He looks at himself as any average person and does not like to think highly of himself.
What Makes The Character Unique/Describe The Character In Short Words:
He's a hopeless romantic, does not stay angry for a long amount of time and usually deals with it in that moment instead of keeping it in. Very caring to people around him and always go by the phrase "The biggest joy one can have is to give joy to others"
There are still some missing rooms of some common attributes from the profile such as, Mannerisms, Strength/Weaknesses and what animal would fit to describe the character.
What bugs me is that almost every time, these point leave me with nothing more than a blank paper so it will just have to stay blank for now and maybe I will find something to fill in later on.
You crack me up, Remi. Cholesterol! Growling stomachs!
Domineering spouse! LOL! I want to party with you. But, listen the exercise is for a character to go up the stairs, not down them. You are giving yourself far too many things to worry about. If you want to have him sneaking some place in the house in order to do something he does not want his wife to know about, try imagining that he is an alcoholic and has a bottle of whiskey hidden in the dirty clothes hamper in the upstairs bedroom. (One of my many fathers actually did that!) We want to keep the focus on the guy climbing the stairs. You are doing a good job of evoking an emotion in the character, it is just too complex, that's all.
Not too bad I must say. But as I suspected, Ed did care about the fact that he was going down the stairs. He did have some interesting ideas though but as interesting as it would be to animate a drunk, I feel I have a big enough challenge already as it is so animating an alcoholic is kind of out of the question for me at this point. Another thing I reacted on was his suggestion to the character going upstairs to get his bottle of whiskey hidden in the dirty clothes hamper IN THE BEDROOM. I have absolutely no idea how I can communicate to the audience WHAT he is going upstairs for in this scene if that was his ultimate goal.
I discussed this with my tutor as well as mentioning the idea about the surprise breakfast and my tutor liked the idea so I decided to go for that and film my reference footage for it. I have also rewritten the scene to fit this new story:
BREAKFAST SURPRISE (THE NIGHT SNACK RE-WRITE)
It is mother's day and Lars has gotten up early this morning to surprise his wife with breakfast on the bed. Before heading to the kitchen to prepare the breakfast, he has stopped by his two children's rooms and asked them to clean up their mess and remove their toys from the staircase while he makes the breakfast.
After spending almost 1 hour in the kitchen preparing a delicious breakfast, he heads for the bedroom upstairs.
The scene starts with Lars exiting the kitchen with a tray coming around the corner to the staircase.
As Lars walks around the corner, he has an excited smile on his face which quickly changes to a disappointed expression as he stops in front of the staircase.
He shakes his head slowly and sighs and takes the first step carefully placing his feet to avoid the toys still laying in the staircase. He makes his way up the staircase carefully balancing his tray as he avoids the toys and shovels some of them away using his feet.
As he has gotten past the worst mess he stops and sighs relieved, smiles and heads for the bedroom.
ALTERNATE ENDING
As he has gotten past the worst mess he stops and sighs relieved, smiles and heads for the bedroom still looking the same direction as he takes the first step and therefore stepping on a toy car. The scene cuts to black as he starts his fall while sound effects reveal what's happening.
With this new story I have also tried to put together a character profile:
Name: Lars
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Health: Good
Physical Appearance: Slim, athletic, straight posture, blue eyes, short and brown hair.
Job: Currently a Bookseller but wants to be a writer.
Education: High school and a Bachelor in literature.
Cultural Background: American
Intelligence: Just above average.
Hygiene: Takes good care of himself, uses cologne almost daily.
Diet: Normal, balanced between junk food and healthy.
General Psychology:
Approachable, but not the type of person who is going out very often as he enjoys spending time reading a good book at home. Very kind person who always stands up for his friends and helping people around him. Observant to the people around him.
How Does the Character Feel about him/herself? He looks at himself as any average person and does not like to think highly of himself.
What Makes The Character Unique/Describe The Character In Short Words:
He's a hopeless romantic, does not stay angry for a long amount of time and usually deals with it in that moment instead of keeping it in. Very caring to people around him and always go by the phrase "The biggest joy one can have is to give joy to others"
There are still some missing rooms of some common attributes from the profile such as, Mannerisms, Strength/Weaknesses and what animal would fit to describe the character.
