Jump: Clouds

The 3D clouds were distracting in the previous renders so it was suggested we go for a 2D background that would blend in with the overall scene better. I've rustled up a few different attempts at a 2D cloud background with the intention of picking one and using it in our scenes.

I dislike D. the most and like B. and C. the most. Rachel likes B. and C best too. I think I'll post this up on the Masters facebook group and see what the others think..

Jump: Swim Trick blocking

Completed the swim trick blocking after fixing the arm. Might try to block another trick if this one isn't working but for now I'm going to move on to blocking the last scene as the blocking stage needs to be done soon.



 This still needs more breakdowns to get a better idea of how it's going to look. However the animation needed for making the characters look like their falling through the air is a lot of flapping about and if I blocked that now it'll look weird and distract from the character acting as this stage. I'll leave that until we add the final breakdowns before moving on to splines.

Rachel's Blog

JUMP: Swim WIP

During feedback this week, it became apparent that the hand stand trick was pretty weak compared to the rest of the poses. It wasn't really better than the previous pose so it was suggested to try something else.
Two things suggested were a swimming trick and a bigger, better back flip perhaps with more flare. Here's a WIP of the swimming trick and the quick stick man sketches I did to work it out.

 As you can see, the arm's shoulder rotation has skewed. It's possible that I've knocked something and not realised until now, I can't find a way to fix it. To be honest, I'm not sure IK is really the best way to blocking the arm animation. I think I could get better results blocking in FK as I could control the upper arm, lower arm and wrist better, rather than control the entire arm from the wrist and using elbow vectors. I think this would achieve a better 'floaty' (not as in drifting but as if in the air, later I will building upon the blocking to look like it's being affected by air rushing past) this way. Since I would have had to re-block the arm anyway due to not being able to fix the skewed rotation in one go, I decided to get rid of the blocking on both arms and re-block in FK to see if I could get better blocking.

 

Arm is now fixed and I've got both arms almost as blocked as they were before. They both need more breakdowns but I wanted to get the first round done so that I could finish blocking the trick. Breakdowns will be added at another time. I think I've achieved a better blocking already, though the timing needs to be refined and it will look better once I've finished blocking the rest. I think Malcolm's left arm definitely looks better when he pulls out the sign. I remember having trouble with that part when blocking in IK. This time I was able to get a nice arc movement in the elbow and wrist and therefore the sign as well. Smashing!

 Next I need to finish blocking his trick and sort out the timing. Then I will be done with this scene for the time being (unless there are problems, as always) and move on to the last scene for blocking.

Rachel's Blog

Jump: Back!

After a much needed few days off, I'm back on track!

We aim to get all scenes set up and ready before we start blocking. That way we can both work on different ones at the same time.
I've started modelling a tree for the last scene in Softimage (figured it would be faster as I know it better than Maya, modelling in Maya will be a hurdle to jump another day):

A lot of things are not working here. The background at the moment is just there until we get a proper one. I was experimenting with the texture on the tree and I'm not convinced. It might look better with a textured background (with clouds and all) but if not, I think it'll be a plain lambert (non-shiny!) colour like the 'leaves'.
More importantly, I tried to get the shape very similar to what was drawn on the animatic as it will be important for when the characters are placed.

The picture above is the sort of shot we'll be looking to do which is very similar to our animatic!

Sky Dive Test 2

Added some more animation, particularly to the head and torso as advised. I made some tweaks to the right hand as it wasn't 'flapping' as much as the left and was too slow. I also added another layer of clouds which will go faster than the background and some camera shakes to help with the illusion of free fall.

I think it looks okay actually. Waiting for feedback as I'm sure there is something I can do to improve it but so far it's gone better than expected. The intention of this was to see if I could create the illusion of falling so that me and Rachel would know how to do it in the final animation. It is absolutely vital we get this looking decent because otherwise, if we don't get it at least believable, the whole animation will suffer for it and look 'floaty' and wrong.



Rachel's Blog

Sky Dive Animation Test

I've been looking at other animations that involve falling/sky diving for what they have done to create the illusion. It's mostly movement of clothes and some limbs. The background should be animated too, with things farthest back moving slower than the foremost things. Here's some of the videos I looked at:













I tried to apply what I saw in these animations into a test animation, just to try out creating the illusion.

 

 Not bad but he needs his backpack (which I don't have at the moment but it's not necessary for the test) and maybe an altimeter to complete the look. I think I'll apply some camera shakes to help enhance the illusion of being in free fall. I noticed some subtle camera shakes in the example animations which I think really helps.

  Rachel's Blog

Maya

For our next module, Acting For Animation, we have another presentation and two animations to do. My presentation is going to be on psychological gestures which, when our tutor gave us the gist of what that is, sounds like something I really need actually! Watch this space for research on that!

One of the animations we are going to do is the March 11 Second Club competition which should be fun. No idea what the clip is going to be but we'll see in March! I think it's going to be a dialogue, or at least our tutor seems confident it's going to be.

The other animation is going to be a team effort about mime auditions. In groups of 3 we have to decide on a location, the stage, lighting, layout etc and animate a character each who is auditioning for a mime position of some description (could be a talent contest, screening for a kids party etc).
For the team animation, I am going to learn Maya because it's a program I've been meaning to learn (because a lot of job advertisments seem to want you to be able to use it) and my team mates (Rachel and Raf) also use Maya. So that's going to be fun...

I haven't decided whether to stick with SoftImage or use Maya for the 11 second club animation. It depends on what the clip is and if I'm allowed to use Malcolm. As far as I'm aware, there are certain rigs you are not allowed to use (if you are entering into the competition anyway, which I might because why not? haha. No seriously, it'll be interesting to see what feedback I get from the community there and if it helps me improve my animating skills then it'll be worth it!) and Malcolm belongs to AnimSchool, who have certain rules about using him, so I'm not sure if he's allowed. It's hard to find decent, WORKING rigs for SoftImage. It also depends how I'm getting on with Maya. I'll be playing around with Maya this weekend.

Experimenting with Laurie

I decided to see if a change in Laurie's actions at the word 'despise' would improve the acting a bit or make it more interesting. FAIL! It didn't really work as it looks forced. So I'm sticking to the original acting.

Well, if you don't try, you don't know.