Final Thoughts

After watching the film a couple of times the things which need to improve increasingly gets a bigger. Since today was the day of hand in, we have got the degree show to look forward to and and work towards, so i hope we can improve the glitched and certains bits of the film.

Honestly this project has had its ups and downs, like many other people's films have been having. However i do strongly think that what we as a group produced is visually a good film, it has some potetially to be better which, i mention again will look better for the degree show. I think this year for me has been quiet dissappointing, because i have struggled abit as a Director simply because it was all knew to me so the process of telling people what to do was quiet cool but scary. I think i also struggled with in the artist and technicall side simply because i am indeed very speacialise to character animation and my 3 folders will show that, however i do have the basic knowledge and understanding of all the other aspects which i have learnt through the creation of this film. I seem to learn a bit about compossiting which i find quiet interesting and fun to do, i also learnt some key skills which i will need to take into my working life, for example time management, i understand know how vitally it is important to have good time management because then i could have got more things done for this film. Also organisation, its importants to organise what needs to be done, i mean i have did some of this when it comes to my animating scenes, i made sure certain scenes where in such folders etc. However on a more possitve note, despite what ever grade i get, this has all been a learning curve which i will take on board what ever i do in the future, i have enjoyed working with my group even tho when times were tough we stood together and manage to make this nice film.

My animation skills i think has improved this term as i starting to think more about body movements, for example the tug of war scene, which i think personally is one of the best bits of the film, was an extreme challenge. I had to act out that scene with my sister in order to get the body movements right to por tray the struggle between the two characters. Depending what happens after the degree show and if i get any feedback from companies when sending my show reel out i may take up a character animation course if i can save enough money from a part time job.

Also from working on this projects i understands its essential to learn other aspects the pipeland for example rigging, this is something i will need to be able do and i will be working on during the summer holidays, as will be unemployed lol.

I would also like to take the oppertunity to thank everyone i know at ravensbourne who have helped throughout the three years. Its been a great experience which i will always remeber. But hopefully it wont be the last time i see everyone in out class.

Done!

Today is hand in and i have spent most of the morning sorting out my folders, and editing the film, at the moment i think the film looks very nice and it has a very unique style to most of the films what will be shown at the degree show. Getting the Music to loop was quiet difficult however i think i manage to put it in there and i showed a couple of people and some can't tell its loop which is good. I am really happy at the way it looks however i am not happy with some my animation in there because it was rush due to not having alot of time to spend on the animation, however this will all hopefully be greatly improved for the Degree show. Also with the rendered video we can see that there are alot of glitches, so these will all be fixed. As a audience you can see that is has some potetial, and after seeing it come together it has given me more motivation on improving the film within the next 2 weeks. However saying that there are some scene which i really like and that scene being the one where she gets the waitor's attention and the tug of war scene, as i mentioned previously the tug of war scene was one of the hardest scene to do as i had to also animate the waitor and show a sense of struggle, i think i manage to achieve it, but it obviously needs to be improved. On a lighter note tho, i really like our film, the style, the character, the story everything about seemes to be looking up and i just hope we can improve it, and intrest some people from the industry.

Animating the final scene

Done, i have finish all the animation and tomorrow is hand in, Desmond has one more scene to animate, and we will put them to render tonight and composite them and edit them tomorrow morning.

I cant beleive it is almost done, after very very late nights and starting to get excited of putting the whole film together despite some of the glitches we noticed in the renders. But this will all be fixed for degree show we promise :D

I have animated the final scene and it looks quiet comical, again i will not show the final scene as it will spoil the ending to whoever wants to watch it, so if u want to watch the full film come to the degree show.

FINISHED ANIMATING Long Scene

Woo i finished animating the long scene, which has taken me forever, however i do not want to show the playblast now as it will spoil the outcome of the film if loads of people see what happens therfore if you want to see the film you will have to be at the degree show

compositing

Did a small bit of compesitting, as Ross has done the majority of the compositing, i had a chance to help him out a little bit, by doing one small scene. Its my 2nd time using after effects and i seem to enjoy it, i think i will be over the summer holidays be using it quiet alot.

Im almost there, i can see the light, this long scene is nearly finish still got a tad bit more to do, the tug of war part was very difficult, simply because of the old mans hands rig his thumb does not bend like a normal human so i cant have the ability to look like he has grabed something.

Still on the same scene :(

Hmmmm

Yeah i seem to have failed meeting my timetable as i have been behind schedule, i was scheduled to have finished all the animation today which is the 30th May, but this long scene has been holding me back, however i think i am getting there, after this long scene i just have a small reaction shot to do.

More to the BIg scene

I have still been working on this scene, there is alot that needs to happen, firstly she realise the doughnut box has been moved towards the oldman, she gets angry, she steps on the table , walk towards the old man, slaps his hand as he picks up the doughnut, she pick the box up to turn and walk back however the old man grabs the box just as she turns causing the tug of war to happen, she pulls the box quickly and suddenly she slips doughnut in the air, old man catches and just about to eat and realise how the old woman looks upset, he then breaks the doughnut and gives it to her, she snatches and eat it up quickley. SOUNDS SIMPLE, BUT ITS NOT LOL, its taking forever to get the moment looking right as the old woman is quiet large in some places its hard to make her do some of the moments without it going through objects. this is how far i have gotten so far.

The Long Big Scene

As Desmond has been rendering the scenes that we have done already, i will have to animate the old man and Mrs Allan in this scene, it would have been hard if we both did the scene together so it was best if i did it myself,also desmond had alot to do so it was only fair i took this scene from him as my main specailist is character animation. At the moment i will start to animate the woman first.

