*D* Knight - Detailed Keys And Livestream

Well, here's a cleaner version of the stick animation I did. It took so long to draw each of these frames. I still want to complete this, but this is what I have accomplished thus far.

I realized that I didn't exactly explain how I did this test, so here it goes...

I started off animating a circle for the head, so I could make it flow effectively with the music. I then animated his body and legs in. This meant that his chest and head would lead his motion, which suits his character - His heart and mind are in charge of his actions, and since he is in love, he has little control over what he does. I think I could have put that a little more eloquently, but I think you get the idea XD Lastly, I added in the arms. I tried think of how I would have my arms if I were doing those dance steps, and which pose would flow best.

Problems I Had

• When I was detailing the leg keys, I found that sometimes the leg had been overstretched unintentionally. It was a bit difficult going back and changing them having gone into detail. Perhaps because I had not thought enough about how his legs would be in the early stages of animation. I must make sure that the poses are possible to do in real life, and don't look strange
• I had some issues making my drawings look EXACTLY like the model, but I think I did pretty well considering. I must keep drawing him in my spare time, so that I become more comfortable drawing him, and it comes more naturally
• His size still fluctuates a lot. I must keep the size of the character consistant.
• I need to try and be a bit more brave when attempting to do perspective poses. I think at come points the poses look a little flat.
• I need to work in 25fps in HD 1080 x 720 in future.
• I must try and work faster. If I want to get stuff done and moving quickly, I need to get these line tests completed much quicker. Again this may be down to the fact I need to be a lot more comfortable drawing the character. At the moment, the speed that I draw the detailed poses is causing this to slow down everything. Perhaps after a few more line tests, I will get them done quicker and quicker.

Right, below is a video of me doing some animation in Toonboom. Half way in the vid I meddle with the sound, because my brother started playing the wii in the background! You don't have to watch it all, but you see me drawing out some poses at the end, and talking through the process and the model sheet at the beginning

*D* YET ANOTHER Smitten Animation Test

I did this whilst on Livestream, but the movie is very large (45mins worth of footage!) So it's taking time to process. It may not even process at all. Stupid technology! If it does actually allow me to open the vid file and edit it down to a shorter length, I will upload it. :D

Pretty pleased with the work so far. The end bit needs work or changing. I've also started drawing the arm poses in, and they seem to meld into the frames well.

BIG THUMBS UP

EDIT: Matt Vadis' feedback on tests

Hey Em

Thanks for the hard work you've been doing, you're really cranking them out. Ye it's your best one yet - nice and fluid, in time with the accents of the music and has variety in the movements, which is good because if we stick to the sort of rigid posture of an actual waltz dancer i think it would get boring.

As far as criticism goes, i'd say push the key poses even more. This guy's theatrical so think of those melodramatic gestures in Shakespeare plays, they're almost laughable which is sort of what we're going for. There's a part where he looks like he's sneaking, maybe to make it look more like a dance try widening his steps so you really see the energy in moving from one spot to another - almost like the way a roller-coaster speeds up on the downhills and slows on the ups.

Don't stress yourself trying to apply any changes I think you've done enough for now, just keep in mind what i've said. I think we're ready to start animating the real thing.

I think Matt made some very good points here about where I can improve. At the moment, I am neatening up the test above, and drawing the knight over the top of the rough stick man poses. Fingers crossed it will look alright!

So far it has been quite time-consuming but I'll keep at it.
:D

*D* Another Smitten Animation Test

I'm gonna add to this more and more, just posting this now to show how it's going so far :I

*D* Further thoughts about the Smitten animation

I have also just remembered something that Matt Vadis told me. I should listen to the music and let that guide me. In the same way that the knight Don Juanova is led by his heart, I need to be led by the music to go in the right direction for his animation.

When I was directly using the Waltz reference to animate to, I found that the pace that the dancers were moving was far too swift. It made my head spin trying to directly mirror it in a fun way. However, I have learnt that there are some nice arcs of the arms and legs that will provide some strong poses to use.

Dan has also said that he can arrange for us to go to a dance studio to watch and sketch live dancers perform. I am really up for this! I haven't done proper Life Drawing for quite a long time, so I am eager to lap up this opportunity!


