Monday, 28 March 2011
AD108 End of week 2 report...
Well, this creating a head business takes some time. It's coming along OK though, I'm in the middle of working on the hair now then the inside of the mouth. This isn't the texture I'll be using but I quite like sculpting it out of stone...
Monday, 21 March 2011
3D Character modeling update
I'm pretty chuffed with todays results, so chuffed in fact that I'm going to post todays progress on here. I think I've managed to create a reasonably cool looking hand, will certainly do for what I need it to do, which isn't much really and I could have got by with a far simpler hand but there would be no technical challenge involved in that.
What I also found pretty cool is that if you simplify the nurbs right down to their basic levels then you get to see the model pretty much as I modeled it, it's actually quite a nice style in its self...
Anyway, I've begun the daunting task of modeling the head, It's taken a while to get started and I wasn't too sure whether to continue modeling using the box construction technique but have decided to build it up polygon by polygon instead. Once the initial template was traced things have started to speed up, it's quite enjoyable seeing the chin and nose slowly evolve into existence...
What I also found pretty cool is that if you simplify the nurbs right down to their basic levels then you get to see the model pretty much as I modeled it, it's actually quite a nice style in its self...
Anyway, I've begun the daunting task of modeling the head, It's taken a while to get started and I wasn't too sure whether to continue modeling using the box construction technique but have decided to build it up polygon by polygon instead. Once the initial template was traced things have started to speed up, it's quite enjoyable seeing the chin and nose slowly evolve into existence...
Some 3D Character research that I quite like...
Last week we were shown a few animations, there is one in particular that I have seen before which I quite admire in so much as the style of the artwork produced. Although the animation is very much in generated in 3D the visual illustrative style looks hand painted. If you freeze the animation at any point you will be viewing what appears to be an individually painted scene. I love it.
Another animation I really like for the style and technique is Codehunters, not necessarily for the story, but the use of light and texture creates a really dramatic effect along with a kind of hand drawn outline style used with almost super real/unreal textures. Strange stuff.
And in a very different way I love the stylisation of this crazy animation by David OReilly call Wolf 2106, The style of the scenery is very graphic, stylised and simple, I'm wondering whether to combine by 3D character into something similar.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Wallace & Gromit come to Newcastle 16th April - 30th Oct
Whether you like them or not it probably makes sense to check these pair out when it comes to the Life Science Centre next month...
Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales...
Yesterday evening I went to see the live stage performance of Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales at the Northern Stage.
It's on until 26th March if you are interested.
Now, it's obviously not directly linked to animation and I'm not going to sit here and give it a review, but it did involve two relevant ingredients:
1. It consisted of 5 short stories.
2. The stories were told in very bare surroundings with very few props.
The performance was good and some of the short stories were less predictable, grueling, nasty or interesting than others, but the key point from the evening is that if a story is clever enough or gripping enough or unpredictable enough then no amount of trimmings or detail can make it any better. I you have a sound story then yes I believe it can be embellished upon, and the overall style in which it is presented can then become just as important or iconic as the story itself.
If you fancy a short (it's only about 80 minutes long) and relatively bizarre night out then I'd recommend it, but don't go expecting James and the Giant Peach. (Especially the scene where one guy bets his little finger being chopped off for a chance to win another guys Cadillac).
It's on until 26th March if you are interested.
Now, it's obviously not directly linked to animation and I'm not going to sit here and give it a review, but it did involve two relevant ingredients:
1. It consisted of 5 short stories.
2. The stories were told in very bare surroundings with very few props.
The performance was good and some of the short stories were less predictable, grueling, nasty or interesting than others, but the key point from the evening is that if a story is clever enough or gripping enough or unpredictable enough then no amount of trimmings or detail can make it any better. I you have a sound story then yes I believe it can be embellished upon, and the overall style in which it is presented can then become just as important or iconic as the story itself.
If you fancy a short (it's only about 80 minutes long) and relatively bizarre night out then I'd recommend it, but don't go expecting James and the Giant Peach. (Especially the scene where one guy bets his little finger being chopped off for a chance to win another guys Cadillac).
Ever felt the need for someone to warm your toilet seat for you?
No they're not singing, they're about to chop off a finger for a bet.
Friday, 18 March 2011
My 3D character model so far..
I thought I'd show where I am at with the creation of my 3D character in Cinema 4D.
