Masters Show 2011 Artwork and Videos

Waiting Final Animation

Camera and Staging

My choice with Waiting is to have a single locked off camera with no edits for the duration of the animation. One thing I did notice was that some of the expressions don't read as well as they could if the camera was closer to the character. Previously I have looked into a setup with a moving camera but I felt for the project where I want the audience to view the character as a whole that a single locked camera would be best. In the future I may decide to revisit this project and see how it would work with different staging.

Rendering and Compositing

Here is a breakdown of the render layers used to create the final composition. I wanted to keep it simple so I choose to only render what I thought was necessary and what would save me time. For example as the camera does not move I only rendered 1 background frame and 1 ZDepth frame and then a shadow and reflection pass for the whole animation. The character and shadow was also rendered out as separate layers. Finally there is the sky layer which was just a photograph taken atop the Law Hill :P This was all then taken into After Effects and composited together.

Animation Final Edits

Some very last minute edits to the animation. I was unhappy with the last section so I made some quick changes that I think work better.

 

Animation Update Thirteen

This is the final animation. Not yet rendered but it has the new background model and gives you an idea of the look of the final thing.
 

Animation Update Twelve

This is pretty much the full animation with the exception of the facial animation. Now that I have all the blend shapes created I will add do that next.

Modeling the Background Part Two

The background for the animation is something I have been unsure about. In terms of both the amount of detail and rendering style. My initial plan was to have the background be quite plain to focus the audiences attention on the animation. But this lack of detail wasn't working for me so I slowly started to add more detail to help give a better idea of the space the character is inhabiting. Below are images from this process of iteration.

Blendshapes

I have been putting off creating the blend shapes ever since the modelling and rigging stage of the production. I have now gone back and created a whole bunch of different expressions and face shapes that I will use along with the eye and jaw controllers to create the final facial expressions.

Animation Update Eleven

Getting close to having all the animation finished. Just need to get the last section sorted and then get all the facial animation done.
 

Animation Update Ten

Much bigger update than last time. After the character finishes yawning he walks over and sits down. He then leans forward which is my favorite bit of animation so far. I have then started to block out some more movements including the big yawn.
 

Animation Update Nine

Just a wee update to the animation. Yawn...
 

Animation Update Eight

Although I have restarted the animation looking at the work I have now produced I am very happy with the decision. I am working much faster than I have been and producing better results. This is due to me being much more focused in what I want to achieve but also partly due to having much less time to do the same amount of animation. It will be a difficult few weeks but I should manage to complete the animation in time.
 

Animation Update Seven

After the peer review on Wednesday I decided it would be best to just restart the animation again. I realised that I wasn't focusing on the right aspects of the animation. I was too getting to concerned with just making the character move and not how and why he was moving. So from now on I will have to keep reminding myself to always consider the mood of the character and let that inform how they move. Below is the start of what will hopefully be the final animation.

 

Animation Update Six and Peer Review

This is the animation I presented at todays peer review. Slightly updated from last time. But from the feedback  I received I don't think the animation is working as well as I would like. The decision I have to make is to either try to rework what I have done so far or to just start again from scratch...

Animation Update Five

Nothing much has changed during the start section but from the point where he leans on the bus shelter I have made some really good progress. I have a peer review next week and hope to have this entire section finished for then.
 

Animation Update Four

Building up the walk more by adding in the arm movements and also worked on the pause at the bus sign pose.

 

Animation Update Three

Finally, some actual movement, roughing in the leg movements for the walk to the sign. Still early days though.
   

Animation Update Two

Still just roughly blocking in the poses. It is all a bit slidey so I'll start to add in some holds and build up the animation from what I have so far.

 

Waking Progress

Had a chat today with my supervisor about the progress of my projects. I am getting on fine with Waiting and development continues with me hoping to start animating soon. But the other project has not gotten much further forward. I am waiting to hear back on getting access to the motion capture studio which the project hinges on to progress. As such I am reluctant to put time into the development of a project that might not come to fruition. If there has been no word within a couple of weeks I will have to put the project on hold. Below are the thumbnail sketches I have done to show the type of movement that I was wanting.

Animation Update One

First go at starting the animation so I am just blocking in some rough poses and timing.

 

Reference Video

Using the list of Actions as a guide I recorded myself performing those movements to get an idea of the overall timing and of it flows together. Below are some images and videos from these sessions.

