too much after effects makes simon something something...

Polish animation about a fly

Just thought this had great timing and pace and thought i'd chuck it up, although i understand vaguely that he said the F word atleast once at the end im not sure what he was saying.

Funny none the less. and nice use of mixed media in one scene i think.

sc2

And another...

Just finished scene 5.1-3's bg work, may aswell share it now...

Thought i should mention that these uploads are all compressed to MPeg 4 xvid codec so the sample rate is reduced slightly (pixelation) this isn't in the compressed video but in youtubes post upload compression doubling it up and really naffing it.

After, After Effects...

So had a tutorial yesterday, what a big help! Thanks to Ian for his advice and hilarious stories, so here's what we made;

Bit of a daft one i know.

So then i went home, and i got to making something a bit more relevant and a lot more sexy...

Scene 7, without the character, timings have been an issue, the scene is originally designed to be around 6 seconds long, but the character animation is only 2 seconds, so some crafty editting and additional shots will need to be put in. Watch this space. And yes, it has an orange film filter over it, scene 8 will have a red.

Also did scene 8 which may now come somewhere in the middle of scene 7 ?! - yeah dont ask.

Scene 8, 1050x576, 25fps, 6 layers in 3D render. 2 Seconds or 50 frames. character layer missing.

The 'to do' list

Production starts monday, after a fairly successful pitch, currently scoring a nice high 2:1 which i am fairly pleased with (want that 1st even more now). So here's the 'to do' list for monday, and provided i can always get to a computer i will be listing one for each day of production to keep track of what is and isn't getting done.

• Consider layout and character layout.

• Line Test - Scene 10, 10.1 - 10.3 (Spear to Plane morphing) 
• Digital backgrounding in the evening.
• Discuss with Rachel an idea for scene 11 where plane crashes, and the depth of focus control.
• 10.3 - consider Birds eye view angle as part of morph sequence (ie introduce a cut in the morph make life easy)
• Remember to breathe.
• Character design for Scene 11 - silhouette and detailing.

Sounds like a lot, but seeing as the spear should be no more than 5 frames on loop - then the morph may be a cut now due to an inspirational shot i saw Friday where the plane passed very close up from a birds eye view (thought i might steal that :D)

Character design for Scene 11 is already done, just need to discuss and edit now. Also consider the eye.

Digital backgrounding needs discussing in a technical aspect, what detail and layers to create for clouds and sky in black in white. and how to comp them.

could be interesting...

http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/film/Cave_Of_Forgotten_Dreams_3D/

Did some more LT's before todays tutorials...

Scene 6
Graticule 8
23 frames at double shot running 25fps.

(Compressed quality for sake of upload times)

Bit of an elaborate fix, i started the walk with him holding the spear in the wrong hand, inorder to move it other, i, well, i got a bit carried away and made him throw it up and do a forward roll before jumping to catch the spear.

Better than plain old running. Needs a frame to excentuate the throw at frame 13. May remove the first 6/7 frames as it's a slow step and replace with 3 frames or so for the run. Also need to put a few more on the end for the landing, but i am pleased with the motion smoothness and the weighting in the shot considering this is the first time i've ever animated anything like this.

Feel free to comment any suggestions or... ...comments.

Nice and simple

I liked the look of this, something about it's simplicity appeals to me, however the part that caught my eye was the attention to detail when he draws the friend and the movement in the hand i thought was very well captured.

for anyone who had trouble finding a working version

here's a legit black and white UWE Bristol Logo from them, i haven't editted it in anyway and thought i'd just share it up for anyone browsing as a reminder we need to use it on our production materials as and where we can.

Enjoy!

Things taken from Cinematography talk 10MAR2011

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2008/02/24/pin-point/

Really liked the artwork and simple shots, often very close up to reduce strain on the animators - NICE TOUCH! - i liked the cinematography and use of colour filters, even though i've designed my piece to be black and white, colour filters or temperatures could give the piece a new depth and if i have time post production will definitely be something i consider trying.

http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/01/09/stand-up/

I've seen this before, Stand Up has a huge similarity to the visual style i am approaching, slightly more surrealist than i am aiming for with some abstract situations that i dont feel would suit the more documentative angle i am taking with my running piece. But definitely like the use of lighting and reaction shots throughout and i am considering where i can make some of my morphing scenes react a bit more like this, as apposed to the static views they are. At the same time i dont want to bite off more than i can chew with such a short production period and to change too much now may prove costly to the final finish.



Things to follow up:

www.CeltX.com

www.Vimeo.com

www.Skillset.org/animation/careers/article_3768_1.asp

www.Delicious.com/rachel_robinson

Scene 8 - Line Test - Inked and clean up first test.

Line Test - Coloured and inked.

Video compressed using virtual dub at this scale and size i lost a bit of quality but doesn't matter at this stage.

Also, the transfer from line test to my machine, to internet via compressor seems to have slowed down the movement ever so slightly.

This has nothing to do with anything...

