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.
So… I’m feeling a little more on-track after my outburst on Sunday. Well, feeling a little more on-track after my hand-in/critique actually. On Sunday morning I had the feeling that my work was looking preeeetty shit. By the end of play on Sunday, I was actually reasonably happy with it. Take a look:
This has the updated camera, based on my feedback from last week. Obviously, there’s still no facial animation but the basic blocking is done with a few in-betweens.
Mario went quite in-depth with his critique, which was great as it gives me some goals to achieve and something I can actively work towards sorting out, rather than just “carrying on”.
Here’s what he said in more detail:
Characterisation
Consider changing the pose/style of the mechanic’s animation when his voice changes for the line “I thought you wanted to?”, as though he was ‘playing a part’ before and now he’s broken out of the character he thought he was meant to be.
The guy doesn’t seem to feel terribly worried any more after he says “What?!”
Body Mechanics
Add in some additional breakdowns for the girl to show the change of weight during her movement; between FRM24/25 both her feet move at the same time.
Put in some anticipation before the mechanic stands up; this should help to ensure that the movement reads properly across the camera cut.
Add more asymmetry to the guy after he says “WEREWOLF?!”. At the moment his face, head and shoulders are all completely parallel to the bonnet of the car.
Minor Fixes
Watch the knee at FRM20, it’s close to looking broken.
Check the silhouettes on FRM48, where the foreshortening of the arms is creating a high “traffic area” in the hands and the mechanic’s arm in the first shot. Be careful that the mechanic’s arm and head don’t create a tangent around FRM238.
Overall
I feel like Mario is starting to get the concept now, starting to understand what it is I’m trying to attain with this shot, so that feels good. I do need to be clearer about my goals and what the characters are meant to be feeling in each shot and I should have been from the start.
For the record, I LOVE the idea of changing up the mechanic’s personality quick dramatically after the guy asks “Why are you talking that way?!”, I think it’s a brilliant idea and I’m hoping I can do it justice!
As for the guy not being terribly scared after he says “What?!”, that was actually the plan from the start (one of those things I didn’t make clear). I wanted the absurdity of the conversation to distract him from the fact that he’s just heard a werewolf that he should be pretty concerned about. I will mention this at the Q&A this week.
The other part of our hand-in this week was another facial expression:
Mario had no suggestions for improvements, but once again suggested that I’d been “cheating” by using deformers or lattices to create certain shapes: not true! Again, something to mention at the Q&A ;)
B+
As I said, I think I’m on the way up, out of my mid-term lull. I’ll certainly be attacking my blocking over the coming days to see if I can really exaggerate the characters and acting choices a lot more. I may even start tackling some of the facial animation.
Regardless, I need to get a move on with this stuff as I’m flying off to Florence for a couple of weeks to see Marie on Thursday. I will (of course) have access to a computer and (limited access) to the internet, but the more efficient I can be, the more time I can spend doing nice stuff.
Now, about those earlier nights I was talking about…
I don’t think my video reference is particularly amazing. At least, if nothing else, it does at least help to convey what the heck is going (something that a few people have struggled with in the storyboard/animatic phase), but it’s lacking a bit of character at the moment. I may shoot some more or I may just try and stay wary of the fact that the acting choices need more “oompf”.
I did do a few pose sketches to see if I could come up with some appealing shapes, lines of action and add a little more ‘character’ to each of the characters:
One of the main things I wanted to address from last week was the slight confusion most people seemed to suffer from when the camera cuts up close to the mechanic, so I addressed that in an updated storyboard.
And here’s the scene layout I did as a result of that:
It’s still far from perfect, but it’s getting there. I should point out that the awful camera move did not see any finesse at all, it is completely linear. Even so, I second-guessed what Mario would say about it in my critique and I’ve already taken it out of the next iteration!
This is what Mario had to say:
Layout
Get rid of the moving camera shot. Re-frame the action by pulling the camera back a bit such that we can see everything without having to move.
Don’t worry about the establishing shots for now. Take the first shot, pull the camera back a bit and slowly truck in so that we have an establishing shot without greatly extending the animation.
Consider adding a cut that re-frames the action on the guy and the mechanic after the girl has finished her line. That will make it clear to the audience that we’re only concerned with the two characters on-screen from now on and it will reduce the amount of animation to do.
In the last shot, don’t change the camera angle; go back to the existing shot that the audience has already seen and is comfortable with.
Overall
Pull the cameras back a bit, they all feel a little close.
B
It’s been a tough week, from both a workload and motivational point of view. Video reference tends to stress me out and takes a very long time to get right (it doesn’t help that my parents are renovating their house, so I had no space to actually film anything!). Once you think you might have something you like, you need to spend bloody ages editing it and chopping it all together. On top of that we had to do additional sketches and the layout with some rough blocking poses.
