mandag 30. april 2012
Final animations uploaded
The final hand-in versions of the animations are now uploaded to the "Acting for Animation" page. Enjoy!
(remember to select HD quality for the videos if youtube does not do it automatically)
søndag 29. april 2012
Thoughts about the module
So another module is coming to an end, or to be honest it is actually over but due to the one week extension we are still hard at work. I must say I have enjoyed this module a lot. The module has been all about the actual acting and Siobhan has encouraged us to get up from our chairs and move around in class, which ended up with us having a lot of fun in class. And it's been useful, so useful. I never really thought much about my characters personalities, I knew they had to have one but this module has shown me how much of a difference good planning actually does. We got the basics in the previous module, and that allowed us to think a bit further when we started this one.
The mime-task was really good that way, especially as preparation for the next big task at hand: The final year project. We spent weeks and weeks planning the mime and I think it shows in everyones work that the planning-process has helped us do better and better work.
So even though the last couple of days has been all work and a few hours shut-eye in total to make sure we finish as strong as possible, it's been such a great experience.
And I must add what has been a small victory for me, I have managed to finish two animation-pieces in Maya. I had never done anything in it before this module so i am very happy with the fact that i actually managed to do that this time. Iv'e said that I would start using it so many times before, but the "fear" of messing up a piece has made me stick to 3dsMax. So agian: a big thank you goes out to Scott Ramasay for helping me out throughout this module. Cheers man!
- Next up is editing the 11 second club and uploading that and the mime to the blog, but I need some rest before I do so. (I will make a separate page for this as I have done for the other modules so the final animation-pieces will be posted there.)
torsdag 26. april 2012
Linear version of the 11' piece
After feedback on the MA-group I have a better idea of what I need to look at on the actual lip-sync part. A bit more visible "r's" and maybe try with a bit more visible teeth on "t's" and "s's". Other than that it seemed to be working okay. I have done some more work on Mrs. Crawley and refined her line, so hopefully I'll be able to move on to spline after some changes according to the feedback. There are some minor details like some too still moments on Edna and also a reaction I want to work in on Mrs. Crawley when the sign gets ripped off the door, but other than than I think I have to go into spline in order to get it poished in time. There is about 4 days left, but taking render-time into the equation there is less. Also; Tomorrow will be used to render and edit the mime and everything that goes with that process, so I'm starting to feel the pressure. But I will bring all my work to uni tomorrow morning so that I can work whilst we wait for the mime-renders.
So, here is a playblast of how the animation looks at the moment.(still in linear):
Lipsync on Edna (11 second club)
Got a comment on the MA-group when I posted the playblasts, so have been working on changing the lipsync for the piece.
I just finished of the remaining bit of the lipsync on Edna, and tweaked some bits and pieces I overlooked yesterday.
Will probably have to look through it again, but I need to move on to make sure I don't spend too much time tweaking this bit - It's a lot of work left!
Lipsync and acting reference for the 11 Second club
I have done some reference for the actual lipsync and some of the details I wanted to try and incorporate in my peiece. The green-screen reference was more than good enough, but I needed a closer shot to get the lipsync and eye-movements/detail in the face. So, I apologize in advance for this. Firstly, I'm not a very good actor and secondly I am not a woman. (maybe should have switched those around..) Anyway! Here is my reference shots, up close and personal:
Embarrassing yes, but also very helpful! Been scrubbing these a lot lately and it has made it a lot easier to do both lipsync and facial expressions.
onsdag 25. april 2012
11 Second update
Been working on the curves on the linear version of the 11 second piece over the last couple of days. The previous post was a rough version to show in class, but here is the first pass of the linear version Iv'e been working on:
Still needs tweaks and work..
I then went on to get the lipsync out of the way so today I've mainly been working on that.
Here is the first part of the lipsync:
lørdag 21. april 2012
Feedback from Ed Hooks
So after some feedback from Siobhan on the Breakdown-version of the 11second piece ( video posted earlier) I got a suggestion to send an e-mail to Ed Hooks and ask him for his opinion since he is THE guy to go to when you need help on acting, and also empathy.
I didn't want to get my hopes up since he's a rather busy man, but man was I wrong..
After 15 minutes I got this e-mail:
" Hey Kristian!
It is wonderful to hear from you. I watched your animation several times, and you are doing very good work. I don't know how much time you have to tinker with it, so I will just give you my notes as if you have all the time you want. I understand that is not the case because your time is limited, but you can look at my notes and decide for yourself if you want to work any of them in.
1) Did the alpha person fire the girl? I think that is what happened, so the first thing that that jumps out at me is: What is the alpha person "doing"? Action in pursuit of objective while overcoming an obstacle -- remember that acting lesson? Alpha appears not to be empathizing with the girl. (Alpha is a female, yes?) Alpha has a benign smile on her face the entire time. What is she doing? I see that she takes the name off of the office door, and if I were you I would have her remove the name either BEFORE she delivers her line to the girl, or WHILE she delivers the line.. The objective is to collect the name panel, the action is entering and reaching for it. The obstacle is that the girl who got fired is standing there and is clearly distressed.
2) What is the girl "doing"? I see that she is very unhappy, but being sad is not a playable action. It looks like she cleared the stuff out of her desk, put it in a box and was on her way to do something with it, probably to take it home. I wish you had started the animation with the girl trying to close the door behind her while holding a box of stuff in her arms. Alone on camera for maybe two seconds. Then Alpha enters, takes the name panel off the door and then puts her arm around the girl's shoulder. The name panel would work better, IMO, if Alpha was holding it in the same hand she puts around the girl's shoulder. I can envision the girl standing there with the name panel almost looking like one of those mug shots we see in the newspaper. It would reinforce what she thinks of herself.
