FINAL ANIMATION

After trying real hard and doing my best, this is what I came up with. I'm quite happy with the result. I know there is lots of fine tuning that I could do further to make it look better. My strong points in this assignment are the camera shots, composition of the frame and the sync with the dialogues. I need to work on my timing and controlling the motion with time aspect. I'm sorry but I couldn't figure out how to turn the face controls off.

What did I learn from all this?

The following is an explanation of somethings I learnt in this unit and a note on how I've adpted them in my project:

1) Pose to Pose and Straight Forward Animation

I learnt that once you've narrowed down on your key poses it's then easy to work on the rest of the animation. You've won half the battle if you've got this sorted. From here onwards its more about working on the details. Let me warn you... it takes IMMENSE amount of patience JUST to decide on that! But it's lots of fun trying to observe other characters and then to adapt their mannerisms to your own.

2) Line of Action

Since it was a really short clip that I picked to animate, there wasn't much movement among the characters. Hence the line of action was quite static. i was concentrating more on the gestures, postures, body language and the facial expressions. I've tried to convey most of the message through the movement of the character's upper body. Movement of arms and raising the shoulder etc.

3) Composition of Frames

I first created an animatic with the composition of frames. This was I clearly defined what I wanted my audience to see in each section of the dialogue. Once that was sorted the other information in each frame was to be imparted through the body language and expression of the movement of the character itself. I followed the RULE OF THIRDS in most of my composition.

4) Readability

I tried to adapt poses that were clear and not complicated. Once I'd fix on a key frame i'd make sure if the action was clear if the pose was expressive in its silhoutte state. If it wasn't then I'd change the pose to soemthing more simple and clear as that is what is easy to animate and people udnerstand what's going on.

ANIMATION!!

Reflections: This is my first attempt at the animation. Some shots are a little slow. I'm still working on it. But I'm quite happy with some parts. I'm trying my best to sync it with the dialogues but some parts still seem to be in slow motion. Bloody timing!

Animation / Animatic

Animatic Take 3: Animating the characters

Reflection: After setting the frames and the camera angles, I then worked on the body language and the gestures for each character. This is one of the initial playblasts. I realised I need to work on some frame timings as they were too fast.

Animatic Take 2 : Frame composition and Timing with dialogues

Reflection: This is a rough animatic I put together with the given audio. This is only to see how the frames look like with the particular section of the audio. This also help me realise the 'timing' element. Once I fixed the main cameras I figured how long each frame had to last with the dialogues.

Animatic Take 1: Setting Frame Compositions

Reflection: This was the first try for the frames once the cameras were set. Starting with the establishing shot I worked on the composition of the frames giving importace to the character who was speaking and showing the audience what I wanted them to see.

Storyboard

Reflection: This is hand drawn version of the storyboard. I was chalking out the dialogues with the rough frames with who and what I wanted to show in those frames. I mean to fine tune the compositions once I switch to maya and set the cameras.

Animation Exercise - II

Reflection: This is a more faster version. The character here looks more surprised than the previous clip. But it's quite short. I need to work on increasing the number of frames and giving more time for anticipation.

Inspiration/Research: After observing the video reference that Chris put up on the Blackboard, it was easier to figure out the timing and to get the chracter to anticipate the action much faster.

Reflection: This was my first shot on following the video and to replicate the action. But this one worked out to be way too slow. The anticipation was there but it didn't look like 'shocking' surprise. It looked more like a 'oh did I notice something there' kind of look.

Animation Exercise -I

Reflection: Animation of a character reading a book, then looking up with surprise. This was done using video reference provided in class.

Inspiration/Research: I love watching Disney characters and their movies. So I like to exaggerate the action of the character. I've observed the movement and body language of alladin, the dwarfs etc.

Studying different poses

ANGRY POSE

The characteristics of an 'angry pose' are frown, wrinkled nose, tight shoulders etc. I studied a few other characters and then decided to pick some traits and adapt it to my character model.

STRONG POSE

I picked this pose depicting one of the postures used in Yoga. It requires immense concentration, and strength to maintain this pose for a while bhefore falling down on the floor. This is the image that came into my mind when I thought of an action that requires strength.

WEAK POSE

The common things I noticed with 'weak' is that the camera is usually placed above eye level but I wanted to try doing it at eye level or below that. By making her sit on the floor she is reduced in size, hence, making her feel smaller and weak visually.

'THOUGHT' POSE

Chris obviously warned us about NOT doing the classic 'thought' pose. I was observing and realised that men usually scratch their head while thinking. That was a little too much for me to do at the moment. So I picked this melodramatic version of the 'thought' pose.

Character animation test

This is just a really small animation clip of Buttercup's posture when she is happy and cheerful.

This is a short clip of the Man in Black. This clip depicts his dominating nature.

This clip describes Gwendolyn D'Enfer's 'It's all about me' attitude.

Character Poses

Buttercup is a happy bubbly girl when she is happy. Most part of the story she is sad and depressed. She is worried, scared and unaware of what to expect. 

The Man in Black believes he is strong and emotes negative poses. With knitted eyebrows and a screwed up nose, he seems to always be caught in thought.

This is model sheet  I created for Gwendolyn D'Enfer. She always holds her head high and believes is a know-it-all woman. Open shoulders, arms away from the body and chin up are some characteristics. 

Character Description

Backstory

Director I'd like to draw inspiration from...

- Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

Being a great fan of the ‘Comic Style’, I couldn’t think of anybody other than Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.  I’m sure you would’ve guessed by now that the movie running in my head is Sin City!

Frank Miller has transformed the comic series into a movie with such great panache. He has not only maintained the over all feel of the book in the movie but has gone above and beyond in depicting certain style from the book, using the video format/ special effects to his advantage.  Miller has such great influence on his stories that no matter which director ends up making the movie, he eventually seems to be influenced by Frank Miller.

What I love best about Sin City is how every frame looks so rich.  The play of colors is so beautiful that it almost tricks you into believing that you are reading a book and this is just you imagination.

As rightly mention in class today, the Producer does have a great influence on the director. This is clearly visible in Sin City. Robert Rodriguez (Producer and Co-director), a man of visual style leaves his mark in the overall feel of the movie as well.

What particular thing I’d like to draw from the ‘directorial skills’ used in this movie? The colors, the perspective of the main elements in a frame and the over all mood of that frame that is expressed through different elements like music, color, poses, sets etc.