Final_RenderX

Video_Test#

I fixed up the camera angle, the girl is fixed in the last 3 scenes but not the first 2, at the moment she suddenly jumps between poses so that needs to be fixed.

Weak Poses

This just shows the princess in a weak state, Punchy carrying her over his shoulder shows his physical advantage over her, I took that from Shrek one when he is carrying princess Fiona over his shoulder against her will.

Video_Test_2

13th October
This one is much better than the first animation in my opinion. I stuck in a whole scene at the start just to show punchy getting angry. The end is probably still a tad to fast, my main issue now is that I havn't animated the girl in the background, I'm thinking about just making her legs swing, when the key hits the cage she gets a shock and kinda falls back abit.

14th October
I ran the video by a few people who pointed out a great array of technical and asthetical issues with it. I'll just list them in order of importance.

1. Character Issue: The girl in the back does not currently suit the princess I described.

Fix, I'll fix this by making her sit up in her cage, she'll be quietly attempting to pick the lock in the background, then when the key hits she'll get a surprise or something.

2. Camera Issue: When Punchy pulls back his hand to slap the cup, his fingers need to flex back, also instead of zooming the camera towards the hand making it look jerky and a not so nice, I'll cut it to an angle behind his shoulder and the hand will come towards the camera, then the camera will follow the hand as he swipes the cups. I also have to fix the timing so that it feels more aggressive.

3. Wrists Issues: The wrists were a common problem in a most people's feedback, this is just a problem throughout the whole movie on all the characters, I just have to go through and fix them all up a bit.

Animation Test

This was my first run through with the animation, basically sucks because the timing is way too fast, there is hardly any thought process, Punchy just punches the table within the first half second of the animation which is stupid, I need to add a lot more thinking time in there, basically slow it all down a notch. The camera angles I'll keep and the storyline.

Animatic

This is my final story, After talking to Chris I decided that I needed to fix a few of the camera angles because I made a few classic mistakes, mainly the camera switching from one side to another making it confusing for the viewer. Secondly its way too long, I've decided to only use the final scene as my final animation starting from where Punchy bashes the table. I also need to focus on facial expressions to show the thought process, here timing is very important to allow the viewer to see that the characters are thinking. (this means, blinking, frowning, scowling, smiling) and according to Richard Williams Book "Animators Survival Kit" which has played as my main reference throughout this assignment there shouldn't be any other actions during these facial expressions, it should be pause, expression then the action not, action and at the same time expression.


Camera Angle Reference: After reading the article on camera angles provided by Chris in the tutorial, http://www.peachpit.com/articles/printerfriendly.aspx?p=31096, I found that I had made a few mistakes that needed fixing, my main mistake is the camera switching around to random angles making it confusing for the viewer to understand the scene. In my main animation I need to show Punchy getting angry so I will begin with a close up of him

"close-ups not only help tell the story, but save time. The close-up shot also allows the viewer to see the emotion of the character, which is important to telling the story. The close-up shot can vary, depending on the composition.
" (referenced from the tutorial)

I will keep one or two medium shots which capture all three characters to give a viewer an idea about the layout of the scenery. One shot that I like is where Punchy is on the left, Slink is on the right and the Princess can be seen between them in the background, they're looking at each other, fighting over the princess between them.

"The medium shot is a general, all-purpose shot. Medium shots are used for dialogue sequences, and they allow the viewer to pick up on the character's movements and gestures. Body language is important to conveying emotion, and the medium shot remains close enough to capture that emotion. Medium shots are also good for small group shots, such as a conversation between characters. The medium shot often is partnered with a close-up shot, because it is not necessarily used for establishing shots. Medium shots are best for individuals or small groups; more than three or four people in the scene will require you to use a different type of shot. Figure 4 shows a typical medium shot."





The style of camera shots was mainly inpired from The movie "The Matrix", I especially used the techniques used in the bullet time shots when Neo is dodging the bullets, this can be seen when the cup is flying in the air and the key lands inside the cup.

