Our Group Sea Project

This is our group's finished Sea Project animation.
I think it's turned out as we originally set out to do although I feel if we had more time we could have perhaps made some of the sequences a bit less jerky but in terms of the fact that the whole idea was to experience teamwork, I think we worked well.
 The main focus of this project for our group was to work away from the literal and interpret the story using metaphorical imagery to explain the main points. We wanted to use a medium we were all familiar with as well as a medium that had the ability to give us subtle brush strokes to portray a sensitive story. We also exploited our strengths by dividing our roles into what each of us were best at in order to achieve a greater success as the abstract nature of our idea meant we were being more experimental with watercolour techniques. However because watercolour is an easy and reversible medium there was more freedom to experiment and still undo sections that perhaps didn’t fit with the colour scheme. It’s also a widely used medium that all of us had used on numerous occasions.

P.S. Please excuse the bad quality in some sections. It was the only way to get the video on here. The high quality version was too much for poor Blogger.

 

 

Motion Studies Showreel

This showreel is supposed to show character movement in particular and to see how far I've progressed since my last showreel. In particular I had to focus on character performance to make them seem alive instead of looking like moving puppets. I could have done better with some of these animations but because of the amount of other work I had to do I only had a brief opportunity to go back and improve some aspects of character performance. Now that I have the summer available, I plan to work on performance in animation as this was the only improvement I needed to work on from my first showreel. It's also one of the hardest elements to crack out of timing, weight, anticipation, overlap and performance.

I have studied character performance and motion in particular over the weeks by watching a lot of Dreamwork's Animations (Favourite studio) to see what they do to make their characters look alive. Here's what I've picked up on:

• Constantly moving, even when they're static (i.e. chest moving in out to simulate breathing)
• Facial expressions always moving (our facial muscles are always doing something)
• Not so much anticipation and overlap visible as they're trying to keep the character's movements realistic enough that exaggeration isn't required.
• Constantly performing (Just because the focus isn't always on a certain character doesn't mean their expressions should stop as well)
• Subtle is sometimes the most effective.

Obviously the simple rigs I have access to can never compete with rigs used by Dreamworks which is what makes their character's act on a whole new level but at least I can take what I've learnt from these guys and put these skills into practice. Practice makes Perfect!

Jack Frost: Rise of the Guardians- One advantage for animator's..... he flies. Therefore the lucky devils didn't have to deal with the weight factor so much. Challenges: Cloth and hair simulation, oh and the subtle addition put into the feet that allows the muscles to flatten outwards slightly when he's walking.

Hiccup: How to Train Your Dragon- Obviously, the facial expressions! He's also a spindly character which means his weight is minute so the animator's can basically chuck him around the screen and there's no additional fat to have to move around. Challenges: Same as Jack. Hair and Cloth simulation. Luckily they didn't have to deal with feet this time around as Hiccup had shoes.

 

 

Even though these two films are only a couple of years apart, I can already see the massive leaps in technology. Rise of the Guardians used a complex particle system to create Sandman's golden dream sand as well as Pitch's black sand. Then there's also the way they created prosthetic skin which they scanned in to give the character's more translucent skin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Horse films for the Sea Project

These are the horse hooves that will be trampling the the two characters in the final animation.

 

Side on view of the horse stampede

 

 

Side on close up view of one of the horses.

 

 

In the end, although their was time and effort put into the front shot of the horses, they have been removed from the final film. The characters have been placed off centre facing left so in order for the audience to realise that the horses are heading for them, the horses would need to be off centre facing right. We're only putting into practice what we have learnt in cinematography and that is the eye line needs to meet so naturally we are creating the confrontation.

Revised Ident

The improved ident after today's feedback from the screening.

Improvement needed: There needs to be a better transition from the logo in the water to the main title as it just cross faded between the two with no real relation to the animation part of the ident.

Resolution: I made the logo in the water become the 'F' in the main title before it fades away to the real 'Falmouth' title. I also altered the camera so it zoomed in to the logo placing it already on the left hand side of the screen where the title would appear. I did additionally make the logo move itself slightly into position instead of the camera move doing it all for me but I did need to do this in order for the logo and the title to morph together.

2D Animation Adaptation

This is the completed animation for the 2D version of the Animation Adaptation Project. I have to say overall I don't think I've done too badly although there is definite improvement needed in the painting of the rocks. They look too textured for an animation background and would completely distract the audience from any character's that would be in the scene. The colouring needs to be simpler with just a few shadows to define the rock's uneven surfaces.


However I've gained more experience working with Toon Boom (I used it in my Foundation Diploma course last year) and I can use it the way it should be used. I'm not entirely interested in working with it on future animations as I still think 3D is the way forward for me but it's not something I'll stop working with altogether because it does have easy navigation and it is enjoyable to dip in and out of 3D from time to time anyway as more exaggeration of anticipation and overlap can be achieved where in 3D it is limited.