It too a while to get re-familiarised with the software and so the foot took a while to create but became a way of learning the processes needed to box model my character. I've worked my way up the leg, using the symmetry tool to create the other. As I got to the torso I was torn as to whether create it from a sphere or to continue with the symmetry, the symmetry technique won in the end and the whole process is speeding up as I get used to the tools and techniques.
The character does look a little like a pregnant women but you need to remember an old man's head will be poking out from the from of the chest and the whole figure will be hunched over when rigged.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
It just dawned on me...
Not exactly a new animation for Coke but it just occurred to me..
How did the guy get the cap off the bottle at the end? Coke is dispensed with a screw top not a cap, otherwise everyone would need to carry around a bottle opener!
Monday, 14 March 2011
I found this today...
Attack of the BearDuck
This caught my attention today with regards to the style of characters and the overall look and technique used in the animation. It has a strange 3/4 view 2D 3D style, i love the way the characters move and stretch as they bounce around. Not to mention it's just plain weird.
It's part of a nice overall concept where a series of artists are supposidly continuing a story or theme from where the previous animator left off. This is producing a unique selection of styles and techniques for one narrative (no matter how tenuous that narrative is becoming as it evolves).
Animation Tag Attack - Episode 11 - The Attack of the BearDuck from Animation Tag Attack on Vimeo.
I love the feel of this stuff too, it's not 3D character based but I like the fact that characters have been constructed differently from odd shapes to tell a story, the style and feel and sound is also great...
I love the feel of this stuff too, it's not 3D character based but I like the fact that characters have been constructed differently from odd shapes to tell a story, the style and feel and sound is also great...
Celine and Yann do a few other nice looking animations, check them out.
CatShitOne
We've all just watched a bit of CatShitOne.
I haven't found a direct link to the whole episode but here's a trailer:
It's pretty bizarre, cuddly fluffy bunnies with big furry feet running around blasting the brains out of camel-like baddies. It has the over all feel of computer game COD style graphics but with the weird twist of the characters. It's interesting that I think intrigue in the animation solely stems from the conflicting elements of the characters and situation. Bunnies should be in a field eating carrots not in the Middle East firing guns.
The bits that I fixated on more than anything were the way the big feet worked on the characters and the twitching bunny tails. I know from my first animated loop with the clown and the big shoes just how odd it is to animate a character walking with big feet.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Monday, 28 February 2011
My E4 Sting 10 second animation...
This is my E Sting animation completed, all I need now is for the competition to open!
Feel free to comment, is it too big, too round, does it bounce upon the ground?
Feel free to comment, is it too big, too round, does it bounce upon the ground?
What I achieved last week...
AD109: E4 Stinger
It took a while to get my alpha channels rendering properly from C4D so that I could bring the animated berry into After Effects without any of the background layering. Basically last Sunday night I thought I had it sorted and left the first 60 frames rendering over night (the whole render was going to take 29 hours (and then only if everything went to plan)).
Unfortunately Monday morning left me with unusable footage and what's more it was impossible to get onto After Effects or Cinema 4D all day due to the college licenses all being booked out.
What this test render did do was point out the need for considering reflections of the flying character in the shiny surface of the berry, so I set about animating a fixed shape silhouette of the character around the berry in C4D, I had to match the position of character as best I could bearing in mind the character will be composited in After Effects to the C4D footage.
The character was set up not to be seen by the camera but the berry was set up to see its reflection thus giving the illusion that something was moving around. It's subtle and you probably wont notice it but without it it just looked wrong.
I finally established all the correct settings and also learned that After Effects CS3 interprets a series of TIFF files generated by C4D as one movie file. Whereas my ancient version 5.5 does nothing of the sort. Never mind, I'll have all the up to date necessary software eventually maybe.
I then set about adding the wings, after setting them up in C4D to be slightly transparent, self luminating and flapping I dropped the footage into the background and with the camera locked matched the movement of the character frame by frame by placing the wings at the size, shape and angle they would be at if they were on the characters back. This was then also rendered out in an alpha channel on its own.
Now by mid week I had some of the berry animation rendered and wings were ready to drop into After Effects. My next problem was that the footage was no longer in time. For example, I knew I had rendered a 20 frame section of the berry but it was longer than this in the time line and everything everywhere in both C4D and AE was set at 25fps. This meant further problem solving until I found a blog that stated this:
Things were now starting to work. My next trick was to at a subtle shadow (created in Photoshop) frame by frame in AE to follow the characters position:
By Thurs I had a working sequence with wings. With an After Effects time line looks much more complex than it really is. The berry was rendered in separate short sections over a series of nights or periods when I wasn't using my Mac, the flying character was split into 3 parts to enable it to fly in-front
and behind the berry as were the wings also adjusted to be in-front or behind the character.
