Mario Kkounnous

Research Topic Research Technique Research Videos Feedback Reflection Design Sculpture Film Art Character Armature 3D Print Animatic CGI Motion Control RP4222 Animation Tests Environment

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Rough Concept Sketches

I wanted to practise 10-20 minute concept sketches to help me with my drawing and creative thinking skills. There series of sketches took between 10-20minutes using photoshop. The idea behind these is to provide a little bit detail into the environments that will feature throughout the film.

The tree where M seeks refuge from the start of the storm. I took reference from the tree image I found online where it bridge between two mounds. The ideas of having its routes exposed gives the impression that this feel more alive and roams around the lands. 

The cave entrance that eventually leads M to the Cave of Reflection is meant to look dark and full of history as if this place have existed for centuries. This invites some interesting lighting set up where I need some experience.

The woodland tree line. This is the start of the fantasy part of the film. This introduces the journey and triggers the storm. 

The bench and lamp resting next to the train line features throughout the film and it looks like that M keeps coming to this place. 

I enjoyed painting these design and they took me less than 1 hour to paint as I just led with my hand and see what comes out. 

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Scenes with Commentary 1

I wanted to narrate some of the scenes from my Previs to help explain some of the decisions made when solving the direction of the film.

I believe that commentating on my film could possibly encourage students to think more about how they set up shots and use cameras. The commentary also includes some reflection on feedback given to me during the making of this pre-vis. 

I found that seeking feedback on the story and visual throughout this process was invaluable and helped me develop the story that is coherent and emotional.  

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Final Armature Design

This is the current and hopefully the final armature design that fits into the main Character of my film. I assembled it using a combination of materials to maintain stability. 

The head and lower arms were made using square K&S tubing for replacement parts as I expect that I would need a supply of replacement hands. 

The head is made from foam and markers will be placed for object tracking purposes. The assembly was straight forward and simple to make with some clean up of the printed parts. The material itself is easy to file down and will still maintain most of its structural integrity.

The breakdown cost of this particular Armature are as follows:

20xPrinted parts: £6, 24xBall Bearings £14, 6xK&S square tubing: £1, 2xMagnets £1, Foam Free (from scrap), 3xM3 Threads rods: £2, Total: £24 

I believe the costing in itself is a success and as long as the armature passes the animation testing stage students will benefit from this hybrid design saving them around £80.

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Character Referencing research

It is time to begin testing my armatures on how well it actually animates before I cast my puppet. This will help flush out any issues I may come across and see if there is any remedy for it.

First I needed something to reference by and so I looked for refeeencing material. I came across this great little character reference reel from the film Baby Boss.

I intend to recruit some student actors to play the role of the characters in the film. Even though I could probably do it myself, I could not achieve the level of performance I am looking for.

I may use some of these clips as a reference for my armature animation testing.

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Animating a Cat in Maya

This is a brilliant tutorial the outlines some of the key techniques when animating a quadruped. Though the motion is not perfect, this gives me a starting point for when I animate the cat.

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Dog motion 2

Another excellent reference of a dog trotting. This is in slow motion and you can really see the complexity of the movements made.

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How do Dogs Walk

This is a great reference video for my commission work of dog motions. This will be most useful when I animate the animal for the advert.

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Making of The Supporting Act

I have put up a post about last years BBC Christmas advert “The Supporting Act” which features incredible character animation, set designs and compositions that involved complete facial projection in a previous post. The video below takes you through a walkthrough of the studio and different process of production.

What I took out of this video was the short section when they replaced the face with a CGI counterpart. This is exactly what I intend to do. The process in principle is actually quite basic. What makes the illusion work is getting the lighting and shading to mimic the physical puppets and set. After investigating the best way to track faces, it became apparent to me that I must use a tracking software that only speciallises in object and camera tracking like PFTracker. 

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Painting On Silicon with Silicon

painting silicon is a process in which I intend to practice on my main character puppet. This video clearly identifies important steps when preparing your silicon casting for painting.

The techniques demonstrated are techniques I am already aware of but it was handy to recap some things I may have forgotten.

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Set 2

I have begun work on the set of scene two. I must admit, I was hoping to have this set finished by now along with some others but I have underestimated the time I have spare to focus on them. My commission work has been prioritized over the production of my film, but this will only enhance my skill level.

I am looking to produce modular assets that I can remove and rearrange for multiple scenes as well as taking high res photos of individual assets for extending the set in post.

It is important to create these assets with light weight materials to help store and rearrange a set. I used scrape corrugated cardboard to construct and establish the overall shape.

As part of my practice research I want to reframe from purchasing material and equipment when making these sets to demonstrate to students that expensive techniques isn’t what makes a visually interesting story but how these material can help you explore avenues that can also encourage style and creativity.

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Smodo

This could be very interesting when animating all the CGI shots. This technology uses motion capture to record the motions of the armature and transfers the information on to the digital rig in Maya, 3D Max etc.

The link below directs you to their website and I will investigate this further. However it does appear that the digital mesh can only be controlled using their puppet rig. As long as this doesn’t dictate the digital rig itself then this could be a useful method to mimic stop motion animation in digital format.

http://smodo.co/eng/

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Commission Work: Research

This is a video about ticks. I took particular interest on how the Tick attaches on to its host and how they feed. I will explore similar camera shots to save time.

Since I have such a limited time to complete this project, I must introduce efficient ways to reduce my workload but maximise content and quality by making sure the correct and relevant information is explained. 

This video has certainly provided me with some insight and understanding on how ticks work and I can use this to help me visualize the message the clients want me to convey effectively and within the short timeframe and restricted resources.

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Dog Animation - Commission Research

As part of my ongoing search for referencing quadruped animation. I wanted to reference examples from other animators and found this charming animation of a dog. Animating beyond a biped is something outside my comfort zone as I have very little experience. This demonstrates an immense level of skill and has produced some realistic motions. 

Despite that this is just a finished example and not a tutorial, this will prove very useful when animating the dog on the advert I have been commissioned to make.

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Vine Reference

A walk along the Liverpool & Leeds Canal, Blackburn. I quickly decided that I want my cave scenes to have a vine/web like theme. This is to help gave a trapped and chaotic for when M’s vision causes him to have an epiphany.

I believe these bushes reflect the idea very well as the trunks and branches do not have any kind of structural pattern, which is something I wish to explore for my set design.

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Eleanor Trees

Eleanor graduated on the Masters course who made these charming trees. I have been contemplating on the style and production method I should use to make the trees for my sets. I want to define a unique style that compliments the story and composition.

Eleanor’s trees for her film demonstrates an effective and resourceful approach to making a woodland area that suites her style. It appears that the trees were made mostly out of foil and then wrapped using aluminium wire. This gave the trunks and branches some texture for the light to bounce off and provide a nice contrast.

I love the way she decorated one of her trees to help stand it our from all the others.

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New Single Ball Plates

After a successful print from the Robo R2 printer. I realized that it would be ideal to make plates to lock off one thread to make knee and ankle joints.

These are taken straight out from the printer bed and look good. A little bit of clean up but they have printer out accurately. It took about 1 hour to print and weighs next to nothing. 

Despite a bit of flex, these grip really well and provides good fluid movements on the joint. It won’t become apparent on how well they maintain their tension and grip until I run some animation tests with the armature. 

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Commission Work - Tick Reference

I was investigating how a tick walks and moves, I came across this video that explains what they do and how they do it. This was very interesting and gave me a better idea on how to go about directing the introduction.

Some of the shots like when the tick latches on to the passer by and as it crawls up the blade of grass sparked my interest as I was struggling to decide how to go about getting the tick to latch on to the dog convincingly.