Jenny

Summer Show - 17th -24th June

2011-06-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

For the summer show I decided to print off a lot of business cards, postcards as well as burn my showreel to a few DVDs in case anyone wanted to take one away.

Business cards:

Postcards:

Everything Together:

Innovations Project

2011-06-16T02:40:00.000-07:00

Digital Creature Concept Composited within a Photograph

Abstract:

For this project I will be expanding my knowledge of Digital painting by designing and colouring a creature in a realistic style, using arrange of brushes and techniques available within Photoshop. I will be building up layers to gradually create a realistic/ living creature, paying particular attention to lighting, shadows, textures as well as fine detail. The creature will be designed to fit into a specific environment, this being a landscape photograph of some type e.g. forest, seascape or mountainous landscape. To make it an innovative project for me I will be compositing the two together to make it appear as if the creature is within the environment and not two separate pieces.

Original Photograph:

Composited/transformed Photograph into Night:

Digital Creature Concept:

Final Fully Composited Image:

At the start I struggled to get into it as I couldn’t think of any character designs or find any photographs that instantly gave me ideas as to what I wanted to create. After continuing to hunt for inspiration for what I could do I came across one of my friends (Michael Bryden) photos of the Lake District, which instantly started sparking ideas of what I could create. Also after waking up from a very bizarre dream I remembered seeing this little fat creature wobbling along, so decided to sketch it sat upon some rocks fishing; fortunately this worked so I developed the character further until I was happy with the end result. I am pleased with the final character I created; however feel I could have continued to work on it, especially the face. But as I was more interested in learning the compositing process I felt it was perfect for what I wanted.

When it came to actually compositing the layers of the environment and the digital painting together I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to transform the environment from day to night. However once I started I got on a role and just seemed to gradually transform the image into what I had at the end. I am extremely pleased with the outcome; due to the following aspects which I feel are the images strengths:

- The lighting; I feel this works really well, the way I have captured the glass lamp casting a glow upon the rocks, equipment and creature as well as the shadows it creates.

- The reflections in the water; the lamps glow, creatures’ shadows and the rocks reflections all seem to blend in with the actual image of the water perfectly.

- The fish on the end of the rod; I am really pleased at how I added in highlights and shadows upon the fish itself as well as capturing the splash in the water as it was pulled out.

- The overall atmosphere works perfectly as a night’s scene, especially with the added mist upon the lakes surface.

- The way I transformed the trees at the base of the mountains and added the highlights from the moon as well as some shadows.

- Bringing all the different layers together to actually create an image that works and enables the audience to explore the world that was created.

- The way I managed to capture a snapshot of this creatures night out fishing explains a lot about the creature as well as the environment making it more interesting for the viewer to read and create their own back story’s for the creature.

Every time I look back at this image I see areas that need improving; I think the main weaknesses with this image is that I still feel that the creature concept isn’t completely apart of the photograph. I think any compositing project takes ages for the artist to actually decide that there are not any other areas that need tweaking or other aspects that need incorporating. If I had the opportunity to do this again or at least continue this image I would continue to tweak certain aspects to make them an even stronger image as one. I think I would also incorporate some lake reeds and maybe some lights at the base of the mountains to indicate villages. I also have some ideas of other projects I might do in my free time, for example I have a photo of the sunset at Portreath beach in Cornwall, for which I could composite in some sea creatures sitting on the beach as well as some jumping out of the water.

To conclude I have really enjoyed this project and have learnt a lot more about Photoshop and its techniques/tools as well as lighting, shadows, digital painting and compositing images together to create one. I have also expanded my knowledge of my organisational skills and learnt more about being patient, for which will be very useful in the future whether I will become a creative producer, 3D character animator or illustrator. I will definitely be doing more of these in my free time as I generally found it a very interesting subject and something that is perfect for me due to my interest in capturing fine detail.

Showreel

2011-06-16T02:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a show reel I put together for the Professional Practice Project:

http://youtu.be/C2B4VXVeaUo

Over the summer I have decided to continue to create a load of short animations to build this show reel up and hopefully create something that I am proud of and shows off my animation skills properly. As most of the animations from the little helper were done in a weekend so was rushed preventing me from actually being able to really get into the animation and show off what I can do.

The Little Helper - Grey version of film

2011-06-16T02:17:00.000-07:00

As we were unable to finish the lighting and final renders for the film, we decided to render it all out grey as the textures without lighting distracted the viewers eye away from what was actually happening. This can be seen below:

http://youtu.be/MchYeprA0k8

I am pleased with what we were able to create within such a short deadline and especially when we got delayed 3 weeks due to arrange of problems. I wanted to get it finished however I'm happy with what I have gained from achieving what we did.

Below are some of the rendered shots we were able to fully complete:

Website!

2011-05-09T13:06:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I have been working on my website and have finally decided on a design. Its not completely finished yet but feel free to take a look! =)

http://www.wix.com/jennystewart/portfolio

Update on the progress of The Little Helper

2011-05-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Ioana and Dan finished the Frankie rig and it works really well, I appreciate all the hard work they put in. After getting the rig Lucy and I set about animating We have currently nearly finished all the animation with just some little alterations needed. We are then going to have a chat with Andy and Derek to discuss each shot and how they flow and work as an overall film. Once we are all happy with how the film is looking a blockthro version of the film can be given to music Matt to create a music track to the actual timing of the film. Incase any other problems/delays occur we also asked Matt to create some different bits of music to show different emotions/atmosphere so if something majorly goes wrong we at least have some music which we can edit to the film.

Also during this week the dynamics of which Kai is working on will also be finished. As the deadline is looming as well as some other issues we have decided to remove some dynamics e.g. glue movement and coat as there not needed for the story. Kai is currently working on the web pulley system at the end and once hes finished that he will be doing the snow blowing in the open door.

Pete is currently going through the finished shots adding extra lights to highlight characters etc, a few renders can be seen below:

We also started rendering the other week and has just made us realise how long it takes lol however this isn't an essential to get completed for the deadline, but we would obviously love to get as much done as possible.

Brian has finished Sally's fur and is just doing a few last minute tests before discussing with Pete about setting is as another render pass, to help speed up rendering.

Animated Frankie Shots

2011-05-09T02:26:00.000-07:00

Well ... that was one hell of a weekend, with not much sleep however it feels good to have achieved so much in such a short time. Below are animations of the Frankie shots (alterations are still needed):

S_3 - Frankie enters

This shot took me numerous attempts as I just couldn't get the feeling across that he was actually trying to force the door shut against strong wind gusts, I still don't think i have got this right. However i am pleased with the section where he finally closes door, the movement of the body seems to work and timing is effective. I maybe have too much head movement just before this. Overall I think it will look better with the snow to exaggerate there is a force preventing from him closing door easily however the timing of it will need to be altered also.

S_4 - Frankie entering workshop

I quite like this shot as i feel i have managed to incorporate old man movements which is what is needed to give Frankie a bit of character. I think the timing/movement of him as he pushes door open illustrates the feeling that he actually did open the door. From doing shot 3 I thought I was going to struggle with the walk however I am please with the oldness i was able to incorporate.

S_7 - Frankie packing toys

I'm not too keen on this shot, there are some adjustments I am going to make for example there is a sudden pause breaking the flow of movement and the movement after the jump looks odd will need to alter this to make it look natural maybe add a slight pause to let the audience read the jump due to the door flying open then goes to him starting to get up. I am also going to animate the packing material better so instead of doing it all as one big clump I will animate the separate bits to make it work better as a toy is placed upon.

S_9 - locks door

This was a quick shot which i feel i got timing and movements correct for what was needed form the shot. I especially like the movement of the wrist and fingers when going in to grab the key. I thin the only thing I may change is the speed of the door as it blows in the wind as it may be slightly too fast.

S_10 - packing toys

For this shot I kind of cheated by copying the movements from shot 7 however made some adjustments to make it work for this camera angle.

S_11 - key vibrating in door

S_12 - key bouncing

S_13 - key disappearing

S_15 - Frankie gathering toys and leaving workshop

This shot was a real pain to animate as Frankie's body kept having a major spaz as I was making him turn around, unfortunately I couldn't solve this even by using the graph so cut off the start which showed him in foreground gathering toys from workbench to what can be seen above.

S_25 - Frankie putting box down

I like this shot as I feel the timing and movements are good, although i did have some trouble with constraints, I found out that when i had constrained the hand to the box so the box was a parent, it worked great however when i keyed it so the constrain was off i wasn't able to key the hand which is why the hand is off shot due to the frozen claw hand.

S_27 - Frankie frees sally from glue

I really enjoyed animating this shot and feel it is a great success.

S_33 - Frankie smiling at sally

I quite enjoyed animating this shot too as it contains some interesting movements when he reacts to the sound of the cuckoo clock going off.

S_35 - Frankie reaching for key that is missing

S_40 - Frankie searching drawer for key

I like this shot and feel it works well and shows Frankie hectically looking for key well. I am going to add in some papers and pens moving/rolling around in the drawer as Frankie rummages around to make it more effective.

S_47 - Frankie sleeping

S_48 Frankie waking up

S_57 - key rising out from under floor boards.

This shot still needs the key rising and the camera angle needs to be altered as it zooms in through the hole in the key to stop on sally who is waving upon a shelf.

Innovations - Water Simulation

2011-04-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Right I have now decided to have a go at water simulation within Maya and realflow, as I have always found it amazing how they make it look so real. For this I could have looked at oceans/waves etc, large scale water however due to the time limit and as I have never done water before I thought it might be best to focus on learning the basics first. Therefore I have decided to create some tests of water being transferred from one container to another and water splashes.

Below are some videos I found online of what I would like to create:

1. Example of pouring water from one container to another:

2. Example of pouring water from cup after cup:

3. Example of water simulation in newest maya:

4. Video showing a comparison between realflow and maya:

5. Example of a ball splashing in water:

6. I also saw this and thought it looked pretty cool!:

Reference material for Frankie

2011-04-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

Before we get the finished rig for Frankie Lucy and I decided to film ourselves to get an idea of the kind of movements we wanted Frankie to have. We found this really hard, so firstly looked on YouTube to see if we could find any videos of old men walking in a way we wanted Frankie too. Below are some examples:

Firstly we have Pixar's Geri's Game short, which is a perfect example of what we want Frankie to act like as hes old but is still young at heart.

http://youtu.be/1m7dcbIKvlw

While looking for the short above I found this clip of a live action version of Geri's game which is a good example too of how old men move:

Below is a video of a programme I watched Sunday evening, which I thought was a good example of how an old man walks and moves by watching Ian McKellen throughout the programme:

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=233784

Other old men we thought of was the grandad in the Rugrats as well as actors in some live action films/series, such as The Last of the Summer Wine, Goodnight Mr Tom etc.

Once we had a rough idea of the types of movements old men have we were able to act out certain scenes of our animation (not very well I must add lol)

1. Firstly we did some attempts at how Frankie would walk, below are my videos:

2. Below is a video of how we imagine Frankie would get down to the cardboard box to pack away the toys:

3. Below is a video of how Frankie might move when looking around for the lost key:

4. Below is a video of how Frankie would place Sally upon her web:

5. Below is a video of how Frankie might place a box on the floor:

Other videos can be seen upon Lucy's Blog!

Innovations Project

2011-04-17T03:53:00.000-07:00

After having a short chat with Georg about this project I have been thinking about what I want from it in order for me to actually think of a project I could do for it. As I am into character Animation (unsure if I want to do it as a career however am interested in learning more about the process and improving my skills) I want to have at the end some short animations that shows what I am capable of.
Below are two of my project ideas, I'm unsure if they actually are along the right lines for an innovations project but will ask Georg when I see him next.

Professional Practice

2011-04-17T03:51:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I have been designing my website, I wanted it to be simple but effective as I would rather viewers focus on my work than how technically amazing the website functions etc. Below are some rough sketches of various website designs:

This first one was an underwater themed idea, that would have objects that the octopus was holding that were linked to things that mean something to me, e.g. easel tangled within the seaweed for Art, long list for organisation.

Along the same lines as above, I also thought of a design linked to the little helper project, with sally in among toys, objects etc. But then decided the simpler the better as then more attention will be on my work!

So I moved onto designing the overall layout of the links etc upon each page.

And here are some very rough sketches for my Business card designs:

Here are a few quick designs of Business card's I did in photo shop, just to give me an idea of what the rough sketches look like in more detail.

Updated Blockthro for Rough cut

2011-04-16T07:35:00.001-07:00

Below is an update of the blockthro with the prop and sally shots roughly rendered:

Toy shots near end

2011-04-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

Once we had done the rough animation of the toy shots, I rendered them out together to give us an idea of how they flow together, below is the render:

This was really useful as it has shown us areas that need altering to make this shot sequence work a lot better and be effective. The following are the adjustments that we are going to make:

- The circle shape needs to role more, as at the minute it appears to slide. This shot also needs to be held longer with sally looking over the edge as the shape falls further.
- Within the soldier shot the camera at the end needs to be angled slightly up as it finishes to show the catapult ball flying through the air. the movement of the ball can then be made longer to link better with the next shot.
- The ball flying shot needs altering as the ball appears to fall to the front of the Ferris wheel, where as in the next shot it lands in one of the back seats. Also I feel the camera angle is too high making the room look too big.
- In the twisty tube shot we need to make the tractor fall off the edge as within the next shot the viewers eye isn't drawn to this, instead it watches rocking horse, making the tractors movements not noticeable, confusing the viewer into what actual made the horse rock.
- Once Kai has worked on the web twisting around the display unit we will be able to alter the camera in the last shot to make it follow the web.

Derek suggested we make all the cameras constantly move throughout this sequence, we believe that this is needed to exaggerated the domino effect. So we will need to alter some of the cameras and remove the stillness's that break up the movement.

