Playblasts!

Here are two playblasts from some animations that I did over the weekend. The first animation is a shot of blot running and realising his is going to slip on the drool . This was quite a tricky shot to do, because at first it was too fast, and then it was too slow. I think the overall movement looks okay but it could do with being a little faster to make it snappier. The playblast is the beginning of the shot where blot realises that he doesn't have the knives. This shot was especially tricky as, for some reason, the computer kept mucking up. Anyway this shot needs allot of work, the walking needs to be improved, and for some reason some of the inbetweens are missing. Anyway, must keep trudging!

New Update!

Hey, this is an update of the schedule. All seems to be going OK, but we need to get the animations done pretty soon. I've been animating all today, but I know that there's more to do. Just got to keep going! Overall, I think we are on track, but we could do with picking up the pase a bit. I know this is difficult what with the DVD that we have to make, and the contextual studies essay as well!

TV Party!!!

Today I modeled a TV for the audience shot. I made it from a cube (my favourite), a sphere and some cylinders. I thought if I went for a modern looking TV it would not be as comical of obvious to the audience. New TVs look too sleek and computer like, so I decided to go for an old tube like one, just like the 25year old TV I used to have in my bedroom until 2001! I decided to give it some wonky antennas to complete the look. It looks a bit like the TV from the Simpsons.

New Lights.

We had a lecture with Sultan Efe today on the subject of lighting. Sultan advised against using area lights, and instead said to opt for spot light's with a high radius and high drop off. Sultan himself, used a stage as an example. After the lecture I immediately tried lighting the scene. I had one main yellow spotlight in front of the stage. I then had a blue spotlight on the back wall to act as a bounce light, as well as two big red lights either side of the stage to also act as bounce light's. overall I think the scene looks pretty good. The bounce lights have really given thew whole stage more character, with the subtle reflections of the red curtains bouncing onto the walls. To add to this, I actually think the stage looks more theatrical now. Overall, I found the Sultan lecture very helpful!

Slip n' Slide

Here's another shot. The one is a big one. It's of the motion when blot slips on durg's drool. This shot has loads animations in it, every part of his body is moving. The actual slipping still needs lots of work but I think the expression is pretty funny. I was inspired by Jim Carey in Ace Ventura, the bit where he screams with the shark, anyway, no time to dilly dally!

1st shot!

I have spent today animating the first shot of the film, where a spotlight shines on blot and he gestures towards the knife board. I wanted people to get a sense that blot loves the theatre so I had him take a big breath in and look around the stage adoringly before making his grand gesture. I wanted to create a sense of grandness to his gesture so I had the wrist flick a little and the fingers roll at one frame after the other. To accent his moves I tilted his head slightly. I thought his legs were a little static so I decided to dip his knees a little to really give the motion more pop. There's still a little more work that needs to be done to this shot, a couple of awkward inbetweens, a bit more secondary animation. I haven't even touched the graph editor yet. Anyway the basics are here.

Storyboard Redraft

Neil and I had a chat with Jared, who said we needed to incorparate the 2d in with the 3d more. He said that it won't sit right with a viewer if the audience is 2d and everything else is 3d, so we need to play around with the ideas more. He said we could exploit the fact that the audience is 2d. I came up with two ideas, the first was that Blot throws one of the knives into the audience, it slices one of them i half and they flutter apart like ripped paper. Neil didn't really like this idea. SO, I came up with another one, which is what we both agreed on, so I decided to storyboard it.

Blot is about to reveal the knives, he then pats down his sides and realises, he doesn't have them. We cut to the audience looking slightly confused, the camera then pans back to reveal that the whole audience are being shown on a TV screen and are all pre recorded. WE see Blot, rummaging around behind the TVs before finding the knives. He the walks happily back on stage, and dusts himself off. The camera then zooms in dramatically as he produces the three knives from one hand behind his back.

Both Neil and myself rather like this idea. It's almost poking fun at the fact that the audience are not real, and do not exist within the 3d world.

The New and Imporved Knifeeeey!!!

After the previously mentioned USB disaster, I had to remodel knifey. NOOOOOO! Fortunately, much like the Wise Jared once said, the second time you model something it will be allot easier and allot better. This was the case, I completed the model in half an hour, and I personally think it looks better than the previous one. I based it on the knife on the far right of this reference image...the big one. I was going to model a specialist throwing knife, but I thought a kitchen knife is far more instantly recognisable for the audience.

