Maya Stuff

Not much has materialised on my blog for a few days.

Currently, I've been working on my storyboards. I see that other people appear to be doing many storyboard sheets one after the other until they have what they want, but I'm following my original rough storyboard and improving on the drawings so its easier to understand. I have in fact been drawing them out of order, cutting them out and rearranging, adding a few extra boards here and there. I just have a few more boards to do and as soon as their all done and scanned in, I will post them.

But not to fear, I do have something to post. I have done some of the Maya tasks. All that's missing is the three person conversation and the other bouncing ball task.











My goal is to get the animatic done by the end of Monday and the pre vis by the end of Tuesday, leaving Wednesday and Thursday to tie up any loose ends.

Question for Phil

Hello

Exactly how are we expected to present our work at crit on Friday? Will we be showing the animatic and the pre vis one after the other? And are we showing our storyboards as a separate article too, or will that just be seen in the animatic?

Psycho (1960)

Psycho (1960) was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This is one of those films that everybody has heard of, even if they haven't seen it. Ive also heard a lot about this legendary shower scene too but I still watched the film, not knowing what to expect. This is the first time I have seen this film and I enjoyed It. It actually surprised me twice. I wasn't expecting (who I thought was the main character) to be killed off so soon. I also didn't see the twist and the end coming. I did suspect the Norman Bates would be the murderer at first, just by the delay when picking the room 1 key, but then assumed it was the mother when she attacked the inspector on the stairs. I never thought for a moment that they were the same.



Like all films today, there was a lot of editing. Certainly if you compare it to Rope (1948). Focusing on the shower scene which everyone talks about, with many cuts, they were able to show a brutal murder without really showing much at all.



Where the camera showed something going on in the back ground (the killer, creeping up behind the shower curtain) reminds me of something similarly used in the Doctor Who episode, the Waters of Mars. Where the contaminated human transforms into the... er... water monster thingy, (I don't think they had a name) while the character in front is unaware. These are two examples of where the audience is shown more over the focused actor.



After looking around Youtube I've realised just how exact of a remake the 1998 Psycho was. Not only is it shot the same but even the intro is the same with the same music. I wounder if it would have been easier to colourise the original because that appears to be the only real difference. (apart from different actors) Talking about music, the music in the shower scene, I'm sure I've heard a million times.

Rope (1948) and some other stuff

I thoroughly enjoyed Rope. The film was done in 10 minute takes although they tried to disguise this carefully. To be honest, I rarely noticed the lack of cuts in this movie and was kept entertained throughout. Rope (1948) was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Because the were no visible cuts, the film was presented in real time. We the audience were experiencing the events as the characters were. Although, I think time was compressed. I don't know whether anyone else noticed that the city backdrop changed from day time (afternoon) to night time. When Rupert came back to the apartment, and Phillip was getting more stressed, the red and green neon lights started flashing brightly and changed the atmosphere of the the room. I don't know whether that was intentional. It probably was though. This film was experimental, but I think it was a success. Rotten Tomatoes said in their review that Hitchcock felt a whodunit lacked 'emotional force' and that "ROPE shows the director's preference for letting the audience know more than the characters onscreen". This story certainly wouldn't have worked unless we knew "whodunit" and where the body was kept.





Completely changing the subject.

I have some sketches of the backgrounds in the storyboards. My intention is to use these images to trace over in Photoshop and can be cropped for the story board, but animated slightly (simple camera movement) for the animatc sequence. As I haven't finished my character yet, at least I can start on some of the other things.

I had a bit of trouble with perspective on this one and isn't technically accurate but it clearly shows one the angles needed in my story board. Horizon line could have been a bit lower though.



There is a shot in my story board where the camera is looking right over the hole into the cellar. This was a shot a may end up taking out.



Here is the same street from the side. ( just imagine the rest of the shops, they will be in the final story boards)


And here is the cellar. with the crates conveniently forming a staircase up to the light.



I have drawn my character both Fat and thin, next to each other. The fat version having scruffier hair. The arms on the thin vesion are a bit like a string of sausages and could be improved. I also need to focus on the face more and colour them.

More Drawings

I have done some more sketching, both developing character and just a bit of general practicing. (mostly with hands)

I started with the drawing on the left. Gradually getting more shape.