Thursday and Friday was pretty much spent in Photoshop rotoscoping over the top of the new footage using a drawing tablet (for the first time ever) to add firstly the glowing antennas and then the big tongue. Again this was drawn frame by frame to match the movement of the character.
I pretty much achieved what I wanted this week on this project. All that was left was the mist, the camera movement and sound. Up until now the scene has been static other than the movement within. I set up the low lying mist in C4D over the weekend and rendered it out ready to composite in After Effects on monday (today).
Over the weekend I moved house but also managed to record a few sounds for my animation, both ambient bird sounds outside and a weird buzzing synthesiser noise for the insect character. On top of this i wanted some kind of funky tune to relate to the animation and started messing around in Garage Band.
It took a while to get my alpha channels rendering properly from C4D so that I could bring the animated berry into After Effects without any of the background layering. Basically last Sunday night I thought I had it sorted and left the first 60 frames rendering over night (the whole render was going to take 29 hours (and then only if everything went to plan)).
Unfortunately Monday morning left me with unusable footage and what's more it was impossible to get onto After Effects or Cinema 4D all day due to the college licenses all being booked out.
What this test render did do was point out the need for considering reflections of the flying character in the shiny surface of the berry, so I set about animating a fixed shape silhouette of the character around the berry in C4D, I had to match the position of character as best I could bearing in mind the character will be composited in After Effects to the C4D footage.
The character was set up not to be seen by the camera but the berry was set up to see its reflection thus giving the illusion that something was moving around. It's subtle and you probably wont notice it but without it it just looked wrong.
Reflection in the berry created by animating a crude silhouette in C4D
I finally established all the correct settings and also learned that After Effects CS3 interprets a series of TIFF files generated by C4D as one movie file. Whereas my ancient version 5.5 does nothing of the sort. Never mind, I'll have all the up to date necessary software eventually maybe.
I then set about adding the wings, after setting them up in C4D to be slightly transparent, self luminating and flapping I dropped the footage into the background and with the camera locked matched the movement of the character frame by frame by placing the wings at the size, shape and angle they would be at if they were on the characters back. This was then also rendered out in an alpha channel on its own.
Wings created as cut out animation in C4D, the position was animated to follow the footage frame by frame.
Now by mid week I had some of the berry animation rendered and wings were ready to drop into After Effects. My next problem was that the footage was no longer in time. For example, I knew I had rendered a 20 frame section of the berry but it was longer than this in the time line and everything everywhere in both C4D and AE was set at 25fps. This meant further problem solving until I found a blog that stated this:
Don't import into AE without it.
Shadow added to follow beneath character.
and behind the berry as were the wings also adjusted to be in-front or behind the character.
First experience of After Effects and it's actually quite easy to get your head around the basics.
Thursday and Friday was pretty much spent in Photoshop rotoscoping over the top of the new footage using a drawing tablet (for the first time ever) to add firstly the glowing antennas and then the big tongue. Again this was drawn frame by frame to match the movement of the character.
Rotoscoped antennas and tongue.
I pretty much achieved what I wanted this week on this project. All that was left was the mist, the camera movement and sound. Up until now the scene has been static other than the movement within. I set up the low lying mist in C4D over the weekend and rendered it out ready to composite in After Effects on monday (today).
Making fog in C4D is easy. Then exporting as an alpha.
I dropped it into AE twice, masking the bottom off for the background and the
top + around the character as it moves in the foreground, feathering out the middle.
top + around the character as it moves in the foreground, feathering out the middle.
Over the weekend I moved house but also managed to record a few sounds for my animation, both ambient bird sounds outside and a weird buzzing synthesiser noise for the insect character. On top of this i wanted some kind of funky tune to relate to the animation and started messing around in Garage Band.
Monday, 21 February 2011
This weeks plan of action...
MON
AD109 - Rendering the berry in Cinema 4D (render time approx 29 hours). Create wings and animate onto footage.
AD102 - Develop details on colour and text etc on character sheet/shorten legs!
TUES
AD109 - Create and rotoscope antenna and tongue in Photoshop
WED
AD109 - Add shadows and render out from After Effects for Final Cut editing
AD102 - Build on character box construction
THURS
AD109 - Edit camera movement in Final Cut. Start to create sound track and effects.
