Dance Scene 20: Blocking

From the dance project scene 20

This is final scene that I need to finish blocking out properly and then it's back to my personal work for pepmin. Unfortunately I have been unable to be as quick with my work due to personal matters but life is getting back on track so hopefully I will catch up and do well. 

so weak....

This is the first block for the scene where Donna the larger woman hip bashes the woman in possession of the main man. This is a scene that needs to be full of stretch and pulls to get the motion and energy given off by the characters. I do think this will be an enjoyable one because its quick with simple moves and there is fun conflict.

improved block

Since I'm away from my student house the internet in my original home is terrible and so it takes  good while to upload a video to YouTube to put on here, so hopefully I can fix that and make more posts sooner to show my progression. 

Inspiration: Prince of egypt

For years in my life I have always been drawn to moving imagery and would never leave a film por cartoon till the very end. I was attached to a lot of characters in my time because they were unlike us, as people we are the norm visually whilst animated character are new unique and inspiring to the eye. 

Drawing characters through my time nothing has inspired me more than the characters/landscape and stories by the companies I wish to work for. 

Dreamworks was and still inspiring to the eye. the various style in their work since the 90's to even their new releases are just fantastic.

My first creation by them that got me hooked their works as a child was the prince of Egypt. As a religious based film it was surprising that I would find it interesting, The route this film took although taken from the bible was one for adults and children.

I remember this film almost frightened st some points because the lengths they went to show the realness of the events such as how the soldiers come to rid of the first born in the slave huts. Besides the lion king with falling of mufasa this brought emotions and chills to me especially the departing of the mother moses from him to be sent away by gods hands.

The animation was unique for its time. instead of being looney tooney like I was use to as a child it showed a more realistic aproach bringing the story more then humor however there always has to be humour in an old tale such as this.

The music and animation put together some of the best pieces I have seen to this day,

deliver us

Looking through heavens eyes

PLaying with the big boys

All I ever wanted reprise- The plagues

Putting these links up is enough to explain then using words for each image

If whoever is reading this has not watched this film then please do so as soon as possible for this is a treasure among animated productions that doesn't get enough credit.

and If you are a person from Dreamworks reading this then you should be proud of this production as to the start to many of your amazing animated productions I hope you make many more.

There will be posts of many more inspirations from this and many more animation companies

PEPMIN THE ELEPHANT: Lets get RIGGING

Right so previously I was in the starting point of texturing. However I thought it would be better and safer time wise to start now and worry about making him pretty later on. so here is the joint layout of him so far.

Just need to get the naming down and sort all the fidgety parts of the rig and freezing parts so that nothing is effected later on when so many hours have been done to it.

Next step is to get the tail and trunk hard rigged but in a way to get a nice 'curl' and 'sway' to both body parts.

it's been a while since I rigged but the memories are flooding back and I think this character is going to do well being animated for his shot on the big screen.

SPECIAL TALK: Business of Masterclass

During our business studies we were introduced to 3 people, each with amazing and well lived backgrounds towards the business world.

our main topic was about your IP about the usual of whats your rights towards something that you own and how to make sure you keep your creative idea without another taking it from you using your weapon of ownership.

There was plenty of discussion with the certain key points about how to start and run a business and how to run a business smoothly whilst sharing ownership of an IP with another. Going deeper into collaborations there was also the case of backup plans incase another partner takes full credit so using  good ideas to keep your own is the basics of always signing your work and perhaps putting it in a safe place or get a lawyer to keep it for a fee.

These points interested me a lot in the guest talk. At some point in my future, I would like to do some collaborations in my spare time with others whilst being in the industry so that I can improve on my own skills and have creative freedom.