And know I have this shape. very similar, but I think slightly better. A few other scribbles, trying to pose him differently. (and failing)


Here is my character about to throw a knife. The one on the right was drawn first and looks more like hes waving. The left one at least looks like hes standing.


I tried to picture him with his basic outfit (although not much detail) and also thin as well. OK so the thin ones don't really show much...


Mostly practicing hands although the scribbles in the middle are supposed to be the trapeze artist just getting out of the cellar. Those aren't really any better than the original storyboards.


I think I'm finally getting to grips with hands know.


I know this looks like someone talking on the phone but actually he is supposed to be examining the swiss army knife. The one labeled 3 probably shows this the clearest.


I was trying to show the movement of him throwing a knife. That needs some work.


Here I have drawn my character walking forwards. I think they've come out reasonably well. (certainly compared to some of the earlier scribbles)


And another look at the hand. These are some of the shots that are in the first storyboard.



The last one is just brining together some of the ideas and I think it has improved quite a lot since the beginning.


I think I need to get started on my story boards very soon. I also need to experiment with colour. My character (as you can see) is a lot less tall, has a soft triangular shaped body with reasonably long but thin deflated arms and legs. This is because all his weight has been added to his tummy and hasn't had much exercise!

Drawing development

I have been struggling to design my fat trapeze artist and came to Alan for some general tips.


But before that, I started with faces as I knew that my trapeze artist would feature in my film as a thin and fat version and needed some distinguishing features.
Jakie showed me this book on the internet which had a lot of hero/villain characters.
This face (far upper right) was copied directly from the book as practice.








These faces probably have the most shape so far. Although Im not sure that these are the right faces for my character. At the moment, I feel like I can only draw what I can draw, and not what I want to draw.



I carried on concentrating on faces, but decided that I needed to work on the body shape too. (and this was particularly where I needed some help from Alan.)

Alan suggested that I look at super heroes like Spiderman and Robin and imagine them if they had gotten fat. I have practiced drawing human figures like that, and then adding the fat. He advised that I get the basic structure of the character done first before going into details, such as the face. (which was what I was focusing on before)

These where my initial sketches, based on what Alan had drawn.



The one on the left is very exaggerated and perhaps has a the back is slightly too deformed.







I have know come to a point where I'm drawing the same basic shape and am not quite sure where to go next. I also need to try some different poses; I have got some books out of the library for just that.
Id like my character to become more cartoon like by the end of this.

So this is where Im at

OK. I've finished my essay on analysing the story and structure of Casino Royale.
I have only done rough story boards of a particular clip from the film, but for the moment, I think the next priority is getting my trapeze character designed. I will need a thin acrobatic version and a fat version, so I guess the best thing to to is to create some distinguishing features that can be present in both versions, so that they can be identified as the same character. After that, It will be a matter of storyboarding and so on.

The sort of character change Im thinking of can be shown in this character from Spongebob Squarepants.





This is a silhouettes of many trapeze artist, which may be useful.

Rough Storyboards

I've finally finished my rough storyboards. (It took an hour just to get them all scanned, cropped and resized) They are only rough, so I don't expect anyone to understand them, for those that can, feel free to comment on your thoughts. I haven't yet designed what my characters will look like. Once I've done that I can work on the final storyboards. These boards are really just for me, so that I have a plan of exactly how to lay out the shots. In fact, if I put these into Final Cut or Premiere, I can see much easier if it is going to fit in one minute. If anything needs to be taken out, it would save me doing a final storyboard if it wont be used.

Click to enlarge






















I've also done a rough storyboard on a shot sequence in the film Casino Royale. Again, it is only rough and don't expect you to be able to read it easily. If necessary, I will re draw the boards to make them clearer. These storyboards were really for working out how to draw the various shots. As you can see, there are quite a few moving shots which were tricky to draw as a still image.

Romaticism

This is my initial research on Romanticism.

This is a quote from

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa73

"Changes in society, beginning in the 18th century and continuing into our own time, underlie the romantic movement. It starts as a reaction against the intellectualism of the Enlightenment, against the rigidity of social structures protecting privilege, and against the materialism of an age which, in the first stirring of the Industrial Revolution, already shows signs of making workers the slaves of machinery and of creating squalid urban environments."

