Here is my latest version of the project, blocked out the main poses, and explored some texture colour schemes, before I break the Maya file up into different shots, to focus on the animation.
Friday 25 May 2007
Sunday 20 May 2007
Out of Tune - Part 2
Wally's Facial Rig
Here is a facial test for Wally
Acting
Here you can witness my terrible acting skills, this is the reference I've used for my blocking stage. The cool thing about rehearsing the performance is that it becomes an extension of yourself. You really get alot closer to every movement, annd it forces you to iron out performance issues before being affected by the technical difficulties that 3d entails
Blocking Stage
Ok, this is how far I am blocking out the main poses. I havent finished this yet, I need to get more reference footage for the last few shots..... But it's cool to see it coming together
Here is a facial test for Wally
Acting
Here you can witness my terrible acting skills, this is the reference I've used for my blocking stage. The cool thing about rehearsing the performance is that it becomes an extension of yourself. You really get alot closer to every movement, annd it forces you to iron out performance issues before being affected by the technical difficulties that 3d entails
Blocking Stage
Ok, this is how far I am blocking out the main poses. I havent finished this yet, I need to get more reference footage for the last few shots..... But it's cool to see it coming together
Out of Tune - Part 1
Ok, So I decided to find a new story but utilising Wally and the Parrot in
some way. I also wanted to somehow keep the 'levels of agitation' that I had in
'The Present'. A Theatre group called Complicite had been helping us develop levels of emotion through time, and they are also part of this National Gallery Project, so I really wanted to use some of their ideas in my story.
The Idea
I liked the idea of incorporating music, or a musical instrument at least. And then I saw this painting while surfing their awesome website :
The Scale of Love
I like the idea of two characters interacting under a tree.
How about still using the Parrot as a source of irritation? Keep the whole event outside, one environment. maybe Wally wants to be alone but the parrot keeps bothering him. Or even better, Wally is trying to play guitar peacfully and Polly keeps interrupting.
The Animatic
SO this is the Animatic I ended up with, after alot of playing around with the timing and sound. And no, it's not me playing guitar, they are some cool royalty free guitar sounds purchased from Computer Music magazine.:
The Parrot in the previous Animatic idea was kinda alien, but I really liked the simple parrot designs that were more stylised, and without a thingy on his head, it seemed to take emphesis away from his huge beak so it had to go. Here are some of the References I used. The pencil drawing is Claudia k's impression...which sent me in the right direction, I see now.
Wally is pretty much the same guy.
3D Modelling
Cool, the fun bit, here are examples of the working prototype models with rigging, for Wally & Polly
3D Wally
I put alot of attention on Wally's facial controls, as I wanted to focus on emotional thought processes and facial acting on this project. So there are two layers of control, Blendshapes with left and right blending, and then clusters on the cheeks and nose, so that I can tweak those as neccessary. i learnt alot here, in fact, I was really tempted to go back and start all over, using the new techniques I had learnt along the way. But I dont think I have time, so I've make do with what I have........ or will I?
3D Polly
This is the blueprint I used to model polly
Polly's rig is relativly simple, though I'm looking into adding squash and stretch funtionality for his Torso
Props
Here is the Guitar and Chair I designed
The Environment
I know that I dont want realistic looking trees, I want someting more stylised, Like polly is, in a way. Also, I'm hoping to use slightly more abstract stylised textures too, like watercoluor painting type, scanned in, or just a few filters in Photoshop first.
Here are some of the References I used, I plan on utilising these further in the modelling and texturing stages.
some way. I also wanted to somehow keep the 'levels of agitation' that I had in
'The Present'. A Theatre group called Complicite had been helping us develop levels of emotion through time, and they are also part of this National Gallery Project, so I really wanted to use some of their ideas in my story.
The Idea
I liked the idea of incorporating music, or a musical instrument at least. And then I saw this painting while surfing their awesome website :
The Scale of Love
I like the idea of two characters interacting under a tree.
How about still using the Parrot as a source of irritation? Keep the whole event outside, one environment. maybe Wally wants to be alone but the parrot keeps bothering him. Or even better, Wally is trying to play guitar peacfully and Polly keeps interrupting.
The Animatic
SO this is the Animatic I ended up with, after alot of playing around with the timing and sound. And no, it's not me playing guitar, they are some cool royalty free guitar sounds purchased from Computer Music magazine.:
The Parrot in the previous Animatic idea was kinda alien, but I really liked the simple parrot designs that were more stylised, and without a thingy on his head, it seemed to take emphesis away from his huge beak so it had to go. Here are some of the References I used. The pencil drawing is Claudia k's impression...which sent me in the right direction, I see now.
Wally is pretty much the same guy.
3D Modelling
Cool, the fun bit, here are examples of the working prototype models with rigging, for Wally & Polly
3D Wally
I put alot of attention on Wally's facial controls, as I wanted to focus on emotional thought processes and facial acting on this project. So there are two layers of control, Blendshapes with left and right blending, and then clusters on the cheeks and nose, so that I can tweak those as neccessary. i learnt alot here, in fact, I was really tempted to go back and start all over, using the new techniques I had learnt along the way. But I dont think I have time, so I've make do with what I have........ or will I?
3D Polly
This is the blueprint I used to model polly
Polly's rig is relativly simple, though I'm looking into adding squash and stretch funtionality for his Torso
Props
Here is the Guitar and Chair I designed
The Environment
I know that I dont want realistic looking trees, I want someting more stylised, Like polly is, in a way. Also, I'm hoping to use slightly more abstract stylised textures too, like watercoluor painting type, scanned in, or just a few filters in Photoshop first.
Here are some of the References I used, I plan on utilising these further in the modelling and texturing stages.
The Present
Ahh, well this idea made it all the way to Animatic stage.
The inspiration is a painting called 'The Present'
The Present
They say a picture tells a thousand words. This painting suggests many things i think. But this woman does not look to happy about her gift. Wow, the possibilities of a story adaption are endless. I liked the idea of a lonely guy finding a gift, which ends up making an irritating sound, to such a point that its wrapped up and thown back out
While discussing the idea with Claudia K, One of my good friends, I suddenly realised it would be even funnier if this guy thought he was rid of the annoying gift, but his pet parrot had picked up the noise, and when he returns home, he hears his parrot mimick the noise.
I also wanted this to all be in an alien environment, I didnt want to adhere to realism, which I sometimes find myself doing. So I decided he would be an alien, his parrot would be an Astro-Parrot (?) and the trees and stuff would be stylised.
The Sketches
Main Character - Wally
Astro Parrot
And not forgetting:
The Story Beats
I wanted to clearly know where the beats of the story changed, so I wrote down all the emotional changes
The Animatic
I felt the annoying sound was the pivotal part of the story, so I spent quite a few hours on that. here is the First Animatic:
The Animatic - Take 2
It turns out my annoying sound was actually too annoying for one of my lecturers to bare, tee hee. Knowing this, I was a bit concerned, especially if our stuff ends up being played in the National Gallery (over and over).
So I tried to create a more subtle sound without loosing the feel. I was also told to add more drawings for the character entering and leaving certain scenes.
This is when I began to realise that the majority of the film was spent walking from one place to another, and also that I had two whole environments to design...... doubt overwhelmed me, especially when it occured to me that the more memorable a story is , the more chance someone would watch it again, and in this case, I would be lucky if anyone would actually endure this more than once.
So I began looking at ways of using my characters, but in a different scenario, perhaps a different painting would inspire something?
The inspiration is a painting called 'The Present'
The Present
They say a picture tells a thousand words. This painting suggests many things i think. But this woman does not look to happy about her gift. Wow, the possibilities of a story adaption are endless. I liked the idea of a lonely guy finding a gift, which ends up making an irritating sound, to such a point that its wrapped up and thown back out
While discussing the idea with Claudia K, One of my good friends, I suddenly realised it would be even funnier if this guy thought he was rid of the annoying gift, but his pet parrot had picked up the noise, and when he returns home, he hears his parrot mimick the noise.
I also wanted this to all be in an alien environment, I didnt want to adhere to realism, which I sometimes find myself doing. So I decided he would be an alien, his parrot would be an Astro-Parrot (?) and the trees and stuff would be stylised.
The Sketches
Main Character - Wally
Astro Parrot
And not forgetting:
The Story Beats
I wanted to clearly know where the beats of the story changed, so I wrote down all the emotional changes
The Animatic
I felt the annoying sound was the pivotal part of the story, so I spent quite a few hours on that. here is the First Animatic:
The Animatic - Take 2
It turns out my annoying sound was actually too annoying for one of my lecturers to bare, tee hee. Knowing this, I was a bit concerned, especially if our stuff ends up being played in the National Gallery (over and over).