What bugs me is that almost every time, these point leave me with nothing more than a blank paper so it will just have to stay blank for now and maybe I will find something to fill in later on.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Silent weekend
As I have still not received any feedback from Ed, it is difficult to really do much about the first animation task. I feel it is silly to start animating now if he completely rips apart my idea so because of this I still have not started working on this piece.
Instead I have spent the weekend doing preparations for the final project as well as digging even further into Ed Hooks' book "Acting for Animators" to try and get a real grasp of this subject.
Since there was little time to record reference last time, my tutor has booked another session tomorrow so hopefully that will help my task even further and if I'm lucky I will get some update on where my feedback from Ed is.
I have also discussed some ideas to this task with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou as I already know the problem with my 3rd story is that he is going down and not up. However, if he is going up it would not fit the current story so we have discussed other possible scenarios and one possible idea came up: He is walking upstairs with a surprise breakfast.
It seems like this can be a good idea if not even better than the original so I will just have to wait and see tomorrow.
Instead I have spent the weekend doing preparations for the final project as well as digging even further into Ed Hooks' book "Acting for Animators" to try and get a real grasp of this subject.
Since there was little time to record reference last time, my tutor has booked another session tomorrow so hopefully that will help my task even further and if I'm lucky I will get some update on where my feedback from Ed is.
I have also discussed some ideas to this task with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou as I already know the problem with my 3rd story is that he is going down and not up. However, if he is going up it would not fit the current story so we have discussed other possible scenarios and one possible idea came up: He is walking upstairs with a surprise breakfast.
It seems like this can be a good idea if not even better than the original so I will just have to wait and see tomorrow.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Filming reference
Today we filmed some reference ideas for my task as well as others tasks.
It really helps being in a group of people as everyone can feed ideas to each others. I quickly realized that my character could me much more interesting if I make him cartoony. Before arriving I had originally put together a more serious piece and a more serious character profile. This quickly got tossed out the window as we started filming and I'm glad it happened as I think the new idea will be much more fun to animate.
Instead of having a character that seems more serious and feeling guilt he has a much lighter attitude about the whole issue.
It still bugs me however that I still haven't received the feedback from Ed Hooks as I feel I can't really start animating before I know what he has to say.
It really helps being in a group of people as everyone can feed ideas to each others. I quickly realized that my character could me much more interesting if I make him cartoony. Before arriving I had originally put together a more serious piece and a more serious character profile. This quickly got tossed out the window as we started filming and I'm glad it happened as I think the new idea will be much more fun to animate.
Instead of having a character that seems more serious and feeling guilt he has a much lighter attitude about the whole issue.
It still bugs me however that I still haven't received the feedback from Ed Hooks as I feel I can't really start animating before I know what he has to say.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Chosen story
After receiving the feedback from my tutor I have decided to send Ed my 3rd story, "The Night Snack"
My tutor did really like the story about the lawyer trying to get into heaven but concluded with the 3rd story to fit best for my task which is why I have chosen this.
I have also started thinking about the mime task. I will come back to this later on.
My tutor did really like the story about the lawyer trying to get into heaven but concluded with the 3rd story to fit best for my task which is why I have chosen this.
I have also started thinking about the mime task. I will come back to this later on.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Acting for Animation - Task 1 Ideas
Even though I created a mind map to come up with ideas for this task, it really didn't seem to help me much as I seem to work better just coming up with scenarios outside of the map.
I actually came up with more ideas when doing brainstorming with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou and I took 3 of my ideas to the writing stage.
The weird thing is that I actually seemed to come up with more ideas if the character is to walk DOWN a staircase than up which is the original task.
Here are the 3 stories I have developed so far:
Story 1 - The Delivery Man
A delivery man is delivering a new piece of furniture in a big box to an elderly man.
Because the man is old, he can't get the package up to the first floor alone and needs the delivery man's help to get the heavy package up there. The delivery man is in a non parking zone and cannot stay for long before he will be fined.
The scene starts with the delivery man placing down the package inside the old man's house ready for him to sign the delivery papers. The old man shakes his head and points up the staircase.
The delivery man looks at the staircase, then at the box and finally at the old man with a surprised face and points at his clock. The old man points at himself by opening his arms and looking down at his own body.
The delivery man sighs and picks up the very heavy package heading towards the staircase.
