Applied Animation: Progress Made on Target

As I had completed the majority of the components I got to work putting the animation together in After Effects. I opened up my original cityscape file and extended the composition so I could include my other components. As I was wanting to work linearly, I started by creating the room in which "Ramon" was smoking in, making sure you couldn't see the inside of the room around the skyscrapers by using a mask. This wasn't a particularly hard task as it only required me to line up the layers and position them where I wanted them, and then make sure they weren't visible somewhere where they shouldn't be by using masks, something that I had experience using from my tutorials and previous projects.

Skyline to Max ("Ramon")

My next step was to animate the smoke that was to be blown into the air by the character, which proved to be quite a problem. Initially there weren't any problems, and I actually found drawing the smoke to be quite entertaining as I wasn't necessarily focusing on making it "look perfect". I tested the sequence I had so far but it appeared to be moving too quickly. To solve this issue, I went back to the original file to add in more key frames to ultimately slow down the movement of the smoke. This is when problems arose. I had to make the canvas size very big so that when it was scaled down in the composition in After Effects it wouldn't appear pixelated, and because of this when I tried reopening the file the program was struggling. It was even worse when I tried to add in key frames. I did the best that I could to extend the sequence, but in the end Photoshop wouldn't let me do anything else as the file was too large. I managed to export the image sequence, and thankfully the new sequence worked a lot better and I didn't need to alter it. This is something I shall have to revise for the future, as if I had needed more content I would have been stuck. Perhaps I shall have to use a different method/program to animate sequences that are potentially going to be large files.

Initial Smoke Test

Once I had completed this scene, I was able to begin working on the next which was the girl character, Tina, taking photographs from her car. To get to this scene smoothly, I had the camera in the composition follow the smoke upwards, and continue to move in the same direction until the car was in the shot. From here I could position all my components where I wanted them, and animate the camera moving through the space, just like I had done with the first two scenes. Again this was fairly straight-forward and only took my a couple of attempts to get the camera moving how I wanted it to, and it was only until I got to animating the camera shutter did I have problems. Just like everything else so far, I had created the components I was going to need in Photoshop and imported them to AE to animate. I wanted the camera shutter blades to move into the center of the display and then retract, mimicking a photograph being taken. I tried to do this by key framing the first and last position of the blades, but I couldn't make them rotate in the way I wanted them to as they moved outwards, and I also couldn't find a way to replicate the motion path with the other components. In the end I tried to animate each blade individually. 

Shutter Test One (Speed or composition length not yet adjusted)

I think the first attempt wasn't so bad, but it wasn't moving as smoothly as I would have hoped, and I was starting to get confused with where the shapes were moving to. I decided to try and start again, so I saved the project in case I had to come back to it. I racked my brains on how I could duplicate the motion path and set it for each of the shapes, and in the end I couldn't figure out how to do it. I googled how to do it and found the solution to my problem in minutes. I created a null layer and attached it to my shape, which allowed me to duplicate and rotate the motion path I had animated. 

Shutter Test Two 

Thinking back, I don't know why I didn't google my issue when I first encountered it. I would have saved a lot of time and I wouldn't have got so worked up and stressed out. This is definitely something I should remember for the future as it will definitely help me to learn new skills in a much quicker time.

Once I had got the movement sorted, I was able to include this composition into my current project. I wanted the shutter to close and open revealing the name of an actor in the film. In order for me to do this I had to create the text in Photoshop like I had everything else. I wanted to use the same font as I had used for my title test, as this closely resembled the cover of the book, but I was unsure of the style and the colour of the text, so decided to experiment slightly.

Initial Tests

I started by typing out the actor's name and adding a red pattern over the top of the text, similar to the background I used in the Target Title I produced earlier in the project. I liked how it looked, but I thought it didn't quite follow the style I had with the animation. I tried again but changed the technique slightly. This time I allowed for the background pattern to make up the shape of the text. I very much preferred this method as it was much more visually pleasing and more suited for the animation. I created the rest of the text I was going to need and implemented them into the title sequence.

