Tuesday 31 January 2012

Presenter

Camera:
After deciding cameras, I found an animation much more focused and interesting. Positive and negative shapes are more clear. Camera angles clearly gives important to the main presenter in the scene. No need to animate everything, for a good animation. Good camera changes also can make an animation look beautiful. If a scene is packed with verity of mood, audience can get confuse to focus on right place. A proper camera angle can avoid such complications. I studied lots of TV series episodes for camera angle. In my chosen presenter sound clip, there are lots of laughter. It was confusing to animate them, but when I saw comedy sitcoms, I understood how to animate a laughter. As example
When two characters are talking in a single frame, it is hard to concentrate on a single character.
Splitting them in two different cameras can reduces the complications. I first decide which character is important in the scene, accordingly I set a camera. Story gets clear to a spectators when, it is clear in a narrators mind. While staging the scene, I was sure about which character is important in a scene. I placed a camera accordingly.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Presenter

Silhouette Of the scene

Silhouette of the character helps to identify, whether line of an action is going correct or not. This is the first the time, I am using this method step by step method of animation. After blocking stage, it is convenient to identify arc of the motion in this form. Attention is only towards line of action. It gives clear idea of character movement. Silhouette creates a shape. Interesting shapes, add involvement in animation. It helps to simplify action, which is easy to correct at the stage of blocking.

Sunday 22 January 2012

Funny and effective...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUMwu_gXK7Q&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztb-MksiQT4&feature=related

This song was originally used in 2D animation movie called Lion King. A huge character and a skinny character, this combination always works in animation. Not only by differencing them by their size, but also by their characteristic. One is very a hyper and other one is a calm character. They still are very funny looking characters. There are two varieties of animation in single frame. Bother characters are dancing on beats but still there is dissimilarity in timing. Snappy animation style is used. I am a big fan of this series.

This is a French animation series for children but, being a youngster I still enjoy their episodes. This song and dance is famous with those characters. Hippo is called Pat and the dog is called Stan. All the episodes of the series are hilarious and entertaining.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Dance

An idea behind this act is a emotional feeling which a blind person could have. A blind girl who really love to dance but, she cannot see herself doing it. In her dreams, she want do all those things which she really desire to do. I was collecting information about blind dancers. How choreographers teach them and how they get along with it. Converting disability into ability is really a commendable job. These people are more curious about the actions. It is really hard for them to realize the action.

Storyboard:


While animating dance it is very essential to know what is going to happen in that shot.In this clip I planed several camera changes. I want to finalize my major cameras in story boarding. Exactly what I want to do in animation is clear in a storyboard.

Story is a blind girl named Rose,who loves to dance. Rose is learning dance as her hobby,but is upset that she can not see herself dancing. One day after finishing her class, on the way to home she had a illusion. In a part she is dancing with the flowers and trees around. She is jumping and trying to touch the sun in her vision. She want to do everything in her dream. This express her emotions that she want to do all those thing which she practically can not do. She is very happy and pleased to have such a dream, than being depress that she is disable. Reason behind that is, her desire is not only to dance but, also to see herself while doing it.

I want to make this animation clip not in a practical way but in a emotional way.

Acting reference:

I acted lots of time for this scene. I practiced this dance at home for many time but I could not achieve body movements. Finally after trying so many times I got the proper reference which I was looking for.

Stage 1:

Character should look like a simple girl. I started with the blocking stage. Scene is going to have seven camera changes. Each camera changes are for the purpose. To show animation detail I kept some close up cameras also. All the gestures were clear in storyboard and reference. I emphasized on strong body poses for the dance. Staging of the character was very important in this stage. Character's appeaser in those dance movement was my major concern. I added as much detail as possible to get an idea out of it.


Stage 2:



While doing animation in dancing I observed lot of weight issues. It is very interesting how are body moves. On each short of animation I was trying act short first the use to animate it. Lots of weight shifting happen while walk or dance. In each of my animation I am trying to achieve next level of detailing. I deliberately added some complex body movements, for the study purpose. Run was the new thing in this animation. Achieving weight in run was very difficult. Run contains several of things from the point of view of animation. Every part of the character moves with him.
I saw tutorial of run to animate it. Collected lot of reference according to requirements of the scene. Following one is reference of a run and a jump:







Final output:



After completion of each scene animation, I found each camera is looking different. Missing point in whole act was transactions. While changing one camera to other there has to be a following acting to identify the audience. I gave each camera a following action of other camera. It added continuation in animation. In my previous take, all scenes were looking like cut and paste, but after adding following action, it gave sense of carry-over to each short. Because of some technical error I lost my file twice in a single day but, with the help of my tutor I managed to finish the animation till one extent.
I studied how to moving character on beat, match expressions according to word and mood of the story, how to add weight to the character.

Friday 20 January 2012

Presenter

WIP Blocking


This a blocking stage of my presenter clip. There are three camera changes I am planning for this scene. According to dialogue, camera will be focused on relative character. When Mr Deric is talking, camera will be focused on both character individually . There will be one more camera, covering both characters. This clip is in progress. Idea behind working on blocking or on key poses is, to get timing right. I will emphasis on getting key poses right. I want to get strong poses on time. Here I can easily change my key poses, if they are not on time. Tough part is to animate two character at the same time. This a challenge for me, as I never did this before.


