Finished animation. Final render.

Here it is, my finished animation, complete with all the sound.

I am really pleased with how my first maya animation has turned out, although I would have liked a couple more sound effects when the door closes and maybe some background clinking glasses, but I couldn't find the sounds I wanted online and I did not leave myself enough time to record them myself.

I also would have liked to add some minimal animation to the background characters, unfortunately I ran out of time for this as well.

Overall though I'm really proud of my first 3D animation and I look forward to doing more as I've really enjoyed maya.

Toy Story.

The toy story franchise, with it's four movies, is a very successful chain of movies. One of the reasons for this, in my opinion, is the way that a whole generation of people, my generation, aged with Andy and we watched his toys come to life and his life unfold. 

Because the audience was aging at the same time as the boy in the movies, we all developed a connection with him and his toys and could understand what was going on in his life. Andy is not the main character in Toy Story, but it's this connection between character and audience that has enhanced the love everyone has for the characters of the toys, and has kept the Toy Story franchise so successful. 

When Toy Story first appeared, it was already a success before this connection was made though, as the toys themselves, told and exciting and loveable story that captured the audiences attention with relatively unseen animation techniques, as 3D animation had only just started to appear. The idea that our toys could come to life while we were out was something many children found incredible and the toys really cared about their owner. When Andy finally went off to college, around the same time that myself and other people my age went off to uni, the idea of him donating or giving away his toys resonated within us as many of us have outgrown our toys and passed our favourite toys onto someone else. 

In my opinion, the attention to detail with connecting Andy to an entire generation has set the Toy Story franchise firmly into the hearts of the world, as the audience has watched him age throughout the movies and become very attached to the characters.

Importance of Supporting Characters

Some of the best and most loved characters in animation are the animals that aren't strictly necessary for the plot and the narrative, but add humour and fun to the story and are there to interact with the main characters. 

Tangled is a good example of this. Pascal the chameleon isn't a crucial character, he's there so that Rapunzel has someone to interact with while she's trapped in the tower for the first part of the movie. His character is someone who plays games with Rapunzel and is too scared to venture out of the tower. He is Rapunzels best friend and he does what he can to look out for her. His character doesn't speak it can only squeak and make little sounds when necessary, and he can't do over exaggerated gestures to show what he's feeling as he's a very small character and doesn't have a huge range of movement, so most of his emotion is portrayed in facial expressions. His large eyes help get across the emotion he is feeling well. In my opinion, the best pascal moment in Tangled is when he's staring Flinn Ryder down while balanced on a frying pan and he wakes Flinn Ryder up by sticking his long tongue in his ear. 

These moments early on cement pascal in the minds of the viewers as a funny and loyal character.

Maximus, the horse, is another character who is not crucial to the plot line but adds excitement, humour and compassion to the film and other characters. His interactions with Flinn Ryder and Rapunzel are the main source of comedy throughout the film. Flinn and Maximus really do not get on at the start of the story but as the film continues, the audience can follow the growing friendship between these two characters which adds an extra narrative to the film and adds a bit more depth and excitement. 

His behaviour adds a lot of humour just by itself. Maximus is a character that almost appears to think he is a dog instead of a horse at times and at other times it is like he is a human, and who loves apples. 

He's also a very law abiding horse, as he works with the palace guards, although as he spends more time with Flinn Ryder he becomes more rebellious.

Final crit.

Today the course saw my what I had done so far and I got some feedback on my animation.

It was suggested that as moom is in a tavern, is a pirate and is drinking, to maybe loosen up some of his movements and make him look a bit drunker. 

It was also suggested that I add more sound, which I was intending to do but I had not yet gotten around to it.

All I need to do now is loosen up his movements, and render out my full animation and add sound. 

Using exaggerated gestures to tell a story.

In a lot of cartoons, the story isn't told just with words, but also with exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and The Flintstones are all cartoons that demonstrate this perfectly. It's a well known expression that something can be jaw dropping, and in many cartoons, when a character experiences something jaw dropping, the animator over exaggerates the drop. 

