#bigupba3b

[ahowardnua]

Weekly summaries big up (week 10/11)

These past two weeks have been a lot of the same stuff for me, there is basically no research but a whole bunch of critical feedback from everyone.

I took the Cop Shot off of Liam and speed through the process in a fairly quick manner, I would have liked to experiment a little bit more on it but we needed to get the shots to the point where we could composite them. I did manage to experiment with it slightly though, this was mostly with the timings. However, I also experimented with some of the movement. I debated having the Cop struggle to grab the gun at the beginning but eventually decided to cut it as the movement was confusing. I used some reference footage that El helped me with to animate the rough before moving forward with the rough animation but I’m happy with how it has turned out. I don’t think there would have been much point in experimenting further, we discussed earlier in the project the composition of the shot so it was only the actual movement that needed figuring out.

I did have to try multiple times on the Robbers movement. I completed this rough movement for the Robber and I was really happy with it but Liam and Fin weren’t, which was a shame but they had valid points. Fin mentioned that his body was positioned facing too much away from the camera and should be slightly more turned toward the camera. Liam couldn’t really explain why he didn’t like it, he just said that he thought it would be funnier if the robber just moved straight upward. Which I disagreed with, he could move in a more directly upward fashion but I wouldn’t want it to be straight up. 

We discussed for a little while what a better alternative movement would be as the gravity has already stopped working at this point so the robber would need to be holding onto something. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that he should just be turned more and lift his hands completely away from the railing as he turns to face the camera.

I’m still sad that I can’t use this version as I like the movement but I understand and will change it. If anything this is good practice for working under a boss that wants things done in a specific way, even if it might not be the best choice. 

I also completed a few small jobs for the project, I finished the water in the fireman shot and re-designing the title for the intro of the film. She had mostly finished this shot but she kept putting off finishing the water. I ended up asking her if she wanted me to have a go at it for her. This went smoother than I was expecting. I was fully prepared to struggle to match her particular style but after she explained her working slightly I managed to match it up fairly well; the white lines aren’t perfect but it’s not super noticeable. It also did save El from having to do it and becoming stressed about it. I also did a similar thing for the feet of one of the geese in a Love Letters shot. It was beneficial for a few reasons, not only does it mean that El could get on with other jobs but it also gave me something else to do and it stopped her from stressing about it. I know she can become fairly stressed about things if she struggles with tasks for too long. 

[ahowardnua]

Easter Summary

I managed to complete a fair bit of work over Easter, this included lip syncing the Bin Man, tying down, colouring and lip syncing the scientist and doing the same for the toupee man shot. In order for me to go ahead with these shots in this way I also had to first experiment with mouth shapes and style first.

I took my first rough iteration of the mouths and adjusted them so that they fit better with the project style. I did this through matching the line weight to the standard weight used throughout the film, this means that the mouths can be made smaller or enlarged to suit the shots that they will be used for. These mouth shapes should be suitable for max and the scientist. I’ve left individual characters up to the animator, I don’t think that I should have to do mouth shapes for each of them but it was important that the mouths for repeated characters were the same and were consistent.

I found that over Easter we still managed to work effectively, despite being at different points in the country. We had a few disagreements about some aspects of the work, mostly to do with Love Letters rather than Big Up, but generally we managed to resolve these issues by talking it out. Occasionally we did a skype call if we were struggling to communicate an issue or idea. Also, I think that a lot of the bickering was also due to stress. We were all aware that Liam was completely out of the country and unable to complete work, so we understood that it was completely possible that we would fall behind on work, something none of us want.

We all want to submit both films but we agreed at the beginning of the project that if it came to it that we would prioritise Love Letters over the Big Up. As a group we have already been considering ways that we can prevent this from happening. We have agreed that as I’m the furthest ahead I will take on some of Liam’s work after Easter, we also think that making a work pipeline of sorts would be a good way to move forward for Love Letters.

[ahowardnua]

Weekly Summaries Big Up week 9

I continued to Tie-down the Bin Mans movement this week, a lot of the rest of this week was spent on Love Letters.  After resolving the issues with his jacket I finally gave him a head. This was challenging to match up with the body’s movement as I wanted it to follow the body but I also wanted it to have some follow through on the downward movement. After some experimentation on the timings I managed to fix the issues I had with it. I initially didn’t like how bobbly the head was, it looked like it was moving wildly and slightly out of time. The group agreed with the changes that were made and encouraged me to take the updated version forward. I also adjusted the hair of the Bin Man, as I hadn’t been conscious enough of how it had been moving, this resulted in it looking too messy on the downward movement, and it was slightly distracting.

I eventually also added the rope to the shot, which was a completely unenjoyable experience. I’d like to never animate a rope again. The rough movement was good enough that I didn’t have to go back and forth a lot, however, due to how close the lines were and the thickness of the rope itself it made it really easy to see if it got bigger or smaller. This meant that if I stopped paying attention for even a second it would look wrong and I would have to go back and re-do it.

I eventually finished the rope and moved onto the colouring of the Bin Man, like I mentioned last week, this process is really straight forward. I did have to animate the lines of the jacket, but that went fairly smoothly. I only had to do back a few times and adjust a line where it had begun to look like it was trying to slip off his jacket. I probably could have stopped this from happening if I had planned out the movement of the lines through roughs. I decided against this because I remember thinking ‘it’s only some simple lines, they’ve just got to move with the jacket’. That’s a dumb and naive thought, next time just do the roughs. Like I said, even without the roughs it wasn’t too bad to do I probably would have saved a little bit of time though.