Below is the altered toy sequence:

This is alot better as it flows and makes a lot more sense. I think Derek will probs still mention the still cameras but we can alter that lates! lol

Soldier shot

2011-04-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Rough Animation for the soldier shot:

Rough cut render of this animation:

Once I had finished the animation for this shot I saved the soldiers and the circle shape in their ending position and deleted all the other key frames so I could referencethis in to other shots where they are visible after the moment they fall over.

Final Texturing by Harry!

2011-04-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Harry's final texture to complete was for the wooden title lettering, that Nigel modeled perfectly. This will be attached to the spider web in the opening shot.

Here is an image of the model by Nigel:

Below is the model textured:

Sally Shots

2011-03-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

Shot_2_Sally looking around

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_5_Sally watching Frankie as he enters workshop

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_16_sally crawling out of the crack in wall

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_17_sally investigating cube toy

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_28_sally scared in hands

rough animation

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_32_getting glue off

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_39.5_sally's reaction to the cuckoo clock

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

Shot_44/45_sally attempting to pull key

rough animation:

Below is a rough cut render:

These aren't the final animations of these shots, now we have rendered them for the rough cut we can merge them into the blockthro to check flow etc for which we will alter the shots were needed as well as tighten it all up so we are both happy with each shot.

When discussing each shot with Lucy to make adjustment to make each shot better I found Lucy's comments really helpful as you start not noticing any problems and need another persons view to watch for alterations to come to the surface. So just want to say Lucy is doing a great job as animation director. =)

Purple Sally!

2011-03-17T09:47:00.001-07:00

Sally all textured thanks to Harriet :)

A few simple facial expressions:

This textured model is now with Brian, who is going to be adding some fur to her, gets its colouring from the texture so will hopefully make her cuter, more kid friendly and stand out more from the environment.

The Little Helper - Week 8

2011-03-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

Right well things are definitely starting to get moving now and Loz, Lucy and I are confident we are going to get this film finished to a high standard and to the deadline, even though we are slightly behind with animating due to the fact we only have Dan rigging our characters. However due to him working extremely hard we have our first character fully rigged, enabling the Director of Animation - Lucy, to start doing some tests with the rig, of which we will start animating the scenes on Monday! WOOP!

I finished another web this week, for which I spent ages and ages adding loads of extra polygons to enable Kai to add dynamics to it accurately, which can clearly be seen from the image below.

As Sally had been finished rigged, I get the UV's together to give to Harriet to texture and Brian to apply the fur, however may decided to be very kind (not) and change the uvs! I remembered Georg mentioning something about copying uvs, so i tried copying the uvs that were correct from the older version of the model onto the new.

1. Firstly I selected the spiders bum and selected: mesh - clipboard attribute - copy attributes and then selected uvs.

2. I then selected the rigged Sally's bum and selected: mesh - clipboard attributes - paste attributes.

3. Once pressing enter and checking the UVs of the rigged Sally I discovered that it only copied one face!!!!

I had another idea which thankfully worked with great success! =)

1. this shows the spiders bum uvs before being altered.

2. I selected the spider bum and then holding shift selected the rigged spiders bum, mesh - transfer attributes - and selected component.

3. Once pressing enter the correct uvs from the older model where transferred over onto the rigged model, which can be seen above.

This week I have also been rendering out the animated scenes we have completed to get an idea of how they flow together, these only contain the textures as lighting will be added next week by Pete.

We found this really useful as it informed us of where we needed to make alterations to make the animation flow correctly. For example at the end of the twisty tube scene the tractor doesn't really move, then in the next it suddenly falls and knocks the rocking horse. Its not clear as to what is happening as the viewers eye instantly looks at the horse not really noticing the tractor until it hits the horse. So to make it more clear as to what is happening I will length the twisty tube shot showing the ball hitting the tractor and making it fall off the edge.

Nigel: modeling a more detailed version of Frankie's hands, for which I photographed my hands in the correct position as reference material for him, these can be seen below:

He is also modeling the lettering for the title, for which i supplied him with some reference images and the correct font so he can place the words upon a plane in Maya to copy from. These will then be textured by Harriet.

Dan: Rigging Frankie body and should be finished by the end of this term, so that Lucy and I can animate the shots were Frankie's head isn't in camera, while Dan has a well deserved break for 2 weeks.

Brian: is currently doing the fur for sally. he is going to be doing a few different examples of fluffiness for use to chose from as well as applying the fur to the moving model to give us an idea of how it moves as well as render times.

Olly: has recently finished his last web, for in the under floorboards scene a screen print can be seen below:

These are the webs that will break as Sally pushes the spindle out of interest, for which Kai will do the dynamics for once sally is animated. Other 2D webs will be placed within this scene to make it represent the atmosphere underneath floor boards.

Music Matt: we are having a meeting on Monday to hear what he has done so far and to discuss our ideas to make sure he stays on the right track.

Alan: Has finished the glue tests, so is ready to get the finished sally animated shots to make the glue work in relation to sally. And is currently finishing off the dynamics of the dust.

Kai:Has finished the snow and is currently doing the dynamics for the bouncing web shot.

Loz and I also decided to create a more detailed schedule for the last remaining weeks of this project for which Loz will be keeping a daily eye on to make sure everything is getting done on time. Loz and I are also going to have meetings every Monday, be it in person or on Skye to keep on top of everything so we both no exactly what has been completed the previous week and what is to be done the next. Below a schedule i created, which we discussed and Loz created a more detailed schedule on excel.

All the 2nd Years we have fortunately been lucky enough to have work on this project are all working extremely hard to help make sure this film is finished to the deadline and to a high standard, for which we are both very grateful. Thanks guys! =)

Progress so far!

2011-02-23T04:30:00.000-08:00

Since the last time we have basically finished texturing the environment just have a few bits and bobs for in the under floorboards scene to be completed. Next week Harriet will be completing the textures for in this scene and the characters.

The first and second section of shots have all been animated (apart from the dynamics scenes which Kai is working on now) so have been passed to Pete to light and render. These should be finished by next week so at least we have them all rendered and finished before starting the following section. As Pete has alot on his plate me and Lucy agreed to do the compositing for him so he is able to put more time n effort into other peoples projects.

This week Olly and I have been modeling the spider webs, continually consulting Kai to make sure they are accurate in order for him to apply dynamics to them. Below are the webs I have been working on:

Main room web:

For this web I designed it so there was a hole towards the top so when the little ball is catapulted across the room it goes through this. I increased the amount of polygons on this section as when the ball goes through the web will move slightly. I also included a Little web bow that Lucy modeled on the train display unit to indicate she tied her web around the chimney, adding a bit of character to it.

Rocking Horse joining to train web:

These two webs will be joined together with a line of web, so when the rocking horse rocks, it pulls the web out from in front of the train enabling the train to go around the track.

Brain has been working on getting the fur for sally right and making sure it don't take too long to render, below is some tests he did to give him an idea of the time scale fur takes:

Nigel has finished the Frankie model and is currently UV unwrapping, which will be finished by Monday. Below are some images:

Nigel was having trouble with getting the pinny to mold to his body using ncloth so i had a go to see if I could help him out and was successful!