Monday 16 January 2012

Presenter

Key Posing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn_UFTBAhDg&feature=related

This video is a perfect example of, How to approach towards a scene after setting a animation camera. I was attempting to animate straight ahead for this scene but, it did not work. There were too many errors. For correcting my faults, I again have to work on my key poses. After my third attempt, I found this link of a 11 second club. This was very inspiring, how exactly should I approach towards the scene.

This scene has two character. If, I will focus on one, the others reactions seems left out. But through this video, I found an idea about scene planning. Key poses [ story telling poses ] are very essential in planning of animation. I should try and get my timing right at the stage of blocking. After appropriate blocking, I can move on to work on its extreme poses followed by proper in-between. Refining gesture would be next step. Lip sync and facials expression will come after that. Completion of all those stages will give me more room to work on my finishing product, where I can work on my facial timing, holds, and on secondary animation.

I am restarting my scene again with this style of planning. I hope, I will get better result out of this.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Norman Rig

http://aauanimationclub.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
This is awesome tutorial. I had to face lots of problem solving ready made Norman character rig. From now, I can modify This character as per scene's requirement.

Friday 13 January 2012

Rango Real shoot references

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Bc43WVoL0

Idea behind watching this clip is, how to take real references and use them in animation. While shooting, I got lots of ideas about, character, camera, body movements. But which body postures are suitable for animation is a real question. When different person act on a same scene we get different verities. Excellent actor, Johnny Depp acted for the movie Rango. He mention the fact that, rather than motion capture, he is acting for emotional capture.
That is what we do in animation. We do not copy but, we try to get inspiration out of the act and try to put it in animation.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Presenter

Planning: Story behind this clip is, a guy who's name is Mr Deric Droppen, went to a bank for opening an account. When I was planning for this shoot, I really want to fix my camera first. I am going to use three major cameras in this. One having both characters and two individual cameras for each character. I really want to bring attitude of each character in animation. Deric who is really obsessed with his name, wants full attention towards his name. A bank person, who's name is Mr Edvarb. Edverb is a normal guy, who love his work. I did shot for this clip at my place, just to get in to the mood of both characters.

Presenter

Planning: Story behind this clip is, a guy who's name is Mr Deric Droppen, went to a bank for opening an account. When I was planning for this shoot, I really want to set my camera first. I am going to use three major cameras in this. One having both characters and two individual cameras for each character. I really want to bring attitude of each character in animation. Deric who is really obsessed with his name, wants full attention towards his name. A bank person, who's name is Mr Edvarb. Edverb is a normal guy, who love his work. I did shot for this clip at my place, just to get in to the mood of both characters.

Impossible Present

http://vimeo.com/33352381

Impressive work, a small boy who is really keen to open his gift. Nice use of space in camera frame.

This clip do not have any background, that really helps viewer to keep their eye only on character.

Character is design and animated nicely. Keeping him as a small boy, animator managed to show his strong side also. I really like the cheat of smoke, when boy tries to open his present forcefully. No need of animating everything which we want to convey. Sometimes visual illusion can work more than animation. Humor plays an important role in animation. It is a easy way to build interest of audience. I enjoined this clip...


Wednesday 11 January 2012

Sketch Book







Out of sight

http://vimeo.com/14768689

Doing animation is not only moving things perfectly but, also showing them in presentable manner.

Richard Williams said that, We animate scene to took it beautiful. This movie clip is a appropriate example of it.

I am really working on how to convey a concept and an idea.

In this video what I found is, a nice simple concept's execution in a convincing way. Style of the movie, even sound track is close to the plot.

A blind small girl with her dog, walking on the street. The dog is actually like a friend or a guide for her. Interesting part of the story is, when a girl goes into a magic world. She may never has seen the real world but she is imagining the whole mysterious world around her. That shows her creativity also. She lives in a world which she cannot see or become part of, but in her magical world she changes everything with her magic wand.

I even enjoyed the last of the story. Story's really reveals at the end. While credits, we can see the actual essence of the plot. Artist made some illustrations which clears the story and that holds interest till end.

Sunday 8 January 2012

A day at Costa





While Traveling





I spent very little time of my London trip for sketching. I was so mesmerize by the beauty of places that couldn't miss a moment by drawing it.

While traveling I observed lot of passengers.Even they were having very little time in train, every single person was trying to gain something out of it. A guy was playing Casio musical instrument. A woman was reading a book with all her attention. A old age person was trying to rest. It was amazing that, no two people were doing the same thing.

Eyeliner



Specialty of these sketches is, I made them by my eyeliner pencil. In vacation, while travelling to Nottigham at my friend's place, I found many interesting views to draw. But because of my last min packing, I forgot to bring my sketching material with me. Advantage of being girl, I found one Eyeliner Pencil in my bag and it was enough for me to convert all my memories into pictures. A nature drawing can also express gesture. In this picture, first tree is showing his dominance. Last one is peeking from back. Those tree are also carrying a attitude in them.

"Even the atmosphere of a landscape has a (spatial) gesture." Walt Stanchfield.

Friday 6 January 2012

Tangled_2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eth94nBIIk
Tangled magic strikes again. I loved this movie and cant wait to see completion of this part.
In this click, animators succeed to maintain the excellent facial animation.