May the Farce be with You

Not the most imaginative title...

The above are three potential posters for my piece. The first is a parody of a famous film, I wonder which, and the other two are based on lyrics from The Rogues and Phil Collins ("Voodoo Child" and "Coming in the Air Tonight.")

Preferred final poster choice would probably be the Phil Collins "Coming in the Air Tonight Poster", as it captures the essence of the film more, without using lightsabers!

Bron

Finally... ANIMATIC!!

Well, despite the ever looming feeling that it wasn't going to finish, the animatic was completed, in the nick of time!

Sean and I discussed the animatic the day it was finished. There are still ways of improving it, which shouldn't take long to rectify in Photoshop and After Effects. These changes will, I feel, add more character to the protagonist.

Bron

The Problems of Working Alone

Well, the animatic has become one of those things that takes longer than they first appear to. Having to cut out some poses towards the end to make ends meet.

Have also recruited Jo to help with the making of the animatic. Any poses I draw, Jo cleans up and colours. This has helped immensely so far, and I'm starting to feel more confident that it'll be completed to the standard I hope for.

Bron

Starting the Animatic

I want to begin the animatic making process as soon as possible, as I recall how time consuming it became last year on a 3 minute film. To add to the dynamics of the piece, and to help myself with the timing, I want to add as much of the key poses of the protagonist as possible.

To make the animatic, I will be using screen renders from my drum kit in Maya, and drawing my character over the top, using a Wacom Tablet in Photoshop.

Bron

Joining the Maya Tribe

My experience with Maya has, in the past, been nil. CGI has never interested me before, partly because of the appeal of traditional, and partly the mass of maths involved. I guess I was more intimidated than against it.

The suggestion of a Maya drumkit was the spark though. How much simplier animating would be if I didn't need to worry about all these round things at different perspectives. It made perfect sense.

So Laurie Priest made me a drum kit to my specifications. Better still, he showed me how to use the thing! So I now have a grasp of the basic controllers of Maya! I've written down the instructions though, I don't trust myself to remember them forever.

I can see a Rainbow

Just a brief note on the colours for my character.

My own pet guinea pig, who I referenced for life studies and movement, died not long ago. Although I hadn't based my character on my pet, the character did have similar colours to the real guinea pig I had. So they've stuck. This is in no way a means of dedicating any of my work to my pet, there are far greater things I could dedicate my film to.

As for the drums, red was the best choice for complimenting the colour of the character, as well as being a lively colour to emphasise the gayity of the piece.

Bron

Guinea Pig Walk - Complete and Unadulterated

The walk, finished and coloured. A useful asset for animatic making, me thinks, especially as it comes complete with alpha channel!

Guess the only problem looking at it now is that the back leg pops when the walk is copied and pasted. This can be resolved in the actually animating process.

Give me Head - *titter*

Seedy titles aside, above is the improved guinea pig walk, using the Cat 9 formula. I will clean and colour it to see how the final product could look.

Head Banging

OK, so not quite as planned. The body and feet work nicely, but the head... not quite minimal enough... Will try again.

Theories on a Train

Guinea pig walks...

I studied some videos of guinea pig walks, and this is what I discovered:

A step takes 8/9 frames, which is roughly 3 seconds per step. Contrary to most other animals, there seems to be a "feline rhythm" (left, left, right, right, as opposed to left, right, left, right.) Hind quarters follow a different rhythm to the front (hind step takes 8 frames, front takes 9.)

Head movement is minimal, but like standard quad walks favours the lifting front side. The up position is very subtle.

The spine of the guinea pig is difficult to see, due to the amount of hair on the body. From what can be seen and gathered, the spine would compress when front and back legs are both in up position and would stretch when front goes down (as the hind quarters are weightier and would drag the body back.)

I will test this walk based on these observations and theories. Get me! I sound like I know what I'm talking about!

StoryBoards

Above are the storyboards for my film, which are still subject to change.

First Steps

A really, really basic test for the guinea pig walk. I've dubbed this the Standard Quad walk, which does what it says on the tin. To get a clearer view of the walk, I copied and pasted the movement, which is why a strip of black appears on the screen.

Part of the problem with this walk was that it was a standard quadraped walk, designed more for bigger animals. Rodents wouldn't move so slowly. Plus there'd be more stretching and compressing of the spine.