Sorry, just stuff I wanted to empty out my head. Will be working on another test for the deadline on 10th January. Should be good, as long as I take on board all I have learnt so far.

*D* Happy New Year! An update overdue

Hey! Here's my first post to my blog in 2011. Lets hope its the first of many cool things to show you all!


Right, I have two test movies to post up. Fingers crossed they come out alright on here

The 1st is a clip playing around with the Knight dancing. This was made taking into account stuff I had learnt from making the previous two tests

I showed Dan this vid and the 2nd one, and he said that I needed to slow in inbetween taking steps. He would be very light on his feet, so he will spend more time on tip-toes then landing a foot on the ground. He is a little heavy footed here.

The other clip I did was a 2D test on how the penguin would move. Its extremely simple, but I wanted to play around with how his cone shape would move in water.

However, there has been a drastic change to the story of The Deep. Andy sent me the following message:

hi emma i thought i would let u know that i have come to the decision to cut the penguin from the film. this is due to drastic story changes and the flow and character relationships.

thank you soo much for all ur hard work and please dont think it has gone to waste as it will still be presented in the development stages even in the later stages of the production.

the penguin in the film did not fit as it was used mainly as a directing tool to get the kid in the water, after that the penguin got in the way of the story and characters. the story now focuses on the eel and kid resulting in a better flow and arc for both characters and story.

once again im sorry but please let me know if ur available for anymore design work

thanks andy k 

I admit I am a little disappointed, because I had really taken to the cute fella, but I am behind Andy all the way on the decisions he makes. Hopefully this change will be to the benefit to the project, and will help us come up with a cool result!

The work I did towards the penguin character is in no way a waste, I have learnt a lot from the experience and had a lot of fun producing it all. In the industry, this kinda thing happens all the time. If a character doesn't quite flow in the story, they often have to be removed to help accommodate a better plot.

Andy has asked me to do some more work for the team though, I am to design a polaroid camera for the boy to use. I must research cameras and come up with something that can be made and used in the film. 

*D* HUM DEE FRICKIN DUMMM

Lol sorry bout the title, my caps were on for some reason. :V

Maybe there's a little too much detail, but I'm happy with the progress.
Seems to be taking me a while to get it done though :/

Oh well I must press on!

EDIT - Finished a storyboard!

3 to go!

*D* Raven storyboards. With a nice platter

Okay, I have been briefed on a couple of storyboards I can do for the Raven Project animatic. Here's a rough sketch-out of the panels.

1. POV Beefeater. Close-up of platter. Reflection of Beefeater holding platter
2. POV Beefeater. Camera slightly zooms out. We see a hand on handle, about to reveal food inside.
3. POV Beefeater. Platter cover has been lifted up and out of sight. We see contents of platter (Meat with garnish), and the inside of the Raven box. Bran is see lip-syncing to Bran voice over

This is a very key moment in the film. Basically, throughout the introduction, the audience is led to believe that the Beefeater is speaking about the Tower of London and the Ravens that reside there. But the twist is it is actually Bran, one of the Ravens, that is introducing the documentary. Clever, eh?

So its pretty important that I get this set of panels done. Otherwise there is a large gap in the story, and that will look a little silly in the pitch that we will be doing on Monday.

EDIT:

Here are the sketches I have done in photoshop of the 3 storyboard frames. They are a lot neater and clearer, as you can tell. I think I may need to add another frame in, showing the cover being removed, because at the moment it looks like it magically disappears.

*D* *M* Penguins, penguins, penguins

Yarrrrrp we have even more drawings for the penguin character. I'm actually amazed at how many doodles I have done for this. I must have accumulated over 30 individual pictures, I think! I'll have to count them

Anyway, Yeh I spoke to Andy, and he liked the direction I was going in. However, he wanted the character to have no legs (just flipper feet). He also emphasized that he wanted the penguin to be more triangular-shaped. Rather like a fatter, cuter version of the evil penguin in the Wallace and Gromit episode, "The Wrong Trousers".

So without further ado, I got stuck in again. You can tell that I haven't immediately gone for drastically triangular shaped penguin designs. This is still rather experimental. I also keep thinking of what I have learnt in the past. Triangles tend to be dangerous shapes. Squares tend to be safe shapes. Circles tend to be fun shapes. Characters are often designed based on this theory.