3D model and adaptation videos

3D Texture model- Three stages (Basic model, Texture and final colour)

 

 

3D Adaptation

 

 



Animation Ident

Here is the finished Ident including sound effects.

I found this to be one of the most enjoyable projects I've done so far, possibly because I had more freedom in terms of the content of the animation. The theme relates to the Cornwall area as well, being a fishing town and I could say the colour scheme fits too as I'm yet to see a perfect summer's day!
If I have time to re-work some improvements into the piece, I would say it needs splashes from the fish and the rod hitting the water. However the animation feels very theatrical as the water moves in layers and as entire pieces instead of singular waves so the inclusion of waves could possibly make it less like a theatre production. But I have seen productions where ripped up pieces of paper or cloth have been used to replicate splashes so if I have time I might follow the same technique and use singular shapes to portray this effect.
In terms of the animation, some sections are purposely meant to not have any overlap, such as when he's chasing his rod because I wanted more emphasis to be on the pauses to give a better suggestion of emotion. I wanted to depict that feeling we get when the faster certain events unfold the slower we process what's happening, hence his long pause after he's lost his rod as he's still thinking through what just happened.

sound effects courtesy of freesfx.co.uk

3D Model and Adaptation Project

3D Model with texture and colour- The aim of the project was to go out and gather reference photos of textures, such as a broken wall or rusty lamp post, and replicate the textures in 3D.

I used both Maya and Mudbox to build the model and add detail and colour to create the image.

Reference photos







And the 3D replica

 

 

I didn't particularly enjoy doing this project because I found it quite difficult to replicate chipped paint in Mudbox using the brushes and textures available to me. In the end the lamp post had more rust than paint but at least I know for future reference that texturing in Maya is not what I'm interested in.

 

 

3D Animation Adaptation

 

 

This was a follow on from the 2D version of the project where I had to take an image of an environment and rebuild it in Toon Boom/Photoshop and add a camera move. This one was more enjoyable than the modelling although I had to problem solve how to add water to my scene. Throughout this project, I think I was spending most of my time just playing around with water in order to understand what effects worked the best. I went through pond shaders, ocean shaders and bump maps to find the best water interpretation and although the water is supposed to act more like a pond than an ocean I found the ocean shader gave the best effect.

Originally the scene is supposed to have waterfalls cascading from some of the rocks however I felt in Maya it made the composition too busy, as I already had a pool of water which, for me, was enough. If there had been character animation included in the scene with waterfalls then there would be too much information and the character's could easily become the least important aspects of the scene.

 

 

3 Backgrounds

Here are my final finished backgrounds.

Complementary colour scheme of blue and orange- Perhaps more definition was required for the buildings in the background because at the moment it just looks like a big fire blazing. Although at that distance it would be difficult to make out shapes if everything was alight.  I think the boat could be darker too, to blend in more with the darkness of the water and sky.

 

I had to take into account where the animation would be and although there is space for motion I think there could be lot less of the decking showing. The scene doesn't have many props which is what's making the composition boring to look at.

 

 

Personally I think this was one of my best pieces- the lighting and shadows is as accurate as I could get them. Perhaps another light was needed in the top right as extra illumination for the globe but I did want to have a definite contrast between light and shadow and I feel the black around the outside acts like a frame to draw the eye towards the table.

Horses with watercolour

Horses final

Final sequence of horses for the sea project. I still have to superimpose actual watercolour spray over the top of the animation to keep in style with the rest of the film but other than that the sequence is complete. I'll do the spray by painting on white paper than using the magic wand tool in photoshop I can remove the white sections of paper.

40 frames down, 42 to go.

40 frames down, 42 to go. This is roughly half of the animation for the sea project.

I've taken what I learnt about cel shading and the animation I created from that of the horses and moved it into the production stage of the project. But it's gone a step further and instead of leaving it at a rendered Maya stage, the frames have been taken across to Photoshop for more detailed artwork to be placed on top. It gives the horses a more textured quality and ties in better with our group's watercolour style with the strokes giving the horses a 'watery' effect.

I did originally want to paint over every frame but I know from past experiences that doing so would make the horses and the waves seem like they were flickering. It wouldn't look attractive and it wouldn't be easy to watch so I've reduced the number of frames by animating on 2's. The movement is still fluid but the flickering won't be as erratic.

 

Horses before Photoshop details added.

 

 

 

 

After Photoshop.

 

 

 

First half of the animation.

 

Ident Animatic

Below are the thumbnail sketches of the animatic. Most of the left page was actually taken out of the final animatic because it didn't fit into the 10 second block. However after putting everything together the ident wouldn't have needed the shots I had planned anyway. What I wanted to preserve more than anything was the timing, the most important pauses being when he's trying to hold on to the rod as he pulls back and the moment after he's lost his rod before he notices the dark shadow rising out of the water.

Pencil thumbnails- Frames 2-6 were taken out for the final animatic.

Final animatic (Or first draft of the animatic)