3) Your biggest challenge is telling an entire story in eleven seconds. What you chose to do was to begin the animation from a pose rather than mid-action. You also are ending it with a pose. For my money, action is almost always stronger than poses.
Nobody ever said animating was easy, right? If it was, then anybody could do it. This requires hard work. Despite my notes, you really are doing a good job. I hope you let me see your final.
Hugs -
Ed"
(I asked Ed for permission to post his response on the blog)
What a response - He really took his time looking through the piece. But the best thing to me was that he understood what happened, since I didn't explain the story beforehand.
I don't feel I have time to do all the changes mentioned since it will be a lot more work animating Mrs. Crawley struggling with the door, whilst holding on to the box.
But what I did do was to change it so that Edna is talking while she is taking the sign down and to me that looked a lot better than having her take it down in-between the lines. It worked a lot better than the way it was, even at blocking stage it felt more natural and also gave Edna a even more nasty attitude.
I also tried to make the beginning a bit more like it's in a motion and not starting with her in the hunkered down pose.
So thanks, Ed. I appreciate it greatly!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been working on secondary breakdowns after that and I am close to moving it into linear. Just waiting for feedback from the MA Facebook-group now and my next move depends on what they say.
Here is the piece (still in stepped keys):
I didn't want to get my hopes up since he's a rather busy man, but man was I wrong..
After 15 minutes I got this e-mail:
" Hey Kristian!
It is wonderful to hear from you. I watched your animation several times, and you are doing very good work. I don't know how much time you have to tinker with it, so I will just give you my notes as if you have all the time you want. I understand that is not the case because your time is limited, but you can look at my notes and decide for yourself if you want to work any of them in.
1) Did the alpha person fire the girl? I think that is what happened, so the first thing that that jumps out at me is: What is the alpha person "doing"? Action in pursuit of objective while overcoming an obstacle -- remember that acting lesson? Alpha appears not to be empathizing with the girl. (Alpha is a female, yes?) Alpha has a benign smile on her face the entire time. What is she doing? I see that she takes the name off of the office door, and if I were you I would have her remove the name either BEFORE she delivers her line to the girl, or WHILE she delivers the line.. The objective is to collect the name panel, the action is entering and reaching for it. The obstacle is that the girl who got fired is standing there and is clearly distressed.
2) What is the girl "doing"? I see that she is very unhappy, but being sad is not a playable action. It looks like she cleared the stuff out of her desk, put it in a box and was on her way to do something with it, probably to take it home. I wish you had started the animation with the girl trying to close the door behind her while holding a box of stuff in her arms. Alone on camera for maybe two seconds. Then Alpha enters, takes the name panel off the door and then puts her arm around the girl's shoulder. The name panel would work better, IMO, if Alpha was holding it in the same hand she puts around the girl's shoulder. I can envision the girl standing there with the name panel almost looking like one of those mug shots we see in the newspaper. It would reinforce what she thinks of herself.
3) Your biggest challenge is telling an entire story in eleven seconds. What you chose to do was to begin the animation from a pose rather than mid-action. You also are ending it with a pose. For my money, action is almost always stronger than poses.
Nobody ever said animating was easy, right? If it was, then anybody could do it. This requires hard work. Despite my notes, you really are doing a good job. I hope you let me see your final.
Hugs -
Ed"
(I asked Ed for permission to post his response on the blog)
What a response - He really took his time looking through the piece. But the best thing to me was that he understood what happened, since I didn't explain the story beforehand.
I don't feel I have time to do all the changes mentioned since it will be a lot more work animating Mrs. Crawley struggling with the door, whilst holding on to the box.
But what I did do was to change it so that Edna is talking while she is taking the sign down and to me that looked a lot better than having her take it down in-between the lines. It worked a lot better than the way it was, even at blocking stage it felt more natural and also gave Edna a even more nasty attitude.
I also tried to make the beginning a bit more like it's in a motion and not starting with her in the hunkered down pose.
So thanks, Ed. I appreciate it greatly!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been working on secondary breakdowns after that and I am close to moving it into linear. Just waiting for feedback from the MA Facebook-group now and my next move depends on what they say.
Here is the piece (still in stepped keys):
fredag 20. april 2012
Some of my favourite bird box animations
I had almost forgotten about Bird Box Studios, but after Harshali posted their "duel" short in the MA-group on Facebook I was reminded why I love their work so much.
Thanks, Harshali.
So I decided I would share some of my favourite shorts from the London based animation company. These are all very stylized, some of them are just pencil-sketch animations, but so effective and beautifully animated.
"chop chop"
Even with a tiny character and almost no detail, except eyes, this really tells the story to the audience. We understand everything even though it's just a few sound-effects. The poses are really clear and it really shows how important good poses are for a successful animation piece.
"guard"
This one is really rough, but it's stylized and very visually pleasing. Great little story that makes me laugh every time.
"pub dog"
A more advanced piece from bird box; this one is also stylized, and I love that the background and foreground are more like rough sketches whilst the characters have more detail and colour. gain a really simple story, but so well thought through and very nicely done.