Action List

In preperation of starting the animation I have written out a list of Actions that I would like the character to perform. I will use this list to create some reference footage that I can then base the aniamtion on.

Walk in from the left
Stop and check timetable
Pause/Shift weight/Look
Turn to lean on shelter
Look down road
Yawn/Hand covers mouth/Look down at bench
Sits down on bench
Pause/Leg Scratch
Shifts weight - forward/back?
Zone out/ Look around
Attention caught off camera - leans forward
Super yawn - leans back and stretches
Zone out/ distracted/ thinking/ looking down
Looks back up

Modeling the Background

In addition to creating a character to animate I also need a set for the character to be placed in. Like the before, I wanted to keep it simple so this background was roughed out with basic geometry to give me a rough idea of the layout while animating. If time allows I was add more detail to the model and also proper lighting.

Character Rigging

Roughly knowing the style of animation and what the character will and won't be doing I can make decisions on how to go about creating a rig to control the character. I have decided on a mixture of FK, IK or both depending on the body part.

I am using full IK for the legs with seperate controls for knee and heel adjustments. The bodys overall position and rotation is controlled by a nurbs circle with the spine, shoulders, neck and head being directly controlled through their individual joints using FK. The arms are a combination of FK and IK using a switch depending on what they need to be doing at the time. The Eyes are setup using aim constraints with blendshapes being added at a later date.

As you can see from the image I have now added basic materials and a textures to the model. I will talk about the details of this in a future post.

Modeling the Character

After taking the model sheets into Maya I was able to start building the character model. I decided to keep the model quite simple so I was able to create the final model quickly. One thing to note is that I have created the body and clothing as seperate models. If time allows I will use Maya nCloth for the shirt and trousers. Below is the final unsmoothed and untextured model of the character.

Model Sheets

I am hoping to get through the pre-production stage as quickly as possible so I can work on the animation as much as possible. The first stage of the process is to create some model sheets to use in Maya as a guide for modelling. Below are some rough sketches I will use to help create the character in Waiting.

Semester Three Plan

The plan for this semester is to work on the two projects I mentioned in my semester two presentation. They are:

Waiting:
A character performance of someone waiting at a bus stop.
It is to be a full 3D animation with 1 character and 1 location
To be between 60 and 90 seconds in length.

Waking: 
A choreographed performance of someone waking up in the morning.
It is to be a motion captured 3D animation
1 character and 1 location
Between 60 and 90 seconds in length.


I have done some initial research for both projects which can be viewed in the previous blog post and semester two presentation file.

Undergraduate Films

Here are two of the films I worked on during semester two.

My Welcome Intruders
   

D'Ark
 

Semester Two Presentation

Click here to view presentation.

Presentation notes.

Links to my animation for: 

My Welcome Intruders, 

D'Ark, 

Turtles Run

Waiting Research: 

Cold Souls

The Illusionist

Ryan

Father and Daughter

Thought of You

Ghost World

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Fourteen Actors Acting

Photographs by Mike Garbowski

Undergraduate production blogs: 

My Welcome Intruders, 

D'Ark, 

Turtles Run

Reflection on Practice

As part of the Reflection on Practice module I have also uploaded an online version of my report.

Click here to view report.

Report Writing and Presentation

From now on I will be focusing all my efforts on writing my Reflection on Practice report and preparing for my end of semester presentation. I will be trying to continue with my own practice as this is happening and will update my progress here as time goes on.

Turtles Run Final

Progress on the walk cycle. Added in an extra bounce in between steps to make it more groovy. It is now complete.

Turtles Run Update

Update on the progress of the walk cycle. Got everything moving now, think it is looking good.

Turtles Run - Walk Cycle

I have been asked to do a short walk cycle for Reece Morton's film Turtles Tun. The character has to groove along while playing a beat on his drum. I planned out the timing on a dope sheet with the initial progress is below.

Blocking




Feet Timed Properly

MWI Shot 26

I was asked by Dan and Mike if I was able to do another shot for My Welcome Intruders. The answer was yes!
The final version is below.



It really depends on the shot and characters but for this one I decided to time out the animation on paper first. These were jsut used as a guide. I think the timings changed slightly for the final shot. But the initial dopesheets are below.