A brief update.

Last week I started as a PA in the Lighting Dept. at Blue Sky Studios.
Ås I start totalling up my time there, I spent Feb - May as an intern helping out in Story, Animation, Fur/Materials and Lighting. At the end of the summer, they called me in for an 8 week temp assignement as a PA in Story and just when I thought I'd be let go, they called me upstairs to Lighting.

It's been great every step of the way. I hope to be there through January as they finish up Horton Hears a Who, but as a temp you just never know. But as I start week 2, I'm just enjoying my time there and learning as much as I can.

I haven't done too much myself in animation since I finished my thesis, but I've been a little burned out.

I'm going to try some modeling and lighting as well as some body mechanics work, but I've been beat after long busy days.

I'll try to add more as time goes on.

Some lessons learned ...

Overall, I'm pleased with my final piece. I still see flaws and can keep working on it forever, but I think I'm better off taking what I've learned from this project and applying it to future work.

Firstly, I took the opportunity to try and add some humor. I made the characters a little sillier, especially the flamingo, with some fun angles and camera shots. I need to push exageration ... which brings me to modeling and rigging.

I ran into problems with my models and rigging didn't always cooperate. I was pleased they actually worked, but my next character will need to be more flexible with better facial rigging.

Animation will take many, many years to learn and I'll work on smaller, less complicated pieces to improve. However, I think my timing has improved as well as layering and offsetting motion. The tails and bodies of both birds added some nice balance and counter balance to their movement.

It's been a great opportunity to learn, improve and do the best that I can.

DONE!

I've completed my thesis, rendered, edited and delivered to Kathy at CADA. Here are some small files for review via dial-up in the back woods of MA or VT.... I have smaller sections below ... but here is the whole thing at about 10MB. The other files are about 1MB.

FINAL EDIT:
http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/sm_DebScott_final.mov

DEE PUSH:
http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/DeePush_sm.mov

LEG BOUNCE
http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/BounceLeg2_sm.mov

More to follow, but I'm off to put a DVD in the mail for Tuesday delivery.

The Horror!

Rosa is horrified that the Fakes have been "killed".
Improvments - going for less spliney, shortened the middle which dragged a bit in the original. Added subtle body movement.
Shut the mouth earlier. Expression is the same as original.

I really like that sinking feeling you get when her body moves down a bit. It happens in two spots.

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/300_SUMHorror.mov.qt

Hopefully this is working, I had a slow internet connection this AM.

Rosa Snub

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/200_SUMRosaFace_snub.mov.qt

This is one of the few scenes I felt I got right in the original.
I like the expression, the body language, the humor with the tail ... the only changes I made were the background and I lowered the camera angle. Not only do we see more of the wings but the haughty look increases as the camera is that much more beneath her -- literally and figuratively.

And FWIW, this was the scene that gave Rosa eyelids. I needed that aloof look ... so created & rigged them in a day following some online tutorial that thankfully worked like a charm. At some point AFTER this is all over I'll rig real eyes with aims and controls.

Render test with Blur

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/Blur_Dee.mov

Well that was successful. I'll be sure to use that when rendering the flying sequences.
I used the default settings.

Dee Pushing the rake.

Here's a render to show how the background blends into the Image Plane. This was using David's suggestion of adding a ramp shader to the transparency of the the ground texture. I like the warm light, but have to check the concrete texture on the top portion of the wall.



Here's the QT. I *might* stretch it out to slow it down a bit. Might try a blur but am not sure.

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/245_SUM_DeePush.ma.qt

Dee Intro Alternative

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/201_SUM_DeeIntro4.mov.qt

I rather like this intro for a number of reasons. First, it just works better.
Secondly, I like the way it's the opposite of Rosa's intro. She pops up, Dee flies down.

Thirdly ... I think I'll use this landing technique when she flies over to the flamingos and use something similar when she flies over to the shovel.. I always felt it was difficult to see her flying over from the birdbath - basically going from very small to large in the fore ground.

Either way, I think this works nicely as an intro.

Dee Intro revisited.

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/201_SUM_DeeIntro3.mov.qt

Goal: Add more flit-flit movement, improve wing flapping, adjust feet grabbing and letting go.

Reference book - Tezuka School of Animation Vol. 2 Animals in motion.
Osamu Tezuka & Tezuka Productions very helpful book on animal movement including small birds.

I'll be posting Dee in Flight QT this evening.
This is when she flies to the flamingo.

Leg Bounce
- Fakes have fallen down and Dee comes to sit on one of the legs.
Rosa watches and decides she like Dee.

http://d10234246.serv63.ixwebhosting.com/downloads/315_LegBounce.mov.qt

Improved animation:
Faster tempo, more balance on Dee's part, better expression/Connection on Rosa's part.

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/101_SUM_lookAround1.mov.qt

Opening scene over the wall. Working on pace and sharper movement.

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/201_SUM_WalkAround5.ma.qt

Walk_On revisited.

Working on weight, timing, and balance, as well as trying to add a bit of character (excited!)

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/201_SUM_WalkAround3.ma.qt

This clip has Rosa walking in to meet the Fakes.

The goal was to show an elegant neck and awkward feet.
Emotionally, Rosa is excited to meet the Fakes and her neck directs the motion as she enters the garden.
I tried to vary the pace and even offer a hop at the end with a little hang time to give a feeling of lightness and added some quick steps to show excitement. I think the weight looks OK, need to tweak some sliding on the contact spots.

Added secondary animation in the tail, wings, head and beak.

