Walk cycle Exercise

To under stand animating humanoid characters I did some practice on walk cycles. Here are 3 of the same cycle from different angles

Diagnal

front

Profile

Blocking out the Key Poses of Storyboard

Key poses

Establishing shot representing the character's goal

First reaction to present 

The camera angle has been improved compared to the storyboard. This staging perspective allows the audience to see more what he is doing.

The thought process allows the audience to get to know the character, how he thinks about certain events. He is thinking "It is not my birthday". The pose and timing could be improved to show this.

Here shown is an exaggerated curious take using squash and stretch to add a more cartoony effect.

The change of camera allows to see the face of the character more clearly on a front perspective. This allows staging of facial expressions. Showing the eyes and face allows more use of emotions.

This perspective is to represent how big the present is compared to the deer. It also represents the character's curiosity growing and building anticipation. The pose of the character cuts into the next scene where he is instantaneously positioned in front of the present. 

The next view cuts the timing using a scene cut. This slightly upsets the pacing and will have to be staged carefully using the camera and character. 

This scene shows him touching the present in excitement. He will either pick it up and shake it in excitement and curiosity or he will just grab to feel it is there, lean back in anticipation then pounce. 

Here he is ripping open the box paper will fly every where mostly to the left.

Here he shows a face of intrigue that slowly deflates into sad. The excitement and expectancy of the gift is clashed with shock and disappointment 

Blocking out the animation

Blocking out the animation had it's challenges however the rig was so well built and skinned that it made the workload more efficient. Some of the poses are still rough however the key was to establish the scenes of the whole animation.

To make animation more efficient I use a custom Mel script called Pose library. The tool allows me to store poses and animations that I can project onto the character

Here are many poses that I used in the animation

Cottage Environment improved

The set has had an over haul. Since the character is mostly brown earthy colours The setting has been change to stand out with the character. The colour scheme of the present also stands out representing it as the main goal.

 

Rusty the Deer Final Render

Front

Middle

Overall the character has a appealing cartoon design that should add appeal to the final animation.

The overall design is simple but fun the character has very simple texturing but since there wasn't much time the texturing was kept basic.

Body Acting Analysis

The Mask

In this scene from the mask the body acting that Jim Carrey's character Stanley Ipkuss plays will be analysed from 0:05 to 0:19. First the acting is very subtle however the raised shoulders and the uncomfortable position show he is constrained by the psychological effects that the mask has had on him. at 0:08 he shows a quick sharp frustrated arm movement with a strong grip on the mask. The placement of the fingers at 0:10 show his inner frustration and aggression the way his hand is placed is a strong powerful position. Also he moves closer to the therapist invading his personal space, this also shows the inner aggression that he is feeling.  Next comes a swift head and body turn lead by the body this means there is a delay of the head as he turns. At 0:12 he does a quick walk over then at 0:16 he shows a more open body pose changing in mood as he is determined to prove the masks effects. His mood suddenly seems a little excited as he flings the mask forward, this does make sense however because excitement can be fueled by expectancy and he is expecting the mask to work. finally the gesture as he makes at 0:18 shows authority addressing the therapist.

Overall the scene anticipates the new information that the mask does not work at night as well as showing the change in Stanley's personality. 

The Iron Giant

This scene shows great comical effect showing situation with a conflict in the background effecting an already awkward situation. The way Hogarth first squashed down and then stretches adds emphasis to the movement of his hands as they follow a swift path of action the head is tilted up showing nervous actions hidden behind a fake smile. The strongest pose would be at 0:23 when he says (and stop) he is talking to the giants hand. His body is in a hold but slowly comes down as he enters a thought process signified by the rubbing of his forehead this then leads him to finish his sentence (the devil) The scene overall adds allot of comedy to a simple idea.The giants hand is loose in the house so he has that on his mind as well as communicating with his mum. The scene shows how much a simple scene can be very memorable when done right.

Character Emotion and Body language

The character is now rigged and skinned. A shirt was added for appeal the clothes do have a control so he can switch to no shirt or if I wanted he could switch to different clothes like a doll. The clothes show he is an anthropomorphic creature while also adding more personality he is more civilized a part from not having trousers. This is how Walt Disney designed his characters with ever a shirt shoes shorts or a mixture. This was also to create a classic golden era cartoon style like Warner Bros looney toons, mainly Wile Coyote.  

