Maxon Body Paint

Yeahh today we got introduce to Maxon Body Paint 3D. We uploaded our models and got to play about with the interface. Most of the tools were similar to photoshop, and easy to use. Just seems weird trying to paint in 3 dimensional shapes. Looks awkward but not a bit time an practice could sort out.

Animating in Cinema 4d

Since I was animating a movement for every 5 frames I needed to make sure that the movement would ease in and out neutrally. By this I mean I didn’t not want one leg move faster than they other while walking. Or one hand moves faster than they other so I came up with a solution. I noticed every time I moved a foot or hand a small counter came up notifying how far I had moved the controller. (Image). So I kept note of each frame number and how far I would move it until the next pose. Here is the table I would write out calculating the distance of each movement for the hand.

So the table and diagram basically represent the movement of the hands and the distance travelled between each 5 frames. If you look you can tell by the diagram the gaps between the movements up and down they ease out to less distances. This will cause a smother movement from going one direction to another. It works in the same principle of a object slowing down like the black box diagram. It is the onion skinning of a box that falls. Notice the gaps between the rectangles get smaller as it comes to a stop. This is an easy method when your calculations are consistant and correct.







To create the loop walk I must now duplicate the timeline for the amount of times I would like the cycle to play through. I opened up the timeline window and highlight the frames. I then Ctrl and dragged out the frames copying them placing them 5 frames after the last one. I had done this a couple times.



Right now I have my frames I need to move my character in sync with steps so I can make him walk across screen. I could make him loop and use cameras but I believe this way can cause sliding and its unattractive animating in my eyes. So my idea was to key frame the character movement every 5 frames. These will be making sure during every step the foot stays in the same positions and doesn’t slide. Here you can see the path were I have key framed the final movments.

Designing a 3d Model.

So we have just been giving a brief demonstration on how to model features of the human body. Basically starting from a cube to finally finishing with your completed model. Obviously not as simple .. For example starting from the cube and working upwards first would be the foot. Using the extrude tool i would extrude out the cube creating additional cubes for toes. Or eve if your character has shoes. When extruding u can change direction shape size of the extruded objects creating your features, While working make sure i had a hyper nurb on to show the rounded finish :).

Added hyper nurb

Yeahh its not fantastic but you get the idea :)

Targets

Targets for this week and next

• Start my 3d model
• Rig my 3d model
• animate walk cycle

This could be a daunting task but i am confident i can keep to my schedule.

Finishing the Composite

With my animation complete all i needed to do was combine the tentacle footage and the animated barrel footage. To do this i will use Final Cut Pro. I started of by dropping both the video files into the timeline. I added a a multiply layer too the tentacle video which deleted all the white and sat the tentacle on top to synchronize with the barrel footage.




I then started adding filter effects. Like An earthquake, this would build up some tension and camera shaking within the animation. I also added a color tint to add a sepia atmosphere to the animation. Also adding a color key to the e4 logo to gain transparency. Adding noise effects and slight camera movement to give it a bit more realistic look.This hides the composition ;). After key framing the effects i was finished.

Creating My Stinger

The first step to create my stinger was to shoot footage for my animation. I went down to the River Tyne in Newcastle to find some spots. I shot over 10 minutes of footage until i was happy with my 10 seconds.



Creating the composite.

Ok so i need a barrel for the tentacle to grab :) Using the tube shapes in cinema 4D i created one, adding torus shapes for small rims around the barrel giving it a bit more of an accurate look. Then Selecting some polygons and editing they position to create dents in the barrel making it a bit more realistic. then adding in a texture to finish it off.





The next stage was to make this composite convincing, i added a composite tag to the barrels to receive shadows. I then duplicated the barrels and sat them on a plane in 3d Space.




Then importing the real footage onto a plane as a background and putting in a sky i hit a problem. I wanted the barrels to sit on top the jetty. So i needed to create a layer in front of the jetty for the barrels to sit behind. Using photopshop i cut the part away from where the barrels would be situated. Imported it as a material onto a plane using alpha channel. Bosh. :D



Animating The Composite

To animate the barrel was fairly simple, all was needed it to key frame movement from the barrel leaving the jetty landing into the water. Using my animating skills and simple knowledge of physics i calculated the movements and positioning of the barrel to make it look as realistic as possible.



I hit a problem. When animating the barrel it hits the water but nothing looked to convincing as nothing covered the barrel. I added in a plane which would act as the water. Adding a composite tag to it so it will reflect shadows just as water would do :) After a few render tests and key frame editing i was happy with the final outcome!





After exporting my final bit of animation I then imported the 10 seconds into flash. As i am going to use Flash to rotoscope my tentacle onto the footage.

I started to animate my tentacle. The first step was to just get the movement nice and smooth. After the animation of the tentacle was done the next step was to create a liquid like tentacle. I added a lot of liquid effects and splashes. Using the real footage as a background i knew were bits of splashes would land onto the jetty. I then cut out parts of the tentacle were the foreground footage would be creating the final tentacle.



