Final render of Presenter animation

At least, hopefully the final render... so long as feedback says it's ok..



Here's the final piece. A combination of Windows Movie Maker and YouTube has fuzzed the quality a bit unfortunately but I should be able to get a cleaner one to my tutor next time I see her. Pretty happy with it though I think there could be some improvements... mostly on those holding poses.

Fry lip sync test

Quick capture after I've finished lip syncing the Fry character. Looking okay sp far. Going to render it properly with the camera cuts next and send away for last minute feedback.

Fry splines test

Just a quick capture render to see how the animation is looking after I've just switched the curves to splines, since SoftImage is playing it with enough lag that I can't quite tell. Hurray for quick capture!

His facial features are not done yet and any movement on his face needs re doing anyway as they were just rough indications from the blocking stage. Which is what I will work on now! (12 hours and 10 mins to go til Deadline!)

Presenter Lip sync test: Laurie

Just rendered a quick capture to make sure the lip sync is timed right with the clip. I'm wondering if the character's moving too fast? He is meant to be drunk so he's supposed to be a bit wibbly.



Will see what the lovely classmates think.

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.

Presenter: First time Linear

Put my animation into linear curves to help me breakdown some areas and make sure no limbs go through other limbs etc. Also testing out the camera cuts with a better video quality!



It seems it's working out better with the camera cuts and my classmates agree. Obviously previously it was a big confusing visually. Though the movements by both characters were small, they were in an equal space so this helps the audience follow the dialogue. In hind sight, it seems unnecessary to have both characters on the screen all the time, so I've left both in the first shot to establish the scene and returned to the both again in the last shot with one character shots in-between.

Presenter: New camera cuts test.

My tutor thought that it would be better if I tried some camera cuts in this particular animation, as she didn't feel that the audience would know where to look. So I played around with that idea.

Excuse the GOD AWFUL video quality. This is why Windows Movie Maker sucks and I really need to get a new video editing software... preferably free and I am a poor poor Masters student. This is only for demonstration, there is no new animation blocking to see.

Presenter: Blocking 3

It was suggested that I change Fry's Malcolm to look away from Laurie's Malcolm when talking about being nine, as if to be remembering the memory and then look down because it's embarrassing. I re-rendered the changes for show and tell tomorrow.

Presenter: Blocking 2

Blocked the Fry character now. He's a bit wobbly but hopefully that will ease out as I add in the breakdowns, if not I'll sort it out then. Sending away for feedback as usual.

Presenter: Blocking 1

I finished blocking the Laurie character last night and left it to render. The clip is a bit too long but I can't shorten it until I have the Fry character moving. Sending this WIP to the lovely Masters masses to share any thoughts on.



Feedback on the latest lip syncing task was that the movements are still a bit too big. It was suggested I take the first arm movement and change that to him scratching his head instead, which I thought was a good idea. I am determined to get it right!! Haha. However, I'm shelving it for the time being because I need to focus on the other two tasks. If I get time at the end I will make the changes. Other than that, my class and tutor seemed happy with it.

The Bites the Dust blocking went down pretty well too, I just need to consider where the camera is going to be. I'm playing with the idea of having the character get all up in the camera's face when he sing 'hey! gonna get you too!' but we'll see how that works.

Presenter: Returning to that task!

So I'm returning to the presenter task now that I've got most things sorted on the other two tasks. I've studied the reference I'd got from uni and have changed it around a bit. Only a bit. Like now the Laurie character is holding the glass. And is drunk :)

Here's a WIP Pic!

Updates soon!

Scrapped!

I've decided to scrap all the blocking and lip syncing for my presenter animation (don't worry, I made two copies and kept the original file with the blocking on!!). It wasn't going well because I'd lip synced first and tried to block afterward which wasn't an issue in the first lip sync task but presented problems during a bigger task.
Basically I was having problems blocking over the lip sync, as it would key the face controls too which was something I didn't want it to do. So I've decided to do the blocking first, then lip sync after I've finished blocking, like the process of an animation video I posted a few posts ago.

Juuuust keeping you updated.
I'm taking a break from the presenter animation so that I can come back to it with a fresh mind. In the meantime, I'm working on the song and dance animation with Another One Bites The Dust by Queen.

Marriage Clip: Rough Reference

I had a go a couple of days ago at filming my own reference for the marriage clip. Here are the vids! Also, excuse the pyjamas!

Me acting in Stephen Fry's part:



Me acting in Hugh Laurie's part:



I know, I'm awful! Haha.
Here's some more reference shot in uni with my classmates:



Raf, Scott and Rachel (the other one!) did a brilliant job! Definitely happy I asked for other people's input.

WIP for 'Marriage' Clip

Work in Progress pic :)

Haven't been posting much because I've just been either getting on with building the scene or planning OR enjoying Christmas festivities! It can take me a while to model things because I'm not greatly confident in 3D modelling. However, I think I've outdone myself a bit purely by just biting the bullet and trying. I will admit I do tend to avoid modelling if I can but I'm happy with the results of my efforts. I used google searched images as reference, particularly for the lounge seat, chair and lamp.

Here's the sound clip (uploaded with the above WIP picture purely just so that I could upload it!).



So far I've lip synced Stephen Fry's voice with the Malcolm character shown and positioned him where I want the animation to start. I will start blocking him next.

Here are a few planning sketches I've done so far:

Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com

Lip Syncing: Presenter

We have another two clips to animate to, one is from a presenter or comedy act and the other is a song. I've started working on the presenter one. The clip is from a Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie act (I assume from A Bit of Fry and Laurie. I'm not looking it up otherwise I'll get 'tainted'! In other words, influenced by the act) about marriage. The clip sounds like the two are in a bar setting but I'm going to put them in a psychiatric office setting instead to make it a bit different. There will be a bottle of water and a glass on a table to accommodate the glass and liquid sounds.

Here's a couple of google'd  images to show what I'm thinking of:

(Last image (Above) belongs to Set Decorator - Helen Britten)

Here is a work in progress of the scene I'm building: