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.