Other classic cartoon expressions are the heart literally popping out of the characters chest when they see an attractive character, over exaggerting the anticipation before a character runs off, and eyes popping out of the characters head because they've seen something unbelievable.

These tricks of the trade that are so commonly used in 2D animation, help to easily translate to the viewer what is happening and what that character is feeling, without needing to use any words or add in excess frames that would help tell the story. All the narrative that the viewer needs to know is clearly portrayed in the one character's movements.

UPDATE: Bar scene lip sync.

I have lip synced my animation! I still need to add in some hand gestures and make him look more alive but the lip syncing is done now. I have left a gap between the last two sections of speech to add in another drinking sequence as the mood between the two lines of speech changes quite drastically.

Limitations of 3D software.

Render Time.

Often, 3D animations, especially feature films can take a really long time to render. Avatar, for example took 2 days to render a single frame because of all the lighting and special effects added in. This is a limitation to working in 3D software because if you spend 2 days rendering out one frame, if a mistake has happened or something isn't right in the rendered frames, it could take weeks or months to correct the mistake and get back to where you started. This particularly affects the animation when working towards a strict deadline. 

Limitations.

A lot of 3D software is very expensive which makes it less easily accessible for people to use who don't animate at a company or place of education. The prices of the software mean that small non-funded or low- budget 3D animations aren't as commonly found as 2D traditional animation as software for that is a lot more accessible. Some 3D software can cost upwards of £3000 which, for a beginner, would be a lot of money to spend on the software to potentially not use again. 

Character and Narrative.

You can tell so much about a character by how he/ she or it walks into a room, doing the same task. This character study for Big Hero 6 shows how much the way a character behaves can tell a story without words. 

Baymax's character clearly looks quite timid and unsure about his surroundings and how he fits within them. He doesn't know his own size and appears to be easily flustered. 

Hiro acts like a typical teenager, always on his phone or using some form of technology, not really paying attention to his surroundings. He clearly looks comfortable in the room he is in, perhaps it's his home?

Tadashi on the other hand looks very much like a guest in his surroundings, he's very polite and careful about everything he does.

Aunt Cass clearly works in this restaurant that is the set. She looks like she works quite hard but when she sits down she curls up on the seat like she's still quite young. She looks comfortable.

The way a character behaves means that you get an impression them or their day just from watching a few seconds of their behaviour. Their walk cycle, the way they sit down, it all tells a specific narrative about that character. 

UPDATE: Improved walk cycle.

I took the advice of Mike and Rosy to smooth out the walk cycle a bit. I also lowered the body of moom so that he was less bouncy and dragging his feet more as his character is supposed to be having a really bad day. I also made him hang his head a bit more. 

I have made him sit down at the bar and get a drink in as well, I think this part moves really smoothly and well and I used his arms to make it look like he was lifting himself onto the stool at the bar.

UPDATE: Walk cycle.

I've created a walk cycle for my moom, however it's too jumpy and unnatural and I can't work out how to fix it..

Rosy suggested exaggerating the hip swing and Mike has suggested looking into the graph editor and evening out spikes and getting rid of flat lines to make it move smoother.

UPDATE: Blocked out movement

I've blocked out the movement that moom will be walking from the door to the bar to work out timings. Next I will do a walk cycle for moom.

Stewie Griffin- Rocketman.

Here is an example of they type of thing we're being asked to do in our brief, in the industry. 

Stewie Griffin is speaking the words of the song with a different tone and emotion than the original song and the character is animated to fit the scene and lyrics.

Using 3D software for stop motion.

Thanks to 3D software, stop motion animation techniques have improved in leaps and bounds. 3D printing has enabled companies like Laika to create interchangeable faces for their characters, making lip syncing a much easier and faster process and it means that its easy to replace them if they break. For each full length film, Laika can produce up to 50000 faces overall. The ability to print whole faces off also means that every face for each character is identical and there wont be any unwanted small differences between frames, leading to a consistent animation.

itv2 Storyboard

Here is a basic storyboard for how I would like my itv2 animation to look. I might change the colours in the final thing but this is the style it will be in and presents the idea for the images of some of the shows. It also gives an idea of what the voice over will be like.

