Final Animation "Four and Twenty Blackbirds"

"Four and Twenty Blackbirds" - I found this project challenging as I worked alone. To begin with I don't think I really had the skill set to complete all aspects of the project. Having finished I'm glad I worked alone as it has forced me to learn with the help of tutors things that other wise I wouldn't have had to have learnt if I was in a group. I feel that the project has improved my modelling skills in Maya, I learnt how to UV Map and texture 3D objects. The 3D side of the project was the part I enjoyed most. I really disliked animating and think that the animation would have benefited from having someone else in the group who could animate better than I. Next year I hope to concentrate more on 3D and veer away from the 2D aspect of animation.

FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS ANIMATION

House Through Woods

This screen shot shows the set up in Maya to make the below video.


Again the video has uploaded stretched but it shows a glimpse of what the final thing will look like as the camera goes through the trees in towards the house.

A problem whilst rendering

I had a problem with the toon shader and outline I put on the house where the outline shows through over all the other layers when rendered. After talking to Simon we came to the conclusion that I needed to render it out on separate layers (the trees + flowers on one and the house on the other) and turn off the outline on the house when rendering out the trees and flowers in front of the house.

Beginning sequence for my animation

Mouse Sneak Across Sill

IMPROVED MOUSE SNEAK ...



This clip runs just after the mouse climbs onto the sill. as you can see the mouse tip-toes across the window and then reacts to what will be birds erupting from the pie, I have yet to add the birds flying out of the pie. again I found animating this difficult, I decided to keep the mouse character simple to make sure continuity was kept in the mouse's appearance.

FIRST ATTEMPT ...

Mouse climb up onto sill

MOUSE CLIMBING ONTO WINDOW SILL ...



The video has uploaded a little stretched but, it shows the mouse climbing up onto the window sill. When I was doing this piece thought about what the mouse is doing, how he would crouch slightly to one side before springing up to the sill. I did this to avoid a symmetrical jump, as he reaches up one hand is always higher, and his hands land on the sill one hand again lands before the other. As he gets up from hanging on the edge I dipped his head and arched his back to show a slight struggle.

This image shows the rough frames for the mouse jumping onto the window sill. It took a long time for me to work out the mouses' movement as animating is a point which I've seemed to avoid, therefore I found it quite difficult at times to get the acting and timing right, also as the mouse is jumping up I had to think about his size getting smaller as he reached the window sill top.

Bird Flying from the Pie to end

Backgrounds

BEGINNING THROUGH TREES ...

Here is the background for the beginning of the animation, all the trees are on different layer so the camera can zoom in down the avenue toward the house in the distance, which I have modelled in Maya.

TREES IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE ...

I have put these trees on separate planes in front of the house model in Maya so that I can set the camera to go through them and zoom to the house and into the kitchen window.

KITCHEN WINDOW ...

Here is a sketch of what the window will eventually look like once it's been modelled and the kitchen interior has been added to a plane and placed inside the model.

I need to place the below image of the kitchen inside the model on a plane and group it with the house in Maya so the plane moves with the house as the camera move in towards the house. If I didn't do this then the house would curve round and the plane would stay in the same place.

KITCHEN ...

This image will be placed on a plane inside the house model for the scene where the mouse jumps up onto the window sill and sneaks across to the pie. Drawing the kitchen will save me a lot of time, I would have liked to model the inside of the house as I wanted to concentrate on modelling and lighting, but as I'm doing this project on my own I don't think I'll have time to do so, which is a shame as I have enjoyed what modelling I've done so far this year.

WINDOW SILL ...

This was meant to be the background for the mouse walking across the window sill to the pie, I wanted to have some of the surrounding area included to add more colour in the scene but unfortunately it was the wrong angle for the mouse to walk across.

NEW WINDOW SILL ...

I wanted to introduce some of the the surrounding area in this image to add a variety of colours but could because of the angle I animated the mouse at. I did think about changing the colour of the mouse from brown as the character gets lost in the background which is also brown.

BACKGROUND FOR THE HOUSE ...

This was going to be the background for my house to sit in but I decided against it as the trees would have been massive in comparison to the house as the plane it would have been on would have to much bigger than the others and therefore the image would have had to have been a lot smaller on the plane, and therefore I think would have taken the audience's eye off the house.

Toon Shader

Here I have used the Toon Shader, for the colour I used the shaded brightness two tone. I then added the black outline with the pfx Toon outline tool. Originally at the start of the group work project I wanted to concentrate on modelling and lighting. I enjoyed modelling the house and learning how to UV map and texture the house. Next year I hope to be able to do more 3d animation.

UV Mapping