Spent most of today adding breakdowns to Malcolm and making changes to the audio, then changing the breakdowns to fit the audio. It's been great working in the university labs with my classmates. The company really helps and I can get feedback pretty much instantly which is fantastic. Here is today's efforts in three steps. First being what I have first and the last video is where I'm up to.
Step 1. Where I started. The 'lame' stood out too much and not even in a good way.
Step 2. 'Lame' was taken out of the audio but then 'C'mon' started to stand out, particularly because it's said twice and quite closly to each other. It was also confused and people thought that Aaron was saying it twice and wondered why Malcolm was moving.
Step 3. It was decided to change Malcolm's action to reactive rather than acting on thought. The scene flows much better.
Rachel's Blog
Showing posts with label Test. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Test. Show all posts
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Jump: Tree Scene Blocking
Blocked Malcolm in the last scene.
Going to pass the file on to Rachel so that she can block Aaron. Here's the sketches I did for the blocking. The sketches stop before Malcolm falls because the reference was a bit different to what Malcolm could do in the scene (branches were a bit closer than the 'branches' in the reference footage). I still used the reference for timing but I had an easier time working it out in Maya straight ahead as I could see the space I had to work in better.
Next I'll be blocking Malcolm in the fight scene.
It was suggested that we take individual control of some scenes (for example, I take control of this scene and say Rachel controls the fight scene) and block the entire thing ourselves. The main reason was so that we didn't have to pass it back and forth for timing and changes.
We've thought about it and decided that we were happier doing it this way, even if it's maybe a bit unorthadox. We've already started working the way we're working now (I primarily block Malcolm and Rachel blocks Aaron) and we discussed each other tweaking each other's timing or making minor adjustments to the other character and have agreed that it's fine to do so. So far we've had no problems working in this way. And as they say 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
Rachel's Blog
Going to pass the file on to Rachel so that she can block Aaron. Here's the sketches I did for the blocking. The sketches stop before Malcolm falls because the reference was a bit different to what Malcolm could do in the scene (branches were a bit closer than the 'branches' in the reference footage). I still used the reference for timing but I had an easier time working it out in Maya straight ahead as I could see the space I had to work in better.
Next I'll be blocking Malcolm in the fight scene.
It was suggested that we take individual control of some scenes (for example, I take control of this scene and say Rachel controls the fight scene) and block the entire thing ourselves. The main reason was so that we didn't have to pass it back and forth for timing and changes.
We've thought about it and decided that we were happier doing it this way, even if it's maybe a bit unorthadox. We've already started working the way we're working now (I primarily block Malcolm and Rachel blocks Aaron) and we discussed each other tweaking each other's timing or making minor adjustments to the other character and have agreed that it's fine to do so. So far we've had no problems working in this way. And as they say 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
Rachel's Blog
Sunday, 22 July 2012
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
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
Monday, 9 July 2012
Jump: Blocking 'dare' test 1
Here is the first playblast test I did to have a look at the characters' timings. I used the edited reference for timing but Aaron was blocking without reference (we didn't have it at this time). The characters at the moment are out of sync so we have a few options which I've just posted up on our facebook project page to discuss with Rachel. We need to tweak the timing on one of the characters. Basically we either tweak Malcolm to respond to Aaron's timing or tweak Aaron to match the reference material. Then it comes down to either I shift the keys about while I work on this scene or finish Malcolm and let Rachel have the file back to tweak herself. The only difference will be how long I work on this file for. I honestly don't mind either way but as it is Rachel's work I would rather she decide.
Here are the sketches I've done so far which are what I used to decide my key poses and block Malcolm up to where I've got to. I will be continuing this way. To draw these key poses, I looked for good pose in the reference material and sketched them down as Malcolm.
There's a lot more detail to these sketches because I had reference to look at and I was noting/sketching down some of the small movements that I particularly liked. This will be very helpful when it comes to putting in the breakdowns and going on to linear as I will be able to better animate natural movements.
Monday, 2 July 2012
Jump: Linear Test 8 - Fixed
Fixed the problem in the previous post!
