Reworking Birds in Toon Boom

I'm kinda all over the place when it comes to Smitten Haha! I tend to zip from one thing to another. I'm going back to my first assignment I did for Matt which is the bird flying scene. I'm going to go into detail and hopefully finish this for good.

Here's a pic of how Matt would like the birds to be similar to. Found on google

Shot 27 onwards finally finished - Shots sent to render

I think my final shot is now finished. I had to alter a few bits to get it like this, though. I think I overcomplicated matters by not blocking what the body does before the hands, head, shoulders etc. I also had to change the end, because I lazily animated him swimming straight up, without twisting around to go behind him. I quickly altered that. Didn't want to labour too long on this near the end, because the lads wanted to have all the files for rendering.

I think I have finished the animation side of things for The Deep, thank goodness. This means my attention can revert to other more pressing matters, like Animating for Smitten, Getting all my work together for submission, and completing everything for E+E

Shot 8 Adjustments

Just added a little more detail to the animation in this shot. I added some wave effects to the flippers. I made sure the flippers straightened out when he kicks, and when he brings his legs back to kick again, the wave effect occurs. I also included the camera in here properly now, and I animated the arm movement too. I rotated the hips to exaggerate the motion.

Thumbs 4 Mel - Shot 3

Mel is working on shot 3 of The Deep. She is animating the part where The Kid is starting his journey to the underwater ice cave. He walks across jetty and climbs into Sub. Mel has been told to imagine a ladder going down the hatch of the Sub.

Its a tricky shot to animate, so I decided to draw out my interpretation of what he should do. It was tricky. He is holding a camera too, to make matters more complicated!

I decided he should swing his right leg into the door, and then position his other leg in the door after.

Today's To-do list of DOOM

Okay I am aware of my lack of scheduling lately, and I think I need a little more organization for the last 2 weeks, so I am going to write up a list of stuff to do in the next 3 days.

• E+E Posters - Adjust Mel's version, and have a go at doing a new logo for the group
• E+E Blog - Health and Safety post
• E+E 1000 word report
• The Deep shot 27onwards completion for render - finish MONDAY
• The Deep animatic - complete my personal storyboards in Final Cut, for marking
• Smitten - Bird shot completion
• Smitten - Sword Clash
• Smitten - Sword Spin - adjust handle (not priority)
• Animation submission - arrange folders (Concept, Technical and Animation) for marking (See Dan)

E+E deadline is on Friday, so a lot of this stuff I will get done Tuesday/Wednesday.

Lots to do!

Final Degree Show Logo

Tada!

I added a little orange in the letters in the end, because orange is blue's complimentary colour, and it helps make the letters stand out more.

People seem to like it, so we'll see if it gets chosen :D

Playblasting again again - Nearly there...

I've added a lot more detailed animation here. I've animated the mouth, and I've pretty much done the toughest part, which was the gathering of the Polaroids. The only parts that need doing now is the bit where he swims away, and properly going back and animating the eyebrows.

Problems - The polaroids were a bit of a pain. I had to try and stack them in the camera. I put their visibility on zero when the camera hatch closes, which helps. For some reason one of the polaroids was shrinking so I altered that so it doesn't shrink anymore.
The rig is still a little tricky. If you turn the wrists or meddle with the knees too much, the twist a lot. However, I'm an adaptable person, so I've just worked around it.
I forgot to mention that in the storyboards, Kid changes to a kneeling position instead of sitting on his bottom the whole time. It was a lot more straightforward to have in staying in one place, espesh considering how difficult the knees are to manipulate.
Kid's arms aren't very long, so I had to make sure his arms didn't stretch too much. To begin with, the camera kept going through his body, so I altered the position and angle of it so it looked more natural.

I think the bit at the end is going to need a few pauses, because it is a little too quick. That shouldn't be too difficult to alter. I also noticed that the head snaps too quickly near the end as he gathers the last two polaroids in to the camera. I've changed that bit already and it looks much better.