Term 3 Week 4 Update

War in Wunderland

Since the beginning of term animation has been the order of the day. I have successfully finished 2 complete scenes with a third to be finished with my assigned character Bigbot - the giant mechanical menace from War in Wunderland.

Prior to animating in each scene i had to set up a camera that mimiced the one in the blockout and position the character. I operated the scene with only Bigbot present so i have had no focus for any of his reactions or movements other than that shown in the blockouts. The rig is similar to the previous monkey and robot models so i had no problem adapting to using Bigbot. When i was given him to animate he did not have any expressions so i couldn't add any facial movement to exaggerate feeling. I later got a rig upgrade which allowed me to move the mouth but the eyes are still motionless.

The first scene see's Bigbot emerge from a crater and walk aggressively towards the hero, Red.

This is the scene i had the most problems with. This is really because i was getting used to the character, how he moves in comparison to the other robots. I had the same mentality animating Bogbot as the monkeys i had previously animated and the robot . Obviously, as he is roughly 10 times the size of the other characters he wouldn't move in the same way. It took several tries to get the right weight for his walk and movements. I eventually got there but that is why it has taken 2 weeks to finish this one file because (amongst the other work) i have had to keep working into this cycle. I am pleased with the result though as is Adam and both this shot and shot 2 are green lit for the film.

Timing was another initial problem as i thought the file had to be the same length as the blockout. The result was far too fast for a large object like Bigbot. I later found out that i had control over the scene length (to a degree) and that i didn't have to stick to the same blockout time - just the keyframes. This made things flow much faster in other cycles and scenes.

The second scene see's Bigbot reach in to grab Red, but as he does he is shot and he is forced to step back.

This scene proved to be far easier iin terms of setup and completion. With a few minor tweaks i finished this scene relatively quickly. I also animated an extra second or two to add a roar at the end of the sequence with was not originally favoured by the team but now there has been a rethink and the roar is in! My mentality was that corned animals will lash out in self defense so why would a 10 story robot with a missile lodged in his hand be any different?

The third scene see's Bigbot retreating from the monkey army (backwards) to what he hopes will be safety. I managed to complete the first pass near perfectly for this cycle. This week i need to tweak some of the leg shots (as Bigbot looks like he has rickets/a full diaper) near the end to seal the sequence and move onto the next.

My forth sequence will be Bigbot making his way towards the sea to escape. This cycle will follow sequence 3 and i will recieve the file later in the week.

The playblasts are huge so i am going to render them out at a smaller scale to add to this site. Blasts of the shots and pictures to be taken and added by the end of the week.

The Poet

I have just recieved the most recent After Effects package so i can start Dave's work now. He has also asked me to design some small, cute birds to be animated over the top of his film (in 2D). These will be finished by the end of the week.

Fundraising/Film Marketing

I had an idea at the beginning of term to raise money for the end of year degree show and/or promote our film - War in Wunderland.

By designing prints to apply to mini badges (a popular unisex accessory to bags/belts/hats etc) we could offer unique designs to the students of Ravensbourne and the public that would not be otherwise available in a popular format.

This site: www.badgesforbands.com, is one that i found that may be useful. They also produce tshirts/flyers and Boxes (complete with a selection of everything).

You are allowed to use 2 designs per badge pack you buy and i thought we could have character related badges linked to iconic parts of our film (e.g. the robots heat rate monitor and the monkey army's star insignia).

These could be sold at uni or to friends and family. Public selling requires permits and may be too time consuming considering our workload. The Badges are also something small that can be attached to invitations to the degree show (where we can have the product available for visitors to take away) or to CV's to post graduate employers.

This idea has been run past the team but as yet a decision has not been made. Updates to follow.

Runcycles update 1

Here is the second bazooka grunt fire cycle (underslung to over shoulder fire). The grenade firecycle is to follow shortly.

Term 3 - Animation

The holiday has been slow. i have not recieved any work from my project lead as he has organised to pass work on at the beginning of this term. My other project links either had no work they could hand out or did not reply to my efforts to contact them. To make up that lost time i am going to have to work extremely fast to bolster my folders.

This term I have opted to do the following: -

Continue animating for War in Wunderland (my first set of blasts can be found below for BigBot in the city).

Letter animation for the Poet (this will allow me to use technical skills in order to put aniamtion into maya through other programs using various means - a post-production effort). n.b. designed alphabet shown below - see animation ideas previously updated in the blog.

Cafe de B... - i am hoping to do some animation for this project - namely the waiter i helped design - but over the holiday i had no work to complete from this group. I had asked several times to help model the cafe interior props but i recieved no feedback or reference photos with which to work. This was a shame as i spent the majority of the holiday preparing to leave university finding houses etc. than actually working on the project.

War in Wunderland - Here are the first blasts of Bigbot emerging and attacking Red before he retreats!





Lettering (Alphabet for the Poet)

This is the plain text (patterns to be added later and updated). Each letter has roughly 3 variants. (sticky/bold and bold curvy). The plan is to add patterns into the text and then add the text into maya or after effects and animate it. This stage is extra concept but the animation and placement will be aniamtion and technical .



Fundraising - Animation had a fundraising event the first thursday of this term to raise money for our end of term show. i had been asked to draw up a evil clown to be used as a poster flyer. this is shown below: -

concept1


concept2


final
more to be added later!

End of Term 2

This update is a long time coming. With the problems i had with the dissertation deadline (having it move backward taking up more time) i had been busy with the extended essay for longer than planned. This led to a mess in my schedule and less updates.

Blogger did also prevent me from uploading all my blasts - prehaps too many at once slows the transfer down. Since the previous update i completed grenade monkey/bazooka monkey runcycles and fire cycles. The bazooka monkey i did an extra run and fire for as well as an underarm slung rocket variant.


Here are those run cycles: -

Gruntbazooka1



Gruntbazooka2



Gruntbazooka2 tweak (less bounce on gun)




Gruntbazookafire1



Gruntgrenade1 (This was a flawed run that i had to do again. I had hoped to have the grunt shaking the grenades wildly but it looks horrible and the shakes are far too fast. Instead i opted for the better run (shown below in gruntgrenade2) which is a more regular run )




gruntgrenade2



grunt grenade fire 1 to be added next update along with news of term 3.