Couple more things popped up while I was fixing Malcolm's rotating through himself. The head and one of the wrists acted the same way. The problem was me rotating them the wrong way (shame on me!). Another factor was that for some reason the rig disagreed with the back flip, it probably stemmed from my rotating parts incorrectly but when I deleted some keys and redid them it still behaved odd. To fix it I had to put in a lot more breakdowns than normally required to keep it on its path. Note to self; watch which way you rotate joints! I think I've reached a point where I can stop now and Rachel has also hit a dead end with her file so we're saving and swapping. The only things that need fixing on Malcolm in the 'Tricks' file (the one I've been working on) is the few hiccups and shakes in the linear animation and the timing could do with adjusting, especially around the end. These things can be done when I get the file back for further work. I'm going to work on the file Rachel has been working on ('Dare' file) as she's reached a point where she can't adjust the timing any further without Malcolm's blocking (for his reactions etc). Rachel's Blog
Couple more things popped up while I was fixing Malcolm's rotating through himself. The head and one of the wrists acted the same way. The problem was me rotating them the wrong way (shame on me!). Another factor was that for some reason the rig disagreed with the back flip, it probably stemmed from my rotating parts incorrectly but when I deleted some keys and redid them it still behaved odd. To fix it I had to put in a lot more breakdowns than normally required to keep it on its path. Note to self; watch which way you rotate joints! I think I've reached a point where I can stop now and Rachel has also hit a dead end with her file so we're saving and swapping. The only things that need fixing on Malcolm in the 'Tricks' file (the one I've been working on) is the few hiccups and shakes in the linear animation and the timing could do with adjusting, especially around the end. These things can be done when I get the file back for further work. I'm going to work on the file Rachel has been working on ('Dare' file) as she's reached a point where she can't adjust the timing any further without Malcolm's blocking (for his reactions etc). Rachel's Blog
Jump: WIP - whoa...
Here's a work in progress video!
I'm pretty sure you can guess what I'll be fixing next... wasn't expecting that to happen! It looks like I've rotated it incorrectly during the blocking stage (my first guess) or there's not enough breakdowns so it's chosen the shortest/fastest way between the keys. Either way, it's my mistake (schoolboy error) and I'll be fixing that now. Hopefully it won't be too problematic. If it is it should be a case of deleting the entire key and re doing the whole pose but I can't see it going past deleting just the hip keys at most... I could be wrong though, I am no maya wizard yet. The way the sign is taken out needs to be fixed too as the rotation is off. More breakdowns should be enough to remedy this. I'll be switching the last 200 frames or so back to stepped so I can block in more breakdowns. I could have just fixed everything and then playblasted the animation instead of showing my mistakes but I think it's just as important to document your mistakes as it is your successes. I'll bet even the best animators still make silly mistakes here and there and if not they will have done once upon a time. They learned from it and that's exactly what I'll do now. Get better. P.S. Plus, I did not see that coming so I laughed when Malcolm just defied biological sense and rotated through himself. I'm sharing the laughs! Rachel's Blog
I'm pretty sure you can guess what I'll be fixing next... wasn't expecting that to happen! It looks like I've rotated it incorrectly during the blocking stage (my first guess) or there's not enough breakdowns so it's chosen the shortest/fastest way between the keys. Either way, it's my mistake (schoolboy error) and I'll be fixing that now. Hopefully it won't be too problematic. If it is it should be a case of deleting the entire key and re doing the whole pose but I can't see it going past deleting just the hip keys at most... I could be wrong though, I am no maya wizard yet. The way the sign is taken out needs to be fixed too as the rotation is off. More breakdowns should be enough to remedy this. I'll be switching the last 200 frames or so back to stepped so I can block in more breakdowns. I could have just fixed everything and then playblasted the animation instead of showing my mistakes but I think it's just as important to document your mistakes as it is your successes. I'll bet even the best animators still make silly mistakes here and there and if not they will have done once upon a time. They learned from it and that's exactly what I'll do now. Get better. P.S. Plus, I did not see that coming so I laughed when Malcolm just defied biological sense and rotated through himself. I'm sharing the laughs! Rachel's Blog
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Jump Linear WIP
I added some more breakdowns in the first 200 frames and adjusted the timing. I also animated the background (which will probably be tweaked later on, depending if it needs to be faster or slower - it works for now) to complete the look.
I think this is looking good enough for me to leave for the time being so I'm going to leave it here, unless feedback tells me of a change I should do, and begin blocking more breakdowns in the later frames. After that I would like to start blocking another scene if possible so that we can keep to the schedule (which I will upload when I figure out how as it's a .PDF file.)
Rachel's Blog
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Linear Arm Timing
Changed the timing of the arm movement. It works better now I think though it could probably stand to be a bit faster.
Rachel's Blog
Rachel's Blog
Linear Arms
Moved the first 100 frames of the scene I was working on into Linear to see how it looks. The timing is the biggest thing that needs sorting out.
The timing of the arms was the most obvious so I've added some breakdowns and I'm going to tweak the timing next.
Rachel's Blog
The timing of the arms was the most obvious so I've added some breakdowns and I'm going to tweak the timing next.