After that talk we moved on to Helen Howles from HO HO entertainment who helps with the marketing and merchandise to big up the very popular brands and helps within production. She helped on a series of children s programs and programs for S4C. I was very interested in knowing the ins and outs Helen had to go through for other brands even from outside Europe such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and 4Kids. She even helped towards the video game industry such as 'Little Big Planet'

Listening to this overall talk I was pretty excited about starting a business or even an animation series for a number of reasons and now more positive reasons are added to the list of reasons to start. I do like the idea of working in a company but I also love the thought of starting something that no-one else has done yet and hopefully in the future things happen.

THE CAT CHASE ANIMATION PROGRESS 2: polishing the works

The semi-final update to 'The Cat Chase' project. Theres been a lot of fixing errors with the mesh of the cat since the poly is short numbered. But all in all it's pulled through and the characters are doing just fine.

Heres the Semi-Finals to the animation, just need the final feed back from my director and fingers crossed it's all ok.

Cat Animation: Run cycle

This is the cat animation, I have added facial movements to the cat so it has a similar animation style  such as the toon squash and stretch but since the cats face is much closer I too more attention to the movement in the cats face. Thanks to our helpful rigger and big supporter he was able to rig  the front paws and enlarge them so a nicer perspective can be noticed in the camera angle.

Policeman Animation: Run Cycle

Heres the policeman's animation. His character was a challenge to begin with but now I think he is one of my favorites so far. I love the squash and stretch and the hat really works well with character bouncing up and down. My only concern mainly was him holding the baton, it seems to be rigid and wiggle in the air.

Cat climbing the building scene

This scene has been through the works with changing the timing positioning and other option to make the cat seem more frantic. I have even given myself the task of adding the smaller things to make the animation more pleasant to look at for when I capture this at a closer distance in my own time.

THE CAT CHASE ANIMATION PROGRESS: chase and climb

For this week I have mainly been focusing on the cat chase project animations. So far so good the run cycles just need a little polish and The building scene is in first official blocking and thumbs up from the director to proceed the completion of this. I believe that this project will be complete by next week and then I can continue the other two projects Pepmin the elephant and The dance animations.

So heres the almost complete version of the run cycles.

The aim for these animations were to be as tooney as possible, full of stretching, squishing and bouncing. I think a little more side-to-side squishing on the hips will really make this character seem fleshier. But that will be taken care with the final steps of completion

The cat so far in my eyes needs to features to move with it but apart from that I'm really happy with the results. It has been since 1st year of my uni life that I dealt with quad ped creature animations, so im glad that I indeed improved in my skills. 

The building scene had a few improvements for it to be a green light to continue to spline or further poses. The time was the main issue. The director has an idea of it being very fast paced and so I had to keep compressing keys until it was perfect. 

block1

block1 timing

 still too slow 

remove camera and check

I playblasted this without the camera animation as the cam was too quick rising. so i kept getting the cat to go faster but still it needed more as feedback from my director.

Final animatic blocking 1

so this is the correct timing. Just needs to have the tail animated as well as the features 

This animation will be the most complex-ed for this overall project. But I like a challenge and so far I have enjoyed every step of it. 

Special Talk with Michael Cawood

In university today was a special talk with Michael Cawood about his personal career and journey from where he is today.

We first before skyping the special guest from Los Angeles we had a look at his website with all his creations from advertisement to gaming and films.

Asking him questions to do with the correct career steps hes taken, wages and keeping relationships balanced. It gave me more of an insight to what I should prepare for in the future, meaning perhaps I need to prepare what I should do or sacrifice in order to achieve my dream career.

It's exciting to know that my job involves travelling to find the jobs I need but that also means travelling light. That sounds a little difficult to do being a person that enjoys the little things like little trinkets and many books.

I loved this talk and it really educated me on what not to do as a beginner in the industry business and how to sell myself as a Generalist for the better. Michael Cawood himself was a friendly character that seemed to have gained a lot of wisdom in such a short time and I wish him luck for the future to come.


Here is a link to his website where you can see all his creations. Some amazing projects he has put effort into. Please check it out.

http://michaelcawood.com/