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.