And finally to my personal favourite:
"streat"
Not sure why this one is my favourite to be honest. My guess is that it's the ridiculousness of it all. All I know it is right up my street comedy-wise because I laugh every single time I watch it, I never get tired of that moment when the father and son gets eaten by the mailbox, the surprise of that happening is just so funny. You rarely see this kind of humour, so you don't expect that happening.
I also like that the post-box sneaks and jumps across the road in the beginning and I always expect it to come around the corner, but then it just appears from the left instead. This also surprises me as a viewer and almost makes me a bit confused, but not in a negative way - It almost makes me want to see what it will do next.
I guess that's the thing with this piece, everything that happens is unexpected.
The colour-palette on this one is also very visually pleasing. I also like the fact that all the line-work is coloured in different ways on the characters, which gives a different look than what you "usually" see in 2D animation.
If you want to look at more of their work you can have a look at their website at:
http://birdboxstudio.com/
Thanks, Harshali.
So I decided I would share some of my favourite shorts from the London based animation company. These are all very stylized, some of them are just pencil-sketch animations, but so effective and beautifully animated.
"chop chop"
Even with a tiny character and almost no detail, except eyes, this really tells the story to the audience. We understand everything even though it's just a few sound-effects. The poses are really clear and it really shows how important good poses are for a successful animation piece.
"guard"
This one is really rough, but it's stylized and very visually pleasing. Great little story that makes me laugh every time.
"pub dog"
A more advanced piece from bird box; this one is also stylized, and I love that the background and foreground are more like rough sketches whilst the characters have more detail and colour. gain a really simple story, but so well thought through and very nicely done.
And finally to my personal favourite:
"streat"
Not sure why this one is my favourite to be honest. My guess is that it's the ridiculousness of it all. All I know it is right up my street comedy-wise because I laugh every single time I watch it, I never get tired of that moment when the father and son gets eaten by the mailbox, the surprise of that happening is just so funny. You rarely see this kind of humour, so you don't expect that happening.
I also like that the post-box sneaks and jumps across the road in the beginning and I always expect it to come around the corner, but then it just appears from the left instead. This also surprises me as a viewer and almost makes me a bit confused, but not in a negative way - It almost makes me want to see what it will do next.
I guess that's the thing with this piece, everything that happens is unexpected.
The colour-palette on this one is also very visually pleasing. I also like the fact that all the line-work is coloured in different ways on the characters, which gives a different look than what you "usually" see in 2D animation.
If you want to look at more of their work you can have a look at their website at:
http://birdboxstudio.com/
Critical analysis of the "mime-audition"
The idea:
It’s quite interesting to see how ideas evolve throughout a process like this.
This whole thing was pitched to the MA-class and lecturers as either a western or a superhero scenario and it ended up as a lost audition tape. To be honest I am glad the first two ideas where thrown away. We had to explain our ideas several times, which immediately should have told us something was wrong with them. But we stuck with them for a bit and sat down in hope of resolving the issues. It was in one of those meetings we found our current idea. It was a lot simpler and clear to the audience and we got to keep our characters personalities.
We wanted contrast in the characters, so that every character would have something unique that stood out and made them separate from each other, but still giving them one thing to have in common; the obstacle – in this case, the director.
I think we did the right thing my throwing away the first ideas, because as a story our little film seems to be working quite good.
My part
When it comes to my part in the project I have been able to work on many different parts of it. I got to do the concepts and design for the stage (we ended up with a different version in the final film, but it’s based and modelled on the original concept). I also had the opportunity to work out the profile for Gary, our director-character – with a lot of help and feedback from the team.
The animation:
This is the hard bit. To be honest I am never truly happy with my own work, but I guess that is quite normal for creative minds.
As Ira Glass says:
“For the first couple o’ years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. Your taste is why work disappoints you.”
I really recognize my own feelings in that statement.
But as long as I keep working I will become better, it just takes time and hard work.
Don’t get me wrong; this animation has bits I am quite satisfied with. It has both weak and strong points as any other piece. And to me these are:
The weak parts
I do not like some of the transition between the bigger poses – (like the “ta-da” pose and back to confused). There are some hiccups there I am unhappy with. I am also a bit unhappy with the rope-pulling, I struggled A LOT with the orientation on the right arm, which made me end up cheating my way out of a strong arc. (I had to make the move a bit faster to try and hide a nasty “arm-pop”). The juggling is also not as good as I had hoped, I think it would have been a lot better with more reference and better key-poses.
The strong parts
The bits I do like are firstly the attitude/personality, I think it is consistent throughout the piece and I think it feels like a person at times, not just a moving puppet.
I am also quite happy with the transition from rope-pull and up to surprised/excited (where he is totally stiff, arms a bit out to the side and a big smile on his face. That part still makes me smile.
The group
The group.. How should I put it. To be honest.. It just works.
We are a team, we work as a team and think as a team. Em and I had a plan from the beginning to work together on the final year project, but now we have included Scott too – I think this was decided after the first meeting just because we had such a laugh when we planned this animation and that we all seemed to be on the same page. We all wanted to keep this simple so we could focus on the actual animation, which is the most important thing in the end.
I am very happy with the group and even though some of us live further away from the labs and such we used Skype to make decisions and give feedback on work in progress. The facebook-group was also very useful in the process, if something got posted there where comments within minutes and instant feedback is really important in a project like this.
I have worked on short-films before and have always had a “leader”. But in this project we didn’t have that; we managed without it which I think says a lot about the group-dynamic.