So I tried to create a more subtle sound without loosing the feel. I was also told to add more drawings for the character entering and leaving certain scenes.
This is when I began to realise that the majority of the film was spent walking from one place to another, and also that I had two whole environments to design...... doubt overwhelmed me, especially when it occured to me that the more memorable a story is , the more chance someone would watch it again, and in this case, I would be lucky if anyone would actually endure this more than once.
So I began looking at ways of using my characters, but in a different scenario, perhaps a different painting would inspire something?
More Ideas
1) Apocalypse Ho-Down
I always wanted to do a musical piece with animation, and thought it would be cool to do in on a serious subject, like a really cool piece I saw in the Monkey Dust TV series once, where all the fighting works in time to music. Many of the paintings in the national gallery are religiously motivated
The Sketches
2) Girl dancing with the Univerese in her Hands
Also a musical piece, but with dancing, the inspiration was from the painting 'A Little Girl'
A Little Girl
Not a particularly nice painting, but the idea is intriguing. I liked the idea of an innocent girl, unknowly creating something so spectacular and powerful as she plays around and dances
The Sketches
Disadvantages
I was concerned I may spend too much time working on visual effects, I wanted sparkles to appear wherever the girl moved the sphere in here hands, as she danced
I always wanted to do a musical piece with animation, and thought it would be cool to do in on a serious subject, like a really cool piece I saw in the Monkey Dust TV series once, where all the fighting works in time to music. Many of the paintings in the national gallery are religiously motivated
The Sketches
2) Girl dancing with the Univerese in her Hands
Also a musical piece, but with dancing, the inspiration was from the painting 'A Little Girl'
A Little Girl
Not a particularly nice painting, but the idea is intriguing. I liked the idea of an innocent girl, unknowly creating something so spectacular and powerful as she plays around and dances
The Sketches
Disadvantages
I was concerned I may spend too much time working on visual effects, I wanted sparkles to appear wherever the girl moved the sphere in here hands, as she danced
The Arab in the Desert
The painting that inspired this is called 'A Struggle in the Desert'
and by current world events
The Idea
Slow but Consistant Old Arab strolling through the Desent with barrel (oil?) on back.... seemingly alone, approached by fat obnoxios kid on moped with many comfort features, Boy tries to persuade Arab to sell barrel, finally tries to steal it..... but moped runs out of fuel, Arab is seen chucking barrel into a very deep pit
The disadvantages
Mixed reactions from colleagues, lecturers unimpressed.
The references
Wow, the guy on the bottom left is such a cool character!
The Sketches
and by current world events
The Idea
Slow but Consistant Old Arab strolling through the Desent with barrel (oil?) on back.... seemingly alone, approached by fat obnoxios kid on moped with many comfort features, Boy tries to persuade Arab to sell barrel, finally tries to steal it..... but moped runs out of fuel, Arab is seen chucking barrel into a very deep pit
The disadvantages
Mixed reactions from colleagues, lecturers unimpressed.
The references
Wow, the guy on the bottom left is such a cool character!
The Sketches
Where to begin?
Seeing as I spent so much time exploring different possibilities, I feel I should take some time to document these.
Ideas
1) My Political idea, the Arab walking in the Desert
2) My religious Idea, the Apocalypse Ho-down
3) The Present
4) The Man in the Mirror
5) Little girl holding the Universe in her hands
5) Out of Tune (this evolved from the Present idea)
Ideas
1) My Political idea, the Arab walking in the Desert
2) My religious Idea, the Apocalypse Ho-down
3) The Present
4) The Man in the Mirror
5) Little girl holding the Universe in her hands
5) Out of Tune (this evolved from the Present idea)
The Brief - 3D Animation for the London National Gallery
The Animation Students at Central Saint Martins College / Uni of the Arts London have been asked to base their final project on a painting in the National Art Gallery. The brief is for the story or style to be inspired by a painting that belongs to the existing collection (NG number). The animation is to be roughly 1 minute long, and be focused on character animation, rather than something abstract. also, it should preferably not be a literal adaption of the painting moving.
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