Meeting with John

John is pleased with my progression from the last meeting. He saw a couple of animation tests, and we spoke about camera angles. John has advised me go down the less is more route. I'm going to really slow down the camera movement. John thinks that what I need to try and think about, is to produce empathy for the character, without a great deal of character animation. This is very difficult to produce, but all the hard work will be worth it in the end...

The black and white effect animation test produced this week, really works well within the flash back scenes. I do however, have to much going on at once, and agree with John that this really is not needed. John thinks I should focus recording my final take of narration, which will help with the pacing, and facial animation.

For the next meeting, I'm going to put together a 3d animatic, which will show still shots with an overlay of the final recorded narration,(which I plan to finish tonight.) that should replicate the final animation. This will really help to move forward with the animation stage.

I also want to beable straight after our next meeting to say that I can get straight onto focusing on the final animation, considering all the research and advise so far.

Meeting with John

Todays meeting went a lot better than I expected. John thinks that the style I have for the characters could really work in well, and he doesn't want me to get boged down on the perfect head modelling, partly because of time, but mostly because with the environment style, and the fact this will also be suitable for children and adults. This has made me feel a lot better. I will now be testing blendshapes, and fixing the small details of the eyes for both facial models. I'm really excited at the prospect of begining the animation stage. We discussed crit week, and John feels that this will be the point of letting people no where I am in terms of the practical, and dissertation work. So I'm going to try not stress out about it to much. The next few days will be focusing on dissertation work, and will discuss this with Robin on monday.

Meeting with John

Todays meeting went well. He is pleased with my progress. What we did discuss though, was the era of time within each scene. We have agreed that we should base the animation on the present time, but what didn't cross my mind, is that the first scene would then be about 70 years ago... so I'm going to take the computer away, and replace it with books, and an abacus.. this would be really nice... I'm going to include a close up shot with Jaime moving the beads with a really happy and excited expression... and have a look at what iconic props clothing, and hairstyles would make sure the audience would get a sense of the time era's. I'm thinking about making the bully looking like some kind of rocker... long hair etc.

John agrees with myself, that I should stick to being the voice of the narration, but to record it again in one long take.

I also have to get it into my head that there is only 6 weeks left. (there are 8) but I will need these two weeks to finish things off. :D I have been asked to make a schedule for the next 6 weeks for the practical work, I will make a seperate schedule for the dissertation. include everything... props, recording film reference, facial modelling, environments. Be very strict about it.

I also need to keep in mind, not to make the transition of emotions looks to symetrical.

Meeting with John

Todays meeting went well. John is very confident that I'm progressing well. He agrees with me that the main objective for the next few weeks is producing the modeled faces, trying to make sure that the character of my 2D sketches come through. I have made a test model of Jaime as a child, with a couple blend shapes which do work! :D so I'm confident that when it comes to the facial animation I will feel a lot better about the end result I'm hoping for. For next friday (pitch presentation) I'm going to aim to refine my animatic more by just including the key shots I'll need with the intended narration. This shouldn't take me to long. John likes the environments set up so far. I just have the study room to create, and Jaime's office, which will be very simple... shouldn't take me any longer than a day.

For next time we have created action points that include:

Character model progress
Environments finished (one more to model)
Refined animatic

I am going to start looking at more books that demonstrate the facial modelling process, which will help me to build on the skill's I'm continuing to learn.

I have put my dissertation research on hold for the next week or so, which will still giove me time, as I have started to type up some of the abstarct and intro already.

Case study work is almost there.. I just want to make sure I have covered all the bases... and will produce my animatic for this once I'm happy that I have my characters prepared for animation.

So as John said... "Model like the wind!... and all that!" :D

Up coming log for next week will be posted soon.