In Conclusion
I want to mention how much I have learnt during this project, not only animation-wise, but also software. I have taken on completely new animation software for this project and I managed to animate nearly 35 seconds in Maya without having any major problems. I have always said I would go over to Maya, but I never had the “guts” to do it before. I must give a lot of credit to Scott who stuck with me throughout this and helped set up the scene, rigs, lights and camera so that Em and I could just focus on the animation.
As a project I think this has been a great experience for the future, working as part of a team is very different from just animating your own little piece. So I want to give credit to the lecturers for setting it up this way, it has been really fun and enjoyable and you should definitively give the next MA-bunch the same opportunity.
torsdag 19. april 2012
Breaking down the 11 seconds
Today I continued working on the block for the 11 second club piece. Been building breakdowns and have tried to solve some acting issues. I want Mrs. Crawley to show her feelings in the situation, but not only in the facial expressions - she needs to show how she feels with her body language as well. Here is an example of a situation in my piece that I have tried to use body language to show how Mrs. Crawley really feels.
Edna is being "kind", but the siuation is tense and uncomfortable for Mrs. Crowley so I needed to show this by having her try to avoid Edna without for instance walking away. Edna is her boss, and even though she might not like her she is superior to her so she needs to stay put.
I also put my playblast up in the MA-group today for feedback. I got a lot of positive comments on it so I'm quite happy with that.
The playblast I showed then had some constrain issues, apparently the parent-constrain on the box had decided to "live it's own life". Here is the playblast I showed in the group:
After I got feedback I contiued to work on it and here is a plablast of the piece as it looks at the moment:
Edna is being "kind", but the siuation is tense and uncomfortable for Mrs. Crowley so I needed to show this by having her try to avoid Edna without for instance walking away. Edna is her boss, and even though she might not like her she is superior to her so she needs to stay put.
I also put my playblast up in the MA-group today for feedback. I got a lot of positive comments on it so I'm quite happy with that.
The playblast I showed then had some constrain issues, apparently the parent-constrain on the box had decided to "live it's own life". Here is the playblast I showed in the group:
After I got feedback I contiued to work on it and here is a plablast of the piece as it looks at the moment:
onsdag 18. april 2012
Show and tell
Today was the originally the last show and tell in class for the Acting for Animation module.
(We have another opportunity to show on Tuesday for the students who want feedback on work in progress)
I brought the 11SecondClub block today and since Penny joined us today I got to show it to her as well - Feedback was positive and was told to crack on so I'm happy with that!
Here is the block I showed in class today:
We also showed the assembled mime-pieces with added visual effects and sound:
It needs some tweaks, but I think we're all quite happy with the result. And since this is just edited playblasts I am really looking forward to seeing it with clean rendered frames now:
Would also like to share a video with you. It's a compilation of clips from different films showing different cinematic techniques all the way back from eary 80's and up till today.
A really interesting VFX compilation:
Personally I was most fascinated by the matte-painters and roto-scopers. The matte-painters needed to do these incredible matte paintings with an enormous amount of detail, and the roto-scopers had to paint on top of the frames by hand - one frame at a time!
I think learning about how things were done in the earlier years could help us today as artists as well, at least having an understanding of how hard these artists had to work compared to today. Don't get me wrong, it's still a massive amount of work getting the results we see on screen today and a lot of the same basic principles of for instance matte-paintings etc. are still used today. Still; most of the VFX done today are easier to do than it was 30 years ago.
Just think about the talent the artists of the 80's had/have and the fact that they did it all by hand -> without having the option of hitting: ctrl+z, if they did something wrong.
- Amazing.
(We have another opportunity to show on Tuesday for the students who want feedback on work in progress)
I brought the 11SecondClub block today and since Penny joined us today I got to show it to her as well - Feedback was positive and was told to crack on so I'm happy with that!
Here is the block I showed in class today:
We also showed the assembled mime-pieces with added visual effects and sound:
It needs some tweaks, but I think we're all quite happy with the result. And since this is just edited playblasts I am really looking forward to seeing it with clean rendered frames now:
Would also like to share a video with you. It's a compilation of clips from different films showing different cinematic techniques all the way back from eary 80's and up till today.
A really interesting VFX compilation:
Personally I was most fascinated by the matte-painters and roto-scopers. The matte-painters needed to do these incredible matte paintings with an enormous amount of detail, and the roto-scopers had to paint on top of the frames by hand - one frame at a time!
I think learning about how things were done in the earlier years could help us today as artists as well, at least having an understanding of how hard these artists had to work compared to today. Don't get me wrong, it's still a massive amount of work getting the results we see on screen today and a lot of the same basic principles of for instance matte-paintings etc. are still used today. Still; most of the VFX done today are easier to do than it was 30 years ago.
Just think about the talent the artists of the 80's had/have and the fact that they did it all by hand -> without having the option of hitting: ctrl+z, if they did something wrong.
- Amazing.
mandag 16. april 2012
11 second update
Blocking the 11 Second club piece is what I'm up to at the moment. I have about half of the key poses down at the moment, so it's just to keep working on the second half and hopefully I'll manage to get as much as possible done on it before show and tell tomorrow. So far I've had a lot of issues with parenting and constrains on this task, (for grabbing and dropping the nameplate) but luckily working in the labs provides you with helpful students in time of crisis.
(Again; thanks Scott!)
