FMP Animation

This is my FMP Animation which is also posted on Youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbT3_6_ij5g

I included some of my test renders i done below.

Evaluation

FMP Evaluation

For my final major project I wanted to do many things, one of my project ideas was to demonstrate animation principles in short animations which would have been made hand drawn. I decided to go with idea one as I found it a lot more adventurous and I also wanted to challenge myself; I have never done an animation with a lot of character animating.

My animation is about a super hero trying to retrieve a diamond from a building which is guarded by skeletons. The super hero is running through trying to get past obstacles in order to get to the building.

The character I choose to include in my animation was from the previous project I done and the reason I done this is because I wanted a bold character that will clash with the environment, which is why I textured him the colour blue. I also know that the character genre choice was correct as to if I was to animate a taller character. The environment I modelled had to look like it was near deserted with no buildings around except for mountains and clouds, this Is because if I modelled extra buildings around, the diamond won’t be as valuable to the animation.

When coming up with environment ideas, I wanted something that stood out that’s why I choose to model a dome looking building and cylindrical/rectangular platforms. I decided to go with a skeleton guard as I wanted to use my anatomy knowledge to advantage and knew that a skeleton will be more intimidating to use as guards.

Process in making my animation was obviously first to come up with ideas on paper then transmit them onto 3ds max. Involved me slicing planes and extruding them out/in to give them volume. When I finished a model, I textured it straight away, this was to save time and to see if it suited my environment or if it needed to be re-textured. The soundtrack I used was from the film 127 hours which was created by A.R Rahman who produces other beautiful soundtracks. The original soundtrack is called “R.I.P- 127 hours (soundtrack)”, which I cut up and fitted it into my animation.

Inspirations from obstacles was from cartoons, games, films and art work. For game inspiration Super Mario 2d/3d games helped me decide the camera angles to include in my animation also Crash Bandicoot as each level starts from where Crash needs to go then ends up from start of the map. For Cartoon inspiration Avatar The Last Airbender really helped me with my designs as some of the buildings look similar to the one in my animation, also in the film there is a obstacle where Aang jumps onto logs which I included in my animation as I saw this to be effective in my animation which ended up to be a success in my animation. Throughout all my projects I look on art websites which is a huge inspiration that really motivates me to create something I like. And for this project I saw a lot of environmental paintings/drawings which really helped me get ideas and figure out the placement of my 3d models.

If I was to do this project again the things I would do different are;

• Generate more 3d models to explore and perhaps develop an even stronger environmental scene.
• Do more storyboards to see the different possible stories that could happen in the animation e.g. I modelled a hovercraft for my character which unfortunately was not used.
• Make a timetable schedule to organise my time to get a more effective animation e.g. the super hero could have been fighting the skeleton for the diamond; the reason this was not done was because I simply did not have enough time.
• Possibly design a range of characters exploring more genres.
• Carry out research into a genre of films, seeing how and if an obstacle is used and how effective it was used.
• Definitely spend more time character animating making it look as real/believable as possible. This will require a series of tests before the final render.
• I would like to learn a different method to rig a character in 3ds max as using a biped is not as effective, as when you move a shoulder, there are parts that don’t look right.

I learnt a lot of new things doing this project, Before I didn’t know how to light up my 3d scene properly but I learnt quickly and experimented with the Omni Light’s far and near attenuation. This gave my scene realistic shadows and helped my animation look effective. Without the lighting, the animation would of failed. I learnt how to character model in 3ds max which is a real achievement for me as I have always wanted to know how to do it. I have always found fascinating how character animating is done and didn’t believe I could do it, but in this project I pushed myself and it paid off. When I had decided to do a 3d animation, the first thing I wanted to make sure of doing is to make my texture look as realistic and well used, I used the Unwrap UVW modifier and selected polygons and applied textures, this helped me place textures in the exact spot I wanted.

In Conclusion I think the project went well. There are many areas I would of liked to improved on but it was my fault I didn’t use my time wisely. I could of explored into more genres in my drawings and also applied more colour to enhance my concepts. I couldn’t be more happier with my 3d models as I think it was well executed and well suited to my animation. At first I had a plain sky blue background that I saw no life into so I decided to include mountains in the background to bring more life into my animation and to make it look appealing. I would of loved to add more obstacles and involve more animation as the feedback I received from friends and family was to see the super hero fight the skeletons and retrieve the diamond. Understanding some of the basic animation principles helped me key frame my character in the animation, there were parts were my character looked too fast or too slow, until I found out how many to put in-between each movement. In my next project I will have an extended and more understudied knowledge of animating and  I will do my very best and will guarantee something better than this animation.

Drawings

Alot of these drawings are focused of "Guard" designs. I wanted to come up with a design that would protect and guard the building.

The original character thats animated in the scene developed from the previous project which shows in that sketchbook. 

For this project i wanted something that will stand out and will look hard to get past, although i didnt animated  the character fighting the guards, i wanted the guards to be there to show no sign of weakness of the protection of the jewl/diamond in the building.

Storyboard

My storyboard of my animation.

Scan made drawings look faded.

Research

Basic Animation Principles

Squash and stretch 

Squash and stretch is a common animation technique applied to characters or objects in motion. The technique makes their actions more fluid, and it is generally exaggerated for a cartoonish effect. When utilized with more subtlety, it works just as well for realistic movements. Squash and stretch was used to great effect in early 1920s American cartoons such as Felix the Cat and Betty Boop. It can also be used in comics or still cartoon art.

Anticipation can be the anatomical preparation for the action, e.g., retracting a foot before kicking a ball. It can also be a device to attract the viewer's attention to the proper screen area and to prepare them for the action, e.g., raising the arms and staring at something before picking it up, or staring off-screen at something and then reacting to it before the action moves on-screen. An example of this is the opening scene of Luxo, jr.. The father is looking off-screen and then reacts to something. This sets up the viewers to look at that part of the screen so they are prepared when Luxo, jr. hops in from off-screen

Staging is the presentation of an idea so that it is clear. This idea can be an action, a personality, an expression, or a mood. The key idea is that the idea is made clear to the viewer.

Exaggeration does not mean just distorting the actions or objects arbitrarily, but the animator must carefully choose which properties to exaggerate. If only one thing is exaggerated then it may stand out too much. If everything is exaggerated, then the entire scene may appear too unrealistic.

Glen Keane Research

Glen Keane is an American animator, author illustrator and director. He is best known for his character animations at Walk Disney Studios for films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan and Tangled. He received an award in 1992; Annie Award for character animation and the 2007 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the field of animation. 

A Video of Glen Keane himself talking about his work is posted in the link below;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdwByOaft3o 

Glen Keane worked on the animation in the recent animation film Tangled.

His use of colour in work is a very loose style and suits his drawings. The animation is very realistically done,lots of humour is added in scenes which makes it an enjoy to watch and inspirational.

Richard Williams Research

Richard Williams is a Canadian animator. He is well known for working as an Animation director on Disney/Amblin’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler.

The Animators Survial Kit book helped me alot in my animation. I test rendered my animations and i noticed there was too many frames, i read bits of this book and it helped me figure out and understand how many inbetween frames to use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeJiteHiNKk 

Richard Williams played apart of animating in the live action animation Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The movie is about the toon star Roger being worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect. Groundbreaking interaction between the live and animated characters, and lots of references to classic animation.

My favourite scene in the film is when Judge Doom is looking for Roger in a bar and quotes " no toon can resist the old shave-and-a-haircut trick". Tension is built while Judge Doom keeps banging on the walls which makes Roger queazy which then leads to Roger breaking through the wall revealing himself.