Basically, Romanticism is a movement which began in the 18th century. It was a reaction to the changes in society, starting with the industrial revolution. People were being forced to live in a new industrialized way, but the romanticist where trying to bring back something from the past.

Romanticists used poems and art to get their message across.
This message was all about nature. I have found and looked at Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth who were both poets. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote To Nature

It may indeed be fantasy when I
Essay to draw from all created things
Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;
And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie
Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be; and if the wide world rings
In mock of this belief, it brings
Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,
Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise
Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice.

(http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5670)


William Wordsworth certainly gave you many words indeed in his poems. so much that I am only providing an extract from Tintern Abbey.

Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting The Banks of the Wye During A Tour, July 13, 1798.

Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
Which on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which, at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Among the woods and copses lose themselves,
Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb
The wild green landscape. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild;

These poems both talk about nature in a Romantic way.

Then there are many artists. Two of them are John Constable and William Turner.

This was painted by John Constable.

The Salisbury Cathedral

This was painted by William Turner.

Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps

Both these images show nature, but the first is very English, the second is epic.

Thats all I've done so far, on behalf of Pipeline4. (Thats the team name)

New Idea

I have a new idea

There is this trapeze artist who cant do his act anymore because he is too fat. (he cant swing around)

Anyway... Hes wandering down a path, thinking of when he was in the circus on the trapeze, when he suddenly falls into a cellar, under a knife shop, through a hatch on the path. (the weight was too much)

He lands onto some crates and rolls off them.

He tries to get out by climbing on top of the crates then swinging on one of the dangling lights (as if on a trapeze).
He takes a few swings and SNAP

It breaks and he fall back down again.


He sees several swiss army knives

He has an idea
He starts throwing them against the wall, to form a ladder. then climbs up.

He escapes... hooray....... he suddenly gets an idea.



Back at the circus, he has a new act, throwing knives with pin point accuracy.

He gets a brave volunteer from the audience. and throws the knives around the volunteer, until he accidentally hits him.


Cuts back to the street.... and is seen walking sadly along the same path where he falls down the same hole....... completely ignoring the warning sign that had been put up.

The End.


Maybe the part from the knife thrower accidentally stabbing the volunteer and onwards, isn't really necessary as it already has a nice resolution from him getting his new act. And the fact I only have a minute.

Prapare for the most poinless conversation ever...

Prepare for the most pointless conversation ever...

OK, I had a go at (the homework on) creating a conversation scene, using the pre vis characters.
I've noticed in films that when you have close ups on the face they show just under the chin to the eye brows... leaving the hair just off camera. I will be quite honest that although I didn't use the thirds guide on the camera, I did spend a lot of time positioning the cameras. I've taken care in making sure the important stuff is kept within the safety margins too. Like the text. Not that that really matters for such a simple test. (Apologies if the text goes to fast)




I just couldn't resist animating another bouncing ball. (when you don't know how to rig and animate complete human like characters, its the next best thing). Anyway, this time I've gone a bit further. Not only is it bouncing up and down, but also along too. I've also applied a checkered texture to it as I've also animated it rotating. And that brought its own problem. How do you animate it squashing on every bounce if it is rotating all the time. Simple. You create a rig in which you can also animate the orientation of the squash. As represented in the PlayBlast as a circle handle. (you may need to full screen the video) Notice how it moves to counteract the rotation of the ball. I presume we will be shown how to do something similar (but likely to be different) next Friday.
This rig isn't perfect though. It would be better if when it came to moving the position at which it squashes, it could be translated through the ball instead of rotating it around the ball. (as this causes some weird looking effects) Hmmm. Its a bit tricky to explain but I hope that makes sense and it would be better if shown.



Again, its cartoony looking, with over exaggerated stretching.

Bouncy Ball

Today in the Pre-Vis lesson, we were given the task of animating a bouncing ball. Although sounding so simple, it actually covers all the very basics of animation. It is actually quite tricky to get right and requires a lot of tweaking. Anyway, I had a go, following the way we were shown. This particular attempt has come out very bloby, sticky and cartoony. It starts off in the air and falls. As it falls, it stretches and on contact, it squishes and bounces up again. The curve for the translate Y is reasonably spiky but works as it gives it a cartoony feel to it. If the drop off wasn't so sudden and there was less stretching, it should act closer to a real bouncing ball. I supose it depends on what you're after really. I don't know why I'm telling you this, when you could just watch it...