Regardless, I like quadrapeds!

Draft Animatic

Can't say I'm not a woman of my word! As promised, the draft animatic using the thumbnails.

Here come the Drums

It was when I was producing these small pieces of drum concept that I came to a very definite conclusion; I don't like drawing circles. It's a blessing that the drum kit will be in Maya, so I don't need to fret about drawing these circular backgrounds...

Bron

Thumbnails

First thumbnails for film. I plan on making a draft animatic from these to get an idea of length.

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Early Script

Nat used some of her group hours by writing my script up for me:





The above script is the first script for my film, which will no doubt change over the course of the year.

Bron

Scribbles

Initial character designs and drafts for the guinea pig.

Seen here are various trials for designs, including less conventional guinea pigs, initial thumbnails and poses.

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Idea Parts 3 - 5.5

Since the pitch, something has become clear. My fellow traditional animation students do not want to do a fun piece. They want to stick with metaphorical work. Fair enough, but this does mean I'm going it alone.

This does mean I've had to rethink my ideas, and take away one character.

I bounced some ideas off a wall, and came up with the scraggly moggy from the second idea, dancing to a music box. But it just wasn't what I wanted.

Then something happened involving a platypus in a one man band, albeit briefly...

*Then* I was hit with a guinea pig, square in the face. And it hurt, as it would do if you were hit in the face with a guinea pig.

The Pitch: A guinea pig finds a human-sized drum kit and starts to play. But he can't reach the much desired crash cymbal. So he devises a chain reaction using snare drums and the bass pedal. The guinea pig bounces off the pedal, flies through the air, but is just short of the cymbal. Instead, he lands among the drums, causing the entire kit to collapse on top of him. When he emerges from the rubble, he spots the cymbal in reach, and is able to hit it with his paw.

But why should this cymbal make a crashing sound? That would simply be... nice... Instead, when the guinea pig hits the cymbal, it makes a disappointing squark.

Visually, I'm going to mix 2D with CG, and I'm going to digitally edit the piece. The drum kit's going to be CG, possibly 2D planes in Maya or make it in After Effects, and the editting is mostly to colour the character and give it a real finished look.

I feel good about this piece, and I can't wait to try Maya. I'd love to be able to play around with a bit more CG stuff. Or get to know After Effects a bit better. Either way, it's going to be a good year!

Initial Concept Work

Some images from the first ideas with the platypus, the scraggly cat and the guinea pig.

Post Pitch

The pitch to the rest of the group went well. Got plenty to think about though, with some questions to think about:

CAN IT BE DONE?: Yes - there's only two characters, and neither need to be complicated. Their setting isn't complex, so there is little issue regarding backgrounds.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?: 28 weeks is plenty of time to complete the piece.

HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL IT REQUIRE?:

** CHARACTER ANIMATORS - approx. 1/2 people per character

** MUSCIAN - someone to write the music is essential, as it's the basis of the whole piece

OTHER REQUIREMENTS?:

** one background, quite plain

** colour to be done digitally

I have also reconsidered the idea, to try and better the first. The following is the result of reversing the roles, in other words, putting the guinea pig in the busking position:

A guinea pig is busking in the street, when he's overshadowed by a mean looking moggy. The guinea pig plays, but the cat doesn't react, still looking incredibly mean. The guinea pig makes to leave but the cat stops him. The cat raised a long, pointed object.

But when the object is brought into the light, it reveals... a kazoo. The cat jams with the guinea pig.

Possibility for an ending is that the guinea pig turns round and says "Y'know, for a moment there, I thought you were going to eat me." The cat says "Oh." And eats him anyway.

More ideas will hopefully follow.

First Idea

Welcome to my first post, and my first idea.

The kind of animation I want to produce this year is something fun, in the style of Tex Avery or Dick Williams. I didn't want to spend my final year animating something so serious and dry that I'd not enjoy it.

So here's my first idea:

A larger-than-life, Barry White-esque Platypus is busking. A small, eager Guinea Pig enters, wanting to join in. He whips out a Kazoo and starts to play. The platypus gets more and more annoyed until he throws the Kazoo away. Guinea Pig is devastated, and Platypus feels guilty. So Platypus gives the guinea pig a comb and paper, and lets him join in.