Textured Environment

Hey Guys, after a horrible accident involving my USB, a few files went missing, including the production schedule, the knife and the environment. After a a full blown hissy fit, I started re modelling the environment. Then I remembered, I sneaked a copy onto Neil's USB last week as a back up. When I got the environment Back off of Neil, it was un-lit and un textured...so I had to do it again. Anyway, here it is. I used a regular Lambert style texture for the back wall, a blin for our velvety curtains (snazy!) and a blin for our varnished floor (all the more to slip on someones spit with). I chose to light the scene with two lights, a regular area light at the front, and a warmer toned peach light at the back, to give the scene more personality. Overall I think the environment has turned out pretty OK. Neil and I aren't the greatest modeller's and textures in the world. Hopefully the focus will be on the animated performance...then again it is nice to have a swanky environment!

line test

line test

line test

Line Tests

I've been power housing the hand drawn animation for The Prof movie, because Daryl needs 'em all finished within the next few days. Here's are some line tests that I did the other day. I finished the rest of the animations today. These line tests turned out OK, Daryl thinks they'll work.

SHANK!

Now that we will be animating in 3d, I decided to quickly model a knife, (after spending hours scaling the environment up to match Max). I made the knife the same way I make everything in Maya...CUBE! Adding vertexes, extruding and all that stuff. Anyway, it's pretty basic, but Max is pretty Basic too so I think it will fit nicely!

Flash Update!!!

Whilst having a chat with Dan, he made a suggestion...why not animate the duck scenes with a pre-made rig. He said how there's nothing wrong with combining 2d and 3d in the film. This stuck in my mind so I discussed it with Neil and we both agreed it would be the most logical decision to use a pre-made rig. It's partly due to time constraints and, also, we want to work on our 3d muscles as well (they are puny and pathetic after all). We'd rather have a well done piece of 3d animation than a crappy rushed 2d, or worse, a poorly rigged 3d. We squared it with Jared who said it was OK. I am happy with this decision as we will be using Max for Maya, and he is a rally cool rig.

The Plan (don't even think about it Neil!) }:(

Not much to say about this post...the only thing is that Neil and I have not put the percentages in it yet!

ANother Flash Test

I have a graphics tablet now ( a very sexy Wacom Intuos 4). With this in mind I decided to do a little test in flash. It's only a super quick, three frame animation, but I think it turned out quite well...considering I'm so new to flash!

I would show it to you all but stupid blogger is being a little butt hole and it won't upload. URGGGGH! I HATE COMPUTERS!

Flash reference!

Here are some examples of how Flash can look awesome. One clip his from the hit Cartoon Network show Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends. The one with the devil is from the new Cartoon network show, Jimmy Two Shoes, which is about a kid in hell (I think the character designs resemble that of our film). The last two clips are from a fantastic Internet animator called Harry Partridge, who is most famous for his 'Saturday Morning Watchmen' parody. His Metal Gear Solid Parody is fantastic as it lasts pretty much 30 seconds, so it gives an idea of how quick our film has to be.

Enivironment!

In Daryl's film, he is using 3d rendered Maya backgrounds. To keep with continuity with the audience shots I decided to model a stage for our Duck film. I took the audience seats, cameras, directors chair and lights from Daryl's environment (modelled by Harry and Elisha) and created my own stage. It's really basic but I had to keep in mind that it must fit with our character designs as well. It's certainly not the worlds greatest environment but I think it'll do.

Just an Update!

Just to let you all know, all the pencil animations with the bean have been completed. It's no Glen Keane but Daryl says it looks fine. Must. Keep. Going.

New Boards!

Hey all here are the new boards. After a long chat Neil and I decided that my boards were too long, way over 30 seconds, so we decided to rethink the story. The new story begins with a spotlight on Blot. The lights go up revealing Durg the assistant and the knife board. Blot produces two knives from behind his back, and then one from his tongue. We close up on Durg presenting the board, then we see Blot throw the knives. He then speeds past them. We then see a close up of Durg's tongue as a piece of drool drops from it onto the floor. Blot is horrified as he slips on the dribble and goes careering into Durg. Then two get up rubbing their heads as the knives are still flying through the air. Blot looks on in terror of the impeding knives, as Durg is completely unaware.

I like this new story a lot, I think its quite short and sweet.

Line Tests

Here's a two line test for Daryl's audience. I decided to start the ball rolling with my crazy baked bean character (he's so crazy). Here we have him clapping, and ooohing! It needs a little work, Simon pointed out that his foot inflates and deflates. Anyway, Daryl seemed to like it.