Working on an EARLY showreel

Another test animation shot

This is Joseph walking to the train window on the seat to look out. He notices something and wants a closer look.

The next shot is him jumping off chair, then walking up to the main window and looking closer.



Remember, these are rough tests!

ENJOY

Clip of Joseph

This is joseph asking what the robots are doing, kind of saying "what are you doing? we dont have time for this, we have to go!"

hmmm, well maybe.



Here si Joseph looking where he can put his robots down. I was happy with knitwits floppy arms.... like woody!

What have i been doing?

Well, i've been animating my eyes out!

I've managed to do a healthy 50 seconds now.

I'll post a few VERY short and rough and NOT the best clips on here so you can see some progress but otherwise, so i dont ruin the final film, i'll keep you waiting.

As for my three folders for the film grading thingy, i'll be organising that soon also.

I have plenty of pre production stuff, drawing, storyboards etc
Some technical bits, weight painting and blockout
Animation, which will be my main folder
then after i will compostite the film in after effects adding fun filters and blurs and camera shakes.

Lots to do and not much time to be on this blog.

Will post some animation clips soon.

Bad skipping boy

Here is my first UNFINISHED attempt at a skip.



YES, i am aware of all of its faults but i'm leaving it up here as development work.

Unfinished Test walk (New settings for boy)

I changed the parenting settings on the boy. i unparented the feet from the main controller (arrows on floor moving whole boy around). This allows me to move him anywhere in my scene without his feet moving from their positions. Before, all of Joseph would move leaving me to re place is feet in the same position everytime!

Here is an unfinished simple walk (hands in a carrying position so they're not straight out by his sides) to test my above aforementioned changes:



I think I may be ready to animate for the final film now.

Blockout (in three parts)

Here is the blockout for 'Joseph's Trip To The Seaside'

It is split into three parts

Eyebrows

I created some set driven keys for the eyebrows so i can also control them independently from the face.

Above shows two extremes for the eyebrows

Facial expressions

I made whole facial expressions using set driven keys.

I used the blend shapes of the face, i moved the eyebrows and i also changed the eyes to create whole emotions with just one slide of the bar

Here are a few snapshots of some of the whole facial expressions

Happy:

Sad:

Scared:

Confused:

Content.... ha!

Driven mad by set driven keys

hahahaha, i'm so funny... and intelligent.

i decided to make whole poses using set driven keys to make my life animating as easy as possible... i made many different poses, tried to animate using them and failed.

It turns out, you cannot key controller handle things if they have set driven keys attached to them!! AHHHH, so worked for hours for nothing, still, it's all learning!

ready, set... driven keys!

hahaha, anyway.

yes, i have been creating set driven keys for joseph. I began with the hands. i made a controller (drawn by hand), then made the set driven keys for each finger and thumb and one to spread them all.




Here is the hand in a cool pointing pose!

Blockout update

my block out is too big to post, so i'll take it into college and split it up into 3 parts so i can post them all

Test run cycle

here is a quick test run cycle. I did this with help from the graph editor.

yes believe it or not, this is the first time in 3 years of animating i have used it. I have been teaching myself how to use it.



I have been looking at tutorials on the internet and also using my maya 7 book.

test walk with my complete finished Joseph model

here is Joseph completely ready to animate.



i quick walk test

Camp pose

Camp pose to test newly weighted model

Testing new model weights

I have been testing my updated weighted model of Joseph.

i have done another short walk and also a camp pose. The weights, now, seem to be just fine and he is looking really good.

I will try and post these videos, plus the blockout.

Today, i may add a (can't remember what it is called) shape holding thingy. I will try to put a sphere on the boys tummy so when he bends over it maintains his chubby physique. then i may add a very very mild jiggle to it and maybe his hair also. we shall see. I will try to post any videos as soon as someone shows me how to put large files on here, all compressed etc?

Blockout

Just finished the blockout for the film.

worked solidly on it until today. Now i must find a way to put it on here!

Mike Hirsh helped a lot with cutting down shots, so thank you Mike. Also dan was always at hand to wake me at the keyboard and give me help.

I am currently waiting for a new Joseph to be rigged and weighted in a different way so i can finally begin test animating with a character we'll actually use!

I'll have the blockout on here as soon as someone shows me how (it's a large file)