The music will be upbeat but simple, I think this will make it grab peoples attention and hold it. 
I have chosen to leave the itv2 logo out until the very end of the ident to make people wonder what it is about and keep them watching until the end.

Benefits of 3D over 2D animation.

The ability to animate in 3D has had a great impact on the animation world.
3D technology has meant that more realistic animations can happen and it's making it quicker to churn out lengthy animations because you don't need to draw every single frame. Once the characters and the set are modelled, key framing makes 3D animation a quick and effective animation style. 3D animation software also allows for effective camera angles and lighting effects that would be more challenging in 2D traditional animation. 

Computer Generated Imagery is being used a lot more often in modern film. It is used in live action films and fully animated features.

With 2D, everything is drawn out individually, but if an arm goes behind the character, you don't need to draw the arm. However with 3D, you need to be aware of every body part and its positioning even when they are obscured behind the figure. 
2D is obviously drawn on every frame and therefore takes a long time to sketch out, draw and colour each frame and you need to make sure each image is consistent and that the character doesnt change it's appearance between frames. This can be a challenge as tiny differences between frames arent noticeable straight away but become apparent over time while watching the animation through. 3D doesn't have this issue as the character will stay consistent between frames as you are just manipulating a modelled character.

The Croods.

The Croods tells the story of a family of cave people who have to leave their safe cave when an earthquake destroys it and they venture into the unknown. The character design for most of the characters in the film are really well done. They all look like how you would imagine cave people to be. Eep, to me, doesn't look quite right. Her shoulders are a little bit too broad, her legs are a bit too short and her hair doesnt look like it has any weight to it. However, Eep's character is a really important character to the narrative of the film. Without her character, the Croods would have probably stayed in the cave and the story would have ended when the cave collapsed. The story follows her curiosity of new things and becomes encaptured by watching Glug begin to trust her curiosity and become more open minded as the story unfolds. 

Itv2 Peer Feedback

After showing my pitch boards to my peers I got some feedback.

Strengths.

• The colours stand out- attention grabbing. They are also appropriate to the target audience.
• Memorable- The use of imagery helps us remember the programs effectively.
• It's fun. As well as the colour, the association makes is a nicer approach than perhaps more obvious ones.
• Audience has been well considered.
• Contextualisation is exciting. It really works and looks professional.
• Pitch boards are clear and communicate idea well.

Areas for Improvement.

• Start storyboarding. It will give an idea of how it will flow and move.
• Have you considered other compositions?
• Develop imagery more?
• More research into existing idents will help inspire you.

Questions

• Will there be any additional sound or text?
• Will the tone of voice appeal to a wider audience? Does this matter?
• How many programs will be included?
• Will there be more than one ident made?

itv2 Idea Development

I have decided that, to sucessfully portray the fun atmosphere and themes of the itv2 shows, a Pop Art style, similar to the Viral Tap logo, would be an interesting style to use. I have researched into pop art and have decided to create my ident in a style similar to Andy Warhol.

I will create one image that represents each itv2 program in this style and then animate ways to make one image turn into another in a fluid motion.

Scene building.

I designed the scene for my animation as a tavern or old fashioned Pub, and tried to make it as Pirate-y as I could manage, while also keeping it pretty simple..

I created barrels for the chairs and kept the tables, bar and bar stools a simple shame. 

I found most the textures I needed on google images. I think I need to adjust the window to make it a bit higher up, but other than that I'm pretty pleased with how my first scene setting in maya has turned out. I just hope I've made it the right size for Moom, although it won't be too hard to adjust at a later date if it's the wrong size.