So that's been sorted, next up is the walk off screen for Edna, so I've gone back to the reference singe my pose-sheet didn't include that bit. I'm using a free software called "kinovea" for this, and I recommend it to everyone. You can basically draw on top of your videofiles, so it's really helpful for finding the line of action. In my reference Em has a fantastic line of action as she walks of, so I'm definitively going to try and recreate that. Here are some still images to better explain my point:
And here is the video with the lines of action in action. (Hah)
If your interested in the software you can download it free from:
http://www.kinovea.org/en/?page_id=3
(Again; thanks Scott!)
So that's been sorted, next up is the walk off screen for Edna, so I've gone back to the reference singe my pose-sheet didn't include that bit. I'm using a free software called "kinovea" for this, and I recommend it to everyone. You can basically draw on top of your videofiles, so it's really helpful for finding the line of action. In my reference Em has a fantastic line of action as she walks of, so I'm definitively going to try and recreate that. Here are some still images to better explain my point:
And here is the video with the lines of action in action. (Hah)
If your interested in the software you can download it free from:
http://www.kinovea.org/en/?page_id=3
lørdag 14. april 2012
Mime-update
So, I'm about done with the spline version on the mime. There are still some detail left, such as;
* Smoother transitions between facial expressions (Clean up curves on individual attributes).
* Clean the curves on the fingers.
* Check that eyes are on the director at all times when Alfonso is facing him.
* Knee-pops.
Other than that there is not much left than going over it an additional time to double-check and smooth out any hiccups. At the moment my eyes needs some rest in order to see mistakes and because the deadline is in a couple of weeks I really need to get going with the 11 second club piece.
Here is a playblast:
* Smoother transitions between facial expressions (Clean up curves on individual attributes).
* Clean the curves on the fingers.
* Check that eyes are on the director at all times when Alfonso is facing him.
* Knee-pops.
Other than that there is not much left than going over it an additional time to double-check and smooth out any hiccups. At the moment my eyes needs some rest in order to see mistakes and because the deadline is in a couple of weeks I really need to get going with the 11 second club piece.
Here is a playblast:
11Second Club - Posesheet and reference footage
I have made a pose-sheet/storyboard for the 11second' piece based on the reference footage and the overall mood in the scene. I think Mrs. Crawley will have a vertical line of action throughout the piece to try and get as much empathy as possible, so the changes in line of action will mostly be for Edna since she is the "strongest" character and her personality needs to reflect in her posture, she needs to show power and a overall superior attitude over Mrs. Crawley.
Here is the pose-sheet:
My reference footage is the two takes I liked best from the green-screen shoot, I think it works well to use both since both Em and Harshali have different takes on the character, this gives me the freedom to "steal" a bit here and there and mix it up to create the attitude for my characters. Here's the reference-footage:
Lastly, just a sneak peak on the scene-layout as it looks at the moment. The characters are just posed quickly to illustrate my point, but the look is pretty close to what I imagined when I came up with the story. A big thank you goes out to Scott for helping me out with setting up and modeling the scene, it's fantastic to have fellow students that bother to help you out when you are working with unfamiliar software. So yes, I will be using Maya for this task as well!
Here is the pose-sheet:
My reference footage is the two takes I liked best from the green-screen shoot, I think it works well to use both since both Em and Harshali have different takes on the character, this gives me the freedom to "steal" a bit here and there and mix it up to create the attitude for my characters. Here's the reference-footage:
Lastly, just a sneak peak on the scene-layout as it looks at the moment. The characters are just posed quickly to illustrate my point, but the look is pretty close to what I imagined when I came up with the story. A big thank you goes out to Scott for helping me out with setting up and modeling the scene, it's fantastic to have fellow students that bother to help you out when you are working with unfamiliar software. So yes, I will be using Maya for this task as well!
onsdag 11. april 2012
Feedback on 11 second idea & rough sketches
So got feedback on the animatic from both Siobhan and the class in the greensreen-studio today. Apparently it's working a lot better than the cake idea and the overall feedback was positive so I'm really happy I managed to sort that out. (Must admit I struggled a lot coming up with an idea for this task).
We shot reference for the new task today. Haven't picked up the files yet, will do that tomorrow since Mark was out when we where supposed to pick them up. I think I got some good footage, got to see it played back in the studio so looking forward to editing it together and see it as a whole. (I had Em and Harshali act it out and also switch roles so got a lot of nice details to cut out and edit together in the final reference video).
Otherwise I have been working more on the spline-version of the mime, currently working on the second half of the piece. I managed to work my way through the big body-parts today (hips and spine) so happy with that.
I have also been doing some more sketching, but because time is of the essence at the moment I have been sketching mostly in the gym. Basically whilst I'm on the ergo-meter bike. The sketches are rough, but it's a good way to get my mind of things and it can't hurt, it's still sketching even though the drawing quality on some of them are "a bit" lower than usual.
I usually redraw them so they look a bit nicer, but since it's a lot to do these days I chose to just photograph my notebook and post them here:
As I said, they're really rough.. Heh.
We shot reference for the new task today. Haven't picked up the files yet, will do that tomorrow since Mark was out when we where supposed to pick them up. I think I got some good footage, got to see it played back in the studio so looking forward to editing it together and see it as a whole. (I had Em and Harshali act it out and also switch roles so got a lot of nice details to cut out and edit together in the final reference video).
Otherwise I have been working more on the spline-version of the mime, currently working on the second half of the piece. I managed to work my way through the big body-parts today (hips and spine) so happy with that.