Below I have tried to design more triangular-shaped bodies. I have compromised a bit though, by making his body like a cone. Pictured here is the camera that he discovers in the film idea. It is not designed to be like the one that will be in the animation. I just sketched it out really quickly.

It is important that I drew him with the camera, because I want to make sure his flippers are long enough to reach out and hold things. If the model is designed in a way that it cannot operate in this way, it will significantly slow down the process of getting his design perfected.

 

EDIT: I've done a quick re-concept too. Here's the after and before:

^^^ New Design ^^^

 VVV Old Design VVV

 I think I'm still rather fond of the original, personally, but I think the new design is a lot more simple. It will be easier to model, rig and animate (To the best of my knowledge).

However, I think I will need to keep going with this design. I still need to formulate a Reference Sheet like the old one. I want to wait for Andy to give me the thumbs up though. :D

*D* "Thought Of You" by Ryan Woodward

I discovered this randomly on someone's DeviantArt page. I absolutely love it! Has really inspired me for the Smitten Project!



Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Here's the Behind The Scenes


Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.

I really would like to see some live dancing for reference, now :D

*D* Progress with Animation Tests of Waltzing Don

Version 01

Version 02

FEEDBACK - Trying to use reference too much. Should use reference for aid, but not try and rotoscope it. Bit forced

*D* The Waltz Blues

Figuring out how to animate a character waltzing is near doing my head in. Oh man. I'm trying to place the timing of the music into the timeline, but its weird having it 3 time instead of 4.

I'm trying to work out how he eases into the poses and how his body moves. So much is moving at once, his feet, his body weight, the arch of his arms, and he's making headway at such a pace. The track we are using for our animation is very quick, so I guess I can get away with doing some mistakes at first, but still.

GAHHHH

Basically, just wanted to let you know my brain is taking a while to process everything. I'm listening to the music non stop and I'm watching those Waltz videos for reference. I may look for some more vids like that for help. I'm gonna need it >__<

 EDIT:

Okay I've attempted to establish the arm shapes first at the appropriate moments of the music. This is purely using the waltz vid called "Basic Waltz Demo (Music) by Mirko & Alessia" (see previous post). I think this is the easiest way for me to get the keys of the movement. Once I have the arms sorted, I'm going to put the other lines of action in and then build up from there.

*D* Animation reference for sword fighting

Just found this brilliant animation on youtube. Take a look!

*D* Smitten - Reference for Don Juanova

After an intense discussion with Dan on how to improve my animation tests, I have a lot of leads on what to look at, in terms of reference. I need to do my next few animations tests using reference, rather then animating straight ahead without much thought about why he is making the moves he is doing.

Matt Vadis, our group leader, posted some really valuable material for me to use. Here's a link to his blog post below:


Matt Vadis: Don Juanova Reference

I'm going to repost the most important vids I wish to look at more closely below.

Slow motion Ballet!


Waltzing!




I'd really like to take a fragment of the dancing and use this for close study. I will try and animate Don waltzing around like a lovestruck casonova

Dan gave me and Matt a good lead to follow for sword fighting reference. Errol Flynn. Here he is, among some other sword fighting greats

*D* *M* Penguin again... Shape experiments and expressions

FIRST OF ALL here is that expression sheet I did for the old design of the penguin. He looks a little to exaggerated and human-like here perhaps, but here it is incase we go back to this design.

Anyway, moving on, I have been trying to make the penguin character look a little cuter my trying some different body shapes. The top left diamond shape is what Andy suggested last Thursday. I tried a few other shapes too. Here are the line and colour tests below. These were done in Photoshop

 

I showed my pictures to Mike, and he said they were nice, but he was still very keen on the concept drawing I did a while ago (See older posts). I then showed him the pictures below. He said he was more fond of these then the pictures above. I agree.