Hmm. Youtube seems to make it look more jerky...

I might have a go at making it bounce differently over the weekend.

The Final Cut

This morning we had the briefing for The Time Machine. When Phil was talking about what not to do in essays (like not doing enough background research and referencing to support essays in my case), I admit that that is where I went wrong in my last essay on the uncanny. Anyway... Although I'm not looking forward to this assignment, I expect that things will become clearer and won't be as bad as I think as time goes on.

We had our first introduction to Final Cut Pro this afternoon. (although it wasn't my first)
I have used Final Cut and Adobe Premiere (which is similar) before so things were familiar. It acted more as a refresher. I thought I would post the video that we were asked to create using the images provided. Nothing spectacular, or of any interest to anyone really!

yet another Idea... well half anyway

Since Phil said that I do not have to stick so rigidly to the story components, I have come up with yet another Idea... well half anyway.

my new Idea starts in a theater at night, with a new employee. A cleaner. he sees a trapeze set up on stage and just couldn't resist, swinging on them. Unfortunately, being no expert, he falls off almost immediately, and crashes through the floor of the stage and into an underground room. where lots of props and junk is stored. Hearing a lot of noise the old moody night guard decides to investigate. The cleaner needs to escape quickly. having realised that he has left his keys in his jacket, (which he took off when he climbed the trapeze) he panics. sees a swiss army knife amongst the junk.

from here there are various options. (my other ideas could be merged with this one... somehow)

whether he eventually escapes,

whether he is caught and presumably fired,

is there a reason why he is a new employee. (in a long line of cleaners which something has happened to(whats the night guard up to, why is he so moody))



I watched Casino Royale last night and have been writing my essay this morning. But this time, relying more on books and all the rest of the necessary research stuff. I'm writing the research part of the essay first, before putting it into context with Casino Royale. This is soI dont get carried away, talking about Casino Royale.

La Jetee

La Jettee is a film that is completely comprised of still images (exept for one tiny bit of film where she opens her eyes) Im not sure if this is sygnificant.
It is a story about a man who is used in experiments to travel through time. The reason for these experiments are because World War Three destroys Paris and the rest of the world. The scientist aim to travel through time to find a way of fixing the present.
The characters wernt given names. this may have been because, to the scientists, the names of the people experimented on are irrelivant. They are only lab rats.
Although at first, it seemed like I was listening to an audio book, I got used to seeing the still images andcould see how similar it looks to storyboards. I also saw how they never crossed the line of action by keeping charcters on one side or the other. They used mostly quick cuts but they used reasonably slow disolves across images when the woman is in bed which lead very well into the small portion of footage.

More reading, more Ideas

::::EDIT:::: Oh... I've just read your comments Phil. I wasn't quite sure how strict we had to be with our story components. Im going to sleep on some ideas...
::::::::::::::::


I actually started looking at some books during reading week. One of the books was on story boarding. it is called

Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and shorts, by Nancy Beiman.



Ive done storyboards in the past and have usually been flat scribbles, this books goes over a lot on good composition of shots. The other book, which I have looked through today is called

The Art of Watching Films, by Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie.



I've started marking pages which I think are going to be relevant to my essay.



I've had some more thoughts on my story.

I actually sort of had a back story with my previous idea, (with the flashbacks) but to fill in with more detail, lets say that this trapeze artist was fired from the circus because he accidentally dropped one of his fellow trapeze artists.

So lets say he's wandering around aimlessly in his costume carrying his Swiss army knife. With nowhere to stay, he breaks into a cellar (from an outside entrance using his Swiss army knife). He realises that he has entered a wine cellar, and starts drinking the wine.

He doesn't drink very much when suddenly he knocks over a bottle, he hears footsteps from above, getting louder.
He tries to escape, but the way he came in has shut on itself, so he gets his Swiss army knife out, searching for the right attachment (like someone looking for the right keys), he drops it and it falls down a drain. He grabs the knife, but gets his hand stuck. The other guy come through the door and he gets whacked around the head with a drain lid thingy (or whatever you would call them).

That's about as far as I'd got. Also note that all those separate paragraphs were thought up in a mixed up order, and were just separate ideas. They seemed to match up pretty well so I strung them together. These aren't final ideas, just getting them out of my head.