I have also been doing some more sketching, but because time is of the essence at the moment I have been sketching mostly in the gym. Basically whilst I'm on the ergo-meter bike. The sketches are rough, but it's a good way to get my mind of things and it can't hurt, it's still sketching even though the drawing quality on some of them are "a bit" lower than usual.
I usually redraw them so they look a bit nicer, but since it's a lot to do these days I chose to just photograph my notebook and post them here:
As I said, they're really rough.. Heh.
tirsdag 10. april 2012
Animatic for 11 second club task
Since I dedicated the whole day to planning the 11 second club piece I've managed to get quite a bit done. I decided to make a rough animatic to hopefully make it easier to understand the story:
11 second club - Character profiles
So I've been working out the in-depth character-profiles for the new 11 second idea:
The boss Edna Montgomery (main character - The one with most dialogue):
And the intern Patricia Crawley:
The boss Edna Montgomery (main character - The one with most dialogue):
And the intern Patricia Crawley:
My 11 Second Club idea
I have after a long day of planning, arguing with myself and a bit feedback from my room-mate decided to go for a more serious approach this time. The story has gone from a returning cake to a baking contest and ended up as an lawyer-intern being fired for reasons unknown to her.
I think it will be interesting to try a more emotional and serious approach, since I usually go for humour in my animations.
So, here is my idea for 11 Second club April 2012:
I think it will be interesting to try a more emotional and serious approach, since I usually go for humour in my animations.
So, here is my idea for 11 Second club April 2012:
mandag 9. april 2012
Long overdue update.
Been a hectic couple of days, have just been focusing on the mime-animation and cleaning curves. The animation is now moved into spline-mode and I've been working on the clean up pass + detail since the last post.
It's moving slowly, but it's getting there. I never rush when I polish, since this is my last chance to spot any glitches and too smooth out the motion to get it to look as good as possible. So far Maya has been good to me and I haven't had too many issues. I did "lose" half a day though, but this was mainly because the spline-modes in Maya differs from the ones I'm used to in Max. Maya has a couple more than Max so I had to sit down and try and read up on which kind of splines I should use for my animation. After looking through the meaning of the different spline-modes in Maya (read about them in "How to cheat in Maya 2010" by: Eric Luhta), I found out that Maya 2012 which I'm using has a new feature called auto-tangents which basically is the same tangents as I'm used to from 3dsMax. The only difference is that the handles on the tangents are locked in Maya, which means I have to unlock them manually to adjust the curve. I must admit this is a time-consuming process and it tends to create some nasty overshoots. I already know that the polish for this task won't be as good as I want it to be since I'm still learning the software and trying to become familiar with a new way of polishing, but I am learning more and more as I work so hopefully I'm improving as I go.
So far I have gone through the first 400 frames, still working in bits at a time so this playblast isn't the finished 400 frames since fingers and some detail still haven't been sorted out. But the main controllers are pretty much done:
Tomorrow is another show and tell so I might be showing this playblast there, not that much point since I'm way passed the "feedback-window", but I might get some suggestions for detail.
I have been working hard to get as much done as possible before the voice-actor comes in on Wednesday, but I won't have a polished animation by then. But so far the linear and spline version does not differ to much time-wise so a half splined version should be okay.
Tomorrow is pretty much dedicated to finishing the idea for the 11 second club, since we are doing a reference shoot on that on the same day as the voice-recordings. I have not done as much on that as I wanted to so I need to dedicate tomorrow to getting my idea down on paper and solving the issues I'm having with the story.
The idea at the moment has changed after a chat with Siobhan so instead of having the Edna returning a cake I am thinking of her as a judge in a baking-contest that Mrs. Crowley is competing in. I also have a deeper and more emotional story I want to work on, but I think I will talk to Siobhan about that tomorrow to hopefully help me chose which one to go for. It's important that it makes sense and that the idea is clear and at the moment both of these are a bit weak.
- But that's tomorrow, good night!
It's moving slowly, but it's getting there. I never rush when I polish, since this is my last chance to spot any glitches and too smooth out the motion to get it to look as good as possible. So far Maya has been good to me and I haven't had too many issues. I did "lose" half a day though, but this was mainly because the spline-modes in Maya differs from the ones I'm used to in Max. Maya has a couple more than Max so I had to sit down and try and read up on which kind of splines I should use for my animation. After looking through the meaning of the different spline-modes in Maya (read about them in "How to cheat in Maya 2010" by: Eric Luhta), I found out that Maya 2012 which I'm using has a new feature called auto-tangents which basically is the same tangents as I'm used to from 3dsMax. The only difference is that the handles on the tangents are locked in Maya, which means I have to unlock them manually to adjust the curve. I must admit this is a time-consuming process and it tends to create some nasty overshoots. I already know that the polish for this task won't be as good as I want it to be since I'm still learning the software and trying to become familiar with a new way of polishing, but I am learning more and more as I work so hopefully I'm improving as I go.
So far I have gone through the first 400 frames, still working in bits at a time so this playblast isn't the finished 400 frames since fingers and some detail still haven't been sorted out. But the main controllers are pretty much done:
Tomorrow is another show and tell so I might be showing this playblast there, not that much point since I'm way passed the "feedback-window", but I might get some suggestions for detail.
I have been working hard to get as much done as possible before the voice-actor comes in on Wednesday, but I won't have a polished animation by then. But so far the linear and spline version does not differ to much time-wise so a half splined version should be okay.
