11 Second club - Final Animation

Final animation. Overall it works, however the lip syncing for the main character is a bit odd and doesn't quite match. to the words. This could've been improved by planning and using the dopesheet in the correct way. Originally I had not planned to focus much on lip syncing, in favour of the characters acting. However, with the focus being mainly on the characters face this would have benefitted the animation.

11 Second club - Animatic

This is the final test. Once the key frames for all the scenes had been done the rest could be put together to form the final test. Now that this was done I used this to create my dopesheet. On this I could note which frames would be repeated, reversed etc. The frames would need to be lined, so everyy frame would be filmed again. This I planned to do all at once with the soundtrack, so this is why the dopesheet would help.

I got help understanding dopesheets using blogs mainly.
http://www.animationpost.co.uk/doping/dope-intro.htm
This blog I found particularly helpful. This was posted on one of the discussion forums on moodle.

11 Secind club - Line tests

This angle shows the character in the mirror and the viewer is at his level. Its interesting as this sort of angle is not easily achieved in film as the camera would show in the mirror. But with animation it could give the scene a certain effect that connects the viewer to the character, making us feel the same confusion or vulnerability, perhaps, as the character in a way thats unique to animation.

This line test shows the second character. I used an extreme close up so that you could not see who he is so as to attain a certain mystery of the unkown. Which meant the scene would look better with lip syncing. I looked in the mirror when creating this line test to see the lip movements for each sound.

more frames are required as its not long enough for the clip. Also there are some moments where the character pauses so some frames my be repeated. Certain lip movements look the same for multiple sounds so frames may be able to be used more than once.

This is the sequence put together. There are still more frames that need to be added. Some of the animation is a bit jerky still. All tests are at 12 frames per second.

11 Second club - Further testing

This video was interesting. I used this and watched iot frame by frame to create a line test.

This test was quite interesting and the characters head only appears at the end. It makes quite a believeable animation. Also, with this close up shot, there is less of the background exposed so less drawing. The characters action of leaning towards the mirror suggests that he is in a bathroom washing his hands.  The downward angle is good as you can see both characters clearly. however, the character in the background should be quite elusive so A lower angle would be less foreboding on the main character.

11 Second club - Video references

With some help I made more videos for reference. It was important for the scen that the main view of the character is through the mirror. This shot is a medium shot where the top half of the figure can be seen. I want the scene to be a little more closed in around the character, so I will try another angle.

This close up shot is better. You can see the characters face clearly in the mirror. However I am still not happy with how much you can see the characters back. I think this makes the character appear as though they are talkin to themself.

This shot was taken standing infront of the mirror. The scene should be as though the viewer is looking from the characters point of view in the mirror. The second character is seen in the background.

This test shows how the first half of the scene could play out.

11 Second club - Using videos

As I am using John Travolta as reference for my character so this clip from Pulp Fiction was useful. I used this to understand a little for how to lipsync. Also to see if there was any charactistics in his performance that I could use in my own animation.

I also created my own videos to act out the scene. This is the first video I took in my own home. This is a low shot which would make the character more imposing.



This nest video was taken by accident but, none the less, I thought might be a useful insight into how I went about trying to set up the scene. The area was quite dark which meant you couldnt see the reflection in the mirror, so we tried to overcome this issue. Also setting up the angle so that you could see my reflection clearly with the back of me in the foreground.

11 Second club - Developing key frames

Using photos I started to try out how the character would fit into the setting of the bathroom. I tried to experiment with a few different angles.

 This is the angle I found was the best, where you can see both characters in the mirror.

This angle is more directly behind the character looking in the mirror. At this angle the 2nd character would lean slightly to remain in shot. Also You can see the corner of the sink, which would be a nice little detail to suggest the setting without exposing to much.

11 Second club -- Scene development

I wanted to try looking at the characters through the use of mirrors. In order to keep some distance between the characters and the viewer. The clip has an eerie sense about it, which I want to echo in the animation. As I didnt want the background to be complicated I used the bathroom at the university for inspiration. The layout is perfect for the setting, which will include the mirror and the sink.

11 Sec club - Development

I've discovered after many, many drawings that to get a consistently good likeness of John Travolta, ready for this animation, I would need more time to practise drawing him. So I have decided that I will use this still as the basis of my character, although I will not be focusing on making sure I capture his likeness. I will use his main features that I noticed were characteristic to him, so hopefully there may be some resemblence. But I want to focus on this characters acting so I will start developing test based on videos.

I thought this photo of Fonda was perfect for the way I wanted to portray my own character. The dark shadows dont reveal to much of his features, or in particular his eyes, making him seem eerie. Although I want to avoid too many large dark areas as this is more drawing when it comes to animating. But I will keep in mind these techniques to keep the character mysterious.

Self directed study - 11 Second club

TASK

We were given a choice from a selection of audio clips. Using our chosen clip we were to create an animation. All the clips were 11 second samples of various films.

CHARACTER 1

The clip I chose had dialogue, so this helped to determine who the characters were, how they should look etc. The first character to speak reminded me of John Travolta. In particular his role in Pulp Fiction. So I used this as my inspiration for this character.

I am quite keen to get a good likeness of John Travolta. From what I've learnt from the FLIP festival and other sources is that facial expressions and detail is important. However, with the time scale in mind, I will develop the sketches into simple line drawings of the character. This is so the process of creating the animation can be quicker.

I'l be using photos of Travolta for reference and also videos. I may use lip syncing, although it is not essential. The character should be able to act, so this will be main thing to focus on. For this I will be acting the scene out myself, so I can see how the scene will play out, and hopefully get a life like animation.



CHARACTER 2

The first character we hear reveals alot about himself in his voice and words. It is easy for me to visualise this character. However, the second voice is quite monotonal, which makes it all the more unsettling. I was reminded of a scene from the 2007 film GHOST RIDER, starring Peter Fonda as the devil. As this was my first impression I felt this would be a good way to start. Peter Fonda plays a convincing devil in this film so I the second character would be based on this. However, I think the main focus will be on the first character with the second remaining slightly anonymous.