Study task 1

This task asked us to choose and evaluate 3 briefs from either YCN or D&AD to help decide which brief to persue for our individual practice project.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/itv2
The first brief I looked at was the itv2 brief on YCN. This brief appealed to me because it was aimed at my generation and I liked the idea of creating something fun and exciting. This brief allows me to explore my interests and provides me with an opportunity to animate and explore some fun ideas.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/interflora
The second brief I considered, interflora, is more challenging for me as it is further outside my comfort zone than most briefs I usually choose. I think for this brief I would choose not to animate, but to improve my drawing skills instead. Although I would perhaps consider creating a series of gifs as that would be something different that the competition might not have seen as much.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2014-15-ycn-student-awards/briefs/propercorn
The third and final brief that caught my eye was the propercorn brief. This appealed to me because, like the itv2 brief, it is aiming for a younger audience, and I like this target audience because I find it easier to create work for and audience around the same age as me. I also chose this brief because the propercorn brand seems exciting and interesting.

Motion Capture.

Motion capture has improved film drastically. Using motion capture, it is possible to track an actors movements and gestures and apply them directly to a 3D model. This makes the characters movements more life-like and realistic. It works particularly well when the character being animated is within a scene or interacting with actors in a live action motion picture, for example, if a character is a mythological creature like a troll or an ogre and the entire character is needed to be created digitally.

It also makes the animation process a lot faster as each position is not having to be key framed by hand individually.

Study Task 4 and 5. What a Dope and Making faces.

Study Task 4: What a Dope required us to make a dope sheet, writing down the face shapes for each sound in each word from a short clip we could choose.

I chose the Airplane clip because I thought it sounded more fun and there was more chance for overexaggerating the lip movements.

I realised about half way down that I had potentially been breaking down each work too much, but I carried on to finish the sheet. I matched each sound with an action of a phoneme from the link on estudio that showed the mouth shape each sound would make. 

Study Task 5 then asked us to take the sounds and actions from the Dope sheet and create the movements on our moom characters to create lip syncing. 

I think, for a first try, my lip syncing worked quite well, however I couldn't quite get his mouth to close properly between words and some words don't look quite right without teeth or a tongue, and I made the choice to hide the teeth because I couldn't quite see the shape of the mouth with the large teeth getting in the way. When I do the lip syncing for the final animation I will be able to spend more time on it so hopefully will be able to make the mouth movements more believable. 

Why Competition Briefs are Important

1) More experience.

2) Get work out into the world.

3) PRIZES. Win all the things.

4) Improve as a professional.

5) Career opportunities.

6)Potential internships.

7) Learn new things.

8) Networking.

9) Know which briefs to take on and how many you can do.

10) Gain confidence.

11) Locating your preferred practice.

12) Learning to cope with workload management.

13) Learning to work to deadlines.

14) Learning to work with clients.

15) Broaden your approaches to work.

itv2 Research

For my YCN itv2 brief, I have done some research into the types of programs that will be available on the new itv2 channel and also into idents from other channels aimed at a similar audience, to get an idea of what the target audience would find appealing. The target audience provided in the YCN brief is too vague and wide, and I have decided to narrow this age range from 16-34, to 16-26 as I feel this is the age range most likely to enjoy the programs offered on itv2. 

I think the target audience would be interested in an ident that uses vibrant colours, however not bright primary colours as these are often aimed at children and babies. I also feel that an animated ident with fluid movements, perhaps with some qwirky weird elements to it, would appeal to 16 to 26 year olds, whilst also successfully representing itv2. 

Colour choices in Character design.

The colour choices made when designing your character have a strong impact on the story that is told, without any words being said. This is perfectly displayed in the characters in The Emperors New Groove.

 Dressing a character in red colours could suggest that your character is dramatic, energetic or brave. Kuzco is a great example of this. He is a very over dramatic character who shows a lot of energy and passion in the movie. He is also determined to get his pool house on the hill, which is another thing that the colour red suggests.

Purple, especially deep purple, is a colour often used with villains in animated movies. The colour purple shows that a character is eccentric, unique and in a position of power. Some of the most successful villains have been represented this way, like yzma. She's a very eccentric and original villain with some creative plans to win the kingdom. 

Kronk is dressed in yellow and a blue-purple, which represent his personality perfectly. Yellow shows that a character is cheerful and excited, while the blue shows that he is calm, peaceful and reliable, while still being associated to yzma with the purple. 