Tomorrow is pretty much dedicated to finishing the idea for the 11 second club, since we are doing a reference shoot on that on the same day as the voice-recordings. I have not done as much on that as I wanted to so I need to dedicate tomorrow to getting my idea down on paper and solving the issues I'm having with the story.
The idea at the moment has changed after a chat with Siobhan so instead of having the Edna returning a cake I am thinking of her as a judge in a baking-contest that Mrs. Crowley is competing in. I also have a deeper and more emotional story I want to work on, but I think I will talk to Siobhan about that tomorrow to hopefully help me chose which one to go for. It's important that it makes sense and that the idea is clear and at the moment both of these are a bit weak.
- But that's tomorrow, good night!
onsdag 4. april 2012
Feedback on 11' idea and more work on the mime
So got feedback on my idea for the 11second club clip, the class & Siobhan seemed to like the idea, the only concern was that it might not be as clear as I thought it was. So I need to figure out a way to show that the old lady is giving the cake back to mrs. Crowley, because at the moment that is not obvious to the audience.
Will work more on that later on, but at the moment my main focus is on finishing the mime-piece.
I continued working on the transition I changed today, found some glitches that I had overlooked yesterday. Fresh eyes always helps!
After that I continued animating fingers, the important bit here was making everything flow. Fingers are an important part of this piece, because it's one of the most important tools mimes use in their acts to give the illusion of objects.
I think the fingers are working pretty good, but asked Em for some feedback on it just in case. Got a suggestion to some more movement where he is listening to the director so I'll give that a try. Otherwise it seemed like it was working.
Here's how the piece looks at the moment:
Everything is still linear. The next thing I need to do is the facial-expressions and eyes & blinks.
Will work more on that later on, but at the moment my main focus is on finishing the mime-piece.
I continued working on the transition I changed today, found some glitches that I had overlooked yesterday. Fresh eyes always helps!
After that I continued animating fingers, the important bit here was making everything flow. Fingers are an important part of this piece, because it's one of the most important tools mimes use in their acts to give the illusion of objects.
I think the fingers are working pretty good, but asked Em for some feedback on it just in case. Got a suggestion to some more movement where he is listening to the director so I'll give that a try. Otherwise it seemed like it was working.
Here's how the piece looks at the moment:
Everything is still linear. The next thing I need to do is the facial-expressions and eyes & blinks.
tirsdag 3. april 2012
An idea for the 11 second club competition
So far I'm sort of stuck on an elderly woman because of the voice in the clip, but the scenarios can change. I have worked out a couple to share with the class tomorrow, but I drew down my favourite idea so far and will bring the image with me to class tomorrow.
I like this one because the characters have contrast and Edna the woman talking is a professional in her field (food) since she is a quite a heavy lady, while Mrs. Crowley is a skinny character which makes her less successful on the kitchen in Edna's eyes.
I like this one because the characters have contrast and Edna the woman talking is a professional in her field (food) since she is a quite a heavy lady, while Mrs. Crowley is a skinny character which makes her less successful on the kitchen in Edna's eyes.
Feedback changes to the animation
Today's showing of work in progress in class was quite successful. It seemed to be working and that they understood what was happening so I'm happy with that.
The only suggestion to changes I got was the big anticipation before the "ta-da" pose, it didn't make sense that he did the rope, got pulled and all of a sudden did a turn before the big swing.
I must say I felt that was a weak part and my worries was proven right by the feedback from the class and Siobhan.
So when I got home I started working on the new transition. And man oh man, what a struggle that was. I think it was mostly because I'm still a bit unfamiliar with Maya, but it took ages and I ended up "rebuilding" nearly a 100 frames of animation to make it fit. Luckily we have got a week extension for the module, so I should be okay with time even though all of today was spent on fixing this transition.
This is how it ended up looking after today's work:
I then sent it to Scott, who pointed out that the long pause didn't make sense. I had pictured facial expressions and some time for him to "pick himself up", but decided to give Scott's suggestion a go. (He suggested that I made him go into the ta-da immediately)
Here's how that looks:
I must say I think it both feels more natural and looks better this way. And I think it might be easier to see Alfonso does the big ta-da pose, but still is a bit unsure if what he has done is indeed the right thing.
Now that I have sorted that out I need to move on and start thinking of ideas for the 11 second club clip. We are having a session on that in class tomorrow so need to have some ideas to share with the rest.
The only suggestion to changes I got was the big anticipation before the "ta-da" pose, it didn't make sense that he did the rope, got pulled and all of a sudden did a turn before the big swing.
I must say I felt that was a weak part and my worries was proven right by the feedback from the class and Siobhan.
So when I got home I started working on the new transition. And man oh man, what a struggle that was. I think it was mostly because I'm still a bit unfamiliar with Maya, but it took ages and I ended up "rebuilding" nearly a 100 frames of animation to make it fit. Luckily we have got a week extension for the module, so I should be okay with time even though all of today was spent on fixing this transition.
This is how it ended up looking after today's work:
I then sent it to Scott, who pointed out that the long pause didn't make sense. I had pictured facial expressions and some time for him to "pick himself up", but decided to give Scott's suggestion a go. (He suggested that I made him go into the ta-da immediately)
Here's how that looks:
I must say I think it both feels more natural and looks better this way. And I think it might be easier to see Alfonso does the big ta-da pose, but still is a bit unsure if what he has done is indeed the right thing.