Still makes me chuckle;

For my use

Just to make life easier, a working logo to go on all work published:-

Small

Large

Getting ahead of myself now...

Got tired of inking the pencil drawings so decided to get ahead of myself again and try a dvd case design, bit rough and probably all wrong as i dont have the brief, tightly based on the OneSheet, here it is;

And the disc:

Limbo

My final indy game inspiration comes from Limbo, developed by Danish company, PlayDead.

Again the art style is very much the eery black and white environments i wish to create for parts of my animation.

Braid

The title screen from another Indy game, titled Braid. Developer: Jonathan Blow.

Background artwork for the game was created by David Hellman, artist of the critically-acclaimed webcomic A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible.


http://www.alessonislearned.com/

A trailer to a game called 'NightSky' from indy developers Nicalis.

A lot of the visual style of this game is similar to what i want to accomplish in my work. Something i am taking from this is the use of video capture for things like trees, digitally translated to silouhette and used as an animated background. Gorgeous effect i think you'll agree.

LOSSLESS COMPRESSION

Now I know we've been told not to compress, and for those of you who have 4-5 hours to waste waiting to upload that 2 minute video, fine.

I have been using this old trick for a long time at 3CrowsStudio.net;

http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-compress-a-video-file-with-virtualdub/2009/05/31

This codec and software will compress both audio and video with what i would say is complete losslessness. :D

At least give it a go, if it doesn't work it's more likely you've missed a step than it has damaged the quality.

Took my 459mb file, turned it into 30mb file (129mins to upload 459mb to youtube) or (8mins to upload 30mb to youtube) and the quality, resolution etc is untouched.

Thank me later.

Also watch this space for the video! (actually watch Animatic, that's where it's going)

cool superman classic short film from disney

...with an interview showing the working process.

FLASH Experimentations and animations

(I have created the video output as a Gif image to save on uploading times.)

Click to watch!

Scene 5 - Gorrila throws a stone from top of tree.

Title Sequence 1

Scene 5 - progression. Given him a right arm with animation. Corrected stone flight path to bounce...

Line Testing - Scenes 3 and 6.

Scene 3

Prod:  EVOLUTION

Ratio: 16:9 (letter box missing)
FPS:  25
Cond: Unrendered
Scene: 3, 3.2, 3.3 (combined) - Evolutional Creature - Line Test

Scene 6

Prod: EVOLUTION

Ratio: 16:9 (letterbox missing)
FPS: 25
Cond: Unrendered
Scene: 6 - Caveman Reaction - Line Test

Relevant artist research

Yuri Norstein

I've chosen Yuri Norsteins' animation, The Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) as it contains a lot of relevant imagery, techniques and art styles I want to accomplish in my own piece.

I particularly like the use of lighting in this animation, switching between light sources and depth of field. Chiarioscuro and film noir lighting has always played a big part in the majority of my work and i want to continue that my animation.

Also relavent in this piece, is the side view walk cycles, the short legs and large body of the hedgehog clearly made the animation process simple. 

Interestingly he's used what appears to be photography of a crafted tree in part of the animation. This is a technique that hadn't occured to me and may be something for consideration at some point during my production.

Scripting

Not putting this on the script page as I found it too complicated and unhelpful;

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.04/4.04pages/williamsonscript.php3

May interest someone though, personally found it a bit O.C.D on the line spacings and columns side, but definitely a useful example of a script buried in there.

Just an image i liked, thought i'd chuck it here for now...

http://jeffwamester.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mauitown.jpg

No info to go with it sadly, but i like the art style a lot.

Hand drawn - Walk Cycle animation tutorial

The first in a whole series of tutorial videos, with some good advice on animating a basic human walk cycle with progression in to more detail.

Movement (walking) animation tutorial in CS4 Flash (available on the course!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qOuvtgAkyQ

Incase it helps get you going, how to draw a character in flash - tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr2Y3DKHiJg&feature=channel

Sadly, I'm unable to embed the video.

If it interests anyone, i have another site:

Just to plug my other site:

www.3CrowsStudio.net

Funny commentary, game reviews, competitions, give aways, tshirts for sale etc etc.

Take a look, and please become a follower/subscriber if you enjoy!

- 3 Crows Studio

First Animation Attempt using Photoshop and Easy Gif Animator 5

60 digital frames running at 16/100th's of a second. 

(It's a .gif image, so if it's not running as you see it and it should be obvious, try clicking on it to view)

The quality got a bit sloppy towards the end, but I was experimenting to find how to encourage speed in the drop and also to reduce work in the animation process. Overall I dont think it looks too bad, few more cells in the last couple of animations and it could be fairly smooth.

Videos

Homer evolves from a single cell organism into a couch potato.

Pearl Jam - Evolution Music Video.

Fat Boy Slim - Right Here, Right Now. Music Video.

       Clay Animation by unknown artist. 

 

Amazing clip where scientists and computer experts use CGI programming to bring to life the walk of the primeval link between ape and man. Free video from the BBC.

Walking With Beasts from BBC Worldwide

(even the advert is an interesting stop animation!)