The next step is to combine the two final bit of footage's together. This will be on my next update.

Targets

My targets for this week.

• Animate Purple tentacle
• composite both real footage and animated footage
• add in effects in Final cut
• Add sound for completion

E4 Stinger Project / Test Animation

Here are a couple of tests I've been creating. These mainly are just to get a rough idea how the tentacle could look in my animation and react.



This was a test to see how the tentacle could look using real footage. The test is basic and fluent. But believe an organic liquid tentacle may look better.



ANother test was a thinner tentacle, and ways it could interact with objects. Also doing some animated splashes to give some dynamics to the tentacle.

E4 Stinger Project

Getting to create our own E4 stingers was a project i was looking forward to most. After the introduction to our E4 stinger project we were asked to write up our proposal and treatment which explain the client what ideas i have come up with and what inspired me:




War Of The Worlds

The movie features an alien menacing creatures that invade earth. The machines move very slowly but have organic like tentacle legs and arms. Though the machine can move very slowly the tentacles can move a great distance at great speed. I will refer to this movie when creating test animation for tentacles and maybe do some rotoscope work.

Spiderman – Venom

Having my tentacles I did not want to create something simple and plain. I came up with an idea and way of using liquids. I suddenly came up with the idea of using heavy oil like liquid, which drips from the tentacle. Similar to the style in which the character Venom was made, in the movie Spiderman. I believe this would give off some great visuals and give a bit more depth to my animation by splashing the liquids about.

Cloverfield

With the two main elements of my animation thought up I began to think of a style in which the animation could be viewed, this making the animation more convincing to the audience. I thought about the movie Cloverfield, and the ways the filmmakers have used the camera. The method they have used is "Shaky Camera" style. The movie being recorded by a hand held video camera. Being shot by one of the characters in the movie. Within the movie and action the camera style remains the same. It is a cinematographic technique where stable image techniques are dispensed with on purpose. The camera is handheld, or given the appearance of being handheld, and shots are limited to what one photographer could have accomplished with one camera. Shaky cam gives a film sequence an ad-hoc, electronic news-gathering, or documentary film feel. It suggests unprepared, unrehearsed filming of reality, and can provide a sense of dynamics, immersion, instability or nervousness. This exactly being how I would like the audience to feel and react. Using simple camera tracking or even in a heavy style more like the “Shaky Camera” I can give a close convincing feel to my animation.

The aim of this project is to produce a stinger for the channel E4. By combining real footage with animation I will produce something realistic that will shock and excite the viewer.

The main concept of my story is to have a video camera to film the scenery at the River Tyne. When filming they focus onto a an oil slick in the water after a few bubbles large tentacles will burst out of the water waving about, one tentacle will launch something towards the camera. The camera will fall into a distorted screen flashing up onto the E4 Logo.

Inspired by the Wayne horse rotoscoping work and the camera tracking in the movie Cloverfield adding these together to produce an accurate outcome. By using real footage and using the rotoscoping technique, composite 3d animation and camera tracking. Then adding in effects to finish of the animation.


Making It Happen

A time plan will be an essential part of my production, this making sure my pre and postproductions tasks and deadlines are met. To ensure this I have created a timetable to keep me on track.

Budget

The budget for my animation will be low. Programs and software are all available free of use and equipment rental free of charge. Many benefits will be gained from this project, having E4 showcasing my work to a wide audience. Exhibiting my work it could be entered into festivals benefiting E4 and me. With the project being very popular it is a great opportunity to produce something inspirational as the brief guidelines are not as strict and are flexible. A range of E4 stingers have been created, which all range in different media and themes but all resulting in raising awareness for E4 and the animator.

Referring to the theme of this animation will be applicable to the audience. Everybody has watched movies and has seen CGI at one point in there life even if they did not realize. Also most people have shot they own video footage from video cameras to mobile phones. Everyone knows capturing something no matter how spectacular, funny, shocking or crazy it is like a memory. My animation should appeal to the audience and give of the feeling as this has been captured in everyday life.

Marketing

The main marketing for my animation will be the Internet. Many art and animation based websites can be used for showcase. Other than that I believe E4 will be to produce any extra marketing or merchandise if my animation was successful. With no limits and room for flexibility my animation will fit nicely into these themes as long as it’s not unpleasant or contain any explicit content and is 10 seconds long containing the E4 Logo.


After writing my treatment i decided to do my research and came across some interesting idents :)

A series of idents which caught my eye were a series of idents by Umeric, initially created for the re-branding of MTV in Australia and now in Europe. These seem to be based around the themes of "Aggressive", "Calm", "Lively" and "Organic" Using 3D modeling in Cinema 4D with a fresh and innovative look.

I am now going to begin some test animation to see which tentacle is going to work the best for me. This will be my next update.