Completed Text

Once I had finished these three scenes, I realized I only had about 10 seconds left. My Target Title was around 8 seconds long, which meant if I wanted to include it at the length it stood at, I wasn't going to have enough time left to animate the third scene I was hoping to include. I very much liked the title animation as it was and figured this was more important to include, so I just scrapped the next scene (Tina tied up to a chair) and imported the title sequence to see how it would look at the end of my project. The animation seemed to run smoothly with this addition, so I think I had made the right choice, but if I had made an animatic at the beginning of the project or carried out further planning, I may have realised that I wouldn't have had enough time to include everything. I don't think it's too much of an issue this time around, as I have still been able to set the scene for the movie without giving away too many details, but this could have been a big problem had I have been working on a linear story. I shall definitely have to remember to carry out this planning in the future so I don't miss out any important scenes. 

Applied Animation: Animating The Car Scene

As I don't have After Effects at home, I couldn't get started on putting the living room and the cityscape together, so I thought I'd continue to be productive and animate the next scene, ready for when I finish this one.

This sequence didn't take me as long to do, as there isn't as much movement and I had already tested the colours before hand. I also knew which components had to be on what layer. I started off by drawing the girl's movements, making sure to include the chair she was sitting on in the same layer. Once I had finished the basic outline, I put the frames together in Photoshop to see whether the movement needed altering before I coloured them in.

Test One

The animation seemed to move quite smoothly and because of this I didn't think I needed to add anymore inbetweens. However, before I coloured in the frames, I quickly tested the timings of the animation as I wanted to see if the action still looked as good when I duplicated some of the frames to make the poses hold for longer (E.g. Taking the photograph). Again, the movement looked fine.

Test Two

I'm really pleased with how this animation has gone. I'm hoping it still works as well when I adjust it in After Effects with the car. I know I'm going to have to extend the background but this isn't going to be a problem as the areas I will need to extend will simply be block colour and I shall do this when I need to.

Applied Animation: Animating The Living Room

The next part I needed to animate was the living room scene where Ramon is smoking on the sofa. Just as before I collected my reference videos and began animating. I started off by drawing the sofa and then drew "Ramon" on separate layers over the top of the sofa. I then made the sofa invisible and saved each pose to create an image sequence that I could then place back over the sofa so I could keep the model and the background separate. 

Attempt One

Playing it back I realised that he moved way too quick so I am going to have to add in more keyframes, but for a first attempt I think it looks fine. I like the different shades I have chosen in both the sofa and the character and I like that he doesn't fluctuate in scale which is good. I was also worried that the shape of the head was going to look unrealistic as he looked up to blow out smoke due to the lack of facial features, but I think it looks fine.

What I need to do from here is perfect the movement of the character then draw other components that shall be in the room. Once I have done this I can construct the room inside the city composition and continue to animate using After Effects.


Update:
I drew a couple of inbetweens which greatly improved the sequence. Not only this but I extended the length of some of frames (when the model is inhaling and blowing out smoke) which has made the action seem much more believable. If needs be I can extend these further by adding in more frames and I also might have to consider holding the first pose for longer as the camera gets into position in the room.

Attempt Two

Applied Animation: Animating The First Scene

I was pleased with how my testing was going so I thought it'd be best to start animating for real. I wanted to try and animate in order as much as possible as I thought this would be easiest considering I want the scenes to flow into one another. This meant that in order for me to get started I was to draw London's skyline, as this is where the story is set.

Cityscape

The cityscape took a lot longer than expected. Although it is just simple lines and block colour (consistent with the colours used in my testing) it took a while to work out what I wanted on each layer. I separated the city into a number of different layers as I was wanting to create a parallax using After Effects. Once I had finished the colouring of the buildings, I realised I NEEDED to include windows as I was going to zoom into one of them for the next scene. I chose the building I was going to zoom in on and added windows to it. My original thought was to add windows to a selection of buildings in the scene, but once I had finished this set I realised I didn't need to. I liked how it looked and as it is the only building with windows, your attention is drawn to it and it makes it clear that this is where the story takes place.

Once I had finished I imported the layers just as before, and began animating a panning sweep across the city.