Rachel's Blog
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Jump: Blocking Test 6
After figuring out how to animate visibility I added some more blocking, specifically the last bit with the sign. Hoping I achieved the ideal look that I mentioned in a previous post.
Will be sending for feedback. Next I'll work on what Penny suggested by going straight ahead with the beginning. After that, unless there are any major changes/tweaks that need to be made, I'll be looking at sending this scene to Rachel so that she can work on Aaron. Plan! Rachel's Blog
Will be sending for feedback. Next I'll work on what Penny suggested by going straight ahead with the beginning. After that, unless there are any major changes/tweaks that need to be made, I'll be looking at sending this scene to Rachel so that she can work on Aaron. Plan! Rachel's Blog
Friday, 22 June 2012
Jump: Blocking Test 5
This is a quick playblast of where I'm up to now. I'm about to start blocking in the part with the sign which I anticipate might be a bit difficult as I will have to animate the visibility of the sign too.
I asked my classmates if you can animate visibility in Maya (I imagined you could but didn't know how) as it was something I used in Softimage a lot. I used to animate parenting too which I've also asked about. Scott answered "Yes, right click on the visiablty in the attribute editor, then select - key selected" What I'm most concerned about is the manner in which the sign appears. We wanted a Looney Tunes style hammer space from which the sign would appear. However I don't want the sign to look like it just appears in the character's hand. The best example I can think of this is from The Sims games, where objects would just appear in the game characters' hands. We don't want to sign to be visible on the side of the character it is not coming from nor before it is whipped out. As the sign idea was very much influenced by Wily E Coyote, what better example of this to use than from one of the masters of hammerspace! Here is what we want the bringing out of the signs to look like, only in 3D animation of course. Rachel's Blog
I asked my classmates if you can animate visibility in Maya (I imagined you could but didn't know how) as it was something I used in Softimage a lot. I used to animate parenting too which I've also asked about. Scott answered "Yes, right click on the visiablty in the attribute editor, then select - key selected" What I'm most concerned about is the manner in which the sign appears. We wanted a Looney Tunes style hammer space from which the sign would appear. However I don't want the sign to look like it just appears in the character's hand. The best example I can think of this is from The Sims games, where objects would just appear in the game characters' hands. We don't want to sign to be visible on the side of the character it is not coming from nor before it is whipped out. As the sign idea was very much influenced by Wily E Coyote, what better example of this to use than from one of the masters of hammerspace! Here is what we want the bringing out of the signs to look like, only in 3D animation of course. Rachel's Blog
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Jump: Blocking Test 4
Updated playblast of where I'm up to.
Feedback on Tuesday went well. People seemed happy with what I had at that point and Scott mentioned he liked how the character looked like he was thinking. I'm glad because I've been working on creating more subtle character acting, particularly thinking. Our project supervisor, Penny, suggested to go straight ahead with it. She thinks it's one of those things that don't suit blocking. She and Siobhan also said to block everything else in the scene (sky and clouds) to get a full working idea of how it will look. I'm going to finish blocking Malcolm and then block the scenery. After that I'll try to go straight ahead with the beginning if I can.
We've already come across the problem of lack of reference, particularly for the first scene. The reference we did isn't enough and it's very obvious (says one of our classmates) that we're not boys! Mark, who runs the green screen room, is currently on holiday (until Friday 22nd I believe) and Rachel leaves for the States today for 2 weeks so getting a group session in the green screen for more reference is difficult. I'm hoping that one will be booked next week so I can get Kristian and Scott to act for us!
Rachel's Blog
Feedback on Tuesday went well. People seemed happy with what I had at that point and Scott mentioned he liked how the character looked like he was thinking. I'm glad because I've been working on creating more subtle character acting, particularly thinking. Our project supervisor, Penny, suggested to go straight ahead with it. She thinks it's one of those things that don't suit blocking. She and Siobhan also said to block everything else in the scene (sky and clouds) to get a full working idea of how it will look. I'm going to finish blocking Malcolm and then block the scenery. After that I'll try to go straight ahead with the beginning if I can.
We've already come across the problem of lack of reference, particularly for the first scene. The reference we did isn't enough and it's very obvious (says one of our classmates) that we're not boys! Mark, who runs the green screen room, is currently on holiday (until Friday 22nd I believe) and Rachel leaves for the States today for 2 weeks so getting a group session in the green screen for more reference is difficult. I'm hoping that one will be booked next week so I can get Kristian and Scott to act for us!