As he is coming around the first corner, he gets stuck. He tries to push the package through using all his strength without any luck. He sits the package down and steps back down and looks at the situation with his one hand covering his chin.
He steps back up and tilts the package on the high side, twists it around and gets ready to pick it back up. In this moment, his watch alarm starts beeping and he stressfully pushes the package up the stairs. He runs down and gives the delivery papers to the old man awaiting his signature.
the scene ends with the old man just about to sign the papers and the box slides down the staircase, smashing into the wall.
Objective:
Get the parcel on top of the stairs and get his delivery papers signed before his 5 min parking window is over.
Conflicts:
The tight L Shaped staircase
Time
Story 2 - The Lawyer
The lawyer enters the scene as he is standing at the bottom of the 10 steps leading up to the pearly gates of heaven.
He gets ready to take his first step when he stops and looks at a sign next to the stairs showing the way to hell.
He looks between the two places a couple of times before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and takes the first step. As he steps onto the first step, the step illuminates the writing "You shall not steal"
He looks down and shifts his eyes from side to side, blinks and looks back up at his goal and prepares to take the next step. As he lifts his foot to place it on the next step it illuminates the text "You shall not lie". He quickly takes his foot back down on his current step. He nervously looks back down at the sign showing "hell" and looks back at the next step. At this point he blinks his eyes and changes his facial expression to a optimistic one.
He makes a small jump across the step and runs up to the top, stopping in front of St Peter with a proud and satisfied look.
St Peter shakes his head and almost instantly, the staircase transforms into a slide, sending the lawyer back down to the bottom and straight to hell.
Goal:
Get passed the pearly gates.
Conflict:
Internal:
He wants to go to heaven but knows he's not welcome because of his lifelong career as a lawyer
External:
St. Peter
Story 3 - The Night Snack
The man enters the scene as he has just sneaked outside of his bedroom and standing at the top of the stairs ready to sneak downstairs silently to the kitchen and get a night snack.
Previously he has been to the doctor and has received the bad news that he needs to watch his cholesterol levels. Because of this, his wife has cut down on the fat food that he loves so much, and to compensate for this he sneaks down to the kitchen during the night to have a snack. He was caught last night and his wife gave him one hell of a fight so he will do anything in his power to prevent this episode from repeating itself.
Just before taking the first step, he looks back towards the bedroom with a guilty face. As he starts to turn around heading back in to the bedroom, his stomach starts making noise.
He leans up against the wall and takes his first step, making the staircase squeak. He freezes up against the wall with his eyes closed, opens one eye and looks towards the bedroom.
He opens his other eye and keeps focusing towards the bedroom as he walks slowly down the stairs, pushing his weight up against the wall to minimise the chances of making more noise.
With it being dark and him looking the other way, he only manages to do a couple of steps before he steps on his son's toy car and slips tumbling down the staircase, waking everyone up.
The scene ends with him looking up on a silhouette in an angry pose.
I still haven't started sketching out any thumbnail sketches as I still don't know which one to choose. As you might have noticed, the last story is actually a character walking DOWN the staircase instead of up.
This is actually the story that appeals to me the most but since it does not work with the specification of the task I don't know if I can use it and will have to wait for a response from my module tutor and Ed Hooks.
I actually came up with more ideas when doing brainstorming with my fellow student, Jo Christian Figenschou and I took 3 of my ideas to the writing stage.
The weird thing is that I actually seemed to come up with more ideas if the character is to walk DOWN a staircase than up which is the original task.
Here are the 3 stories I have developed so far:
Story 1 - The Delivery Man
A delivery man is delivering a new piece of furniture in a big box to an elderly man.
Because the man is old, he can't get the package up to the first floor alone and needs the delivery man's help to get the heavy package up there. The delivery man is in a non parking zone and cannot stay for long before he will be fined.
The scene starts with the delivery man placing down the package inside the old man's house ready for him to sign the delivery papers. The old man shakes his head and points up the staircase.
The delivery man looks at the staircase, then at the box and finally at the old man with a surprised face and points at his clock. The old man points at himself by opening his arms and looking down at his own body.
The delivery man sighs and picks up the very heavy package heading towards the staircase.
As he is coming around the first corner, he gets stuck. He tries to push the package through using all his strength without any luck. He sits the package down and steps back down and looks at the situation with his one hand covering his chin.
