Videos and tests

For the final battle we thought the intro to the boss should indicate that this scene is significant. We thought this was the most effective way.



When filming the last battle scene we encountered some problems with the camera. So we came in the next day to finish. However, we found we couldn't line up the camera exactly the same way as before. So instead we added a pause screen to break up the transition of the camera set up.

To do this we used lighting effects with coloured difusing paper. In the same way we accented the characters actions (attack), to create the effect of flashing lights.

This was also our first attempt at incorporating pixilation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixilation

We thought this first test was a bit fast in places. Some of the spacing was to large between frames so we did the test again, but moving much slower to create a smoother animation

We decided upon the theme of Mortal Kombat. Mainly as this seemed an effctive way for the mutated figures to interact! We started here for research in layout, character and lighting.

This link shows a simple video of the game, where the camera shot is continuous. This seemed an effective layout for our own animation.

This also provided a story that we could use, with rounds in a battle, different bosses, a dungeon setting and dark lighting with a spot light focusing on the characters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVq1kvXaMMM 



This is the intro to the first battle, featuring the 'Scorpion'. We found this plaster set, which was perfect as a background for the battles to take place. The mirror was found and used for the floor. This was improvised but we think it looked quite effective.

To add to the effect of playing a game, we wanted to add the health bars at the top of the screen. We had seen that you could add backgrounds and foregrounds to your work, in stop motion pro. So we looked for online instructions of how to add our own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVq1kvXaMMM

We used a picture from google images of the combat screen from mortal kombat. Using photoshop we were able to create the foreground, which we then imported into stop motion pro.

We had to create new project for each battle as the forground was added to the entire animation. But the short animations could be edited, in final cut pro, later.

In this way we were able to do all the intros then battles for each character.

Getting into character

These quick sketches outline the key frames that would give this character the whipping action of his tentacle arm!

STOP MOTION!

Its the start of the new year, 2011. Its also the start of a new task. This time looking at stop motion and 3D modelling for animation.

http://moodle.bcu.ac.uk/biad/course/view.php?id=974

The link provides the outline of the task and resources. Working in groups we each made our own 'stickfas', which are plastic armatures.

Armatures are the skeletons for stop motion models and puppets. Normally made from wire, but in this case we used plastic.

http://www.armaverse.com/

This link provides information on Aardman and how they use armatures for their models.
http://www.telepathy.co.uk/aardman/culture/tour/model.html

This is my finished armature. We encountered problems working with the plastic pieces and some pieces snapped. So we decided to get creative and use any spares we could find to make some 'mutants'. This also sparked some ideas for our animation. This was the final character I came up with.

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.