My box of doughnuts

This was a half a day job i just needed to animate the old mans hand pulling the box of doughnuts towards him. This is a still camera shot of just the box and a hand comes into place to pull it towards him.

Finished eating her first doughnut

Finshed

now to animate the next scene

Reaction Shot

For this scene i need to make Mrs Allan react to the old man, as he has just open the box and is eating his first doughnut, She will need to be surprised and then snatch the box and bring it towards her and start eating.

One more final attempt

This morning i had one more final attempt and then decided to move onto other scenes as hand in date is near the end.

Scene 7

This a struggle this scene as i have to make Mrs Allan struggle to climb up onto her seat, i mean at the moment i have been stuck on this scene for a couple of days now making me behind schedule so therefore this is the best i can do at the moment, i will have to move on and if i have time improve it but at the monet it seems quiet unlikely as i still have the other half of the film to animate, as Desmond is animating the old man it will help speed things up slightly, although it seems like i may have to animate the old man at some point aswell because i cant keep desmond waiting for me if i have not finished my scene, so therefore i give him the list of reaction shots which he can do with out waiting for me.

scene 6

Putting the box on table did not take long, so this took me at least half a day meaning that i can work on another scene this evening. However i showed Dan scene 4 and he believe that i should change it simply because it gives the impression that the Mrs Allan is gone to meet the old man. I may change it depending on how much time i will have left however for certain it will change for the degree show.

Scene 6

Working on Getting the old man's attention, and asking if she could sit in the spare seat, the old man will be animated by desmond, so i will just have to focus on the old woman for this particular scene.

Scene 3 Almost done

Showed Dan this scene and said it seems ok, i will need to improve it because the hands are abit jolty, plus the reaction of the waitor still slow, he need to be in abit of a shock, at this point i wish i had IK for the waitor.

Scene 4

Scene 4 will be an easy shot to do as i have to make Mrs Allan walk to her table and as she is walking she realises that all the tables are reserved apart from the one where an old man is sitting therfore she goes towards him to ask if he could sit there. Here is a video to show what i did.

Waitor update

I could not get the movement right for mrs allan slapping the waitors hand for attention, so therefore i thought it would be even more comical if she pulled his fingers. however the reaction of the waitor i feel is not right.

Waitor scene

I' ve started to animate the scene with Mrs Allan trying to get the waitors attention, i'm finding quiet difficult as Mrs Allan is extremely short, however if i can acheive a successful scene it should be comical, because most of the gags is because she is small.

Our first complete scene

Our first complete scene only took a few hours, but thats because i did the walk cycle already, and she is only walking past the window of the shop so, only her head needs to be seen. Looking at it, i think its a very nice scene and i think it looks quiet comical as the shot establishes how small she is.

Red Bored in the Office at Wunderland

over the past 5 days, i have been working on a scene for Adam's film, this will be my final scene as i will need to start animating properly for my film. It is a shame , but i would have liked to work on more scenes for adam. Well its lesson to learn and is a lesson i will take with throughut my carrer. But anyways here are a couple of play blasdt for the scene.

New Schedule for the remaining of the final term

We realise that our previous group timetable is un achievable to follow due to big sets back, that being the Dissertation, as Me and Ross had an extentsion due change of tutors, we have spent the majority of 2nd Term on dissertation. After speaking with Dan, it was essential we got our act together at the begining of this 3rd and final term of our time at Ravensbourne. So Me and Des produce this scheduel which we strongly need to follow. As you can see how tight it look as i have come to the impression that i will need to animate a shot a Day, which seems quiet hard, however i know for the longer scenes that i will have to take more than one day.

She Can Walk!!

Here is the walk cycle i did with the Old lady. The rig seems to work quiet nicely, its not perfect but it will have to do. However alot of credit deservedly goes to ross for a good job on Mrs Allan.




Mrs Allan Walk from Ash Reemul on Vimeo.

Wunderland Scene, The Bad News, Mrs Allan ready to animate.

Lately i have been working on some animation for Adam, i have been given a scene where the red monkey is in his office and is basically meant to look bored. I was quiet excited to animate the scene simply as i have not done much animation as off yet, and since i have my computer back i will hopefully be able to finish it within a week or so.

On the downside, however more of a get ur ass together, we spoke to Dan today as he was checking to see what stage we are at the moment, and clearly he could see our film was strugling as we still have not had a complete environment just yet. We also come to conclusion as time is very much not on our side with a 3 man team we will have to jump straight into animation and go pass the 3d blockout stage. This has rally scared us, so we as a group spent a couple of hours reschedualing or schedule to see how long we got and what we need to do untill hand in. From the schedule we did its apparant i had to do a shot a day, but as the cafe shot was not completley modelled yet i had to wait till it was done to do some scenes. However the old lady (Mrs Allan) was finished rig, and i recieved it today thanks to Ross, I will over the weekend spend some time testing the rig by doing a walk cycle. This walk cycle can then be incorporated into some of the scenes. I must admit after our long and scary talk with Dan, it really i think is starting to motivate us to prove everyone wrong that we can finish this film.

WOOOOOOOOOO YEAHHH I GOT MY COMPUTER

Today i got my computer delievered and all fix, touch wood, it seems to be working alright. i could not do much work today as i have spent alot of time reinstalling everything i needed. Now that i have my computer i will be able to work on the films hoefully with out any problems.

Anyone for some tea?

Another test with the rig.

Testing the changes done to the rig

The old man rig has been changed after the first test for much better leg controll thanks to Dave. Here is a rough walkcyle i did to test the rig out.

Testing the old man rig

These videos show the problems i was having with the old man rig created by Desmond. I couldnt move the feet properly, the ik handle seem to stick where the previous frame was, i think the only way to over come this problem is if Desmond creates a foot manipulator.