I did do a small amount of research into lip-sync, I found a few animated videos that I think should influence how we move forward. The group also seem to like the references and agree that aiming for something similar would be nice and should fit the style. (https://youtu.be/wTimGt-e73g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMWiYIVoDis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dop4MTlf_zc )

It seemed like an agreed upon decision that the lip sync should be slightly bouncy and rounded. Over Easter I will experiment further to get an outcome we are happy with.

We also had a presentation this week, probably the last one before we hand in. It was really helpful as it confirmed the areas that we already suspected needed improving. It also allowed us to line up the feedback ad decide on the ones that especially needed resolving. The main thing that we agreed on was improving the sound quality.

[ahowardnua]

Weekly summaries Big Up week 8

This week I continued working on my tie-down animation of the Bin Man. I’ve made it a mission of mine to complete all of my rough and Tie-down by Easter; this applies to both projects. I feel like this was a good decision to make as it will mean that toward the end of the project there will be more of a chance of everything getting completed on time. Also, it should mean that I will be further ahead, which will allow us to spread other work thinner if need be. I obviously won’t be just rushing through my work for the sake of it, I want to make sure my work is good and fits the style, but having that goal in mind will hopefully stop me from wasting time.

I’ve begun with the intro/ending to the bin man as the movement will be looped and is also the bulk of his movement. When going forward with the movement I wanted to make sure that the movement was dynamic and made good use of the fundamentals, I especially considered follow through and secondary animation. Considering the topic of the animation I think that these two fundamentals are some of the more important ones. It’s important to really consider the movement in these shots as the beginning and end are mostly lip-sync so anything that can make them more interesting and dynamic should be considered. I also spent a time considering how to make the shot more interesting, which is one reason why the Bin Mans Jacket is loose in the shot, it stops the shot from just being one section of filled colour that moves as one.

Whilst working through this I have been using the videos I found at the beginning of the project as reference. (https://youtu.be/v8eSPf4RzTU https://youtu.be/m5cZJh2njDA )

I added all of the in-betweens that the shot needed, which I had to try multiple times. This was because I initially made the movement to harsh and heavy. I managed to resolve this by reducing how far the jacket moved, the timings are the same it’s just the distance is different. This means that the speed of the movement is also different.  I also adjusted the jacket lines as they were slightly wobbly.

I find that most of my iteration when it comes to animation has just been going back and re-doing sections. I get a lot of feedback from the group with pretty much every stage of the process, so they are always informing me of ways that I can improve my work. I work with the process of doing a section of work, sending a video to the messenger chat or asking one of the group members that are nearby for feedback and then adjusting the work in response. The only real exception to this process is when I don’t think the feedback fits with the project or shot, or maybe it goes against something that we had already established.

Another job that I began this week in preparation for the coming weeks was Lip Sync. I decided to test out lip-sync in TVPaint to see how easy it was to do, especially as it would be more streamlined. I think that I will be doing my lip sync this way in the future. Being able to essentially make a Dope sheet in TVPaint really speeds up the process and makes it easier to edit as you go. When creating a dope sheet in Audition really irritated me, it wasn’t that I couldn’t do it in this way but it was more that I didn’t like the backwards and forwards that you had to do between a spreadsheet and audition. On top of that, having to take the information from the spreadsheet to TVPaint felt like an arduous process that I really believed had to be completed in an easier way. I followed a tutorial that I found on YouTube from Katherine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2J2bzDYQ8g ). She made the process really clear and easy to understand. The first years are lucky to have her going through Lip Sync with them. 

I will re-visit Lip Sync soon, I think I’ll take it upon myself to create basic mouth shapes for everyone to refer to and use but I will leave it to them to change them when it comes to their individual characters. Something that this exercise has shown me is that the line weight of the mouths needs to be especially similar to the characters line weight. This is because if it is too thin like it is in the above animation, it will look really out of place. I imagine the same would be said if the lines were too thick.

I also need to continue with the tie-down animation and begin colouring my shots soon. I know that colouring won’t take much effort as for the most part it is just filling a shape with the bucket tool, so I don’t mind leaving this for a while. I could spend my time at this point in the project completing other rough animation for the extra shots. 

[ahowardnua]

Bin man for the poster

[ahowardnua]

Updated schedule, a budget and a credit list

[ahowardnua]

Title for El

Another way I helped El was through re-drawing the title for the end of the montage sequence. The original one was really square and never intended to be used for that purpose. This version is less so and the words are each on separate layers so they can be animated however is needed. I first typed out the title with a font close to what we wanted it to look like and then sketched over it with adjustments. I then took the yellow colour and black lines in the same style as the rest of the animation and neatened it out. When I was going through the process El was watching over me and giving feedback whenever I asked. She suggested making the corners of the letters more rounded then they had been along with suggesting that the letter holes should be smaller than they originally had been. 

I like how it has turned out, the only thing that I would be tempted to change would be to change how straight the words are. I think this would work well as it floats onto the screen and nothing would be this ordered if it did something like that. 

[ahowardnua]

Finishing water for El

Along with helping Liam with a bit of catch up, I’ve also been helping El slightly. She had mostly finished this shot but she kept putting off finishing the water. I ended up asking her if she wanted me to have a go at it for her. This went smoother than I was expecting. I was fully prepared to struggle to match her particular style but after she explained her working slightly I managed to match it up fairly well; the white lines aren’t perfect but it’s not super noticeable. It also did save El from having to do it and becoming stressed about it. I also did a similar thing for the feet of one of the geese in a Love Letters shot. It was beneficial for a few reasons, not only does it mean that El could get on with other jobs but it also gave me something else to do and it stopped her from stressing about it. I know she can become fairly stressed about things if she struggles with tasks for too long.