He steps back up and tilts the package on the high side, twists it around and gets ready to pick it back up. In this moment, his watch alarm starts beeping and he stressfully pushes the package up the stairs. He runs down and gives the delivery papers to the old man awaiting his signature.
the scene ends with the old man just about to sign the papers and the box slides down the staircase, smashing into the wall.
Objective:
Get the parcel on top of the stairs and get his delivery papers signed before his 5 min parking window is over.
Conflicts:
The tight L Shaped staircase
Time
Story 2 - The Lawyer
The lawyer enters the scene as he is standing at the bottom of the 10 steps leading up to the pearly gates of heaven.
He gets ready to take his first step when he stops and looks at a sign next to the stairs showing the way to hell.
He looks between the two places a couple of times before he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and takes the first step. As he steps onto the first step, the step illuminates the writing "You shall not steal"
He looks down and shifts his eyes from side to side, blinks and looks back up at his goal and prepares to take the next step. As he lifts his foot to place it on the next step it illuminates the text "You shall not lie". He quickly takes his foot back down on his current step. He nervously looks back down at the sign showing "hell" and looks back at the next step. At this point he blinks his eyes and changes his facial expression to a optimistic one.
He makes a small jump across the step and runs up to the top, stopping in front of St Peter with a proud and satisfied look.
St Peter shakes his head and almost instantly, the staircase transforms into a slide, sending the lawyer back down to the bottom and straight to hell.
Goal:
Get passed the pearly gates.
Conflict:
Internal:
He wants to go to heaven but knows he's not welcome because of his lifelong career as a lawyer
External:
St. Peter
Story 3 - The Night Snack
The man enters the scene as he has just sneaked outside of his bedroom and standing at the top of the stairs ready to sneak downstairs silently to the kitchen and get a night snack.
Previously he has been to the doctor and has received the bad news that he needs to watch his cholesterol levels. Because of this, his wife has cut down on the fat food that he loves so much, and to compensate for this he sneaks down to the kitchen during the night to have a snack. He was caught last night and his wife gave him one hell of a fight so he will do anything in his power to prevent this episode from repeating itself.
Just before taking the first step, he looks back towards the bedroom with a guilty face. As he starts to turn around heading back in to the bedroom, his stomach starts making noise.
He leans up against the wall and takes his first step, making the staircase squeak. He freezes up against the wall with his eyes closed, opens one eye and looks towards the bedroom.
He opens his other eye and keeps focusing towards the bedroom as he walks slowly down the stairs, pushing his weight up against the wall to minimise the chances of making more noise.
With it being dark and him looking the other way, he only manages to do a couple of steps before he steps on his son's toy car and slips tumbling down the staircase, waking everyone up.
The scene ends with him looking up on a silhouette in an angry pose.
I still haven't started sketching out any thumbnail sketches as I still don't know which one to choose. As you might have noticed, the last story is actually a character walking DOWN the staircase instead of up.
This is actually the story that appeals to me the most but since it does not work with the specification of the task I don't know if I can use it and will have to wait for a response from my module tutor and Ed Hooks.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
New render of the dancing animation from AP2
Before I get ahead completely with the Acting module I have now re-rendered the dancing animation from AP2 where I have fixed the rendering issues as well as improving the lighting.
As I promised back in AP2 that I will post it, here it is:
As I promised back in AP2 that I will post it, here it is:
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
New Module - Acting for Animation
After a lot of challenges in Animation Practice 2 it is about to become even more challenging now as I take on my next module, Acting For Animation and I can't wait to get started!
During this module I will be doing 3 challenging character animations where achieving good acting is essential. The tasks are as follows:
TASK 1: CHARACTER, OBJECTIVE+ OBSTACLE
In this exercise you will animate a character going up some stairs. You will need to be absolutely clear about who your character is, what mood they are in, what is their objective and obstacle.
With this task, we are even so lucky that Ed Hooks will be providing us with feedback!
TASK 2: MIME ANIMATION
In this exercise you will animate a mime artist in a performance piece.
TASK 3: TWO CHARACTER DIALOGUE ANIMATION
In this exercise you will create a convincing performance with two character in conversation.
The greatest part about this task is that we will actually participate in the monthly 11 Second Club competition and submit to it!
