As most animations start we began with developing ideas for the brief. As a group we were looking for a different approach to the mime piece, we knew it had to be some sort of audition, so started thinking of the different kinds of auditions there are. One section of the brief had already been decided, the mimes had to perform in order to pass the audition, but the mimes also had to have personalities, quirks, traits, which show as part of the animation. I think this was the most challenging part of the brief, and I feel as though I it helped me develop the most in coming up with ideas quickly and effectively.
So as a group we had a think about the sort of auditions the mimes the mimes could be performing for. We need a reason for the mimes to be performing, something we could include personality with which would work together. Originally I was thinking of just a mime audition for mime of the year or mime factor, like a live reality show audition, but I’m really happy we when in almost the opposite direction. I think it was Harshali who first suggested the love interest, which for me give a different outlook on the situation of the mimes. We stuck to this idea and developed it further rather than developing more ideas as I think it was quite a solid idea and we could build up the scene and the characters from this situation. The idea became three guys competing for the love interest of a girl; a more traditional approach which I think we found was different to the other group’s ideas.
We had the first pitch, which I think the response was quite positive. I think the idea had quite a clear narrative and we were already able to formulate ideas for the personalities of the character. The challenge was incorporating a mime act into the narrative without being too obscure. Some of the other groups had two to three ideas for the mime act and I think if I’d spoken out a more we could have developed two ideas, however I also think that we would eventually have decided on the same idea.
Next stage, I began suggesting characters we could design, and decided on three characters with contrasting designs. We decided a really big mime, then a really small mime and the final mime which was just right.
Originally, I had the idea of creating a really young mime (about 10/12 years old) he’d be the youngest of the three to contrast with the other two characters, as a group, we wanted to play with this too young for the girl and really short, contrasting with the much larger, older mime. After researching the characters personality I came across a big problem with this character if we looked at this character from an acting perspective, we would ask the question why would he want to impress her? So with a few tweaks I redesigned him a little older, t suited the narrative a lot more effectively
In my animation I was trying to accomplish a fast beat and quick movements, like the traditional MGM cartoons of the 1960’s (in colour). I looked at Hanna Barbara, and the animation used for its stylised 1960’s animation (The Jetsons, The Flinstones, original retro cartoons) a process called “Limited animation” came from the same watching the Fred Quimby series of Tom and Jerry, we decided early on this was the style we wanted to aim for in our animation.
I really liked this idea, I thought we could possibly try if we had more time tried different approaches and been more creative with the brief. The idea had a strong narrative (as I’ve said a few times) and with it, we could have perhaps added a little diversity. I noticed everybody used a male mime for the audition, I think I could of used perhaps, a female mime if we were trying to make our idea different. However I do think the idea works really well with the male characters and developing the personalities has created a nice a contrast rather than having just three individual characters.
The Team
I really enjoyed working as a team for this project, it was such an experience for me, I felt much more motivated in a group than working alone as I had the chance to bounce ideas and thoughts with other team members.
Harshali has industry experience and with working with her on a project even though it was university assignment, I felt like I actually gained experience working in the animation field. I was able to ask her about the program and learn so much in such a short time. We had the production assets (the scene, render set up) thanks to her abilities and I really hope I contributed to the team by visualising the assets and designs for the set.
I am grateful I’ve the chance to work as a group in a project and think I’m quite lucky to be paired up two individuals who already had experience in Maya.
Strong points:
In my opinion I think the strongest point is how we have developed the characters. We have the trio, the three musketeers and the three comrades together as friends. We used the same rig and communicated with the character designs regularly which the result was three contrasting characters with a narrative happening in the scene. The narrative being the three mimes trying to compete to impress the girl and last mime being successful). The mimes also had personalities to contrast one another, Andrew the older, sweet, mime, Jake who contrasts as the younger, arrogant mime and Bob, tall, dark and handsome, the ideal mime. The highlight of this project for me was when the tutor Siobhan had a first look at our characters and said “oo, there like a family” (I’m sad I know) but for me it felt like the characters really came together.
The introduction scene and the scene with mine and Harshali’s mimes together for me work really well, I’m so glad we decided to these scenes even if we cannot use them in the end. I’ve learnt a lot about how difficult this can be, some of the issue that can go wrong: Key frames moving about the timeline, the time and process to re adjust the characters to interact for the sake of 2 seconds.
As for my animated piece, I think some of the strong elements are the poses the character performs. I was looking to make the character do the same poses as a catwalk or runway model, along the lines of Baywatch (as the scene was a beach) so placing pauses in between poses to make the character appear to be striking a pose helped me a lot with the timing of the animation. I also tried a few of the poses in front of the mirror to see if they would work comfortably.
Watching the animation I think some elements of the fast, snappy timing came from the same watching the Fred Quimby series of Tom and Jerry have worked successfully, although the animation needs much more polishing, I think there is a fast beat to the overall tempo of the animation.
Weakness
There’s a lot of room for polishing in my animation, some of the poses are think are a little to exsaggerurated. There are still issues with the timing but I do think I’ve improved since the beginning of the course. Some the arcs, particular the arm arc when the mime is holding the piece of chocolate above his head, even though the animation is quite fast and he is meant to almost “whip it” out of his hand, the points I’ve key framed the wrist don’t make a natural movement
My biggest weakness is some of technical errors and hiccups in the animation, areas such as the walk cycle at the beginning and “pops” in areas where the IK handle has been pulled too far. I really have become a lot tighter when in the polishing phase of the animation I make a lot of difference to the piece. I’ve started switching to FK in order to prevent some of the popping and it works really well for arm and leg arcs.
I struggled at the beginning of the project with getting to grips with Maya, but I’m really glad I’ve had the chance and the time in university to switch to Maya and work with such talented people in the field. I feel I’ve learnt a lot about the in a short period of time.
Conclusion
I want to credit Harshali and congratulate her on her models featured in Dorothy of oz. I’ve feel like gained a lot of experience from her. I’ve feel as though improved so much even though I have a long way to go with my animation skills and is an experience I can take away with me and use in the industry.
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