11 second

Really a little bit pissed off. I've been trying to upload my video to the 11second club website all day. The limit is 10mbs and mine is 4.4mbs and it gets to 7% and then cuts out. Might be my internet connection but I can't do anything about it and it's terribly annoying.

Expiremental update.

Well I WAS going to update and upload my experimental project so far, and I had 26-27 seconds done and finished BUT for whatever reason, since leaving uni and getting home on the bus the video has disappeared from my memory stick leaving me with just 1 frame. I left uni with 300 odd and now I only have 1. Which means I have wasted 2 hours and £1.20 and a saturday morning. But oh well nevermind nothing I can do about it except re-do it. The problem is now that I've peeled off all my post-it notes they're all scrumpled and shit.

This really sucks I was happy with how it was looking too and I'd actually have something to show for it other than a few words but you'll have to wait until monday to catch a glimpse.

Hopefully Final.

They're both the same, one has black background one has grey. I think grey provides more contrast, clarity wise.

Derek was right, adding the legs definitely helps the characters and the movement as the figures feel planted because you can see they have feet and they're on the floor. I know the quality of the actual animation may not be fantastic but I think the point is it's my best to date and this is all I want from myself with each task, is to be better with each one. I think this one flows a lot more than previous tests and works better as the 2nd character reacts to the 1st character. There are a few things that are odd, and one or two timing issues.

It took me a while to get focused on this project this is partly because character animation is not my strong suit or chosen craft, and partly because at the start I got more into the planning of the experimental project. So that's one thing to learn from is maybe a few more days thumb-nailing pays off.

One thing that really helped me out and I can feel it paying dividends is life drawing as although some poses my look odd and exaggerated I feel like I have a much deeper knowledge of how the body sits on feet, shifts it's weight and how the joints work. I think I have some decent body twists in there in a few places or at least one's I'm happy with.

People have remarked it has a good 'feeling' to it. Which I guess is good because it IS only 11 seconds and it's hard to take it all in without watching it about 10 times to spot everything. As usual though whilst doing this project I've had a gazillion different and better ideas of characters and stories but such is life. Stupid clavemen.

fgdhdfhfgh

Well on Derek's advice I added legs. And on Kathy's advice I have animated the secondary character (small claveman) more. Although it's hard to get a decent pause for his fall down, I might be able to get away with it how it is at the minute (his face still on floor whilst he's saying "I tho-") but it may need a tweak. I guess it is better and more dynamic although I'm finding it very fast and it is in danger of being hurried but I tihnk it's okay for now. I'm putting a bit more time into this than the experimental (I know other people are doing the opposite) but I am devoting Saturday, Sunday and Monday exclusivley to the experimental tohopefully finish it. Tomorrow is lip sync and finish the animation on the 11second and I have to finish it tomorrow so it shall be a long day probably. This gives me tuesday as the emergency day before the hand-in.

At the end what is happening is he's shout out of the cave when he says "He stole it" I shall upload the storyboard for this bit soon as it seems to make more sense that he shout out "He stole it" to the outside world because it's just the two clavemen in the clave so who is he shouting to? Although it could be the audience...which is what I had him doing before but the angle of drawing and the perspective was bloody difficult and it just didn't look right, in fact the more correctly I drew the perspective the more wrong it looked because his arm just disappeared.

Anyway, people seem to like the drawing style. I was thinking of drawing the backgrounds by hand and then scanning them in because I don't look how flat and bold the computer tools make it look, maybe that's just my lack of skill with it though either way I want it more subtle.

Life Drawing.2

Englby is holding the corner down by the way, that's not a super realistic drawing of a book.

Oh no wait...it is, I drew that....

I messed up her left arm on this one. Oh well.

Forgot to upload these last week.

Drive it like you stole it.

I just realised I've forgotten to draw in what he actually might have stolen....will that matter?

Also no lip sync, that's to come. I kind of liked it when I finished it but give it a night's sleep and I'll come back and spot more things that need to be fixed. I'm happy with the movement in general though but watching it back I can see a few places that don't make sense or need 1 or 2 more inbetweens. The plan is to add more detail or clarity or whatever is needed to it as I finish up with the experimental project (which would go a great deal quicker if the other linetest camera in the studio re-appeared or got fixed but nevermind).

Apparently my background is crazy? I think if you can't tell the difference between a rock and a tree then YOU'RE crazy. Although I guess in some way I do draw tree's like rocks so maybe I'm crazy?

Who knows.

I've looked at it again and some of the ways I've drawn thumbs is just plain odd.

loada....