Pacha, on the other hand, is dressed in greens and brown, to show that he is loyal, gentle, reliable, and stable. 

Bob The Builder.

Bob the Builder is one of the best loved children's characters of the last two generations. 

He has recently made the change from a stop motion character, to a 3D computer generated character, and with that has gained a lot more realism, lost a lot of weight and gained a completely different character design. The animators changed the style and animation technique to computer generated animation probably because a lot of tv companies and animators believe that stop motion animation is on the way out, if not already gone, and computer generated animation is going to be huge. CG animation is also a lot quicker to produce on a short time scale. 

Personally I prefer the stop motion design for the character, I feel like it is more authentic and simple and friendly, whereas the more realistic modern version of Bob is a bit too realistic, it's slightly unnerving. I also feel like the CG Bob looks like he's aimed at a slightly younger audience and doesnt appeal to as wide an audience.

Interim Crit

THE CRIT.

Today I presented my project so far, including my idea generation, storyboards, reference and the final idea to get feedback from my peers.

The feedback included suggestions about camera angles... David suggested that I use a shot of just the character's feet walking across the floor for a more dramatic effect. Mat suggested a silhouette of the character walking in against the light from the door, which was similar to my idea, but with a the camera angle being head on instead of slightly diagonal.

I'm considering dressing my Moom in a coat, but Mat suggested this might be a lot of work and so I will be doing this if I have time after designing all the backgrounds.

I mentioned the idea of background pub noises and people talking in the tavern, Anna suggested I include people sat around tables in the tavern to give it more of an atmosphere.. however the room would be really dark so I might not need these- will see how it goes when I've put it all together- If I do include people they would just be extra Moom characters and have little- no movement.

Look up 'Puppeteer' the PS3 game. apparently would be useful for this scene.

TO DO:
Work out what voice I am going to do and record it.
Create the tavern and backgrounds etc.
Lighting tests- work out how to make a dim candle light...flickering?
Re-shoot the reference video with smoother, better movements now that I know what I'm doing.
Make the animatic and refine the storyboard.

itv2 brief

For the individual practice studio brief we were required to choose either a YCN or a D&AD brief and I chose the YCN itv2 brief. 

This brief asked us to create a moving film image up to 90 seconds long that would show their target audience the new look for the channel and persuade more young people to watch the itv2.

I intend to produce a short animated ident that is fun, exciting and uses bright, contrasting colours. It will use ideas and elements from some of the tv shows on itv2 and be in the style of the viral tap logo. I will use images that represent a selection of programs aimed at the intended audience from itv2 and animate them to move smoothly and fluidly from one to another, while being fun and interesting.

The content will focus on fast-paced movement similar to the celebrity juice opening credits style movements, and images to represent individual programs in a pop-art style.

The problems I aim to solve are that not enough young people are watching itv2, because they perhaps don't know that it's been rebranded. Itv2 want viewers of all ages, mostly focussing on the younger generation, but they would want viewers of all ages to boost ratings.

In order to solve these problems I will create a fun and exciting short ident that advertises the channel and draws in the younger generation. I will included elements from a variety of programs in order to advertise the different programs on the channel to a wider audience and create it in a pop art style that is interesting to the intended audience, using bright colours but not childish colours.

Character and Narrative: Pocahontas.

The character design for pocahontas was very important in adding to the narrative of the movie. Her character obviously needed to look Native American, so her jet black hair suits this look. 

Her character has a very strong jaw line which suggests she is a strong character and is independant and potentially stubborn. This represents her character well. She also walks and stands with a strong posture and her chin raised. This shows that she is important and brave. 

All of Pocahontas's features are angular, which give her face a fiercer look which make her seem more intimidating but her facial expressions are soft and peaceful most of the time.

Study Task 3

Study Task 3 required us to take photos of ourselves acting out different emotions and then use those images as reference to model our Moom characters into that postition. We had to pick 5 different emotions and these are the ones I chose.

TIREDNESS.

 BRAVADO.

 EXHAUSTION.

 PAIN.

 TIMID.