Friday, 6 May 2011
Presentation
Today I presented my animated clip. Overall I was very pleased with the presentation. I felt that I presented my journey of my animation clearly, explaining my pre production, production and post production. On reflection I thought that my pre production came across successfully. I felt I provided enough evidence of my references, to support my animation. I also felt that I explained everything in enough detail as needed, not over analysing anything that didn’t need to. Also I am a shy person and find the thought of talking in front of a room full of people very daunting but I felt that I did not portray this when speaking, for this reason I am really proud and felt I have gained some confidence from doing the presentation.
Production
When rendering out my animation today there was a number of problems with the sound as you can’t hear it at all. After realising that Maya will not render out sound I have had to change my camera angles and have found that I can only stick with two to get a good effect. This is because when I go back to syncing the sound with other software I struggle to get the timing right with all the different angles.
On reflection of my animation I feel it was successful in particular the facial expressions. However in the future I feel I need to become familiar with other programmes such as Adobe after effects to ensure I can sync my future animations well, eventually including more camera angles.
Production
Moving on from my animation I feel I am now ready to begin creating my scene. The scene I have chosen from my spider diagram was the jail scene. From creating the scene I can now place my character accordingly.
My last step for my production is my camera angles. I have added a great number of camera angles that I think follow the two characters well.
Production
Today I began to animate the body movements of my character, for this I will need to refer to my sketches and dope sheet. As my character is thinking, I feel he is best standing on the spot, so all emphasis is on his facial expressions.
My decision above seems to have been the right one. As I have now brought all elements together and I feel it is successful, however on reflection I think I need something or someone else to accompany my character.
From much reflection I have decided to include another character, however I don’t feel he needs to say anything, as I don’t want to take the wittiness of the sentence away. What I have decided for this character is that he will sit and listen to my first character, showing clear expression that will support the one line. I will animate this character to show a happy/excited face, slowly moving into a confused face as the line concludes.
I have found animating my second character straight forwards, as I feel I have learnt a lot in terms of animating with my first character. I have sat my second character on a bed.
Production
From doing the mouth and sound I have begun to animate eyebrow movements. For this I have had to rely heavily on my pre production photographs. To ensure I am achieving the realistic look I aim for. I found this part achievable which has moved my progression on further.
Production of Animation
Production
The progress I have made has been good. I am now ready to begin my production, which I am looking forward to doing. Today I began to animate my character. I have decided to begin the process by starting with the mouth movements. For this the photographs and video I took prior were very useful. I tried to match the mouth the best I could to what I had seen and watched. However I have stumbled across a problem that has slowed my progress down. I am finding it difficult to animate certain long words for example cunning. To solve this problem I have began using a mirror a great deal to look for phonemes, I am also using trial and error which has slowed my progress down, as I have to keep going back and remodel the mouth.
I have eventually finished animating my mouth movements. I can now begin to add the sound. This I found relatively easy, as I think my concentration and trial and error has paid off as my mouth seems to be in sync, although I have had to slow my one line down a little. Overall I am happy with the outcome of this.
Pre-Production of Animation
Today I began my dope sheet. I found the photographs very useful for this part of my pre production. I feel doing by doing my dope sheet now I am on task, and progressing well.
I found completing my dope sheet at times a little challenging but overall reasonable. This meant I could now referring to my Dope sheet begin to sketch out character positions. Using arrows as references as to where the arms will be moving and placed. I feel that these sketches although only rough will be a great help.
Pre-Production of Animation
Pre production
I have begun thinking about my animated character and what I hope to aim to achieve with the final product. I hope my outcome will be realistic with a cartoon edge, as this is a way I enjoy working.
I have started to think about a number of ‘one liners’ that I could use. I have narrowed them down to my favourite programmes and films, Blackadder, Starwars and Spiderman. From researching by watching key scenes from each one, I have decided that a line from Blackadder would be good for my character. I have chosen the line “I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel”. I settled for this line as I believe it is a witty one liner that could be adapted to many situations, opening up more prospects for my scene.
I have been thinking about my one line, and feel I need to whittle the situations down before I am to make any sense of what I am to do to continue. I thought a spider diagram would allow me to do this. Below is a spider diagram of what I have shortlisted
Casino outside a bank
All of the above I believed would allow the witty content the one line offers. However i believed the jail was the best idea because you could easliy imagine someone saying this line in that situation. Now I have picked my one line, I can now begin to research facial expressions that I can use for future references. I think researching how somebodys mouth moves when saying the sentence will help me a great deal in the future. For this I have began taking photographs and recordings of someone saying my line.
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| Example of photographs taken |
From these photos I have begun taking more photographs as I think they will be a great reference in the future. This time my photographs will consentrate on eyebrow movements as these are an important part of the face when talking, expressing feelings and opinions.
Walk Cycle
In preparation for my walk cycle I walked feeling and watching in a mirror my own movements. I also observed others walking.
My first task after my preparation was to create a dope sheet. On here I noted arms, legs, head and weight movements; this took a number of watches to be successful. Following this I modelled my legs. With constant reference from watching others move. With the legs complete I began modelling the arms. I needed to ensure the arms moved in sync with the legs. Making sure my arms were slightly bent. This took some time as I needed to ensure the legs and arms were exact. However I now see this as successful. I know felt I was ready to move onto the head movements. During my preparation I noted that when you walk your head slightly moves, it was this effect I was hoping to achieve. I found this relatively easy to do. Now the walk was coming together, but what I needed to do to ensure my walk cycle was to best quality was to animate the weight we use when walking. This too meant that I referred back to my references. It was this that I found difficult. As the weight is only slight it was hard to watch someone else, along with this when walking myself and feeling my movements it was hard to recognise the weight movement properly. I tried the best I could to achieve the right look. Overall I am happy with my walk cycle. From doing this task I feel I have learnt a great number of skills and awareness of the programme to ensure my animated character runs smoothly.
Jump Cycle
Jump
When initially thinking about this task I was a bit concerned as I thought animating someone leave the ground would be difficult, due to weight and knee movements. To overcome this initial reaction I ensured I did a lot of research that I could use for future reference. I began by jumping in front of the mirror; I believed this would help me with the movement and weight aspect, as I can personally feel what is happening. I then began watching others jump; I watched a number of people, looking at common occurrences. To ensure my jump looked realistic I noted when jumping people bend their legs a great deal, so this was my first body part to animate. To ensure the audience could see the knee bends clearly I made my character move from standing position to squatting position. This I found problematic as I needed to ensure the angle of my knees was correct. This meant moving my character a number of times. When I felt I had the right angle I could then begin to show my character using his weight to push up.
I needed to get the weight right when creating the next part of my jump, this meant referring to my references a great deal to recognise and understand the weight balance. I needed to make sure that my characters movements in the air were realistic instead of him simply floating upwards and downwards.
Overall I am fairly pleased with this animation however at times it doesn’t seem realistic enough to meet my initial aim.
Ball Animation
Ball animation
Before beginning to animate my ball, I began For shape referencing when beginning to animate I have used a tennis ball I had at home. To ensure it had the same effect as the one from my university session, I pieced a hole through it.
I have struggled with this animation, maybe due to my focal design, as I found it hard to make it look realistic. This meant I spent a lot of time using trial and error to perfect my final animation, as well as referring back to my references (tennis ball and dope sheet) However on reflection I feel it could still be improved.
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