Now that I have sorted that out I need to move on and start thinking of ideas for the 11 second club clip. We are having a session on that in class tomorrow so need to have some ideas to share with the rest.
mandag 2. april 2012
Another web-cast with Jeff Gabor
Another great web-cast with Jeff Gabor, in this one he shares some of the tips and tricks on appeal in character that he picked up when he worked on Bluesky's animated feature "Horton Hears a Who!".
Thanks for sharing the link, Scott!
Thanks for sharing the link, Scott!
Playblast notes
So after viewing my playblast on loop for a good 10 minutes, both normal and flipped.
Took notes while I watched it. I think I have found the most important glitches, "hiccups" and other mistakes that I need to sort out.
I found most of them by viewing it "normally", but when I flipped it I found even more. Both happy and a bit annoyed at the same time because of this. Feel I have enough work already.. Hehe.
But it really helps to flip the video, it feels almost like your viewing it for the first time again and I guess that is why I spotted some mistakes that I had overlooked before. Useful and very easy way to hopefully improve the piece a bit.
Here's the playblast flipped too better explain what I just described:
I also got some feedback from Scott yesterday on where he moves his hand behind his back, it looked "weird" as he put it, and he suggested to change it or make it faster. I went for the last one since I like the way he "presents the ball" in the end. But it looked a lot more natural when I made the move faster, so thanks Scott for pointing that out.
Think the problem was that you could see his hand between his legs in a few frames which made it look like a animation-glitch.
What I found by viewing the playblast was:
- The nods and wave needs to be a bit quicker and "softer".
- There are also some moments where one of the arms are completely still, which I need to have a look at whilst avoiding "floaty-ness" in the progess.
- There are some issues to work out on knees, some arrupt movements, but not too much popping this time around. So happy with that.
-Also need to work a bit on the transition from; Rope-pull -> holding his neck -> back to the rope again. There are some hiccups which causes it to stutter a bit here, so I need to see if there are any really sudden stops in the curves or if it's just a bit to fast which causes the curve-value to change too quickly.
So, a lot of work left. And I still haven't started on the details.. I think it's going to be a busy day, I'm starting to feel the time pressure now that the 11 second clip also has been released.
- Back to work!
Took notes while I watched it. I think I have found the most important glitches, "hiccups" and other mistakes that I need to sort out.
I found most of them by viewing it "normally", but when I flipped it I found even more. Both happy and a bit annoyed at the same time because of this. Feel I have enough work already.. Hehe.
But it really helps to flip the video, it feels almost like your viewing it for the first time again and I guess that is why I spotted some mistakes that I had overlooked before. Useful and very easy way to hopefully improve the piece a bit.
Here's the playblast flipped too better explain what I just described:
I also got some feedback from Scott yesterday on where he moves his hand behind his back, it looked "weird" as he put it, and he suggested to change it or make it faster. I went for the last one since I like the way he "presents the ball" in the end. But it looked a lot more natural when I made the move faster, so thanks Scott for pointing that out.
Think the problem was that you could see his hand between his legs in a few frames which made it look like a animation-glitch.
What I found by viewing the playblast was:
- The nods and wave needs to be a bit quicker and "softer".
- There are also some moments where one of the arms are completely still, which I need to have a look at whilst avoiding "floaty-ness" in the progess.
- There are some issues to work out on knees, some arrupt movements, but not too much popping this time around. So happy with that.
-Also need to work a bit on the transition from; Rope-pull -> holding his neck -> back to the rope again. There are some hiccups which causes it to stutter a bit here, so I need to see if there are any really sudden stops in the curves or if it's just a bit to fast which causes the curve-value to change too quickly.
So, a lot of work left. And I still haven't started on the details.. I think it's going to be a busy day, I'm starting to feel the time pressure now that the 11 second clip also has been released.
- Back to work!
søndag 1. april 2012
Some more reference and the linear version "done".
Today has been a busy, but effective day. Started work on the final bit on the linear version, again I had some issues to resolve with a hand (as usual) + feet, neck and head.
I struggled A LOT with the juggling part today. It wasn't clear enough, so I had to leave the computer for a while and try and figure out how I could make it easier to understand. I acted it out and decided to do some additional reference for this bit.
Here's the reference footage I took:
What I found is that it was more natural to put the right arm on my back after throwing it. This also shifts the focus on the hand catching and holding the ball in the end. I also liked the little jump I did so I tried my best to include that in my animation.
I managed to work my way through all of the remaining parts and I now have a "finished" linear version. I haven't started any detail work yet, so things like fingers and facial expressions is next. Or, first I have to go through my playblast and write down what I see of mistakes and what I need to adjust or change. But that's tomorrow, been working for nearly 10 hours so I think I need to get some sleep and "attack" it with fresh eyes tomorrow.
Here's the playblast of the linear version:
I struggled A LOT with the juggling part today. It wasn't clear enough, so I had to leave the computer for a while and try and figure out how I could make it easier to understand. I acted it out and decided to do some additional reference for this bit.
Here's the reference footage I took:
What I found is that it was more natural to put the right arm on my back after throwing it. This also shifts the focus on the hand catching and holding the ball in the end. I also liked the little jump I did so I tried my best to include that in my animation.
I managed to work my way through all of the remaining parts and I now have a "finished" linear version. I haven't started any detail work yet, so things like fingers and facial expressions is next. Or, first I have to go through my playblast and write down what I see of mistakes and what I need to adjust or change. But that's tomorrow, been working for nearly 10 hours so I think I need to get some sleep and "attack" it with fresh eyes tomorrow.
Here's the playblast of the linear version:
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