So that's what's going to happen in the future from now and I will of course post my work in progress with the tasks I am now given.
During this module I will be doing 3 challenging character animations where achieving good acting is essential. The tasks are as follows:
TASK 1: CHARACTER, OBJECTIVE+ OBSTACLE
In this exercise you will animate a character going up some stairs. You will need to be absolutely clear about who your character is, what mood they are in, what is their objective and obstacle.
With this task, we are even so lucky that Ed Hooks will be providing us with feedback!
TASK 2: MIME ANIMATION
In this exercise you will animate a mime artist in a performance piece.
TASK 3: TWO CHARACTER DIALOGUE ANIMATION
In this exercise you will create a convincing performance with two character in conversation.
The greatest part about this task is that we will actually participate in the monthly 11 Second Club competition and submit to it!
So that's what's going to happen in the future from now and I will of course post my work in progress with the tasks I am now given.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Animation Practice 2 - Conclusion
As I am now about to wrap up this module I will say some final words about what I have learned through animating these 3 challenging tasks.
First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback through this module, helping me progress as an animator even further.
I am happy that I finally got to do an animation where I have characters dancing and doing it with 2 characters has absolutely been a challenging and given me more knowledge on what I would do next time I animate 2 characters.
The presenter animation pushed me even further on how to make my animation much more snappy when I need it to be as well as it proved to me that I can animate characters who have an extremely small moving hold and it still looks good (by this I mean that the character doesn't have to move all the time)
But the most important point I have learned during this module was when I received my feedback from Ed Hooks. As I mentioned earlier, I did not want to animate the face as part of the block but if there is one main conclusion I can draw from this module it is to also block the facial animation as this can help prevent "over animated" scenes. By this I mean that a face can sell the performance and I might not have to show what the character is feeling by moving it around as long as we can see the face showing the emotion.
The other reason I want to try again now to block facial animation is because I got really sick of looking at my brain dead characters until the very end. It just gives me more feedback about the performance instantly and it all comes down to THINKING LIKE A 2D ANIMATOR.
2D animators does not have the luxury of working in layers like 3D animators. Even though it is a good thing that 3D animators can work in layers if they want to, the best 3D animators are animators with a 2D background and because of this I cannot stress enough how important it is to think like a 2D animator. "Every Frame Is A Drawing"
I am now taking all this knowledge with me to the next module and I can't wait to do some animation with some serious performance in it!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback through this module, helping me progress as an animator even further.
I am happy that I finally got to do an animation where I have characters dancing and doing it with 2 characters has absolutely been a challenging and given me more knowledge on what I would do next time I animate 2 characters.
The presenter animation pushed me even further on how to make my animation much more snappy when I need it to be as well as it proved to me that I can animate characters who have an extremely small moving hold and it still looks good (by this I mean that the character doesn't have to move all the time)
But the most important point I have learned during this module was when I received my feedback from Ed Hooks. As I mentioned earlier, I did not want to animate the face as part of the block but if there is one main conclusion I can draw from this module it is to also block the facial animation as this can help prevent "over animated" scenes. By this I mean that a face can sell the performance and I might not have to show what the character is feeling by moving it around as long as we can see the face showing the emotion.
The other reason I want to try again now to block facial animation is because I got really sick of looking at my brain dead characters until the very end. It just gives me more feedback about the performance instantly and it all comes down to THINKING LIKE A 2D ANIMATOR.
2D animators does not have the luxury of working in layers like 3D animators. Even though it is a good thing that 3D animators can work in layers if they want to, the best 3D animators are animators with a 2D background and because of this I cannot stress enough how important it is to think like a 2D animator. "Every Frame Is A Drawing"
I am now taking all this knowledge with me to the next module and I can't wait to do some animation with some serious performance in it!
AP 2 Research
I know I should have given my readers some input to what I have been up to in terms of research and what gives me inspiration during this module. Since I have kind of forgotten to mention all of this earlier I am doing it now, better late than never.
First of all, when it comes to knowledge about animation I only have a few sources that I have been looking at during this module.