I lay Frankie down and made the pinny float above him, lined up so when it is lowered it is in the correct place in relation to Frankie's body. I then apply the ncloth and let it fall, this made the pinny mold around his body and even wrap around his body slightly like how a pinny would as you can see in the image. I informed Nigel of this so now he just needs to make a few slight alterations to make it look as if the pinny is hanging, by adding weight and obviously wrap the string around him. As you can see there are alot wrinkled bits however the type of pinny it is is quite firm so will look similar to this but not as static.

Alan has been doing some dust tests for us, for under the floorboard scenes, for which he has made some great progress:

Kai has also been working on some adjustments i gave him with the snow and has now got it looking great! (kaifraser.wordpress.com)

Matt Wakefield (music man)has been doing some samples of music for the different emotions in the film, for which he will them create a sound track to the blockthro. I am very impressed with Matt's work as he is on the right track, from Lucy and I only showing him the sample of Coraline n Fable. He suggested from the start that he wanted to get his own ideas down first obviously consulting us throughout to make sure he was on the right track, which is great! Once he has done some more emotional samples for certain areas of the film, he will put everything together to the blockthro, for which we will then have a meeting to discuss any alterations Lucy and I may have.

As we will be starting animating Sally shots next week I have been looking at spider movements to get a general idea of how they move, so i can then use this as the basis of which i will exaggerate to make it a more interesting and enjoyable film to watch.

1. I found this animation of a spider that was created using a system for dynamically animating ground based arthropods in real-time, capable of traversing realistically across a complex, arbitrary environment.

This is very realistic and isn't what we are wanting our animation to be like however gives us an idea of the order of the leg movements, so we can at least make Sally's movements based on a real spider so the audience believes her movements.

2. This is a video my Uncle sent me, which he saw in a program by David Attenborough about Madagascar.

I found this really interesting, illustrating how intelligent these little creatures are.

I am confident that we are on schedule due to all the hard work everyone has been putting in. I am still slightly worried about the Frankie rig, not because I feel Dan can't do it, he has done an amazing job on Sally so have every confidence in him its just getting it done and leaving Lucy and I time to actually animate about half of the shots.

6th Week:

2011-02-17T03:11:00.000-08:00

This week Lucy and I gave Pete 3 scenes that are completely animated and textured - Soldiers, Ferris wheel and Twisty tube scenes - so he is now in the stages of lighting, of which he will check with us to get a pass so he can move onto compositing etc. Example of his lighting will be visible on his blog.

I also had to sort out Sally's mouth polygons to make they move better when rigging, for which I completed the other day to enable Dan to bind the skeleton to the fully finished model. Below are some screen prints to show the changes I made:

As you can see the top images are the newer better arranged geometry, she don't look as cheeky and happy as the bottom images as I had to take away her smile to enable Dan to rig it properly!

From talking to Georg about how the best way was to arrange the polygons, I feel I have learnt alot about modeling in Maya and am pleased I decided to do it as part of this project, even tho its not the best model, compared to previous ones I have created it contains alot better geometry.

Also after fixing the problem we had with textures I can now show you some camera angles of the environment with most textures in place. These obviously don't show the environment as it will be at the end as lighting makes the textures change dramatically.

I also applied some bump maps to some of the models you see close up to make them slightly more realistic however when Pete sorts the lighting these will need to be altered to work with that.

Lucy and I also decided this week to use 3D modeled webs for the webs we see close up. To make sure this would work we asked Kai and Pete to do some tests to check dynamics and lighting to make sure it look right. Once we were happy Olly agreed to model the webs for which we will then pass onto Kai to do the dynamics. An image of Olly's low poly web can be seen below:

As the spider rig is nearly finished Lucy and I have been doing some research to see how spiders actually moves. below are some vidoes:

4th + 5th Weeks

2011-02-12T11:00:00.001-08:00

Right where to start these weeks have just mingled together really, busy organizing all the work being done by 2nd years and some 3rd years with Loz, sorting out UV's, applying textures, bump mapping etc etc...

This week Lucy has been applying the textures Harriet completed, which I then added bump maps to the most important props that are seen close up. This is on the two shots that we finished animating so we can then pass them onto Pete to light, render and composit. Below are some images of the props Harriet textured and we applied and bump mapped:

However we have seen a problem with our textures, when we try to open the entire environment and press 6 to see the textures it takes for ever, freezes our computers and Maya comes up with a fatal error message!!!! I have booked a meeting with Super Georg to help us find and fix the problem!!!! (a fully textured environment will be uploaded once we can actually see them all lol)

To keep you up to date with how others are progressing with work for the little helper, below is a brief outline of what they are currently working on and how they are doing.

Nigel is currently finishing off Frankie's coat, while UV unwrapping the overall model ready to be handed to the rigger. He has been doing a great job and I feel he has captured the essence of Frankie perfectly within his model.

Dan has been working extremely hard on Sally's rig, which I saw the other day and it looks really good. When he started doing the facial rig he came up with a problem for which I Had to alter Sally's mouth slightly to enable him to rig it properly. It will be finished by the middle of next week so Lucy and I can do some practise animations with the rig to make sure it is working correctly!

Brian is working on getting Sally's fur to look right using a method Georg suggested to enable us to cut down render time, he will have a rendered image of the fur by Friday to give us an idea of what she might look like in the final film. He is also now working with Matt our music guy to assist with the Foley that Matt has agreed to merge in with the music.

Alan has been working on dynamics of the stickiness of the glue and the dusty areas under the floorboards. I saw a rough example of what he is doing with the glue and its looking good! http://tacotacohotcakes.tumblr.com/ To assist with Alan creating the glue I filmed some actual glue to see how sticky it was and how it moved with there was something in it. This will enable Alan to take this footage and use as reference and exaggerate further to create a sticky substance in the 3D world. Glue footage can be seen below:

Kai has been doing some dynamic tests on a 3D model of a web as we are currently deciding whether or not to use a textured web or a 3D modeled web. Once we decided Kai will then be able to animate the dynamics of the shot where a circle shape bounces off some webs on the pirate ship.

Olly has been modeling the cuckoo clock which I am very pleased with, its exactly how I imagined it and more! He had modeled it quite precise so he suggested making it look more handmade to fit more with the environment, which is great. http://olninyo.blogspot.com/

Matt is currently working on the music, Lucy and I heard a very rough example of what he was thinking of and it sounded exactly how we wanted it which was great.

Harriet is texturing the environment/props/toys/characters at the mo. As Lucy and I had finished animating a few scenes we asked her to complete these textures first so we can give these scenes to Pete to go through the final stages and give us an idea of render time as well as supply us with an image of what the final thing will look like.

Pete has been doing further tests on lighting which are looking really good. I especially love the morning lighting he has created, both of this test can be seen on his blog: http://petethegerman.blogspot.com/ As we are deciding which web method to use I asked Pete to do some very simple lighting tests upon the two methods to see which one will look the best for this type of animation.

