Sunday, 27 February 2011

I have been really rushing the last two days trying to catch up a little. Not to much as to lose quality in the animation, but enough to start catching up. This sequence should take a week and I hopefully should have it wrapped by tomorrow night. It’s basically the end sequence where Darren rides of on his bike and the moth also rides off. I was worried about the composition. And how to make sure they sit well in the same world since it would be two different sequences overlaid. In the end I created a preview of the first sequence of Daren riding of on his bike, then previewed it and used that as the background to a new sequence of the moth animation. Enabling me to animate it while checking it in the same world. Anyway its working alright so far, and hopefully will have the moth and Elmies complete in the next two days.

Friday, 25 February 2011

the Animatic with pre rendered sequence so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUsDwBi3-FQ

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

I unfortunately lost a bit of work this week and had to revert to an earlier save, and therefore became a few days behind. Just a silly mistake with moving key frames and forgetting about the previous few seconds of the shot. Today I am just wrapping up the last of the elm tree sections, hopefully finishing by latter this evening, and can upload the new video tomorrow. (I stayed up last night to try and get back on track)

Anyway while previewing work I stumbled across a great site featuring some wonderful animated shorts.

http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/01/22/absolutely-incredible-short-animations-that-would-make-you-say-wow.html

Thursday, 17 February 2011 (daytime )

Added some gallery images to Sameolthing.com over the last few hours and now going to work on the Moth animations till late. Hopefully can get these sequences wrapped by Monday.

Here are the images i added to the gallery

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Saw Barry Purves for a lecture today, was very good, then a tutorial with my tutor. There is still some problems with the moth which I will tackle over the next few days. I am off to Manchester Saturday but hopefully I should be able to get all the elm sequences wrapped by Monday. I have fallen about two weeks behind, which is ok with the buffer I have at the end of the animation schedule, but I am worried that I am slipping way to much, so I may do a few all nighters over the next few weeks to really get the schedule back together.

After I have redone the moth and elm animations I need to look back at the render schedule, and get those sequences rendered. My last render schedule I failed to stick to when having to re work those moth sequences and I could just leave it till the end and render then, but it means I wont have any finished sequences rendered by the April hand in and just preview renders.

Also during the tutorial the music was again looked into. I initially was very happy with the music I recently choose, but my tutors suggested taking another look for the more trumpet old coronation street factory music and place in a nice factory whistle for the beginning. In the end I found a piece that reminds me of inception or social network, while still having the factory feel with the trumpets. It soo suits the feel of the piece more than the music I had chosen and am really happy. I am going to leave uploading a new sequence until the moth animation is complete. But the music can be found here

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/84795

track 9

Monday, 14 February 2011

Reworked the moth animation again, taking the run in it does in the shots when it chases Darren. It appears a lot more menacing being less graceful and more forceful with it wing actions. I am going to try working on how it moves forward now, try and get some consistency with is straight ahead action. At the moment I am happy with it, but it cant hurt to see if I can push the moth animation further, without it looking to comedic.

Anyhow I have plenty of reference, but torn between a realistic moth, where its so scaty, or how I want the character to be, a hunter out for Elmies. So I will try a combination and see what looks best.

Sunday, 13 February 2011

A great vfs short on sushi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa1GMAmYd8I&feature=related

Only a one minute piece, but what a cool idea and so simple but affective.

Saturday, 12 February 2011

After searching far and wide I have found a song!!! It isn’t exactly what the tutors had in mind, but does emphasise the theme of time and suits the music through out in the piece. So I have chosen three others to test also, but I am pretty resigned to this piece.

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/72659

It perfectly suits the whole theme of time and the clocks. I could have gone for more industrial but then it would have clashed with the latter pieces. But I think I will render of separate tests and see what sounds best in the end.

Oh also the sound was mentioned. I think the difference between the factory sound and the plant has not been emphasised enough so will work on that a little.

Friday, 11 February 2011

We had Tim Searle for a lecture today, and he took the time to look at my work after. Had a really good crit on my work, and he and my tutor mentioned a few areas I need to improve. The way the moth moves again, more weight and make it flap as normal not slow mo, also the start music just doesn’t suit the animation, and doesn’t lead u in well. Also perhaps an internal monologue of the main character would suit the piece more. So it is more clear what is actual happening in the piece. It’s going to be difficult to record the voice of the main character again since he has moved away for university. But I am sure I can come up with something. I liked the ambiguity of not knowing if the Elmies are real or imaginary. Yet still the audience needs to follow the plot and not be lost in what is going on. I need to think on it and decide the best option to tell the story without anyone being too confused.

Anyway I am spending the night listening to royalty free music trying to find the right piece for the beginning.

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Working well on the last elm sequence. Going to miss them :) should have this sequence wrapped by sat.

Anyway a nice animation from vfs on ballet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDpU5ik2rA&feature=feedrec_grec_index

and while on ballet, here’s some nice ref of some ballet moves, just for future ref

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ0L24YbGGI&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Wednesday, 09 February 2011

I have reached dvd 13 of the animators survival kit by Richard Williams, on dialogue. I was getting a little worried at first, if I have been animating my dialogue correctly, but it seems I was pretty much doing the same thing with only animating the main sequences and not getting to anal and restricted by animating every possible mouth movement… the flappy mouth syndrome!!