For learning animation there are very few online resources I have been following:
Keith Lango
11 Second Club
Animaiton Mentor Tips and Tricks Blog
Animation Mentor Webinars
I know this might seem like a short list but I feel that I get all the info I need from this next to the other material I have been using in book form and DVD:
Character Animation Crash Course - Eric Goldberg
Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams
Animators Survival Kit Animated - Richard Williams
Even though there is still a lot of good tips and knowledge online, I still feel that the best knowledge I have gotten is through the last 3 materials which I have read and watched. It is the absolute foundation needed in order to get started. I have now been studying animation for 3,5 years and I feel I have gotten to a point where the best way to learn is to simply do animation and figure out work flows that work for me.
Please don't misunderstand me as I don't read about animation. It is great reading material which I never get tired of but my focus is now leading more towards practicing it and studying the world around me which leads me to my little video here:
During this module, there has been a lot of discussion between me and some fellow students regarding offsetting parts of the characters body to loosen up the animation. I remember back in the day when I used to offset characters body parts by offsetting the keys as I was close to finishing the animation. It was a horrible thing to do, I did not just offset things. I changed the timing. And the worst part was the mess I created in the time line. Once I took this step with my animation there was no turning back and it was horrific. Luckily after watching Animators Survival Kit Animated I finally got my head around the understanding of the difference between timing and spacing and I am now thinking like a 2D animator as much as possible and I am implementing offsets in my breakdown drawings, changing the spacing and not the timing. It makes it all a lot easier to manage and it is possible to make changes.
Even though I have managed to do this with the body I have still been kind of doing the same thing with the fingers of a character which is why I did a little test to find out. Does the different joints of a finger actually arrive at different timings.
According to the video, my two outer joints does actually arrive 1-3 frames later than the first, depending on the speed.
Even though this is proven on the video, I would still conclude with that it is still possible to build it in using different spacing. As long as it looks like it is happening a different speeds it should be good.
The most interesting observation I made however is how uniform the last two joints move together as one which is something I have not taken into account with my animation before.
I am sorry about not being very specific about all the stuff I have been looking into and I will improve on this from now on. I have now added 2 more boxes on the right hand side where I will add videos and links of interest that I have come upon.
Finishing off this post I am giving you the link to what I think is the most inspirational 11 second club clip I have seen up to this moment:
11 Second Club - Ice Cream
I know it is from November but still, it is extremely beautifully done and I love watching it frame by frame and seeing all the work and details behind this animation.
First of all, when it comes to knowledge about animation I only have a few sources that I have been looking at during this module.
For learning animation there are very few online resources I have been following:
Keith Lango
11 Second Club
Animaiton Mentor Tips and Tricks Blog
Animation Mentor Webinars
I know this might seem like a short list but I feel that I get all the info I need from this next to the other material I have been using in book form and DVD:
Character Animation Crash Course - Eric Goldberg
Animators Survival Kit - Richard Williams
Animators Survival Kit Animated - Richard Williams
Even though there is still a lot of good tips and knowledge online, I still feel that the best knowledge I have gotten is through the last 3 materials which I have read and watched. It is the absolute foundation needed in order to get started. I have now been studying animation for 3,5 years and I feel I have gotten to a point where the best way to learn is to simply do animation and figure out work flows that work for me.
Please don't misunderstand me as I don't read about animation. It is great reading material which I never get tired of but my focus is now leading more towards practicing it and studying the world around me which leads me to my little video here:
During this module, there has been a lot of discussion between me and some fellow students regarding offsetting parts of the characters body to loosen up the animation. I remember back in the day when I used to offset characters body parts by offsetting the keys as I was close to finishing the animation. It was a horrible thing to do, I did not just offset things. I changed the timing. And the worst part was the mess I created in the time line. Once I took this step with my animation there was no turning back and it was horrific. Luckily after watching Animators Survival Kit Animated I finally got my head around the understanding of the difference between timing and spacing and I am now thinking like a 2D animator as much as possible and I am implementing offsets in my breakdown drawings, changing the spacing and not the timing. It makes it all a lot easier to manage and it is possible to make changes.
Even though I have managed to do this with the body I have still been kind of doing the same thing with the fingers of a character which is why I did a little test to find out. Does the different joints of a finger actually arrive at different timings.
According to the video, my two outer joints does actually arrive 1-3 frames later than the first, depending on the speed.
Even though this is proven on the video, I would still conclude with that it is still possible to build it in using different spacing. As long as it looks like it is happening a different speeds it should be good.
The most interesting observation I made however is how uniform the last two joints move together as one which is something I have not taken into account with my animation before.
I am sorry about not being very specific about all the stuff I have been looking into and I will improve on this from now on. I have now added 2 more boxes on the right hand side where I will add videos and links of interest that I have come upon.
Finishing off this post I am giving you the link to what I think is the most inspirational 11 second club clip I have seen up to this moment:
11 Second Club - Ice Cream
I know it is from November but still, it is extremely beautifully done and I love watching it frame by frame and seeing all the work and details behind this animation.
Animation Practice 2 - Final Hand-Ins
After being awake for 30 hours working hard, I have finally handed in all my final renders for this module:
LIP SYNC - FINAL RENDER
Here I have now made the small change with the eyes, making them move ahead of the head so it breaks up things.
THE PRESENTER - FINAL RENDER
With this animation I have now taken into account all the feedback I have received as well as adding all the facial animation. I think I finally managed to get the snappy motion to the hands that I wanted and the tip I got from Ed Hooks by keeping him in one pose definitely helped the animation a lot and I am actually quite satisfied with the result.
DANCING AND SINGING - FINAL RENDER
As I mentioned earlier, this is the animation I had the biggest problem letting go as it could be even better. This is the final render however and that sucks as well because of the damned reflection in the window in the background it kind of takes away the focus from the characters and I unfortunately noticed this too late and just had to hand in this render. I will still make a new render though and post it.
LIP SYNC - FINAL RENDER
Here I have now made the small change with the eyes, making them move ahead of the head so it breaks up things.
THE PRESENTER - FINAL RENDER
With this animation I have now taken into account all the feedback I have received as well as adding all the facial animation. I think I finally managed to get the snappy motion to the hands that I wanted and the tip I got from Ed Hooks by keeping him in one pose definitely helped the animation a lot and I am actually quite satisfied with the result.
DANCING AND SINGING - FINAL RENDER
As I mentioned earlier, this is the animation I had the biggest problem letting go as it could be even better. This is the final render however and that sucks as well because of the damned reflection in the window in the background it kind of takes away the focus from the characters and I unfortunately noticed this too late and just had to hand in this render. I will still make a new render though and post it.
WIP 7, Dancing and Singing Task
I have now done everything in my power to tweak the animation as far as I can get it within the deadline. There as still areas where it seems kind of snappy and it irritates me that I have still been unsuccessful in figuring out what's causing it. I've been looking at curves everywhere and I can't find anything unusual.
I also tried rigging the hair very simple for animation but that proved to be more difficult than I thought as all I got was strange result the moment I added the skin modifier so instead of waste time on this, I animated the hair by animating the vertices in the edit poly modifier. It could definitely look a lot better if I had more time but it is still better than no motion at all.
As much as I still see things that need improvement and how difficult it is, I have to let the animation go and call it finished so I can move on to my Presenter animation and make the necessary changes before the deadline.
Also I have completely forgot to even mention feedback on my lip sync task which is also something I need to tweak before the deadline. The last time I showed my Lip Sync animation to my tutor, I was told that in the very beginning it looks like the eyes and head move at the same time so I will tweak this as soon as I get to it.
But here is the final animation for my Dancing, ready for render:
As you might have noticed, I have added a new camera angle. This is because I wanted to capture the girl stroking her hands across his face as well as capturing both of their faces in that moment as it did not show as well in the previous camera angle.
I also tried rigging the hair very simple for animation but that proved to be more difficult than I thought as all I got was strange result the moment I added the skin modifier so instead of waste time on this, I animated the hair by animating the vertices in the edit poly modifier. It could definitely look a lot better if I had more time but it is still better than no motion at all.
As much as I still see things that need improvement and how difficult it is, I have to let the animation go and call it finished so I can move on to my Presenter animation and make the necessary changes before the deadline.
Also I have completely forgot to even mention feedback on my lip sync task which is also something I need to tweak before the deadline. The last time I showed my Lip Sync animation to my tutor, I was told that in the very beginning it looks like the eyes and head move at the same time so I will tweak this as soon as I get to it.
But here is the final animation for my Dancing, ready for render:
As you might have noticed, I have added a new camera angle. This is because I wanted to capture the girl stroking her hands across his face as well as capturing both of their faces in that moment as it did not show as well in the previous camera angle.
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