Version One

When I first tried making the 3D space it didn't really go to plan. As my original drawings don't extend to the very edge of the image (only to where they "collide" with other layers) when I adjusted the positioning of the different layers you could see where the buildings finished when the camera panned. So for my first (technically second) attempt I didn't adjust the depth of each of the layers, but instead kept them inline as if it wasn't layered.

Version Two

I went back to my original photoshop file and extended the drawings on each of the layers to try and resolve my problem. Once I had done so, I tried again, and the second (third) attempt worked much better, and I definitely prefer it over the first video as it looks much more 3D. 

Version Three

I then extended my workspace and added in the camera zooming in on one of the windows on the building, creating the transition from this scene to the next. Again I encountered the same problem I had the first time around in that the image becomes very pixellated as I get closer, even though I drew these components on a much larger scale. For now I am going to leave it as it is. I like the movement, and I'm hoping that when I include the room inside the window it will seem less "bad quality" and more "the camera is shifting it's focus". 

Animating with Maya: Turntables

A while back we were taught how to create a turntable of an object. I thought I'd put my knowledge to the test and create one of my own. To do this I could have simply opened an object I had made previously, but I was feeling out of practice with Maya so decided to make something else for this exercise. I decided to make a Domo model. 

My Domo Model

I was working from a figurine that Matt had bought me for Christmas, and I was trying to get the shape of the model as accurate as I could. Some of the features aren't as accurate as I had hoped, but I think the overall shape looks good, especially as I am still just a beginner (that hasn't used Maya for a number of weeks/months).

Domo Turntable - Playblast

Once I had finished modelling I created a turntable of the object. This was really easy to do, as I simply clicked Animate > Turntable, set the number of frames I wanted the turntable to play for and then Maya did the rest for me.

Applied Animation: Testing Style and Animating with After Effects

As I was wanting to produce realistic human movements for my animation, I thought it would be best if I gave Rotoscoping a try. This way I can obtain a degree of realism that I am happy with, without spending too much time trying to perfect the movements by hand drawing them. This also allows me to have more time to experiment with After Effects, which is my main focus of this project, as I want to become more comfortable with digital programs to broaden my skills.

To get started, I collected a couple of reference videos. From these videos I would then be able to start animating, but first I wanted to test out the style in which I would create the animation.

Experimenting with Styles in Photoshop

I wanted the style to be consistent with the titles I had previously created, so I stuck with the original colours I used, and that are also featured on the book cover. I think this works well. I am able to differentiate between different objects and materials by using a range of different monochrome colours, and I like that it doesn't look too simplistic. Instead it is just detailed enough to explain what is happening in the scene. 

Because I was pleased with how the test went, I decided to do a "quick" trial run in After Effects. I imported the Photoshop file and tested the shot of zooming into the camera's view finder. 

After Effects Test One

I think my first attempt went well, although I'm not quite sure what happened to some of the edges in my drawings. I also found that the more I zoomed into the components the more pixelated they looked, so it might be a good idea to experiment using Illustrator to produce some of the components for this scene in particular, as I can create vectors, that won't look pixelated when I zoom in on them (The camera especially). 

Next I wanted to test actually zooming into the car, so I went back into Photoshop to draw the outside of the car. Once I had done this I created a new project in After Effects and imported all of my Photoshop components. I then realised that my original ones weren't on separate layers. I went back and made sure that everything I needed was separate to allow me to create a more 3D space within the car. Once I had corrected everything I was ready to go.

After Effects Test Two

I'm very pleased with how this went. It's obviously not perfect as I shall have to extend the drawing for the inside of the car to fill the white spaces, but it has been a clear indicator to me that I want to achieve is possible, and by the looks of it will work well, too. I found that when I lined everything up in the composition, that the inside of the car extended past the car when I was viewing it from the outside, and to correct this I put a mask on the inside layer so I could "cut" out the parts I didn't need, without having to edit the original document. When it comes to animating this scene properly, I know now to draw the entire space that will be within the car, and to make sure I do so on separate layers. I also know that I shall have to slow down the speed of the camera, as this test is moving a little bit too fast. But all-in-all I think I've made a good start.