Category Archives: Animation Mentor

Class 5 Week 7 – Assignment

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Prepare yourselves for a lot of text! It’s been a tough week! Lots to do and LOTS of notes for Mario (most of which are replicated below)! That said, the only note I have for my facial expression assignment is that I had so much to do this week, I didn’t spend as long as it as I normally do:

c5w7 - Sketchbook 1

As I discussed with Mario at the Q&A this week, I tried to “super-block” my entire animation, rather than splining just one or two shots as I like to try and keep everything up to a similar level. The main issues for me this week were addressing some of the acting choices and issues surrounding characterisation, rather than the super-blocking itself:

So, is it reading OK? Some people that have watched it suggested that perhaps the guy should remain scared until Shot 4 when he gets confused by the mechanic’s weird conversation. I can’t decide. If I change it, it would mean some significant alterations to the animation, which scares me quite a lot. Here are my thoughts on the shot in general:

  • Girl: Generally happy with how her character is conveyed, although obviously let me know if you think differently or if there are any body mechanics issues to address.
  • Guy: This one has been the real tough cookie! As I said above, a couple of people I’ve shown this too haven’t really liked his acting choices and find it difficult to work out what he’s feeling at any one time. What do you think?
  • Mechanic: Overall, I’m pretty happy with this guy. If I have time, I think I might to change the opening shot so that he’s actually working on the wheel/tyre, rather than just scratching his head; perhaps it would be a little more interesting? Is it worth changing it at this stage, given how much work there is left to do?

How do you like the new end pose for the mechanic? I liked the idea of significantly changing his pose when he says “I thought you wanted to?” and I tried some quite dramatic changes, but none of them felt very good in terms of fitting with the dialogue. I quite like the way in the current version, he retains his ‘stupidity’ but the pose is reasonably different from his standard stance.

As I said, it’s been a really tough week and I’ve been having LOTS of problems trying to come up with interesting ideas, acting choices and poses – it’s been a source of great frustration and stress!

I’ll hopefully be back tomorrow with Mario’s critique notes…

As I discussed with Mario, I tried to “super-block” my entire animation, rather than splining just one or two shots as I like to try and keep everything up to a similar level.

Class 5 Week 7 – Quick Update 2

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Just got time to show you the work I’ve been doing in the past few days. I’m pretty happy with the amount I’ve done given most of yesterday was spent travelling or sleeping off the effects of getting up really early and travelling.

That’s right, I’m in Florence visiting Marie at the moment. It’s amazing what limited access to the internet will do for your productivity! Take a look:

I’ve been concentrating almost solely on the guy as he was the least complete up until now. I’m liking the reveal and the drop down with the car bonnet. I’m still not sure how well it’s reading when he comes out from behind it though. My idea for the scene was always that the mechanic/situation was so ridiculous that it distracted him from worrying about the werewolf (particularly because the mechanic is so unfazed by the event), but it’s difficult to convey that!

I’ve still got quite a lot of work to do before Sunday. The entire last shot and the mechanic in the first two and possibly an attempt at blocking out the faces… Oh dear.

Class 5 Week 7 – Quick Update

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Wow, I had an incredibly good day of work yesterday. Efficient, got plenty done (just check out the IOGraph!) and I’m happy with the results! Yep, I definitely feel like I’m out of my mid-term lull!

Take a look:

I’ve not looked at the guy at all yet, only the girl and the mechanic. I started with the girl as she’s only in the first 2 seconds and I’m already pretty happy with her movement. Unfortunately she doesn’t get quite as much time on-screen as I’d like, but that can’t be helped right now.

I haven’t really done anything with the mechanic in shot 1 or 2 yet. I need to come to a decision about a few key acting choices before I get too heavily into those scenes. Chris had some great suggestions that I want to run past Mario in the Q&A today. The main stuff I looked at was the pointing and I think I’ve got some pretty good physicality there.

Need to do a bit more work before my Q&A later today, but looking forward to it! Any comments, questions or suggestions are greatly appreciated!