I think I actually like the guide hand drawn version better which means I wasted a load of time doing the puppets. The only movement I actually like is when he goes "Why would I put it there?!" and his face beforehand. Anyway long day ahead tomorrow probably. I wasted a few hours trying to intergrate the Toon Boom camera compositing but it just wasn't working. However the drawing tools, the software smoothness and reliability are so much better than Flash still. Before I simplified it all down I was working with about 200 layers and pegs. Why? I think I got over-excited. Tomorrow is a trip to simpleton.

background test

Wow check it out. I have mastered the camera moving! I think. I have done 1 second of animation today. Horray. So next week I shall finish the acting and lip sync. Then the following week I can shoot my experimental project and mess around with the backgrounds on this because this was actually good fun making it sweep and stuff. I'm sure there's more to it than just this simple movement though.

Clavemen

This is just for a scale reference really because this far away their features are a little hard to make out. The movement probably isn't going to be fluid enough on this from the way you create the puppets. I've intentionally done claveman 2 (short one) out to be south park-y....just for..funsies really, he isn't going to be that lively anyway, claveman 1 (tall one) is going to the one jumping around all livid and upset which is why I'm contemplating drawing the torso by hand (I.e. not using the rigged version I've done) but we'll see how it goes.

Character re-made.

I think I need to redraw the hands a bit. I have to add detail onto the body and add detail to the feet. But I didn't manage to fit that in today before the last bus. I spent most of the day mastering rigging and now things should go a lot quicker.

The other claveman shall remain tall and skinny. This claveman is the accused one of the 11second plot.

I'm not sure on the eyes still. I've tired big ones small ones, no whites, wide set and close set but this seems to be the best so far. I like the short arms big hands, but I think it just needs to be slightly redrawn. I've realised I don't need a side view for this character though just a 3/4. So both characters should be finished by tomorrow If I can get it done before life drawing. This means hopefully the 11 second should be finished by the end of next week. I have nearly drawn all the frames I need for the experimental project, I just need to do a few tests which I shall upload when done, and thne It'll probably take 2-3 days to film. So all is looking on scheduale which is goodo.

Character Work

So I think this may be enough to be going with. No sense not getting on with it really in Toon Boom. The only problem is I've been set back a few days because I've snapped and broken my student card so I can't get in or get out of the studio. I managed to get in on Thursday but I couldn't get out again once everybody had left which was FUN and I'm still waiting for a replacement. So in the meanwhile I'm getting on with my experimental stuff which I tested last week and it works fine, but I forgot to save it and post it on here.

Anyway all this and some more is going in a PDF file or something (hopefully they have the relevant programs in the Library) and be handed in on Wednesday. I was hoping to have the Character puppets rigged for the 11second project by the end of this week so when my student card is fixed I shall have to pull my finger out to get back on scheduale. But as I said I can use this time to get ahead of scheduale with my experimental project.

I have drawn Caveman 2 (the one thatlooks more like a flintstone) in Toon Boom and he seems to move fairly fludily and easily but I am yet to rig him (Because the tutorial for rigging only came out 3 days ago during which time I've been locked in and out) or test it fully. Since it's only 11 seconds or so though I'm hoping to have it animated and lip synced in 4-5 days. This in theory will take me to the 25th of November and leave me 5 days to cross T's and dot I's.

I've had a bit of trouble deciding on Caveman 1's face (tall skinny one) whether or not to give him a nose...how to do the hair, how to do the mouth. I hope it works okay. I looked a bit at The Brackenwood Series, (Similar hair/head character called 'Bitey') and Where the Wild Things are. I've got for a cross between it's really long hair and fur. With Caveman 2 I've treated the Hair/Head more like a mask, something like Batman. It's slightly easier to see what's going on I think so I might use that on both characters. We'll see how it all pans out. Anyhow If you hear any yelling and banging out side the studio could you please let me in?

Clavemen

So this is a first, about 3 hours straight. The side view isn't working for me. It'll go much better tomorrow and faster because I'm getting better with the wacom tablet. I've got to sort his hair out a bit and some detail on his garment might work nicely. I am going for the South Park meets The Flintstones. You'll notice this Claveman looks a bit like Fred and Barney's love child if they'd done it with those cavemen from Wackey Racers in some kind of weird orgy that I'll bet you any money is on the internet somewhere.

Anyway. On the side view, a bit of neck, re-draw the body shape at the bottom should do it. I'm halfway through the 3/4 angle as well then soon it shall be on to some rigging! When the tutorial video for it is released tomorrow anyway.

It's kind of hard to get the detail on the hair right when it's all hair. I put a lot of lines in and it looked too complicated. Something to muck about with anyway. Hopefully once the two puppets are done it shouldn't take too long to actually animate.

Dope sheet to follow.