Staging

I set the camera up to catch both cavemen within the shot, i needed to line up the angle carefully so that the round boulder didnt hide caveman1 with the square. As far as the staging goes it does look a littl bare, however this ICA is more about the animation than the decoration or modelling so i should worry too much.

I need to go through the pass one more time, partiularly the second caveman, as his legs still seem to snap a little. If I have the time i think i will have to re animate his cycle, especially if this is going in my portfolio. The cycle itself seems a little uncomfortable for the character, it maybe the leaning side to side which i've included to show how the character is balancing, perhaps less exsaggeration would be more effective here.

Progress

Starting to run out of time, been quite busy this week, made a little progress with the characters, i've managed to block out and fill in a few inbetweens on the characters walkcycles and facecial exspressions.

Not very happy with the scene alltogether though, it seems a bit dull, (not mentioning the fact that i need to work on the staging!). The second caveman (on his knees) also seems to snap 3 times in the scene. I've tried to mix up the cycle to make it more spontanious and amusing, but i dont think its quite worked out. The first caveman making good progress, although there are ares which seem a bit "floaty"  but the timing seems just about right. I also havn't started on the hands and will have to go over pass to include the hand exspression. Not to mention include props and build the caveman scene!

working progress

my working progress and testing the poses in animation:

As you can see, I've exaggerated the pose and adjusted the timing to make the box appear really really heavy. Just making a note to myself for future: never underestimate the power of line, especially line of action. Working far too slow at the moment, with graduation tomorrow I shall need to get a move on with this assigment to get finished on time.

Prep work

I've drawn out the poses i could try with this animation to see which could work better than others. Theres alot of scrap work so i'll just upload a few ideas. I've decided to make the ball boulder alot bigger, just as a gag and seem lighter than the smaller box.

gathering the idea together

Just finished work, had to get this written down before i completely forget everything:

The animation will be set in stone age, with two caveman collecting stone materials from a cave. The first caveman is pushing a heavy square shaped boulder, The second character is his friend is also collecting stones with him has somehow found a much bigger, lighter boulder the shape of a ball.

• the first caveman will be mature and experienced - in his 30s and unwilling to try new ideas.

• He's really tired and starting to struggle, but he need the stone material to build the rest of his house.

•  suddenly a second character appears pushing same sized bolder, but in a ball shape.

• The second character is alot younger, faster  and has found a easier way to push the stone along the path, on his knees. 

•  He stands up and shows his friend what hes done.

Greenscreen

Today we had another greenscreen session to record reference footage for our animations. I was a lil anxious at first seen as my idea was still a little vague, I had these previous sketches before i went down.

My idea was basically the  scenario of a caveman pushing a heavy object with difficulty (the box) when a lighter, more rounded object rolls past carried by the wind. (the ball) This inspires the caveman to invent the wheel.
My animation would just be a short comical prelude to the creation of the wheel, the moment of inspiration. 













Great footage thanks guys :), was a really fun session.


We came up with a better idea on the day (thanks to Penny) of including a second character into scene at first we weren't too sure as the brief stated only one character, however after acting the scene out we concluded that the character could be quite effective and add more comedy to the scene and i got the all clear to include him. I'll need to finalise my idea in writing and visual form before i begin on the animation itself.

Captain Caveman!

Mid-night rant


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGd8ZzZ56AU&feature=player_detailpage#t=101s - from frame 1:42


Another Hanna Barbera classic. Always used to watch these shows as a child, but even more now :D. What i really like about the cartoon and, you can see this alot in Hanna Barbera and other retro toons from the 70's is how the timing and poses are put together in a kind of instant but effective way.

 Not the best example, but take frame 1:45 - 1:46, the log is dropped instantly to show its heavy with no inbetweens and Captain Caveman is in two completely differnet static poses on each frame. I think its this kinda of technique that gives a character a bit more "zing" and has a comical charm to it.

Anyways rant over back to work! 

Caveman

I've had a few brainstorms and sketched ideas but the one idea I've decided to go with is the classic idea, "the invention of the wheel" or this case, a round object. (the ball) A little in the safe zone but has potential to show off the animation skills required for the task.

In this exercise your character must walk at some point during the sequence and interact
with two of the following:
A pendulum (swinging thing)
A ball
A ball with tail.
A big box
You are expected to add additional animation in keeping with the personality of your
character and his/her reason for interacting with the objects.
Duration max: 20 seconds
This sequence must be uploaded to blackboard as separate submission for component 2.
Planning can be included in the blog and marked as part of component 1

I need to incorporate this concept into the specification of the brief

I'll have to get a move on with this idea for the green screen session this friday.

Did a little research on other cartoons, just to gather ideas found a brilliant sketch, the ideas so simple :), I hope my idea delievers a clear message like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE83TVl4w0c&feature=related
(cant imbed this vid  > < have to find a solution soon!)

Bringing it all together

Okay, we're now at the climax of the ICA bringing all the components we've learnt from the previous tasks into one 20 second animation. I'm a little unclear for ideas as to what to do for my final animation, so i've choosen a key phrase to base my animation upon as a starting point, a slogan i always try to follow - "keep it simple".

Specification:
Component 2: Your animation be fully rendered to a professional standard paying attention
to staging, lighting and anti-aliasing. It should be named with your own name and the
Component number r.  ie. P_Holton_Component2. Marks will be deducted if the render is
not of the required standard. 
Hand in resolution: HD 1280x720 
It is also important to use appropriate compression such as Mpeg2 or H264 to avoid the
animation file being too big to upload easily.
For weekly critiques you can use a lower resolution if you wish. 

Pendulum version 2

I re-did the pendulum task and made an attempt at a more realistic animation of the pendulum. Quite happy with the results but I think the speed of the box may need adjusting, seems a little off time with the pendulum swing. Anywho i shall present it in tomorrows leture to what the colleages think.

werewolves!

Wolf sketches for a client :), will be finishing off the body of this one, add a little diversity to my portfolio.  

third attempt

still needs more polishing and the hand  twist at 0:08? not sure why, need to resolve that problem. From feedback it sound like i'll need to work alot more with the timing, space the pauses out inbetween each action maybe shake the phone a little

attempt two

Needs more breaks in between, more thinking time too. I had a more serious idea of a woman on the phone receiving bad news then adjusting herself to keep going. I tired out the idea on the previous rig however it didnt turn out quite right. Recently i saw the a similar situation occur at work with a young girl on the phone when her battery dies - I thought i'd try this idea just for a little difference

Life drawing

A few sketches and poses from life drawing. I've tried a technique out i recent learnt from the book Force: dynamic life drawing for the animator. I want to try and capture the pose with more rythmic lines, i tihnk this could help with the arcs and overlapping action of my 3D animations in future.

 Good read:

Old sketches

Old concept sketches i found, could do with a polish...

waiting to start 2

Just moved the left right  leg into a more relaxed position, the transition between the three poses is to from excited to relaxed ~ high energy to low enerygy. He could slouched in his chair more too.  

err excuse me poses

err excuse me sketches

waiting to start poses

waiting to start sketches