E J RODRIGUEZ @ejrcreative-vfx - Tumblr Blog

Moonlight (One Minute Animation) By Eric Rodriguez

Story Synopsis: Mother wolf and her pup are traveling through the woods under the starry night and moonlight. They then stop, the mother starts to howl at the moon she is then followed by her pup who decides to join in.

Reference

Rodriguez, E. Moonlight (One Minute Animation) By Eric Rodriguez, 2016. Vimeo, viewed 24 October 2016, <https://vimeo.com/189349437>

#Vimeo #animation #wolves #wolf #oneminute #shortanimation #pup

Moonlight (Short Film) Stills

Editing techniques include close-ups, mid shots, scene matching and wide shots.

Reference

Rodriguez, E. Moonlight (One Minute Animation) By Eric Rodriguez, 2016. Vimeo, viewed 24 October 2016, <https://vimeo.com/189349437>

Title Treatment

The firefly actually makes an appearance during the title treatment.

Reference

Rodriguez, E. Moonlight (One Minute Animation) By Eric Rodriguez, 2016. Vimeo, viewed 24 October 2016, <https://vimeo.com/189349437>

Test Footage

Testing sound timing, frosty breath effects, and character rigging. Wolves are then animated to howl at the moon.

Reference

Rodriguez, E. Moonlight: Test Footage 2, 2016. video, created 24 October 2016,

Test Footage

Testing different techniques, duration, and visuals. Wolves including the moon and stars were all animated separately.

Reference

Rodriguez, E. Moonlight: Test Footage 1, 2016. video, created 24 October 2016,

Newest Storyboard (Moonlight)

After cutting a few scenes from the original storyboard to fit everything in a short one-minute animation the following is the updated for ‘Moonlight’.

Parallax Scrolling

I found the following tutorial really helpful, using this technique I was enabled to move each layer of the background in different speeds to show the feeling of movement.

Reference

Youtube Parallax Scrolling After Effects Tutorial, 2013. video, viewed 21 October 2016, <via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAvZl31iClA>.

Style frames (The Boneyard)

This style frame was created for the extended version of my animation, when the Pup gets lost in the woods, unfortunately, due to the time limit this scene didn’t make the cut.

Style Frames (The Woods)

Using Photoshop I created separate layers for the background for the style frames including stars, moon, trees and foreground.

In the final process through After Effects I put each layer through a parallax scrolling process (Youtube 2013).

Moodboard

Researching different backgrounds, artworks and styles helped me get the idea for the landscape I wanted to create for my animation. I liked the way the moonlight traveled through the woods, trees, and branches, These artworks inspired my final output.

References Moorezart, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <https://moorezart.wordpress.com/photography-landscapes/>.

Pinterest, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <https://au.pinterest.com/croxgleas/reflections/>.

Animal Wall, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <http://animalwall.xyz/wolf-dark-old-loser-fantasy-animals-moon-night-desktop-backgrounds/wolf-dark-old-loser-fantasy-animals-moon-night-other-gallery/>.

All Wallpaper Wolf, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <http://www.allwallpaper.in/de/all-wallpapers/wolf>.

123RF Vector - Wolves howling at the moon, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/howls.html>.

123RF Stok Fotoğraf - Kurt Mavi Ay'da Howling, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <http://tr.123rf.com/photo_30219999_kurt-mavi-ay'da-howling.html>.

Shutterstock Wolf Howl, n.d. photograph, viewed 20 October 2016, <https://www.shutterstock.com/search/%22wolf_howl%22>.

Moodboard

Limbo (Video game) inspired the look and feel of my animation. The use of silhouettes and white glowing circular eyes. I love the minimal use of colours and contrast of darks and shadows which enable it to set a creepy and suspenseful mood to the game.

“The game is a masterpiece.” (Giant Bomb, 2016)

“Dark, disturbing, yet eerily beautiful, Limbo is a world that deserves to be explored.”(Joystiq, 2016)

References

Playdead’s Limbo Carlsen, J. URL: http://playdead.com/games/limbo/ [Visited on 20 October 2016]

The Pup (Walk Cycle)

The walk cycle for the pup character involved more of an adolescent approach. The walk had more of skip and run to it. It also reflects the pup’s character, his mind is more innocent and is trying to catch up to his mother. Instead of 9 cell by cell frames like the mother wolf, I only had to use 4 cell by cell frames to create the pup’s walk cycle.

I studied the way wolves walked in the wild. Therefore for the mother wolf’s walk cycle I created it to have more of an animal instinct feel (head down). In final production, the adult wolf looks much more aware of it’s surrounding than the pup.

References

My EMP The Animated Survival Kit: Walking Cycle Williams, R.URL: http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/ [Visited on 20 October 2016]

The Wolf (Walk Cycle)

I initially started with a sketch of a wolf, scanned it and retraced it using a tablet in Illustrator. I created cell by cell frames for the legs and multiple layers for the body. In After Effects I made a character rigging of the wolf (the head, neck, torso, body , hips and tail) which then formed a skeleton. This process enabled me to animate specific body parts. In the final production, I repositioned the keyframes carefully so the wolves’ walk looked more natural and organic.

I took note of Richard Williams’ basic walk pattern. For example, the spine twist and whilst the character walks, their shoulders and pelvis move up and down.

References

My EMP The Animated Survival Kit: Walking Cycle Williams, R. URL: http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/ [Visited on 20 October 2016]

Animation Test This video shows my attempt as using Character Rigging in After Effects. Step by step I created different layers for the body parts, from hips to the body and rigged them to a parent layer. Unfortunately, this technique did not work so well for my animation. Therefore I had to try a different approach.

Reference

After Effects The Firefly Animation Character Rigging Test. Rodriguez, E. (Video) [Accessed on 17 October 2016]

Richard Williams

Richard Williams is an animator who created the survival kit for animation. His work demonstrates the walk cycle of a character and how important every key frame is in each cycle.

References

My EMP The Animated Survival Kit: Walking Cycle Williams, R. URL:http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/[Visited on 20 October 2016]

Moodboard

Balto: Character models are how I wanted my characters to be portrayed as in the final cut. Similar themes include dogs, wolves, and other animals. I found it very interesting how these animations began from the drawing board to the final production.

References

Balto Model Sheet master copy. Artwork by: Quintero, R. URL:http://reiquintero.blogspot.com.au/2013_02_01_archive.html[Visited on 10 October 2016]

WALT DISNEY CHARACTER MODEL Balto (1995) Production Art URL: http://livlily.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/balto-1995-production-art.html[Visited on 10 October 2016]

Moodboard

Disney animations and sketches are seen as a great inspiration. It was interesting to view they ways and techniques put into the traditional cell by cell animation. Other sources included character models that showed facial expressions and movements.

References

Balto Model Sheet master copy. Artwork by: Quintero, R. URL:http://reiquintero.blogspot.com.au/2013_02_01_archive.html [Visited on 10 October 2016]

WALT DISNEY FEATURE ANIMATION 101 Dalmatians (the 1990s) URL: http://auction.howardlowery.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=2867613 [Visited on 10 October 2016]

WALT DISNEY CHARACTER MODEL Balto (1995) Production Art URL: http://livlily.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/balto-1995-production-art.html [Visited on 10 October 2016]

WALT DISNEY CHARACTER MODEL Lion King (1994) Concept Art URL: http://lionking.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lion_King_Concept_Art/Gallery [Visited on 10 October 2016]

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

E J RODRIGUEZ