3rd Weeks Work

2011-01-28T01:01:00.000-08:00

After setting the camera for the first section of shots and filling the environment Lucy and I started animating a few scenes that didn't contain any characters. My shots can be seen below:

Soldier Scene:

I quite like how this scene turned out as I was having trouble with the camera however finally got it sorted and think its ok. I think the movement of the soldiers are good as they speed up as they fall indicating their weight. I also think the soldier at end makes it more interesting and makes them more realistic as that's how they move if knocked off balance.

Ferris Wheel Scene:
After we sorted out the parents etc for the wheel to make sure the seats went around with the wheel but stay the right way up, I was able to animate this scene properly.

I struggled at first to get the ball to appear as if it was falling instead of flying, however I feel this attempt works well, indicating the weight of the ball too. I think I still need to make some alterations to it when the ball hits the wheel as it just doesn't appear to work. I think the movement of the seat as the ball drops and forces it to tilt works but may needs some alterations to make it look more realistic. I really like the way the ball moves at the end I feel I have captured the timing perfectly as it would get slower then speed up as it falls off the edge of the shelf.

Twisty Tube Scene:

This one still needs a bit of work as the ball doesn't look as if it is actually going around the top section of its own accord but I feel the rest of it works ok.

The other scene within this first section - shape bouncing off the webs upon the ship - Harriet created some web textures for it so I could give it to Kia to do the dynamic animation. This week Kia has also been doing some snow tests, which are looking really good. (www.kaifraser.wordpress.com)

We also completed filling the environment as we felt a few other bits and bobs were needed, e.g. wall lamps. Once we apply the textures that Harriet is doing next week we will give the environment to Pete to do the overall room lighting, then he will just need to add lights were needed within each scene.

Brian did some fur tests for Sally however discovered that it would increase the render time by a hell of a lot so I asked Georg his opinion and he suggested to create some planes that come out of sally's head, body, legs etc of which a hair texture will be applied giving a similar effect but cutting the render time by well over half! Brian has got all the information about this and says it will be quite simple to achieve and is happy to complete it for us as soon as I finish sorting Sally's UV's.

We also have a new member of the team, Alan who is going to be helping us out with dynamic animation to enable Kia to also complete the work Craig has set him to the deadlines and not be over worked.

Loz, Lucy and I are currently organising what every member of the team needs to do on the entire project of which we will discuss with them to see of it is doable especially if they are also working on someone else's project. Loz will then create some individual schedules for each member so they know the deadlines etc.

2nd Weeks Work

2011-01-18T08:51:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend I focused on my dissertation, reading through it to make sure what I have wrote already makes sense and is relevant to my argument as well as continuing to write more of my draft, making notes of questions I can ask ann within my next tutorial.

To start this week off I created a file system to make sure everything we do is organised and who ever uses it understands where everything is. This is especially important as we are referencing all the toys and props into the environment so they have to be in correct folder to enable maya to find them and their textures. As I have split the shots into sections that we can do depending on the rigs, i also split up the file system so we know everything for these set of scenes are all within this specific folder. Below is an example of the arrangement of folders for the 1st section of scenes:

lh_section1_jack_props --> characters --> jack-in-a-box (maya folder)

--> environment --> workshop (maya folder)
--> toyshop (maya folder)

--> props --> (all prop maya folders)

--> toys --> (all toy maya folders)

--> scenes --> s_17_povjack (maya folder)
--> s_47_bouncewebship (maya folder)
-->s_48_soldiers (maya folder) etc...

--> blockthro --> (all playblast clips for these shots as
reference)

--> thumbnails --> (all thumbnails for these shots as reference)

--> foley --> (all foley sound clips for these shots)

--> rendered --> standard_render
--> hd_render

I have also been getting work sorted for the 2nd years who hadn't already had work set for them so they can start and get involved in the project as soon as possible. For example Dan who has currently finished rigging the jack-in-a-box and has moved onto rigging sally. in order for him to start I set up a dropbox folder so the models could be transferred between us and also informed him of what is needed from the models so he understood how to rig them. He informed me that he isn't that confident on rigging especially facial rigging, but i am very pleased with the work he has done so far and his willingness to learn more about the topic. Scott will also be joining Dan once he has finished rigging on Tom's project so at this point I will inform them both again of what is needed from the rigs to make sure they fully understand. Dan informed me that he would like to complete the rig then give it to Lucy and I to test, so if there are any alterations needed he will then work on it to get it as accurate as possible. Hopefully they will find this a really useful experience and a fun one!

Kia is also keen to do dynamics animation on this project so i have given him some tests of snow and dust to complete while we sort out the shots and start animating as its best for him to add the dynamics in after so he has something to make it react to. Last term he completed some tests of spider web movements which really impressed me and I know he is a hard worker and enjoys what he does which is the main thing!

Brian has been working on recording some Foley sounds which are sounding great and due to his interest in creating fur in 3D he has also agreed to create the fur on Sally and Frankie's hair, which is great. He created an example and as I finished UV unwrapping the spider the other day now has the model to apply the fur to and determine where it needs to be thicker etc. He informed me that this will murder the render time, so I'm gonna have a word with Georg to see if its still do-able or if we will need to think of something else.

Nigel is currently doing the finishing touches to the Frankie model, which will hopefully be completed this week, then he has agreed to do some other modeling of the cuckoo clock and a few other toys if he has time. I am also very pleased with the work Nigel has been doing, I love the Frankie model and feel he has worked really hard on a good piece of modeling!

This week Lucy and I also got all the texture maps together of the textures that will need to be completed for the 1st section of shots. Harriet has now got these, which we ran through to make sure she understood exactly what was what and I gave her an example of the style that I was wanting. However Harriet is a very good artist on paper and computer so I am leaving most things up to her as I feel she could be a very good art director in the future so by enabling this gives her an insight into that type of work! Once Harriet has completed some textures these will be sent to Ollie who very kindly agreed to apply them to the models with bump maps etc, for which I will discuss with him in case he has any questions.

During the week as I had got everything organised I informed Loz of all the work everyone has to do so he could create a schedule of this term of which he will be keeping on top of and making sure everyone keeps to the deadlines and if there are any problems, he will be there to assist!

Finally this week Lucy and I have also been filling the environments making sure it looks how we want it to so then we can set the cameras in the shots and save within the correct folders in the file system and then start animating the 1st section of shots.

When filling the environment we decided that there wasn't enough toys to show variety within the toyshop so I have been modeling some more toys, while Lucy fills the workshop with all the props, toys etc. Below are some images of the toys I have modeled as well as a train track for the toy train to move around upon:

Below are some screen prints of the toyshop room filled with toys and other props that I have been working on for the past few days:

I have filled the main areas of the toyshop then when we set the cameras I will go through and add more props etc where needed.

Also I finished creating a working bible which can now be used as a good reference for us animators as well as other people working on the project.

