Planning the 2011 showcase... log 2

Just a small update;

Meeting today went quite well, had a chat about various aspects within the showreel. (deadlines, roles etc) There is still a lot of things to think about, but the powerpoint is now finished, and we have more than enough to talk about on wednesday to the class.

Project Log Continued

So.. after having some time to recharge the cells in my brain.. :D here is my log for the coming week:

29/01/2011: Write up sheet for the class to fill in and to take to meeting on monday for the planning of degree show

30/01/2011:Continue gathering references for the dissertation/ Continue with Case study work (formats)

31/01/2011: Meeting with showreel group/build our presentation

01/02/2011: Continue modelling environments/ gather more references

02/02/2011: Planning the end of year show case/ group presentation/Continue modelling environments

03/02/2011: Finish research for case study's(formats)

04/02/2011: Meeting with John/finish environment modelling

This will be the point where I focus most of my time on the facial heads of the characters, and get the characters prepared to annimate as soon as possible, at the moment I'm still aiming for the middle of february, but will wait and see what happens. At the moment I am awaiting feedback from Robin on my first case study talking about Pixar's UP.

I've nearly got the structure of the sections that will be included within the dissertation sorted, with a rough guide of how many words will be in each, I will post this soon.

Planning the 2011 showcase... log 1

I have decided to join the showreel group, as I feel I will be of more use on the technical side of things. We had a chat today, and introduced ourselfs to the rest of the class. We have arranged a meeting for monday afternoon (time tbc) so we can put together our powerpoint presentation.

Things to think about:

Work out showreel formats(aspect ratios)
Discuss how we will collect the work
Discuss when the deadline to collect work will have to be
Discuss where the drop off point will be
Start to think about the showreel style (discuss this with the organising comitee, and the graphics group.)
Have a look at previous degree show showreels


I think it will be good to type up a sheet for the class to fill in and send it back in over the next few weeks. I will get to work typing this out over the weekend.

Meeting with Robin

Agreed action points over the next few weeks:

Facial Models

Rigging (have a chat with Lynn)

Build Pre - vis Sets (Kept Simple)

Finish draft of Case Study(s)

Source Bullying Literature - Key Author: Ana Paiva

After much deliberation, I have decided to cut down the animation to focus on Jaime (old man) and have key flash back shots through the stages of his life. This means I can also focus on reaction facial shots. Will show my revised animatic to John at our next meeting (4th Feb)

I also have a lot more depth of research in some areas that were lacking for the dissertation.

The hands of time/ Screenshots Of Bully Bodies

While taking a break from gathering research, I decided to follow a tutorial which was really "handy" :D I am very happy with it. I will use these for all characters, just making them smaller for the child..





Bully: Child: Final Body:



Bully: Man: Final Body:



Bully: Old Man: Body

Short Film - Anti Bullying Campaign

This film won a Bafta, and was put on Nikelodeon as part of anti - Bullying awareness week. I think the style and narrative is very interesting... almost has the eleament of documentary.

See Something Say Something from Bold Creative Showreel on Vimeo.

Ark Animation

I thought this was very interesting, and has a lot of nice facial shots.... I'm only considering the timing and shots...

Anti Bullying Campaign

Considering the different styles, the narration, and shots of facial animation. What techniques could I use to make my animation have more of an impact...

Updated Log

Here is the schedule for this coming week:

22/01/2011: collate and gather my references of research for the dissertation
/register with more online forums to start disscusion of my project research.

23/01/2011: Play around with maya, Follow tutorials relevent to my project

24/01/2011: Continue to Model Character's.

25/01/2011: Meeting With Robin/Look at scenes from animation, games, and advertisement.. consider the narrative and the emotion while looking at the story beats, and establishment of the scene

26/01/2011: Continue group work in preperation for the degree show/Continue to model character bodeies.

27/01/2011: Continue to gather reference for the dissertation/ aim to write the abstract and (or) introduction of the dissertation.

28/01/2011: Look at the animatic I have and try to shorten each scene down to 15 secs per scene/re - storyboard ideas... take notes

30/01/2011: Finish off case study work/Produce animatic of chosen format research(as mentioned in learning contract)

Meeting with John

The meeting today with John was really helpful. He had a look at my animatic, and thinks there is a lot of stuff that could be used. We have looked at each scene, and the different shots, and named each scene. The only concern is that the animation length is long, and could be shortened down. we need do it in a way that keeps the audience interested, and makes the same impact in terms of the character emotion, and the advertisement message. We have our next meeting in two weeks time, and for then John wants me to look at the the scenes I have and shorten them down to roughly 15 secs per scene, and revise the storyboards I have, also thinking about the end scene, and how the impact could be made slightly differently. The main sections I have are:

Jaime's Aspirations
Jaime's encounter with the bully/fast cuts/dramatic piano music
"The Change" - Ageing - Look at age morphing
The Message - How will it come across?

I have to look at how characters are established

Look at examples of character shots with time passing

Try and think of different ways this could be done.

Look at shocking scenes, and look at how they are cut.

I'm going to try and aim to get all this done for our next meeting...

I will look at some of these things today... and re schedule my log to give myself time to do this... This research will also help with my dissertation, and maybe now would be the time to gather all my reference material, and gather more stuff that will help me to actually get started on the dissertation, I will schedule all of next week to do this. It also means I will feel more confident talking about the project, in terms of the theory and the practical side combined.