Need to add lights, shadow and color correct - I want the fakes to stand out a little more, they're competing with the background. But I like this scene. I may try it with Dee as a foreground element watching Rosa enter the scene.

DEE INTRO

The wings are still rough, but I like the expression and the push up/settle down.
This will be cut into the walk in scene to show she's excited.

Face needs some tweaking at the end.

http://64.17.142.111/downloads/201_SUM_DeeIntro2.mov.qt

COLOR and ENVIRONMENT CHANGE

I put a background in the camera's image plane and I liked the result. I'll have a few backgrounds to alternate.
Added a vignette for some depth. I've been working on desaturating the color in AfterEffects. I think this is pretty close.





For comparision - here's the original

Animation Files I'll be putting up this weekend:

Rosa Walk Cycle (http://scottscorners.com/downloads/RosaRig_WALK.qt)
this will be incorporated into the garden scene where she walks in.

Rosa greets the fakes. (http://64.17.142.111/downloads/130_Rosa_Hello.mov)
I like the movement, but I'm going to make this a bit faster.


Meet Dee (chickadee)

Dee's Bright Idea.

Environmental scenes/models:

Background/trees

Mushrooms, grass and Sunflower.

Met with "Women in Animation" tonight at Little Airplane productions at the Seaport. A really nice meeting re: writing with a panel of 4 children's TV writers. Met up with 2 "Academy" alumni and it was great catching up. Couldn't make it to The MIll social gathering, but I was glad I met up with some "old friends". The whole session was inspirational and I'm looking forward to thesis work tomorrow.

Partitioning my day ... the afternoons will cover all things thesis - lighting/modeling/animation.

This afternoon I will start slow and add some props to my scene like: Mushrooms near the birdbath, patches of grass, and perhaps work a little on the tree ling. I will continue to blog to keep myself on track and will add a shot list tomorrow.

The result is in, I received an Incomplete/Pass for my thesis project, but got a lot of good feedback and supportive remarks. It's been recommended I make a punch-list of items to fix or improve, so will start here and update as I go along. Here's my to-do list along with Halbstein's comments...


Here are some of the changes I think are necessary to "complete" my project. Most were brought up in the panel discussion and I agree with them.

1. Improve animation.

I'd like to go scene by scene and make adjustments, corrections, improvements where ever necessary starting with some of the more problematic scenes. (when Dee flies over, walk cycle, Dee getting mad.

Strengthen the "Bright Idea" scene where Dee decides to knock over the shovel and rake.

I think Rosa needs to show a little frustration that the Fakes aren't responding to her. Just add glimpses of frustrated facial expressions in between her smiles.

HALBSTEIN: Animation is about two things - character and weight transfer.  You will get a lot of mileage if you address these things with Rosa; her desire to be graceful and her natural ungainliness are rich fodder.  It's almost like she's two birds in one - very graceful from the neck up, but this is attached to a very uncoordinated body.  The three areas that I think need the most attention are these:

         1.  Her entrance - as she peeks over the wall, you really need to exaggerate the "S" curve of her neck and the movement.  If you accent this now, the ungainliness of her walk cycle will be very funny.

         2.  The walk cycle - here is the area where you can introduce the imbalance of her character.  The lower half is about weight transfer and balance; the top half is about grace AND dealing with this imbalance.

        3.  The "dance" - I think you need some more reference material here - we can talk about this in more detail, but I don't get the sense that her body and her feet are connected, nor do they seem affected by gravity. 

Based on the comments at the critique, I think that the most important thing to do with Dee is to make her movements very quick - fast start, fast stop, motion blur on the wings.  While Rosa has to move very carefully or she'll tip over, Dee is more of a  "Flit, flit, flit ..."; this provides a nice physical character contrast between the two of them

2. Improve lighting

Help! I'd like to add shadows but would like to keep the light warm and outdoorsy. I want the piece to stay bright and cheerful but need shadows for depth and help define the animation. (i.e. When Rosa is dancing and her feet come off the ground and then land again.

3. Environmental Design.

Add a few more things so the garden doesn't look so barren. Nothing cluttered, same simple design. just more (i.e. tufts of grass, some mushrooms under the birdbath, additional leaves near the roses, bend the tulip stems) These changes will also happen ASAP for rendering purposes. (although if needed, I can add elements in post)

HALBSTEIN: Agreed.  I really like the look of the "Chicken Little" reference, you can use that as a springboard.  I would suggest maybe using an illustration as a background - you draw so well it's a shame not to use it in your piece.  Along the lines of what Darryl did, though using your own style and maybe not so much Photoshop stuff.  I agree that the whole garden looks a little stark; it would definitely impove things to dress it up a bit.  We can strategize the layering elements so you can move forward quickly and retro-fit shadows and other elements if you need to.   I have lots of ideas as to how I can help you with the lighting.

4. Textures

Add a slight texture to the grass area. check the wall and path textures.

HALBSTEIN: The last thing to worry about here;  do it if it looks bad after all your other improvements, though I'd rather see you put most of your effort into the animation.


TIME FRAME.

I think had I been at this point in my project in March, I would have been able to finish my project, so I think 2 months should cover what I need to do. I don't want this to drag on, and to be honest, I have another project waiting in the wings, with a group effort to follow that. Ideally I'll be done by the end of June.

http://www.scottscorners.com/downloads/DebScott_ThesisWeb.mov

Here's the final. My defense is on Wednesday.
I'm going in tomorrow to watch the procedure and some of my classmate's work.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. The ending came together in a simple but fun way. Music worked and renders look good.