Some nice anims of the day of u tube

a true act of kindness - a lovely piece from Vancouver film school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0lynZYyshg&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-10-HM

awesome clay mation work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUTkvfPpsA&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rev-rn-2r-21-HM

Tuesday, 08 February 2011

Just working out how the moth would come of the plant for take off in the final sequence of the Elmies before they emerge from the plant. Because the moth has 3 peoples on its back, maybe it should push down a little first, then expand upward. I am looking at a u tube video of a moth taking off to see how that looks, and referring to my older work of the moth taking off when the light moves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6EGtUIY2PQ


I think it would benefit more with a stronger downward movement to begin to show the weight, the struggle with the 3 characters weighing it down before lift off


A little latter I decided it would look better if the moth as on a path therefore more fluid movement, and I could do the old oh its gone off the branch and falling trick, yet flies off safely in the end. Therefore deleted the animation so far and have began to rework it.

Currently the moth is on a path, dips nicely, and goes up, with the abdomen flexing in accordance to the movement. I will work on the legs tomorrow as it comes off the branch, then the wings… which will probably take a few takes to get looking ok, then finally the character interactions.

Tuesday, 08 February 2011

I just thought I would take a small break from animating and show you some of the things that inspire and have helped shape the short so far. Really I should have included these videos when I found them and used them and I will in the future.

Anyway

Ok firstly this is a great little animation showing superb skill in 3D. I tend to always sway towards 3D animation since what I want is a career in 3D art and animation. Perhaps as a generalist in games, knowing rigging, character and object creation and animation. Or as a 3D animator in a animation studio. Either way I am trying to be versatile enough to be of interest for employees in the field of 3D. This animation really captivates a great fight sequence with little build time yet still a superb piece of work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAxi38FE8xo

Next we have to have a Pixar short. This is a rare tennis commercial which beautify demonstrates all the principles of animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zv9vRz4QYM

Next a Machinima demonstrating superb use of the tools in hand in a WOW movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCwmG7XYKp8

Next, completely off subject but I have to put it in, Vanilla sky is one of may favourite films, a man confused upon realities, here is Sigur Ros nothing song, I latter used one of there songs (royalty free) for my show reel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWEkam9H4w

Here is a great animation just showing thinking out the box a little when creating a piece and inspired me a lot in my own work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5FwMqync5Y


Gollum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUNYCGZMtI8


The superb 3D short Happy by Michael Lewicki. So clean, well animated, beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLvDz1zkNXo

Some digital painting tricks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beM99eFb76c

Next here is a piece that put the seed in the idea of doing a masters, from a friend called Toby,. His short from when he did his Masters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l146fQfzE7A


Next a live action piece, well thought out and beautiful camera work and direction
Batman dead end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCnYSQDSawg

Now I just put this up as its my favourite musician and the song inspired the yellow bike in my own short, Saez yellow tricycle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYbVZWwGmw4

Now some research material, looking at flies first and how they move and fly in slow motion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6EGtUIY2PQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlgrBeGX8w0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZu_qSGoAMc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlYRvWNE5kE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1bi-8uRCaU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnmhYD5UadE

 

Next a great lecture, if u have time watch it!!! Achieving your childhood dreams. Mine is to work in a good studio in 3D, somewhere where I can learn and grow as an artist!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo


Next a lecture on the history of Pixar, very good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSExqtiIyg


the nose character that I helped a bit on while at thing 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h48SaiP10Z4


Looking at run cycles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3XrLfA2TXs


Next some moth reference for my moth in the short - there a re plenty of reference for moths but this was the best for examining how the wings move and body moves when in flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtWeTb8to7k


Next looking at acrobatics for when Darren Elm jumps from branch to branch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KZlKrv5Mjs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2qWgL19sJc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TORuQ7fj5ZQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82NuYltia0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7jp-7uLUhM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E-TVAkSxE




Anyway that’s it for now. I am going to spend a little bit more time putting here what I find inspiring and what motivates me as well as the every day diary of the short, to show how it shapes and grows as I animate, and how my head can be :)

Sunday, 06 February 2011

Here is the Animatic with some pre rendered sequences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8dFVdXi3tI

Saturday, 05 February 2011

I nearly finished the moth animations. I looked back on the research I did when creating the moth animations in the beginning and noticed how the wings turn when moving up and down. Most noticeably how they tend to bend inward instead of outward when moving up and down, and how the abdomen moves as well, where I had it moving in the wrong direction. Anyway I redid the moth sequences and a few tweaks here and there to some other parts of the animation. I will uploaded it tomorrow since it takes a good few hours to upload and its getting late.

Friday, 04 February 2011

Here is the image for the website. I am currently working on redoing the moth animation and tomorrow will upload a new video with edited moth effects and the new scene.

Thursday, 03 February 2011

Ok I have wrapped up the next sequence and am very happy with it. I am taking a day off from actually animating to create a new front page for the website, and do some research into bird/moth movement so I can get the moth looking as good as I can. I am probably a week behind, but even if I don’t catch up I have a four/five month overrun time although it does run into my dissertation. I am not worried anyway. The next sequence should not take to long, but I don’t want to cut any corners to speed up my work.

Anyway I will update either latter tonight or tomorrow if I have a new front page image. I will upload the new Animatic with the new sequence tomorrow.

Wednesday, 02 February 2011

I have had a bit of a problem with the next scene. pretty much wrapped it up and was back on schedule before I noticed I was working at 30fps instead of 25 on the animation preview. Therefore all the lip sync is out of sync. Anyway this will probably set me back 2 days at least. Then I need to rework all the moth animations since they just don’t look right with the flapping motion of the wings. Therefore needing to re render a number of sequences. Some little problems, but its not to much of a worry.