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

Pie Eruption

Here is the ending of my animatic.

Stages of Background

I have decided to used a Toon shader on the house, the shader consists of two colours; one, the main colour of the house and the other gives the impression of a shadow. I also put an out line on the model to give it a more cartoon feel. So because of this, I have changed the shading of the background to match the effects I've used on the house.



INITIAL SKETCHES FOR BACKGROUND ...



This is possible layout for the establishing shot, the camera will move through the woods and end on a close up of the ground floor front window, the house will be modelled in Maya. I've used Adobe Photoshop to paint the initials shot. As the house is a 3d model I decided that it would work better if the house was placed to the right of tree because the camera won't be tracking straight towards the tree and house but instead it will curve round and close in on the front window, this will work fine for the house as it is 3D but the tree will look wrong as it is placed on a flat plane. To get round this problem I am going to put the layers on different planes in maya instead of putting the house render and the images together in after effects, I'll move them on the same path as the house and render both the plane images and the house out at the same time.

Character Designs

These are some of my initial sketchs for possible squirrel characters. I thought of having a squirrel as my character as I thought it would make more sense being a woodland animal.

Here I was just playing around, trying get used to how the mouse will move. I need to move the ears and cheeks up and down too.

House Modelled In Maya

This is an idea of what the house will look like in the scene. I've modelled it in Maya, the modelling side of it is finished, I now need to map it then add the texture.

Ambiant Occlusion - House Modelled In Maya

Possible House Layout/Colour

Storyboard

... End of the 1st Year ... On with the 2nd ...

This year we are working in groups of four to six. For this year my goal is to gain confidence in 3D modelling and lighting in Maya. I was originally in a group of six, but decided to leave the group and work on my own as I found it quite frustrating because I didn't feel that a fair amount of work was being given to me, for one example, I was told to model a medieval house which I thought was a great chance for me to hone my skills, having started the model I brought it in for feed back from the group to find it had been give to another in the group without my knowing, when I questioned what else I could do?! I was told "from now on you can concentrate on modelling vegetable and plant pots." I thought to myself modelling vegetables for 4 months... I think not... So politely, I cut and ran.

I think working on my own will be a great opportunity and a learning curve as I have never worked alone before, hopefully it will show how to pace work and schedule the load in order to get it finished to a standard I'm pleased with.

Here is our final animated sting for the third years' final end of year degree show. these stings are to played in between the third years' degree films. For the sting I sourced the sound effects. I then layered the sounds together using Adobe soundbooth, making it louder for example where the carnival passed the window, the song at the end of the sting was a bit of fun, to show the energy which the old man character still had inside him. I did the backgrounds for the animation and coloured Amy's animations for the old man character I ended up putting the animations onto the backgrounds with the use of Adobe After Effects, this was great as I spent so much time messing around with the buttons and time line, I now feel more at ease with the program and think that in the future I will be able to get straight on and use After Effects.

I am currently in my first year of uni studying animation. As our final end of year project we have been asked to create short 20 second stings. I am working as a duo with Amy Callaghan. Amy is good at character designs we decided that it was be best for her to animate the old man character to keep continuity in the animation. At the moment I have enjoyed layout so I have done the backgrounds and colouring the old man character and the backgrounds for the sting, I have sourced the sounds which haven't been added yet but, will be for the final Sting. It has been quite tough working as a pair as we found that there was more work included in making the sting than we first expected.

View from livingroom window

Different angle Livingroom

This is my design for when the protagonist is leaving the shot to join his friends in the carnival. I found this particularly hard to draw as I had to think about keeping up the continuity, keeping the objects in the room consistent with the establishing shot. I feel that this shot works quite well as it gives the character good space to exit the room, also by keeping much of the same furniture on show it makes it clearer to the audience that he is exiting the same room.

Improvements on Livingroom

Here is the improved design for the living room background. I have left the view out of the window empty as there will be a parade passing by in the final animation.

First design for Livingroom

Here is one of my first designs for the living room. I plan on developing this further by adding details such as peeling wallpaper, dirt on the floor, ceiling, sofa etc.

Animatic

This is an animatic for the Carnival animation.