Week 5: Maya Character rig - reaction shot

 Task 4 - The most important thing about reaction, as with all animation is emotion. For your final piece create a situation that a simple character reacts to. Try to avoid obvious reaction choices. Your reaction shot should be 2 – 4 seconds long.

We looked at the famous reaction from Pretty Woman, which has been described as the trade mark of the film and an iconic moment.

This is an old test used by Disney Studios when interviewing animation candidates. The idea is that you can convey emotion purely through body language.

Various reaction exercises:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYDFsTwgRig (realism)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtlft6bNxA (extreme cartoon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQp1igZSiM (extreme cartoon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rzN3QGdyqg (student attempt)

Dreamworks -  In order to get a good performance out of your character you have to act it out and record it, this is a comedy video of Dreamworks performance tests before they animate the characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUFoKydoFlg&noredirect=1

Task : Using the Max rig and the ‘how to sheet’ we started playing with the rig.

Homework : Using the 11 Second clubs archive watch animation entries; choose your favourite then write a post about why you like it on your blog, please add a link.

 http://www.11secondclub.com/

Apple and Leaf test video

https://vimeo.com/113593616

Task 1 - Presentation

Emily and I worked on our film idea about a cup of tea.
Emily originally had the idea, about a guy and a guy falling in love over a cup of tea. The guy was a science teacher and was nervous, the woman was professional and perfect. The guy would then put the wrong ingredient in and the cup of tea would explode in her face, but she would be fine by this and fall in love with him.
After listening to class feedback we decided to change the ending slightly and just have it as her in a mess after the explosion.
Together we came up with a quick sketch of a storyboard. 

 After we learned about thumbnail sketches me and Emily went through discussing each frame and deciding what they would be. I then drew the thumbnails.

 We then went through the thumbnails, discussing each frame and the camera angles we would use, adding and taking away frames.

We then divided the thumbnails in half and we drew the storyboard. We decided to change the ending slightly to leave as more of a cliff hanger, so the audience doesn't really know why he is horrified in the end.

Finally i drew up some character designs for Barry and Franny.
They are both around 30 years old. Barry is a chemistry teacher who is very and shy and science is the only way he can become more confident. Franny is the Head teacher at the school where Barry works and she is perfect and proper.



This is our Synopsis for our film idea. - Barry an English Chemistry teacher at Charlton Academy of science attempts to prepare the perfect English cuppa for Franny , the American headteacher of the school. In order for Barry to do this he must overcome his shyness. He needs to impress her by putting on his uniform and goggles. He then uses his science equipment to prepare her tea. At one point whist he is making the tea he becomes flustered from the pressure and his goggles steam up. As a result, Barry adds the wrong ingredient and when Franny takes a sip it explodes in her face. Barry is left horrified.

http://laceyemily0.wordpress.com/

Animating to sound

 https://vimeo.com/111111969

Taken Storyboard

Best drawing of the week #4

Week 4: Animating to sound TV Paint

Animation is all about timing and spacing, to help work on this concept we had to animate to sound. Animators often receive the soundtrack first and animate to it.

Screening:

• Clik-Clak by Victor_Emmanuel Moulin and Thomas Wagner -https://vimeo.com/6932995
•  KJFG No5 by Alexey Alexeev (Best use of sound FLIP 2008) http://vk.com/video65203364_166073353
• NSPCC Cartoon, Frank Budgen and Russel Brooke -http://www.passion-london.com/directors/russell-brooke/nspcc-cartoon/20f2fac298a23c618c05be5112cf8259

Task:

Using the sound track provided by Emily we had to create an animation of our choice, but avoiding literal interpretations of the sound track.

Homework: Finish this piece of animation for your research and development folders on your blog.