The Stakeout, animation WIP 3

Hello again. Today I showed my lipsync animation to my class. I got some positive feedback from them, and I also got some pointers on how to make it better.
I have also added the partner to the preaching cop and changed the camera angle somewhat.

Here it is:

This will probably be the one I render, since I need to devote my time to the other animations now.

See you later.

The Stakeout, animation WIP 2

Today I have two more updates to show, I have continued to work on my timing and general animation.

On the clip above I added some anticipation to the arm and I have also added some movement and timing to his eyebrows. 

And below I added a subtle movement to his head when he says "Indulgence" and added an adjust animation when he places the binoculars to his eyes.

This is the one I will show my class for the show and tell, hopefully I will get some good feedback from them.

See you later.

The Stakeout, animation WIP

Late last night I finished my lipsync, and started on some of the movements. I decided to cut some of the animation from the reference out.

Here is the lipsync:

And here is the other preview I made:

I will continue to work on my animation and timing some more, so come back and check for more updates.

The Stakeout, Lipsync WIP

Hello again, After I shot the reference I started doing the lipsync right away. I really like doing lipsync.
Here you can see how far I have gotten so far.

Gotta work some more, keep checking in for more updates.

The Stakeout! Reference.

I finally got around to shot my reference, and I also shot a closeup reference of my lips speaking the lines.
I shot this back in Norway in my mothers car with the help of my little brother.

Here you can see the clips:

And the lipsync one:

See you later.

Youtube it! Part 2

Hi again, I just wanted to pop right in and recommend another little clip I found on the web.

This time it is a trailer for a music game that came out some time ago created by Harmonix.

This shows The Beatles going from an underground band to a world sensation. It starts as a 2D animation and goes over to 3D about midway through. How this trailer combine music and animation is just beautiful!
One of my favourite game trailers.
I also love how the animals(?) in the end is animated to the music, they have a lot of weight and the timing is perfect.

See you later.

The stakeout, Lipsync task.

For our second task in this module is a lipsync task. Penny handed us a bunch of different sound clips and I ended up picking a clip that I've heard before in a film. Usually this is a bad pick, but since I knew the origin of the clip I could avoid "copying" the animation of the source.
I pictured a scene where 2 cops out on a stakeout in an alley, and one of them is kind of a preaching tough cop, and the other one is a relaxed layed back cop.

I took the inspiration from The Incredibles by Pixar where Mr.Incredible and Frozone is on the secret stakeout in the back alley. (I am having really trouble finding any clips of this that is available online.)

I also remembered a lot of scenes from old 60s cop series.

Next I will post my reference shot, I will hopefully get my little brother to help out.

See you later.

Youtube it! part 1!

This will be the first post of my new series where I will be recommending short animations from Youtube.com and other places.

The Saga of Bjorn!

Bjorn, an old Viking, is determined to reach Valhalla, the warriors afterlife full of excessive drinking and debauchery. To gain entry he has to die a honourably in battle, but he discovers that the right death isn't so easy.

My comment:
This is by far my favourite animation in the last few years, and the most shocking is that it has been created by final year students at the animation school "The Animation Workshop".
The timing and visual style in this short is amazing, the laughs keeps on coming, even in the more serious parts of it.
The character design really fits everyone of the characters, from the big hulking old Viking to the slim and fast spearman/dragoon.
I only wish the design on the Dwarf was better, he kinda sticks out from the lot of them. But the looks fit the actions of it.
The animation is also really well done, and I do not think I have anything to criticize on it.

The presentation!

Our first task for this module was to create and present a presentation where we analyze a short animation clip of our choice.
I selected a clip from the amazing Disney animation Aladdin (1992), where Aladdin and Abu first meet the Magic Carpet in the Cave of Wonders.

The reason I picked this clip is because I abseloutly love the Magic Carpet character, even with so little to work with Randy Cartwright (wiki) gave this character lots of appeal.
Since the Magic Carpet has no voice it has to express emotion through its movements. Almost like using pantomime.

Here is the clip I used "Aladdin meets Carpet" , the original clip I used in the presentation has been removed due to copyright problems.

And here is my final presentation;

 
 Hope you enjoy reading this, and keep on checking in for further updates.
 

Welcome to Animation Practise 2

Hey, it has been a while since I posted something on this blog. We started Animation Practise 2 right after last module, I was however a little sick and burned out the first 2 weeks and the work has been going slow.

These are the tasks for this module:

- Analyse and presentation of a short animation clip.
- Lip-sync to a short sound clip.
- Lip-sync and acting to a "news anchor" sound clip.
- Singing and dancing animation to a music clip.

I will also write some post about some short animation I have found on internet.
Keep reading for good times.

See you later.

