Week 11


This week I wanted to tackle two parts of the Animatic I was the least happy with. I feel that the animatic in these two scenes was very static and crudely drawn. My goal is to make the character animation feel realistic and authentic so these parts of the animation needed a good redesign.


 I began by taking a series of videos of myself doing the "lifting" motion that I wanted to the character to perform. Once I got a video I was happy with, I took screenshots of the "keyframes" and rotoscoped my character on the top. I then went ahead and added the in-betweens to smooth the animation out, the in-betweens were not Roto'd but instead only referenced, as I do not want to rely on Rotoscoping, as it seems more like a cop-out rather than an expression of skill.

Seeing as the rock would be taking the brunt of the blast, and was in fact floating, I animated it being slowly pushed back by the rays and then popping back to its starting back then the onslaught was over. I also added some cracks to the rock to reinforce the strength of the beam. Another addition I added was the little specs of dirt and mud falling off the rock, to help lend credence to the idea this is part of the ground that has been ripped out. 


One final addition I made to the animation, was that in the final frame the outline of the rock turns green. This segment of the animation is followed by the green "gravity ball", so this addition will hopefully give the scene a nice sense of continuity. 

During peer feedback, I was asked why the rock wasn't green throughout the whole clip. While this is a valid suggestion, I don't think this effects the animation in any negative ways and isn't enough of a concern that I feel the need to change it. It is more of an artistic choice than an error in the animation. 


I am much happier with how this part of the animation turned out in the end. I feel that the use of self-reference really helped in the production of this scene, and I have employed it again in later sections of the animation. 





Moving on, I wanted to redesign a part of the animatic that again felt very static, as if it was were just still shots of the antagonist's design (I mean, that's exactly what it was). To do this, I added some flow to the clothing, re-angled some of the shots, and made the character movement more dynamic. I Looked up tutorials on cloth movement and flame effects on the internet, that all came in handy when producing this segment. 




Once again, I filmed myself doing the hand movements and rotoscoped over the top while keeping the design of the character as consistent as possible (so removing a figure etc). I employed camera shake again to help hopefully showcase the speed and power of this movement. I feel that this is one of the most successful parts of my animation, despite how simple it is compared to other parts of the animation.


Much like the sword drawn, I worked on many different levels so I could focus on making each part of the animation to its highest quality. 


Another aspect I wanted to practice when it came to this part of the animation, was the ambient lighting that the fire would give off. to do this I used a soft airbrush and a Glow layer, to make give the sense that this fire is indeed a source of lighting. 


I feel that both of these scenes are significant improvements to the original concepts that I proposed in the animatic. Peer feedback also showed a significant improvement in these two scenes between the concept and final outcomes. It is important to remember to analyse your work at all times, and not be afraid to change course if something isn't working, as this ability to improvise, adapt and overcome will hopefully make me a more desirable candidate to the industry. 




Also, with this, all the character animation has been completed. The next line of actions are as follows:

- Do a test render of all the scenes composited together, to get a sense of the flow of the scene.
- Paint the backgrounds and add them to the animation
- Add shading to all animation that needs it.
-Add the score and potential sound design. 



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