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.