AD102 - (PM) character development in Cinema 4D
FRI
AD109 - Focus on sound
SAT/SUN
AD109 - Finish sound and final edit for ready for Monday
AD109 - Rendering the berry in Cinema 4D (render time approx 29 hours). Create wings and animate onto footage.
AD102 - Develop details on colour and text etc on character sheet/shorten legs!
TUES
AD109 - Create and rotoscope antenna and tongue in Photoshop
WED
AD109 - Add shadows and render out from After Effects for Final Cut editing
AD102 - Build on character box construction
THURS
AD109 - Edit camera movement in Final Cut. Start to create sound track and effects.
AD102 - (PM) character development in Cinema 4D
FRI
AD109 - Focus on sound
SAT/SUN
AD109 - Finish sound and final edit for ready for Monday
Friday, 18 February 2011
End Of Week Progress
Progress for this week hasn't quite gone as expected, but then I expected that so maybe that means it went to plan?
AD102: Character Design
I have completed the design, elevation sketches and coloured up versions in illustrator. I'm happy with the results, it is strange seeing my character in such an upright (jesus) pose as he will actually be hunched over. I deliberated on whether to work him up in nothing but his bath towel but figured that for my first fully 3D character construction it maybe be easier to have him clothed and the story in which he exists isn't solid yet. Maybe I can construct an alternative body once I'm a whizz at doing so, from our brief encounter in box construction of the character in Cinema 4D yesterday it is obviously going to be a while before the techniques are hammered home.
So I'm relatively pleased but so much time has been taken up experimenting, problem solving and adjusting frame after frame rather than actually producing the animation, but that's what it's all about I guess.
AD102: Character Design
I have completed the design, elevation sketches and coloured up versions in illustrator. I'm happy with the results, it is strange seeing my character in such an upright (jesus) pose as he will actually be hunched over. I deliberated on whether to work him up in nothing but his bath towel but figured that for my first fully 3D character construction it maybe be easier to have him clothed and the story in which he exists isn't solid yet. Maybe I can construct an alternative body once I'm a whizz at doing so, from our brief encounter in box construction of the character in Cinema 4D yesterday it is obviously going to be a while before the techniques are hammered home.
Stage 1 - Chosen Character to develop (one of several options worked up)
Stage 2 - Elevations drawn in the Jesus pose
Stage 3 - Elevations coloured up in Illustrator
I want to really head my head down and push on with what we've been taught so far in Cinema 4D character construction but I'm way too distracted with the following project at the moment:
AD109: E4 Animation
By the end of this week I was aiming to have all the assets I needed to be able to start compiling the animation, and I guess in a way I am but there are a number of elements that cant be animated until the first part is complete. The status so far:
1. Pixilation footage
This has been shot compiled into a sequence and tidied up.
2. The infamous giant blackberry
Has been developed and animated for the 10 seconds needed, also detail has been taken in developing the correct lighting effects to make this seem real enough to sit along side my footage.
3. After Effects
I've never used After Effects before Wednesday this week. I've adopted a crash course in After Effects pretty much by searching for tutorials online in how to create masks on each frame. There has been some deliberation on my part as to whether to keep the entire footage shot as it is or seeing as how I'm cutting out the character anyway (so as to pass in front of objects) should I consider enhancing/replacing the background.
A test render decided this for me, due to the hand held nature of the footage the blackberry and shadow seemed too disembodied from the background. I know there are motion capturing techniques but the footage really is made from 125 completely separate shots, there's no smoothness to them by their very nature, so they don't fit with the blackberry it appears to float.
So I'm now masking out my flying character frame by frame in After Effects. This needs to be complete by Monday latest
4. Background
Number 3 above has lead me to start to create surreal background ideas:
5. Wings
I have started testing the principles of animating the wings in either Photoshop or Cinema 4D, I may paint the basic shape of the wings in water colour and bring them into photoshop to add the E4 logo and motion blur effects.
6. Tongue and antenna
This will be tackled and rotoscoped at the end of next week when the above footage has been compiled together.
So I'm relatively pleased but so much time has been taken up experimenting, problem solving and adjusting frame after frame rather than actually producing the animation, but that's what it's all about I guess.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Research of 5 random character artists
TADO:
FRIENDS WITH YOU:
FONS SHIEDON:
GASTON CABA:
ARON MARTIN
(seems to be good at drawing pandas and cats)
It has to be said that I find most of these artists work to be too cute, what I do like is Fons Shiedon's bizarre accumulation of weird and wonderful characters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)