Rachel's Blog
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Jump: Blocking Test 2
Added further blocking, mostly the 'panicky' movement while Malcolm finds his balance. This is the first section done, the animation will cut after this to Aaron for his backflip.
I'm not sure about the arm movement I've blocked for his panic. I may change it later after some feedback on Tuesday. Or before then if I decide what's wrong with it. In the meantime, I'm going to have a look at some skydiving videos to see if I can find what I'm missing.
Rachel's Blog
I'm not sure about the arm movement I've blocked for his panic. I may change it later after some feedback on Tuesday. Or before then if I decide what's wrong with it. In the meantime, I'm going to have a look at some skydiving videos to see if I can find what I'm missing.
Rachel's Blog
Jump: Blocking Test 1
Started blocking yesterday, here's where I am so far.
I can already see that Malcolm's movement needs to be more erratic. It's just the way I work. Sometimes I find it difficult to start blocking because of everything I need to consider so I block key frames every 25 frames (for the first 5 or so seconds) and then move them about with timing in mind. Usually they are very simple key poses so I block further detail into them and then block some more key frames for the key breakdowns. It just helps give me a place to start and get into the blocking stage. Depending on the animation and its length, sometimes I like to block in sections instead of the whole thing at once. I find this helps take away the daunting feeling of starting something huge.
This is the first quick playblast I did when I had blocked key frames every 25 frames. You can see the different already.
Anyway, before I move to the next section, I want to block in more panic to Malcolm's struggle for balance in this section.
Rachel's Blog
I can already see that Malcolm's movement needs to be more erratic. It's just the way I work. Sometimes I find it difficult to start blocking because of everything I need to consider so I block key frames every 25 frames (for the first 5 or so seconds) and then move them about with timing in mind. Usually they are very simple key poses so I block further detail into them and then block some more key frames for the key breakdowns. It just helps give me a place to start and get into the blocking stage. Depending on the animation and its length, sometimes I like to block in sections instead of the whole thing at once. I find this helps take away the daunting feeling of starting something huge.
This is the first quick playblast I did when I had blocked key frames every 25 frames. You can see the different already.
Anyway, before I move to the next section, I want to block in more panic to Malcolm's struggle for balance in this section.
Rachel's Blog
Thursday, 31 May 2012
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
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
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
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
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
Monday, 23 April 2012
Linear and Lip sync Test
Put Grandma into linear to see how the timing is working. I've also lip synced her in splines (I like to lip sync straight into spline as I can see the mouth movement clearly straight away, I don't know if that's a bad way to work but at the moment it works for me).
I kinda missed the Malcolm rig while I was lip syncing grandma as Malcolm has a really nice facial rig set up with which I find you can get a cleaner lip sync. I'm new to the Norman rig base so maybe I'm just not used to it but I can't seem to quite get the clean mouth shapes that I could with Malcolm.
Hopefully I've done an okay job for the first go though. I've posted it up on the facebook group for some feedback from my classmates. I hope they can give me some advice on how to perhaps make it a bit better.
I kinda missed the Malcolm rig while I was lip syncing grandma as Malcolm has a really nice facial rig set up with which I find you can get a cleaner lip sync. I'm new to the Norman rig base so maybe I'm just not used to it but I can't seem to quite get the clean mouth shapes that I could with Malcolm.
Hopefully I've done an okay job for the first go though. I've posted it up on the facebook group for some feedback from my classmates. I hope they can give me some advice on how to perhaps make it a bit better.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Mime: Final 1
First final test with sound and camera cuts. Also includes the footstep sound recording we did last week! Yay!
Sent this off for feedback from my classmates but I'll be leaving it for the time being to concentrate on the 11 Second Club animation.
If I don't get any major feedback I'll be sending this file to Raff who will be putting our animations together for Tuesday.
Some fall tests.
Needed to speed up the fall in the mime animation as it was a bit too slow. Here are a couple of tests that I've just done after making changes.
Last test was still a bit slow, I thought it could stand to be a couple of frames faster.
Pretty happy with it now, going to leave it here for the time being as Team RRR wants to get this done for tomorrow so we have enough time to put it all together for a final show and tell on Tuesday.
Last test was still a bit slow, I thought it could stand to be a couple of frames faster.
Pretty happy with it now, going to leave it here for the time being as Team RRR wants to get this done for tomorrow so we have enough time to put it all together for a final show and tell on Tuesday.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Mimes! Splines Test 2
After some clean up and fixing various limb tweaks. Still need to make that fall faster.
Looking good I think but I've hit the 'wall' a bit so can't really see anything that could be improved and I'm sure there is. That's why I sent it to the team's facebook group for critique :)
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