The Music Pitch:
I found this really useful and realised that I need to be abel to explain my story in brief as I kind of rambled and didn't really put the story across! Matt one of the music students talked to us afterwards and informed us he was really interested in creating a music track for the aniamtion which is great!

In order for us to follow the schedule of starting animating the first section of shots we set the cameras and saved them in appropriate folders so when we start next week we have everything we need. These are also ready for the textures to be applied once Harriet starts as well as a scene that is ready for Kia to animate the dymanics of the spider webs.

1st Weeks work

2011-01-17T12:50:00.001-08:00

During the first week back Lucy and I focused on getting the blockthro better, sorting out the scenes, camera angles etc to make sure this story is told in the best way. After getting Georg's, Derek's and Andy's opinion on the blockthro we have made arrange of alterations, which can be seen below:

1st Blockthro:

Final Blockthro:

This will still have changes made to it through the animation stage and when editing it all together to make sure the scenes where Frankie is frantically searching for the key are perfectly timed to illustrate Frankie's frustration of not knowing where the key has gone and the urgency of his order needing to be completed on time.

I have also been organising stuff with the 2nd years to make sure the students that were willing to work on our project last term are still willing as well as finding a few more to help out, with the assistance of Loz our producer, who is doing a really good job in keeping track of people and getting a plan together of everything that needs to get done this term to make sure we get the film finished to a high standard to the deadline.

As we are low on riggers in general, I am very grateful for Dan and Scott to help out as if they didn't that would be the end of the project basically as even though me and Lucy would have been willing to learn I feel it would have put us too far back as other bits of the project wouldn't have been done. however due to them needing time to get the rigs for sally and Frankie especially with the facial rigging, which I completely understand, I have gone through the shots and broke them down into sections that we can do depending on the rigs. for example there are about 10 shots we can start animating once Dan finishes the Jack-in-a-box rig then the second section of shots can be completed once Sally is rigged.

I have also planned out what Lucy and I can do while waiting for the rigs if they need more time, we will plan out the animation we will want to contain within each scene by creating thumbnails to help us make the animation more exaggerated and funny! We will also film ourselves for certain scenes to use as reference so when we start animating the scenes with sally and Frankie we will no exactly what we want from each scene.

Completion of Sally and Jack models

2011-01-08T12:33:00.001-08:00

Over Christmas I also completed two models that need to be rigged - Sally and the Jack-in-a-box.

Sally:
I have been modeling Sally's head for a while now, as I wasn't happy with the design.
Below is the very first head I modeled, as you can see I simplified the design a lot compared to what was contained within my design bible as I knew I wasn't good at modeling. However after seeing this model finished I wasn't happy as knew it would be able to portray the personality I had gave Sally.

So I had a think, created a clay model (which can be seen on a previous post) and re modeled the head, I was happier with this one due to the larger cheeks that would enable me to incorporate some interesting facial expressions. However it just looks weird there is no cute factor at all.

So I decided to model the head again and feel this was a good idea as I know i have definitely learnt a lot about modeling due to the way I modeled this one. I was a lot quicker and understood how the polygons needed to be arranged in order to enable facial expressions to created properly. I think by altering the design, such as larger eyes, chubbier cheeks and a cheekier smile makes her a lot cuter and this will be even more apparent when textured and with added hairs.

These still look a bit creepy but i think its just becasue of the eyes without a texture! (hopefully lol)

Below are some images of the finished Spider model:

Jack-in-a-box:

I am quite pleased with this model and feel once Harriet has textured it, it will look effective within the scene.

Blockthro

2011-01-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

Over the Christmas holidays Lucy and I split the scenes between us both fairly and animated each of them roughly to create a blockthro. Below are the scenes I completed:

Scene 3 - Frankie entering the store after having a conversation with a client about an important order he needs to complete for the following morning.

Scene 4 - Close up of Sally watching Frankie with interest.

Scene 6 - Frankie packing away some toys for the order in a very careful and lovingly manner, when the front door blows open and snow gusts in.

Scene 9 - Close up of Frankie locking the door.

Scene 10 - Frankie returns to packing away his toys.

Scene 12 - Key bounces on the floor and falls into a gap in the floorboards disappearing from sight.

Scene 14 - Sally crawls in through a crack underneath the floorboards

Scene 17 - Sally wonders out upon Frankie's workbench.

Scene 19 - Sally investigates a square shape toy in a nosey and excited fashion.

Scene 21 - Sally makes a silly face through a glass of water

Scene 22 - She wonders around, Jack-in-a-box springs out making her jump feet and land in a blob of glue.

Scene 25 - Sally scared of Frankie nearly placing box upon her.

Scene 26 - Frankie decides to place floor and goes to gather toys when he sees Sally out of the corner of his eyes stuck in the glue.

Scene 27 - Sally's POV as Frankie leans in towards sally - is he going to squash or free her??

Scene 29 - Frankie frees her

Scene 31 - close up view of Sally scared within Frankie's hands

Scene 34 - Frankie stood smiling up at sally, when he hears a cuckoo clock making him jump around.

Scene 35 - Close up of Sally smiling and watching Frankie with interest

Scene 37 - Frankie reaches for key to unlock door however the key is missing!

Scene 40 - Frankie stops and thinks where on earth the key could be, when he hears the cuckoo clock and looks around suddenly.

Scene 40.5 - Frankie hastily searching through a drawer for the key

Scene 43 - Frankie fast asleep at desk, in background sally spins a web

Scene 44 - Frankie wakes in the morning and is shocked to discover he is surrounded by spider webs

Scene 47 - circle shape falls and bounces off web

Scene 49 - soldiers falling and catapulting a small ball across the room

Scene 51 - ball lands in Ferris wheel making it spin around

Scene 53 - Tractor falls off shelf landing on rocking horse which moves pulling and breaking a web that was preventing a train from moving.

Scene 57 - Sally upon key as it is lifted, as it reaches gap in floorboards sally turns the key so it will fit through.

Scene 56 - Frankie looking over desk as key and sally rises out from under floorboard

Scene 59 - Close up of sally on key waving and smiling at Frankie.

I also added in an additional shot showing Sally trying to get rid of the glue that was on her legs to illustrate that she does get it off so is able to spin all the webs at the end to get the key up to frankie.

After completing my blockthro scenes I sent them to Lucy who rendered the blockthro and I put together a working bible as a reference throughout the production stage of making a film.

We will now be going through these shots to see where things need altered to improve the way the story is told and will get Derek and Kathy's opinions to assist us!

Pre Production Bible

2010-12-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here is the bible me and lucy handed in on friday 10th december:

These are the Frankie designs Lucy completed

These are Lucy's sketches of props

These are Harriet's and Lucy's Concepts

Images of the Props/Toys Lucy and I have modeled

Images of the model Nigel is modeling at the moment

Fully Rendered Shot

2010-12-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

For this we decided to do a shot of the main toyshop, capturing the Essene of the film, with the lighting and overall atmosphere to exactly inform the viewer what this film will look like. Pete did an amazing job on this and enjoyed working with him and can now imagine this film actually looking pretty good at the end lol

This is a still of the lighting within the toyshop, one without the web and one with the spider web out of focus in the foreground:

This is a shot of one of the layers that constructs the final lighting, i just thought it looked cool lol.

Below is a short video to show the focus change that will be incorporated into the animation to show the difference of the spiders point of view of the human world as well ours.

Unfortunately I couldn't upload the video

Animatic

2010-12-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

Below is a rough aniamtic to give you an idea of the types of shots that will be used to construct my short film:

This is obviously a work in progress as some of the shots will probably be altered when we do the blockthro also we are thinking about incorporating another section at the start that will show Frankie talking to another man about the important order Frankie has to complete by the next morning. Also when Frankie realises the key is missing and he can't get out I feel something may need to be added to exaggerate the fact that he really needs to get out to get this order sorted on time - whether this can be done by really good animating of him frantically looking around maybe some dialogue or if the man needs to return and is waiting out side tapping his watch??

Music

2010-12-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

Lucy and I have been thinking about what music we would like our animation to contain and have found some examples that we feel would work perfectly.

Coraline: Dreaming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty89ZE8xMBQ

Nightmare Before Christmas: Jacks Obsession (when he's in the tower)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXsikMF_ofg

Fable: Oakvale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgOGfi5h0bA

Fable theme tune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEvGfIQ0OEk&feature=related

Contraption Research

2010-11-30T02:29:00.001-08:00

In order to make sure I create an interesting and well shot scene at the end I decided to do some research of contraptions in other films, which has been very useful.

Below are just some images of contraptions I found such as some illustrations from American cartoonist Rube Goldberg.

Below are links to some videos I have found, that gave me an idea of how these contraptions can be shot.
1. This is a shot from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thJOfavJLeA

2. This is the Honda Advert, it is one continuous shot, so isn't good reference for helping me to storyboard the end section however I really loved the way they have connected everything together.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6622322261221359949#

3D Modeling - Environment

2010-11-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

Here is my finished environment, with props however the toys aren't contained within it as I'm still sorting out shots, so there is no point in filling toyshop when some of it won't even be shown.

I have given this to Pete to do some practise lighting to make sure he captures the mood perfectly.

3D Modeling - Sally

2010-11-24T06:07:00.001-08:00

In order to make sure I model Sally's face accurately to make it easy to show all her emotions when animating, Georg suggested to create a sculpture, below are some images of the model:

I then drew on the photos how the polygons should be arranged in order to make sure everything moves perfectly.

Animatic

2010-11-24T06:06:00.002-08:00

Here is a rough test of part of my animatic:

this obviously isn't finished and the timing isn't sorted yet.

Developing Story

2010-11-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

After my story was selected I needed to work on the story aspect as I wanted it to be a good story that would be interesting and suitable for its target audience of children. Bearing this in mind I decided to scrap the idea about having Frankie loss the papers as children probably wouldn't know what eviction meant.

After speaking to Derek and Kathy I have been able to write a summary of the story and a script of the kinds of shots I will be using to build up the story. (this will be altered when I draw out the storyboard)

Summary of Story:

Script:

From this script I have been drawing out some rough thumbnails to get the story down visually:

I will now be drawing out the actual storyboard and colouring in next week in the evenings as during the day I will be modeling in the studio.

Even though I maybe a bit behind as I was developing my story I still feel confident as I organised myself right at the start so I have been able to give work to Lucy and Kai to keep the process flowing.

Here is my schedule I created when I knew my project had been selected:

Next week I will have finished:
- fully coloured storyboard
- animatic (sound will be completed the followign week)
- all toy modeling
- have a good start on texturing, haev definitely finished the textures that are needed for the rendered shot.

Dissertation Plans

2010-11-11T08:03:00.001-08:00

During the week I have been focusing on my dissertation, organising all my research notes and getting the structure right. I firstly started off with some mind maps to get all my ideas out:

I then took these ideas and created a triangle map, to show all the general information at the top progressing down to the more specific theories:

Finally I have created a structure on computer which I have gone into more detail about which theorists I will refer to, which points of their idea I will use and where they will be included in the dissertation:

Major Project - Moodboards

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

I thought I would get all my inspirations down on a page so I can then refer back to it throughout the project.

As you can see most of the images are of Pixar's concept art as they are my main inspiration, I love everything they do. I have selected some concept art that has really interesting lighting/shadows as that's what I'm wanting to incorporate into my animation, as well as some interesting camera angles such as the Toy Story ones as they are from a toys POV, which is similar to what I will need to use within my animation of the spider.

I have also included some images of characters that I wanted mine to be similar to or have a certain feature, for example I wanted my man in suit character to have a similar body shape as Ego from Ratatouille.

Dissertation Week

2010-11-11T03:13:00.000-08:00

As the lecturers are at Bradford and we didn't no whos projects were going through I decided to focus on my dissertation this week to get my struture sorted and understand what I want to establish in each section. I'm glad I decided to do this as I now understand more about what I need to write and the overall structure of what Ann has been trying to inform me of.

I will next be looking through all my notes of theorists work and picking out quotes and other interesting points that I definitely want to include in my dissertation and putting them in the correct places in my structure, then later on I will be able to start writing the draft in an order that works to create an interesting argument/discussion throughout.

After finding out my Story had been given the green light I decided to look over the story again and make some slight adjustments from what the industry professionals suggested. I have also organised a schedule of what needs to be completed by certain dates. All this will be ready to show Andy on monday in the project meetings.

I'm very excited about being able to create my short story idea and feel confident I will produce a finished film by the end of May, as I am willing to push myself to the limit and work as hard as i can and learn as much as I can about the process of making a film, being a producer and making sure everyone who is working for me gets things done on time, as well as 3D modeling, rigging, texturing etc.

Major Project - Mini Bible

2010-10-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

To help sell my idea at the pitch I created a short bible containing character designs and concepts to give the audience an idea of who they would be following if the film was made as well as the type of style/feeling it will capture.

I think the pitch went really well other than some technical problems we had. It was really interesting listening to everyone elses ideas and feel alot of them should be selected as the standard was really high!
I was pleased with how mine went and feel I am definitely getting more confident with talking in front of large groups as well as being confident about my own ideas. From hearing with the industry professionals had to say I have taken their advice and am re-working my story at the minute to make it more appealing for its target audience.

I would love to be able to make this film, as I'm interested in learning more about the proces of making a film as well as wanting to create a short film I can be prove to call my own. I would need some help from other people on animating mainly (Although have lucy who is willing to work with me) as well as other areas. however if my idea isn't chosen I would continue to create a pre production bible containing characters, environments, concepts, storyboard, animatic and 3D models as I am interested in learning more about these areas. I would then like to join someone elses group to do 3D character animation as this is the area i am wanting to get into in the future. If I'm not needed on any i would set my self a load of mini animation tasks to complete to really improve my animating and create some fantastic animations to put on my show reel.

