Final Animatic

As one last post before the holiday, I thought I'd show my final animatic that was completed last week. I'm happy with the overall product, having drawn the frames and recorded all of the voices myself, only finding the sound effects elsewhere. 

Towards the end I feel I could have had a bit more movement to really show what was going on, although I did focus on this more in the earlier parts of the sotry like when Boomer is walking through the woods.

TVPaint - Extra Exercises

While I created these few animations a short while ago now, I realised I never posted them on my blog! I thought I'd share them, as I'm quite happy with the results despite each one being in a slightly sketchy unfinished style.

I also have an updated version of an earlier animation I posted. I lined it and added colour and shading. I think some of the lineart and colouring still looks a bit rough but I'm happy with the way the shading changes as the animal turns it's head.

TVPaint - Water Splash and Elongated Inbetweens

The last of our 2D exercises involved looking at the way water moves when something is thrown into it, and also at elongated inbetweens to get across faster movement in less frames. 

I found both of these exercises quite difficult when trying to tackle them.The first is the water splash. A ball is thrown into a pool of water and it splashes and ripples out around the ball. I struggled to show that the water was splashing out from all sides rather than just right and left. I tried to include a second smaller smash as the ball floated back to the surface too.

 

 For the second exercise, I found it quite easy to get the initial sketches down on TVPaint, and was happy with the way it came out. However, when I tried adding finished lines to complete the exercise, I was unable to achieve the result I was hoping for. Instead I tried a different route and tried just using colour without the lines instead. I think I need to try and polish this technique more.

 

 

 

Maya - Posing and Constraints

More recent 3D tasks on Maya include posing of the Mery model, and working with constraints. 

I enjoyed working with Mery to create a variety of different poses.

I think that the first couple of poses appear to be more stiff than the rest, as I was still getting to grips with how the model moved. I needed to put more focus into the movement of her shoulders and remember that some of the joints should only bend in certain ways. I was careful not to elongate her back or legs too much.

The last task we were given for Maya was to work with parent-child relationships and constraints. The model had to approach and pick up a box, and I made mine move the box's position and put it down again.

I'm quite happy with the constraints, having attached the box to the wrist, moved it, and then reset the resting position as it's put back down again. I think the walk up to the box looks quite stiff though, even though I tried to move his hips and shoulders to get a more human like feel. The way he straightens up the first time could also be a more fluid movement, as his legs straighten and then his back follows. It was also difficult to understand how the knees would move and where they would face as he crouched down.

Storyboards - First Attempt and Deep Script

A while ago now I had to create my first storyboard! The intention was to focus on speed and direction. Two 'things' had to be heading towards each other at different speeds, and I needed to think about how to portray this. I tried using the car in the background to show the slower movement of the dog walker, and then how little distance the walker covered in comparison to the character on the skateboard.

 

The storyboard I completed most recently was for a portion of a script. I had to use the dialogue and actions to create a scene. I wanted the think about different types of shots, including close ups, over the shoulder two shots, and long shots to get a better view of the whole scene. 

Stopmotion - A couple of updates!

It's been a little while since I did some stopmotion animation, so earlier this week I went back to try a couple of the exercises again in the hope of getting some better results. I tried the throw action again, as well as a normal walk cycle.

I feel like I got the timing for correct on this one, however I still think I need a bit more follow through in the action.

As for my walk, I'm much happier with the way it turned out. The previous attempts had more character, so I needed an example that was much simpler. The steps the puppet takes look more even and I think it is well paced. I managed to keep her from tipping forwards, and the feet don't look too floppy.

Stopmotion - Walking

For this weeks task, we had to move the puppets from one side of the stage to the other by making it walk. This was quite a challanging task in many ways. Tightening the joints on the puppet was essential at the start, although I still experienced some issued with falling over later on in the walk as the hips or ankle came loose. You can see where this happens as in some cases the clothes make large adjustments between frames.

For my first walk, while I followed all of the steps with the legs, I think I failed to recognise where the body moves up and down. I also didn't quite get the pacing right, so the puppet seems to jog across the screen before slowing and coming to a stop. In a couple of instances, the foot looks like it's slipping backwards as the puppet moves, which shouldn't be the case.

For the second walk, I moved the puppet in the opposite direction. I exaggerated the movements a bit more, although this did mean I wasn't able to get in as many paces across the stop motion stage. On the second step I can see that the foot flops a little too much, making the action more cartoon like than realistic. In this attempt however, I feel I managed to set the pace better and also get each movement in the correct position so that the head goes up and down as it is supposed to.