Week 5 Thought Pose

Coin Pick Guy:
(After reading the walk sections in Animators Survival Kit, I wanted to make a quirky walk style just to experiment nothing really in thought to be added to the assignment, I wanted to practice more the process of thought, where the character looks left and right, then picking up the coin.

Plot

Punchy was holding the key, he just locked the princess in the cage and now Slink wants to hold the key. Punchy however wants to keep the key because he knows of Fox's cunning plots and deceit. They get into an argument and start fighting over it. Slink uses his slender and speedy and Punchy makes use of his strength however in their efforts to get the key the princess makes her escape.

Character Design Document

title: Slink the Fox
Status: Poor Bandit
Age: 34
Body: Slender
Personality: Crafty, quick,
Current status: Plotting
Common Utterances: "Punchy you insufferable oaf!" He uses Punchy as his dumb muscle He uses Punchy to carry out his bidding. He is sneaky and unloyal to his friend, he plans on taking the princess for himself and betraying punchy.

Character Design Document

name: Punchy Gender: Male Status: Bandit Age: 35 Body: Strong Giant Personality: Well natured deep down, he lacks the brains to think for himself believing Slink to be a genius he often plays a major role in Slinks's "cunning" plans.

Character Design Document

Title Princess Sophie Gender: Female Status: Princess Age: 18 Body: Slender Personality: Adventurous, smart, friendly (most of the time) Current status: Captured by bandits Common Utterances: "But I'm a princess!" A well natured, adventurous character who relies on her quick thinking rather than her physical abilities.

Week 4 pose: Angry Pose

Week 3 strong pose

pose2

Girl Post

The princess will have qualities to the adventurous good natured character "Jade" from beyond good and evil.

Loom 2

Evil Loom

This is camera shows the perspective of someone lying on the ground and the evil character leaning over the top. I tried to give power to the character.

Pose 1: Expression

Pose 1

Character 3 change

Character 3:
Character 3 (female) is the captive. She is calm, collective and observing. She waits for the right moment and uses the two sneaks trickery against them.

Story idea

summary:
Character 1 takes the key and hides it behind his back, and slips it inside his pocket, he then brings both hands forward with clenched fists as if the key were in one of his hands, the other sneak who suspects the trickery points at something behind him to make him look away and takes the key out of his back pocket. He then chooses a hand,

Jafar - Aladdin

Character 1:
character 1 and 2 are essential the same character. They both use trickery
to try to win the game, I'm going to give them expressions and body language
similiar to characters such as Jafar from Aladin. Which means snake eyes and
strong eyebrows.

Fox

Entry 1

I can't think of a director that influences me in particular. I subconsciously draw inspiration from all kinds of directors so I can't distinguish just one. Instead i'm going to base my characters around existing characters and shoot them with my own style of directing. The scene is that there is a hot babe waiting in the passenger seat of a sports car and two guys are argueing over who get to drive with her. The challenge is the evil character takes the key and puts it in one of his hands and the other character has to guess which hand holds the key. If he guesses correct then he gets to drive otherwise the evil character does. The evil character however tricks him and drops the key inside his pocket so that the key is not in either hand. The girl will be based upon a typical blonde bimbo, the evil character will based upon the fox off pinnochio, at the moment i'm thinking that both characters are sneaks who both try to use trickery to win the challenge. So the other character will be based upon the evil fazier in aladdin.

Battle of the Wits Sequence

The sequence i've chosen is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EkBuKQEkio from
1.39 to 2.03. I chose this scene because of the wit's expressions as the hero pours and switches the cups.

Task 1

Director: Luc Besson

Movie: The Fifth Element

One of my favourite and most inspiring movies is Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. He weaves the comic action scenes together using a great array of bizarre personalities and creatures, a fresh breath from the typical action genre characters. Another thing that I really like about The Fifth Element is the diverse range of colours used to paint his representation of the future. Almost everything in the movie has been twisted in a slightly different direction from the norm notably the soundtrack. The scene used to introduce Bruce Willis’s is worth mentioning, Luc Besson keeps the actions in the scene in sync with the beat of the song.