Since intentionally he was going to be inspired by Aardman his facial expressions and face are inspired by Gromit

Here is an image of the face controls using blend shapes.

The controls that were added to the ears and tail have been removed to allow an easier and simpler set up for keying.

Since the character is fully rigged skinned and can show some simple facial expressions. Here are some different silhouette poses of different facial emotions and body language.

Angry

sad

Shock or Surprise

When animating the character reference will be used from influences such as Mr Bean, Gromit, Jim Carrey. This will allow to create an excitable and curious deer.

images

gromit

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/wallace-and-gromit/images/343151/title/wrong-trousers-photo

rocket excited animation

Rocket Stage fright

Overall the timing is allot more improved and the staging conveys the message of the plot of the animation, originally the animation had to much going on that it made it difficult to read each action. However by adding more keys and slowing down the pacing made each action more readable Then I just simplified some of the body parts mostly the eyes and eyebrow movements. The use of exaggeration complements the solid drawn poses and takes. Twinning was avoided creating a more organic living breathing character. The secondary actions of the rockets wings when he points at him self creates emphasis on the emotions of excitement, enthusiasm and curiosity the rocket feels at  0:04. However the squash and stretch could have been improved on adding more exaggeration to the squashed positions of the rocket this would show more anticipation for his jumps, however this would involve adding the feature manually through a lattice set up or blend shape. The eye movement of the character is very organic and well observed. For this animation sound was used for the first time this added some more appeal to the reaction of the rocket when he gets nervous at a key take at 0:07. The ear piercing stage light sound with the fast quick reaction of the rocket added some suspense and exaggerates the meaningful moment that shows his true feelings when he is put under pressure instead of unfettered with no obstacle.
The animation uses a subtle use of follow through because the eyes will lead the head and body, When he is nervous around 0:08 his eyes dart away from the camera followed by a quick turn of the head this also follows an arc since the head bobs down then up.

The animation has actions conflict and a objective, this follows the principles of acting as well as story structure. The conflict is psychological focusing on having to do something under pressure, this also represents the perspective of a university student. I implied the rocket to show empathy towards students or pretty much anyone who has been under stress and pressure before. This makes the character very relate able. The action trying to take off this could have been anticipation.

The animation was inspired by my own experiences with university and trying to deal with stress and anxiety

The one issue is there is not enough emphasis on anticipation when he takes off the he should squash down then stretch up the timing when he falls down could also be improved up on.

















sound effects


spotlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnO0rED2rv4

Set and Environment Creation

Setting the Scene

To create the environment for the animation I decided to create a small rustic house this will fit nicely for a cartoon deer. The first image shows planning the size of the the room. The next focuses on blocking out the layout of the furniture as well as basic lighting.

doors and windows are represented and loosely follow the staging of the storyboard

The present was modelled using curves to create the bows and sculpting to create the box, the present sahould standout from the rest of the scene to create enphasis on the surprise aspect. The colour might be changed to improve this.

The challenge with the staging so far is the character might dissapear into the background because of the earthy colours of the cabin blending with the Earthy colours of the character. This is the issue to overcome. The set maybe changed however, now the animation can begin the camera has been set up and now the character just needs finishing in order to start.

Character Update

The model has gone through changes to make him more thinner and more deer like. For the body shape I used inspiration from Wile Coyote as shown below. The UV map is simple block colours this was to save time on texturing. other influences for the character include Elliot from open season in the snout and hands and Gromit's eyebrows and facial expressions       

                              

Character Update

Since the last update the deer character has now got a placeholder name (Rusty) I feel it helps to give any character a name because it adds context and personality.

Topology has been improved for the rigging and skinning.

More edge loops have been applied to the arms to allow smoother deformations. Eyebrows have also been improved to allow free movement.

An Automatic rigger was used to save time. The rig also has plenty of custom controls to add more options when animating, tools like squash and stretchy body parts. This will allow more variety to the animation process