So I did a few more pictures along those lines. Here they are below

I really am not sure which direction to go in now. I'm going to send this post to Andy and see what he thinks. :D

EDIT: FEEDBACK

Mel:
♥ it. its very cartoony. im not sure if its what andy has in mind. If it was up to me i like the recent shape of the penguin as it will be the animation where it will truly come to life and simple to rig

Clym:
defo gna use those mouth shapes. Epic :D

Andy:

getting there, try taking the legs out and just doing feet that are attached to his main body, u cant really see penguins legs cos its all in the main body mass

Andy also linked me to an article to "Happy Feet".

I think that I can conclude that I am getting closer with the design of the penguin. I think the last images of this post are the ones to keep going with. I agree with Andy, the way I've done the feet is a little rubbish. Flat short feet will be better. Rigging the feet will be a pain, I expect, but I let the riggers worry about that. I'll make sure they are aware of that issue when it comes to it.

I should also watch Happy Feet again, because the penguins are very real and are animated beautifully. Might be good reference for how the feet should be too.

*D* Smitten research - My Dog Tulip

As we were talking at length with out Tutor Mike about our Toonboom animation project, he suggested a film to research called "My Dog Tulip" I did a youtube search for it and found a trailer showcasing the story, completely animated in the program Toonboom



I must say that I was not disappointed when I saw this video. It certainly displays some very strong 2D animation. I must say it can look a little rushed and scruffy, but I think that is the whole idea of the style of storytelling the film was going for.

*D* *M* Ballet!

Just had a major art frenzy. By gum. Drawing Ballet dancing is just so fun! I love it! It's like doing life drawing all over again. I have LOADS of pics to upload, but for now, here's the vid that inspired it all

EDIT Here are the doodles I did!

*D* *M* Penguins Swimming

*D* Storyboards - Epic Beefeater Shot

Yiggity Yooo Ya Yay!

Well, these are some little shots I've worked on for the Raven Project. Sophie wanted some pics drawn of the Raven master silhouetted nicely, his action being taking his hat off and holding in front of him in a regal pose. This is the first pic I did.

A few problems with this pic is that he is standing with his arms beside him, which makes him look a little awkward in my opinion. Also, Sophie checked it out and said she preferred it if he were inside and infront of a window.

Here's the result of this new criteria that Sophie set me:

I feel much happier about these shots. I think the wall is slightly out of perspective, but I think the shape the sky forms around the Beefeater's head works really nicely. Having his arms behind him like thata strikes the right pose for his character, too.

I have a feeling that the bg may need changing again, but I will see what Sophie says. :D

EDIT:  The shots weren't quite there. Explained in more recent post showing redrawn panels

*D* Animation Tests - refining keys

I've been having trouble getting Toonboom to behave itself as I get futher with this animation. Whenever I try to drag the pointer through the timeline to review my work, it jumps frames. It's very frustrating! Hopefully it will cease its irritating ways for when I continue tomorrow.

So here's what I've got done despite the issues I've had. I'm fairly happy with it, though I keep seeing more and more glaring issues.

I'm not sure whether you noticed, but I took out the spin, because I realized he was spinning in the opposite direction the the way he is crouching on one knee, and I could see that this didn't flow too well. So I have him doing this sweeping motion instead. I'm not sure whether this is much of an improvement, because it looks a little unnatural. *sigh*

Oh well, I'll continue or start a new practice test. This has been fun, I have to say!

EDIT: TOO MC HAMMER!

*D* Don Juanova animation test

Hurrah a rather unfinished test that will hopefully be finished soon!

Here we see Don Juanova doing a little dance. Yeh he isn't really waltzing, but I just wanted to get used to drawing him some more. Plus I've always wanted to see a knight do a little knee shuffle thrust dance move.

Okay maybe I'm exaggerating

Right well there's certainly a lot of room for improvement. Some of the perspective is a little off, and he looks a bit too big at the end. I find it kinda hard to keep the size of things the same size throughout when animatiing. Also, the animation goes off the top of the screen, which is irritating. I'll need to check the dimensions and make sure the whole animation is seen. The part where he spins around is giving me a right headache. Gonna have to look at reference material for that. I think my line quality could be better.

Other then those things and a few other glitches, I think this is going down the right path. The keyframes are fairly good, and there is a good flow in general. The timing is okay, though I could edit it a bit, so that there is more of a rhythm. The cleanup looks pretty cool as well.