Almost death by piano! Final!

Yes! Here it is, the final submission for the first module.
But lets talk about the last few days of work before showing it.

On Friday everything went smooth and I got a lot of work done, I focused on most of the facial expressions and the hands, in addition to finishing up the run to walk cycle.

Saturday started out great, and I got to work on the stuff right after my character picks up the ball. However, when I rendered a preview and showed it to a friend of mine, we noticed that the steps where waaay to long and the animation was choppy.
I decided to delete all the animation I had done that day, and start over by fixing the storytelling poses in stepped keys. Everything was going great, but after 2 hours I noticed something strange with my rig.
Somehow the foot had been twisted and there was a gap between the foot controller and foot. I had no keys at all that made this happen, I carefully went trough the entire animation 1 frame at the time.
So when I couldn't find the reason behind it, I manually twisted it back and lowered the entire controller to make the animation normal again.

Phew, crisis averted I thought! Not at all, somehow the foot I had problems with would not go out of stepped animation. At that point I almost had a meltdown. I had been sitting at Uni for 10 hours animating and fixing, and I could not get rid of the last problem. I saved one more time and went home to get some sleep.

On Sunday I woke up fresh and ready to tackle the problems and finish the project. Even though I did not fix the problem, I got through it in the end. I sat for over 20 hours, only taking one break to get some food.

Wow, what an eventful weekend this was.
So here it is in all its glory!

Almost death by "piano" WIP 5

Today I continued to work on my breakdowns. It is going slow, but I am happy with the result.
Only a couple of days left before hand in, so I need to work faster! But faster often means less quality.

Here is the work so far:

Enjoy!

Almost death by "piano" WIP 4

Today I have been working on the run and walk of my character.
It is fun to do, but it takes a lot of time. i have never done a run before, and certainly not a run into a walk before either!
I am learning a lot, and I am trying to keep the animation clean and neat without to much stuff messing up.
Under you can see how far I have gotten, and you can probably see where I have not done anything yet.

See you later.

Almost death by "piano" WIP 3

Today I have been working on the bouncing ball, added the piano and fixed his fingers to match each pose.

Here you can see a picture of the piano and a small clip with the bouncing ball.

See you later.

Almost death by "piano" WIP 2

Today I finished the storytelling poses for my blocking phase. I already love how it looks, and cant wait to get this animation done!
Do not mind the weird ball animation at this point, it is basicly only 3 keys to just give me an idea where I wanted it to go.
Tomorrow I will hopefully get the ball and maybe the piano/box done.

See you later!

Almost death by "piano" WIP 1

Over the weekend I have been blocking out my storytelling poses, and created a small environment.
When animating, I always love the blocking part. This is where the animation is at its basics, and by creating good poses you can tell a story.
When moving on from the blocking stage, I always get nervous for some reason. I think it has something to do with the fact that it gets way more complicated at that point.
Nevertheless, a good blocking stage helps a lot when moving on.

Enjoy!
I will be back tomorrow, where I will hopefully have blocked out my main story.

See you later!

Ball with tail final!

Here is my final ball with tail animation, I wish I could do it over again. I am not happy with how it turned out.
I cannot believe how much trouble this animation is giving me.

Enjoy!

Almost death by "piano" Reference

Today the whole class was in the green screen room with Mark Bushbaker and Penny.
We each shot our reference footage and helped out where it was needed, and came with new ideas.

It was a blast, and we got a lot of good laughs doing it.

I am pretty happy with my ref shots, and you may notice that I changed the ending too the "lucky" one.
It seems like a much more fun idea, and I get this classic slapstick feeling about it.

Here you can see the footage, I have also added Frame counter to each of the clips.

Now I am ready to start getting my storytelling poses down on paper and in 3dsmax!

See you later.

The Walk final!

Here is the final version of my walk animation.
I had some doubts about having the breathing pause in the animation, since I felt it kinda broke the fluidity of the walk.
But most of my classmates like it, so I am sticking with it.
This task was a blast to do, I have never done a good walk animation before. And I am quite happy with this one.

Enjoy!

Death by "Piano" storyboard.

As our final ICA in this module, we are tasked with creating a small animation.
This animation has to have a person who is acting together with two of the following things: Bouncing ball, ball with tail, or pendulum.

Often here in Middlesbrough I see kids running in the streets playing football, and thus I got an idea the other day walking home. What if a person runs after a football that went wide, and after he picks it up he gets slammed by a piano or box that was being hauled into a tall building. The box is suspended in air by some straps that acts just like a pendulum when it swings.

I made a quick storyboard showing my idea, and I am going to show them to Penny tomorrow.

Above you can see the storyboard. I also made an alternative ending, where the character is lucky instead.

That is is for now.
See you later.