Targets

Target for this week

• Complete research
• Presentation
• Shoot footage
• Begin test animation

Targets

Targets for this week

• Begin 3d modeling
• Test out new techniques
• finalize storyboards
• Create final render of room

AD102

Ad102 was my very first introduction to Cinema4D, and did not want to waste any time in getting stuck in :). Time management was vital so keeping track on what i had to do. And that was to finalise my story boards.

I then began to explore Cinema 4d. Getting to grips with the basic use of shapes creating objects.





These just being some of the stuff i made. While creating these i decided to create the room for my animation. Using the internet as a good learning source. I learned how to combine Adobe illustrator with Cinema 4D. Using illustrator to create complex shapes and using the save option to create more advanced shapes in Cinema 4D.





Through the process of learning new modelling tips and techniques i tried out texturing. This was pretty simple, was basically a case of loading up a custom or default texture and dragging and dropping onto surfaces.



Final Look



With the knowledge of very basic modelling and texturing i decided to attempt to do my animation in Cinema 4D and continued to model a 3d room environment for my animation to take place in. Using these methods i continued to model and add to my room over time.





Finished Room



That week was very beneficial as i learned allot of new skills and techniques for cinema 4D, both from the lecture and internet.

With my room finished I finalised my story boards again as i had time just to give them a 3d more feel.





By this point i was commutable with time, and decided to start on my animatic. By looking at my storyboard i had worked out mathematically how long each scene would last. Click the link to see the animatic - http://swfbox.org/view/exg0um

Next step was the assets to animate our 2d characters on cinema 4d. We were showed a simple way how to prepare and animate our characters. We were taught to create alpha channels of our characters in a png, this way we could inverse the alph channel to create transparency round our 3d characters. For Example:



and



The black would be reversed and would cut round the colour picture in cinema 4d when placed onto a plane. We repeated the process for Every frame of movement ! Yes VERY time consuming.

Rotoscope Final Animation

Really happy with the outcome of the animation. I thought

i included allot of what i researched. The way the rotoscoped

characters moved in the run and walk cycles. Also the simple

expressions from my characters, though i do think they could

have been more time spent on expressions and actions. And

the liquid of the water and blood i thought i potrayed really well.

It was not rotoscoped but watching Grant Orchads paintball

animation inspired me alot. Only thing that i didnt like was the story.

Next time i will think more of a script and different options

available to make things work easier and more time consuming

incase i run into any problems. I organised my time really well from

day one to finish.

Rotoscope part 2

The next initial step of my project was design storyboards. After doing this i started to practice some rotoscope techniques to create movie clips for my animation which will act as props for my final animation.

Here are a few.

Male Walk

Male Run

Male Grr

Bomb Prop

Most of the cycles were kind of based of Preston Blairs work.

My next step was to start my animation. I decided to use Adobe Flash. as i am familiar with the programme and confident in producing an accurate outcome. A few things inspired me for my characters and style.

Characters - Cynadise and Happines



Liquid - Grant Orchad

Rotoscope project

The first project in my FDA animation course was based around rotoscope work. Basically being introduced to and a little bit of history of the subject. Research was around first forms of animation with likes of the zoetrope. I took to the project straight away and to tried my best to make a first impression, to show of my knowledge and skill of animation. In the first week or so i concentrated on my research, this led me to allot of loops and walk cycles which i decided to give a go. I done this by taking photo stills of poses i believed would make up a walk cycle or loop using the rotoscope method. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it involves taking live action footage, say, of two people dancing, and basically tracing the figures frame by frame, so as to create a more true-to-life illusion of movement. It's a technique that Disney has used for decades, but the purpose has usually been to enhance the quality of the animated sequence, not to replace more traditional methods. Sometimes, the frames are reduced from 24 frames per second of live action footage to to 20 frames of animated footage, to alleviate the labor intensity while maintaining the smooth lifelike qualities.

Frames

I would then use the rotoscope technique to get a rough idea of the walkcycle

Inbeetween

After that i would fit in extra keyframes calculating the movement and physics to smooth out a walk cycle.

Finished Walk

I believe this is an accurate process for beginners to animation, or it can be used to produce some extremely accurate. Using this same process but with a video camera can produce some accurate outcomes. Like this animation by. Max Fleischer



Overall i believe my progress up to this point has been consistently good. Though i believe i am familiar with these process which have done in the past. This gives me a positive attitude to start my final piece.

Character Design Work.

I decided to do some character design to see if i could create my own basic character or even comics. Inspired by Cyanide And Happiness



The sketch's i started to do were all based round a simple stick figure, too see how much emotion, movement and facial expressions can express such a simple character. Ill show a few examples:





Heres the Album -

These characters in general were inspiration for my first Degree project.

Targets

Targets for this week and next

• Character design research
• Character design
• practice and test animated movie clips and walk cycles
• start and finish animation