Major Project - Concepts/Title pages

2010-10-27T08:58:00.001-07:00

Here are some concepts I have been working on. As you can see the lighting is going to be a key aspect in this animation as it Will give the entire film the correct feeling.

Below are some outlines of concepts, I will also be doing a concept with the evil character in, however am still in the process of designing him.

Major Project - Frankie Design

2010-10-25T06:59:00.001-07:00

I have been working on the appearance of the toy maker, which can be seen below:

I wanted a cheery/loveable character, that you could instantly tell he was a toy maker and a kind/caring person.

Major Project - Storyboard

2010-10-24T13:36:00.001-07:00

After discussing my ideas with Derek I have been able to create a storyboard of my story in a certain ways as to grab the audience, get then to love the characters and want to follow them on their journeys throughout the entire film. Below is a brief explanation of what will happen:

- The opening shot starts with the toyshop with a spider web in the distance,
- gradually zoom into the spider web, where the title can be seen on the web out of dust: The Little Helper,
- A spider scurries onto the web making the dust fall off,
- she continues to wander over to a crack in the wall where she disappears.
- Fades to black
- we then follow her wandering within the gap between walls, underfloor boards etc - very inquisitive. (she walks past some papers at one point) ...

- under the floor boards she is interested in a spindle of thread, when a drawing pin falls through gap in floor and makes her jump and look around with interest.
- she looks out of a crack in the wall, which looks out upon a workbench
- she goes out to investigate - crawling in among the toys, around a glass of water, which she makes silly faces through.
- she faces a blob of glue, which she sidetracks and wanders past a large wooden box
- this is a jack-in-a-box, which suddenly opens and makes her jump feet, landing right in the blob of glue ...

- As she is there struggling, in the background Frankie the toy maker bangs open the door as he walks in carrying heavy boxes
- we see a close up of him struggling with boxes (to introduce the character)
- shows him wondering where to put boxes, wanders over to work bench (but oh no he's going to squash the spider!) then he changes his mind and places them on the floor
- he flicks through some orders, looks at watch and rushes off ...

- however out the corner of his eye he notices the spider struggling, so wanders over
- POV of spider showing Frankie stretching a large hand towards her (ahhhhh whats he going to do? don't kill the spider!)
- he frees the spider and holds her in his hands - walks out towards the toyshop.
POV of spider through his hands as he walks through to the toyshop and ...

- places her on a web
- he smile sup at her and then returns to completing his orders
- she smiles, then there is a loud banging on the door ...

- An evil man enters and shouts "have you found the documents yet?!"
- Frankie says in a worried voice "no, but i no there here somewhere"
- evil man shouts back even more aggressively "if you haven't found them by tomorrow morning I will have to evict you" with a smug smile on his face.
- see shock on spiders face (door slams shut in background)
- Frankie is slumped on chair, then starts to hastily search for the papers
- see spider thinking (an image of the papers she had past earlier appears above head)

- she find the papers and attempts to push/pull them out of the crack in wall, however being too small, goes flying. we see her angry face
- she goes off and starts making webs (has she just given up?)
- See Frankie just wakening up from falling asleep on desk, see his shocked expression,
- camera pans out showing Frankie surrounded by spider webs with tiny little arrows

- Frankie follows out of interest and is led straight to the papers
- he pulls them out and opens
- within the middle is the spider sat smiling up at him, with a very tired expression. (maybe gives a small yawn)

After completing this I now have a better understanding of the story, which will be very useful when pitching my idea. There are areas that will still need to be edited however I feel there is a massive improvement compared to the last storyboard I created.

Back to Life Drawing ...

2010-10-18T10:27:00.002-07:00

This year I am determined to improve my life drawing especially with faces and foreshortening. This week it too me a while to get back into it however feel the drawings I created near the end were quite successful, especially the faces and overall proportions/weight:

This one shows I still need to work on my foreshortening with the foot however I am pleased with the rest of the body.

With both of these I am really happy with the faces even though they may not be perfect compared to what I have done in the past they are amazing lol. And they even kind of look like the model, which is even better!

Major Project - 3D models

2010-10-18T10:27:00.001-07:00

I have been working on some 3D models, such as the toyshop which I decided to start over the summer as I knew it would be of great help when drawing out my storyboard, as it would enable me to get all the perspective accurate from a spider POV.

This is just a rough model to assist with storyboard, I will obviously be re-modeling bits etc for the actual thing if mine was to be chosen.

Below are some wooden toy models I have created just to give me an idea of what they looked like within teh toyshop.

I have also started modeling my spider character, below is what I have completed so far:

As you can see I'm still in the progress of modeling the head. The next stage will be to rig the model and the complete some animation test to make sure it works successfully.

Major Project - Initial Storyboard

2010-10-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

This week I have been working on a rough storyboard to give me an idea of what will actually be contained within the story. Firstly I did some quick sketches:

I then added a bit of shading to the opening scene which I was completely happy with.

I will be discussing my storyboard with Derek to improve it and make it a better story.

Major Project - Wooden Toy Designs

2010-10-11T08:19:00.001-07:00

These are some wooden toy designs to show the types of toys that Frank creates and sells in his toyshop:

Summer Work - Man Jumping

2010-10-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

Here is an animation of a man jumping:

This was my first attempt of making a man jump without using any reference. At the top of the jump it doesn't look right as his movements don't make it appear as if gravity is taking over and forcing him to go back to the ground. I really like the overlap at the end I feel i have captured that perfectly as it shows he is actually regaining his balance. The shift in weight at this point i feel works well.

Summer Work - Bull Creature

2010-10-09T11:31:00.001-07:00

Here is an animation of a bull creature plodding along:

I think if i was to include a moving background it would make this look better as at the minute the feet appear to slide slightly.

Summer Work - Horse Animation

2010-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I decided that I would definitely like to be a character animator, so have been doing some short animation tasks to improve my skills in 3D animation. Below is my first attempt of a horse running:

I'm really pleased with how this turned out, which has given me the confidence to continue animating to try and become as talented as I can in this area.

Major Project - Character/Environment designs

2010-10-08T10:39:00.001-07:00

These are some character designs I ahve been working on for Sally the spider and some background characters - the ants.

I'm quite pleased with teh overall design of the spider as from asking others opinions they all say "awwwww" which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted Sally to be a cute, loveable character who the audience will instantly fall in love with and want to see what happens to her on her travels.

These are some turnarounds, which I have drawn in a certain way as to make it easier to model in Maya, e.g. the spiders legs; they show which way they bend makign it easier when rigging.

Below are the ant characters. Sally comes into contact with these on her search for the letter, they are crossing her path, with an older ant holding up a red leaf (indiciating to stop) then changes it to green (indicating to go). A traffic light system makes it a bit more interesting for children.

These are some character turnarounds to make it easier to model in Maya. I have also drawn some examples of the types of food these ants could be carrying across the floor - cheerio, leaf, apple core.

Gaz has very kindly agreed to design the human characters that are in my story; Frankie and the evil suit man.

I have also completed some rough environment designs to give an idea of where this story is set: