Finished animating the dung beetle this week; I am happy with the animation of the main character and I think that I got the lip-sync down fairly well. Initially I had over animated everything and the beetle was just a blur of arm movements and a mouth which seemed to have a mind of its own, but now I have simplified everything I think that it looks a lot better.
I deliberately did not put to much emphasis on the character in the background because I did not want it to distract the audience from the main character but I think that it came out looking a bit stiff and it defiantly does not add anything to the piece unlike the background action in Creature Comforts.
My finished animation is also a little bit different from the storyboard; originally the beetle was supposed to push a big ball of poo onto screen and turn to camera, I did animate this and cheated on the turn by putting in a close-up but it did not look right so I took it all out, which I think works better because the dialogue starts quite suddenly and any action before it looks a little bit strange.
So with the dung beetle out of the way I am now back on the library project designing a DVD cover which at the moment is a nice change as it is a little less intensive than the lip-sync as I am just pasting in various bits of artwork and stills and the overall design is closely related to the DVD menu which Dan has already designed. That said it is supposed to be done by to day so it may get a bit stressful mid afternoon. Once the cover is done I think I am being put onto comping which hopefully someone will show me how to do as I have no idea where to start.
Friday 30 May 2008
Thursday 22 May 2008
Dung Beetle!
I was on the creature comforts project this week animating a dung beetle, which is more interesting than it sounds, honest. Apart from the really unbelievably crap quality of the audio it’s a really good project, although I have been working from Cherie’s design I have had a reasonable amount of freedom with what everything looks like, and I am starting to get stuck into the animation now that the lip-sync is out of the way. That said, today was a bit frustrating as Flash didn’t seem to want to behave, in the end I just left it to deal with tomorrow.
That just about exhausts my news for that project, so I shall conveniently move on to the results of the storyboarding and script project, which I will admit I found a little disappointing especially as I enjoyed it so much, never mind though, I think I know what I did wrong; mainly I was too ambitious. So I am now throwing myself into every storyboarding and film studies book I can find in a bid to better myself and cram my head with lots of itty bitty bits of storyboarding facts.
I have also managed to secure myself a project to do over the summer; a video for a friend’s band, who I did do something for last summer (a rather feeble attempt at stop-motion, I think I posted it on here sometime last term) but hopefully this new one will be better as I like to think I will know what I am doing this time round and may actually have something resembling animation software.
Right once again time for me to disappear, hopefully the dung beetle will be done this time next week and I will be able to discuss the joys of post-production.
That just about exhausts my news for that project, so I shall conveniently move on to the results of the storyboarding and script project, which I will admit I found a little disappointing especially as I enjoyed it so much, never mind though, I think I know what I did wrong; mainly I was too ambitious. So I am now throwing myself into every storyboarding and film studies book I can find in a bid to better myself and cram my head with lots of itty bitty bits of storyboarding facts.
I have also managed to secure myself a project to do over the summer; a video for a friend’s band, who I did do something for last summer (a rather feeble attempt at stop-motion, I think I posted it on here sometime last term) but hopefully this new one will be better as I like to think I will know what I am doing this time round and may actually have something resembling animation software.
Right once again time for me to disappear, hopefully the dung beetle will be done this time next week and I will be able to discuss the joys of post-production.
Thursday 15 May 2008
Library
An interesting week this one; it’s flown by but I hav
e produced a pleasing little mound of work which various people now have to go off and interpret. My role has mainly been to come-up with a design for the set; a library and any props which are going to be modelled in 3D. I have also been responsible for the ‘look’ of the film in terms of the colour palette that is being used and I have had a little bit of input on lighting as well. I think Pete has done well in getting the best out of all of us which in many ways is down to him giving us free range over our own little segments which I think has avoided a lot of potential clashes.
The sequence I was responsible for was supposed to represent the whole DVD/video aspect of a library. I originally planned an epic escapade into the world of film which I dropped before I even drew up a proper storyboard because it just wasn’t working. My second idea made a lot more subtle references to particular films and I was quite happy with it but I think it was too much for an audience to take in in the thirty seconds that I had to play with. Instead we decided (I can’t remember exactly who) that it was best to stick to one film reference which was Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. This gave me a lot less creative input but I wasn’t too fussed as I had so much else to be doing.
I owe my inspiration of the library mainly to the good old Ikea catalogue, all be it in a somewhat obscure way (a lampshade inspired a pillar for example). I also went with a circular theme – the bookshelves are constructed around a circle, formed by the windows, and other props such as the telly are constructed out of circular shapes. I did have a look at some Disney backgrounds to try and get some inspiration but I have never really liked Disney films so I don’t think that I took too much of it in.
The colour scheme came mainly from Pete’s brief, which was alon
g the lines of: something that was warm and inviting but not distracting. I have used yellow/brown/grey pastille type colours and tried to avoid using harsh shadows in my artwork which I think was quite important as a lot of the props are quite imposing. For areas that needed that bit more warmth, like the lamp on the information desk I mainly used the colour palette that we had agreed to use on the librarian. The sign above the desk was supposed to be like a beacon so I wanted to emphasize it, I made it blue because this is a universal colour for information signs and it stood out against the warm tones of the library, I just hope that it is not too cold.
That just about concludes this week’s blog, next week I’m moving onto the creature comforts project to do some animation which I chose to do because I thought it might allow me more freedom than some of the other projects then i’m back to the library for post.
e produced a pleasing little mound of work which various people now have to go off and interpret. My role has mainly been to come-up with a design for the set; a library and any props which are going to be modelled in 3D. I have also been responsible for the ‘look’ of the film in terms of the colour palette that is being used and I have had a little bit of input on lighting as well. I think Pete has done well in getting the best out of all of us which in many ways is down to him giving us free range over our own little segments which I think has avoided a lot of potential clashes.The sequence I was responsible for was supposed to represent the whole DVD/video aspect of a library. I originally planned an epic escapade into the world of film which I dropped before I even drew up a proper storyboard because it just wasn’t working. My second idea made a lot more subtle references to particular films and I was quite happy with it but I think it was too much for an audience to take in in the thirty seconds that I had to play with. Instead we decided (I can’t remember exactly who) that it was best to stick to one film reference which was Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. This gave me a lot less creative input but I wasn’t too fussed as I had so much else to be doing.
I owe my inspiration of the library mainly to the good old Ikea catalogue, all be it in a somewhat obscure way (a lampshade inspired a pillar for example). I also went with a circular theme – the bookshelves are constructed around a circle, formed by the windows, and other props such as the telly are constructed out of circular shapes. I did have a look at some Disney backgrounds to try and get some inspiration but I have never really liked Disney films so I don’t think that I took too much of it in.
The colour scheme came mainly from Pete’s brief, which was alon
g the lines of: something that was warm and inviting but not distracting. I have used yellow/brown/grey pastille type colours and tried to avoid using harsh shadows in my artwork which I think was quite important as a lot of the props are quite imposing. For areas that needed that bit more warmth, like the lamp on the information desk I mainly used the colour palette that we had agreed to use on the librarian. The sign above the desk was supposed to be like a beacon so I wanted to emphasize it, I made it blue because this is a universal colour for information signs and it stood out against the warm tones of the library, I just hope that it is not too cold.That just about concludes this week’s blog, next week I’m moving onto the creature comforts project to do some animation which I chose to do because I thought it might allow me more freedom than some of the other projects then i’m back to the library for post.
Friday 9 May 2008
Still no I-dent (sorry)
It only seems like five minutes ago that I was last doing this; the week has flown by, so apologies if I am a little vague this week.
After my little rant last week I have had time to sit back and reflect and have come to the conclusion that I still hate Maya and wouldn’t want to touch it with a barge pole. That said the fact that it has effectively beaten me is constantly at the back of my mind so I might end up doing the tutorials again when I get some free time.
I really like the new project(s), and think we have a good group for the library brief, despite the odd clash of egos. Pete has come up with a really good idea of giving us all our own little bit to come up with, which allows us some degree of creative freedom and will hopefully give the finished film an interesting feel as it changes between the different styles, although we will have to be careful that these changes don’t confuse the audience. I am also responsible for designing the environment; which I am trying to keep as simple as possible, to fit the overall feel of the film as well as making the 3D modelling of it as quick and simple as possible. I am also coming up with lighting schemes, which I haven’t really thought about and am advising on the camera angles, although I think everyone else’s ideas on that front are better than mine.
And finally, my little pet project, which I am still not going to say what it is about, except it is going to be stop motion, is tottering along nicely. I have read Peter Lord’s and Brian Sibley’s Cracking Animation, which is really useful, I have some very rough character designs and a sript(ish) as well as recruiting some 3D design people to help build sets and props and a textiles person to make little miniature clothes. However, this is likely to ground to a halt during this project and probably wont be resurrected till next year.
After my little rant last week I have had time to sit back and reflect and have come to the conclusion that I still hate Maya and wouldn’t want to touch it with a barge pole. That said the fact that it has effectively beaten me is constantly at the back of my mind so I might end up doing the tutorials again when I get some free time.
I really like the new project(s), and think we have a good group for the library brief, despite the odd clash of egos. Pete has come up with a really good idea of giving us all our own little bit to come up with, which allows us some degree of creative freedom and will hopefully give the finished film an interesting feel as it changes between the different styles, although we will have to be careful that these changes don’t confuse the audience. I am also responsible for designing the environment; which I am trying to keep as simple as possible, to fit the overall feel of the film as well as making the 3D modelling of it as quick and simple as possible. I am also coming up with lighting schemes, which I haven’t really thought about and am advising on the camera angles, although I think everyone else’s ideas on that front are better than mine.
And finally, my little pet project, which I am still not going to say what it is about, except it is going to be stop motion, is tottering along nicely. I have read Peter Lord’s and Brian Sibley’s Cracking Animation, which is really useful, I have some very rough character designs and a sript(ish) as well as recruiting some 3D design people to help build sets and props and a textiles person to make little miniature clothes. However, this is likely to ground to a halt during this project and probably wont be resurrected till next year.
Friday 2 May 2008
Maya Has Broken Me
I think that it would be very easy for me to just slag of Maya for the entirety of this entry but I shall try to restrain myself and be a little bit constructive. Right, as you may have guessed, I have not got on particularly well with Maya this week, just as the ole’ flour sack thing seemed to be chugging along smoothly and I was on the verge of becoming a convert, a huge great dirty spanner was thrown in the works and completely buggered up everything as the anchor point things suddenly decided to go forth and multiply. After wasting a day bodging everything back together I encountered another little gem; for some reason whenever I move something to animate it, everything that has already been animated moves too, despite it being keyed. At this stage I don’t know if I these problems are a result of something that I have done or something that Maya has done. So to cut a long story short I have thrown the towel in and given up – Maya has broken me.
What have I learnt, well, apart from the fact that I never want to animate in Maya again and fail to see why anyone else would (I salute anyone who can though). It can be a surprisingly amusing programme to use whilst half drunk, although the chances of producing anything worthwhile are slim. Also, in the right hands (clearly not mine) I grudgingly acknowledge that you can do some interesting camera work and the like, but I am still not overly keen on the whole 3D environment that you can create.
Where from here then…bring on stop motion I cry! I have started work on my little pet project (sketches and so on and so forth) and plan to raid the library tomorrow to learn how to do things. Updates next week.
And finally, to conclude, my little review of A Scanner Darkly, mentioned last week. In terms of plot the film was OK if a tad curfuzzeling but it normally takes me a couple of attempts to understand most things. The rotoscoping was interesting, highlighting for me actions that animation can’t or doesn’t capture and also showing what animation can bring to a storey. At first I didn’t see what the rotoscoping brought to the storey but Rosie (correct me if I’m wrong Rosie) pointed out that the way that the characters ‘floated’ about (which I put down to dodgy rotoscoping) was meant to enhance the whole stoner mindset in the film.
Next week I will revisit Maya when I have had time to cool off and have a better look at my experience with it.
What have I learnt, well, apart from the fact that I never want to animate in Maya again and fail to see why anyone else would (I salute anyone who can though). It can be a surprisingly amusing programme to use whilst half drunk, although the chances of producing anything worthwhile are slim. Also, in the right hands (clearly not mine) I grudgingly acknowledge that you can do some interesting camera work and the like, but I am still not overly keen on the whole 3D environment that you can create.
Where from here then…bring on stop motion I cry! I have started work on my little pet project (sketches and so on and so forth) and plan to raid the library tomorrow to learn how to do things. Updates next week.
And finally, to conclude, my little review of A Scanner Darkly, mentioned last week. In terms of plot the film was OK if a tad curfuzzeling but it normally takes me a couple of attempts to understand most things. The rotoscoping was interesting, highlighting for me actions that animation can’t or doesn’t capture and also showing what animation can bring to a storey. At first I didn’t see what the rotoscoping brought to the storey but Rosie (correct me if I’m wrong Rosie) pointed out that the way that the characters ‘floated’ about (which I put down to dodgy rotoscoping) was meant to enhance the whole stoner mindset in the film.
Next week I will revisit Maya when I have had time to cool off and have a better look at my experience with it.
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