Character Animation Show Reel - Summer 2012

Check out my Character Animation Show Reel - Summer 2012!! :)

Artefact 5 - Miner

Improvements on the first draft

Feedback I got was that I wasn't showing enough of the weight in the hammer. Also I was parenting the hammer to the hand control and animating the hand control when I should have been doing it the other way. By changing the parenting I was able to quickly keep the hammer stable, grounding it and gave it the appearance of weight.

Evaluation of final artefact

I wanted to try and get the most I could out of the rig in its overall performance in this artefact which I believe I have done. This is definitely my favourite artefact and is also the longest. It have the most content in my eyes, content being character animation, not referring to the environments. I think it communicates the story and context and well as the frustration of the character all without sound which again confirms my research that you can indeed communicate a story with just character animation. This is best case of my character animations and is more refined than the others. Even taking the refinement away I can personally tell that my skills in character animation have got much better in these past few weeks and importantly I enjoyed animating this sequence. There is good timing, anticipation, it's clear to the audience I just as important its entertaining to watch which is what this is all about.

Artefact 4 - Honey I'm home

In this artefact I wanted to tell a story without words. I did this by implying the context. That the woman is at home and the man just arrives back from work (you can tell he has been at work as he pops his briefcase down on the floor after arriving through the door). As he slams the door the picture frame that the woman has so lovingly been adjusting falls off the wall and that annoys the woman. From the feedback I received people understood what was going on and in that regards it is a successful artefact. As this was pretty much a blocking pass there is a lot of room for improvement on the actual animation from as it is all rather jerky. I still need to take in previous artefacts and learn that I need to work on my over lapping actions from each action. There isn't enough eye movement and this becomes very noticeable as there are many close shots in this artefact and this is where subtle nuances come in to play, another major improvement I need to make to my animating skills is learning the fines of animation. Although the story and context is understandable I need to focus on the emotions behind the characters. In this the last shot is of the woman understandably being angry but straight away the feedback I got was that she was far too angry and it didn't sit right when viewed by my peers. If I extended the shot by a few more seconds and had the woman shake off her anger and become happy then this would make for contextual sense. Another comment made was about the linear time flow. In this sequence I have a close up of the door slamming and my tutor, Andrew Love didn't like this as it didn't flow with the linear time. Even though I do agree with him in that sense I believe it is necessary as just by having that shot there it communicates to the audience that the door slamming is what is causing the picture to fall off the wall and it would be difficult to portray that to the audience in such a precise way without that close up.

Client Project - Finished animation

This is the YCN 2012 Heniz Salad Cream Entry - Teddy Bear Picnic, enjoy! :)

   

Clint Project - YCN Presentation

When I submitted a version of my Heinz Salad Cream breif of the 30th March you had to enclose a pdf presentation of the work you created. I think this sums up what I wanted to achieve as well as what I did achieve.

Client Project - Feedback & Changes

On a previous version of the Bear's texture the bump mapping was a built in 'cloud bump' texture, this procedural texture mean that as my Bear moved the texture moved also. This meant that the texture moved around on the model and this was very noticeable on the close up shots.

I simply just made my own image based bump map and rendered out the scenes again eliminating the previously stated problem.

I had completely over looked giving the flask and flask lids a better texture and it was pointed out by one of my peers Jaz Worrell that I should texture the flask! So keeping it simple I just gave the flask and the lids a blinn texture with slight reflections giving them a glossy plastic look.

After the shot where the bear is revealed to these two characters I wanted an obviously relationship between them and wanted in this short clip to try and portray both individuals personalities. I wanted to swap the stereotypes and have the guy that is scared and not the girl. The feedback that I received was that although the audience can understand what I have intended, she still seems too relaxed at the sight of an angry looking and roaring bear. I remedied this by adding more a reaction from her but not as exaggerated as the males reaction. 

I have kept the final shot in which the guy is still frightened of the Bear even though it is obvious that he isnt there to harm anyone and the girl laughs off the guys worries, for this you shall have to wait until I upload the final film!

Client Project - Final Environments & Assets

A close up look at the final environment for the Heinz Salad Cream client project.

This is my primary environment for most of the major shots.

I added a little extra detail to this with the 'No Swimming' & 'Don't feed the bears' sign. This just adds a little more believability to the scene.

This is the secondary environment and I use for the opposite angle shots. I move around the assets from shot to shot to create the sense of differing environments.

A close up on the lunch for the picnic with a nice glossy finish on the flask and flask lids added as well.