Project Update

Even though my I want my animation to focus on facial animation, The character will still need to have a body, or the animation won't have the smae impact as a narrative, so here are screenshots of the body for Jaime as a child, and The Bully as an adult. Robin suggested that I try and duplicate things and edit them to cut down the work, but what I'm findiing is that it's more work to edit the body, than making another one, just with slightly different shape. I feel I'm starting to make some real progress now, and will have a good bulk of the modeling out the way if I model the bodies I will need and the environments as soon as possible. I have already started locating the rigs I will need, but the heads will take the longest, at least this way, there will be more time to focus on them.

Since I am making so much progress, I have decided to finish off the case study work next monday(24th) and continue modeling the bodies, and environments today and tomorrow.

These are not finished, but gives you an idea of where I heading.

Jaime: Child:






Bully: Adult:

updated log/ Bar Environment Screenshots

Now that the learning contract has been updated, I can focus more on the practical work. Here is my updated log:

17/01/2011: Gather references for character rig resources/Continue 3D work

18/01/2011: Continue to colloate research for the dissertation

19/01/2011: Continue Modelling environments

20/01/2011: Start producing Case studies on multimedia formats (as mentioned in my learning contract) for dissertation.

21/01/2011: Meeting with John(technical supervisor)Continue Case studies

22/01/2011: Start animatic that will show how the bigger vision of idea would work in my chosen format from the case study work.

Screenshots of Bar environment:

Screenshots: Facial Trials

First Experiment



Here is my first attempt at following Stop Staring process, while trying to maintain my own idea:

Updated Log

Over the weekend, I have continued looking at tutorials on modeling, to keep myself up to date with the basics, and looking at tutorials that will help with facial expression. Yesterday I made a start with modeling one of the environments; the bar. I think it will help to get the environments finished as soon as possible, so I can focus on the characters. Today I have been working on a tutorial from the Stop Staring book, just to see how I find following it. Screenshots to follow.

The plan for this weeks is:

17/01/2011: Continue to work on 3D facial trials/ look at character Rigging resources; Evaluate and determine what will be the best rig to use for the characters.

18/01/2011: Work on updating my learning contract

19/01/2011: Continue work on learning Contract/continue 3D trials

20/01/2011: Finish work on learning contract

21/01/2011: Continue work on modeling environments

Refined Storyboards

These are my final storyboards. Now that everything has been submitted for todays deadline, I can get to work on finishing the learning contract, and modeling the characters. Updated log to be posted soon.

Animatic with Sound

I have now finished the animatic, and added in the sound and narration as a trial. I spent a while trying to get the best timing for the images and sound, there are a couple of little jumps, but I think who ever watches it will get a sense of the story. For the final animation I will have to shorten it down in places, but I'm happy that I've now got this trial finished... I think it has real potential... I'll post the storyboards up soon...

Meeting with Robin

Had a good chat with Robin today about my progress so far. We have agreed that Idealy I should be ready to start animating 4 weeks from now, so after submiting coursework at the end of this week, I can focus on finishing and preparing the models for animation. We had a chat about how I could possibly reduce the workload, by maybe making one head, duplicating it, and changing it a little with the use of texture/normal/bump maps, and do the sme for the bully character. He suggests following stop staring to the point when your ready to apply the techniques to the shape of your intended characters head, which is going to be cartooony in style, not realistic. Another good Idea to make sure the audience can tell the characters apart is by making distinguishable features for the bully and Jaime... for example a birth mark. I will have a think about this while modelling. Robin also wants me to continue making a few more expression sheets, so I can try them out, and see how it works. One thing I will need to work on, is making sure I have enough of an edge loop around the mouth and eyes to improve the flexibility of the face. I let Robin have another look at my script with the changes made, and advised me to perhaps bring in the bully at some point again before the end shot. I have taken this advice, and included the bully within the bar scene, and in the toilets after Jaime staggers in... I think this will add depth to the scene, I do think it has improved the script a lot more.

We meet again in two weeks time, by this point we can discuss my progress on the character models.

oh and came across this video ... really like it, and it proves that simple design.. still can portray some great expressions... if my animation was half as good as this turned out.. I would be very happy! :D

Updated Log

Updated log for this week up to the submission date (14th)

I'm almost there with my Final character's. I am in progress with organising a meeting with John next week at some point to discuss my general progress. Once I have handed in my coursework for submissions, I will begin character modeling, record my narration, and test in my animatic. I also intend to gather more research and further references to be included within my dissertation.

10/01/2011: Finish Final Character Colour Trials

11/01/2011: Meeting with Robin to discuss progress and written work/ Finish off Sketchbook work

12/01/2011: Finish animatic/update Research Proposal

13/01/2011: Finish off Proposal(Reference) Finish Production Document

14/01/2011: Hand in coursework for submissions

Jaime- Child, man and old man: Final Version

Jaime - Old Man Final





Jaime - Man Final:






This is the model final model sheet, and colour trial expression sheet for Jaime as a child. I thought the colour of Jaime's face was a little to dark, so toned it down a bit for the model sheet, I will draw some more expressions for each character in my sketchbook.

Final Bully Child, man & old man

The Bully: Old Man



Bully: Man





This is the final character for the bully as a child.