Final Project Story & Design

I mentioned in my previous post that my idea was to create a piece based on the myth of Pandora's box, and do my own take on it. I intend to create a cute yet creepy stylised piece, featuring one main character and one room. It's going to include some 2D illustrated/narrated elements to open as well as the animated section. I'll be producing all my own character models and rigs.

So here's a brief summary of my story:

Pandora is going to be a young child, what wants to know everything. She has a burning curiosity and loves exploring places, seeking out hidden treasure or hidden passageways. One days she discovers an old mysterious looking chest which she tries to open, but she gets caught by her furious father who takes the chest to the attic and forbids her to ever go up there again. He also hides the key.

The short will open with Pandora stealing the key then venturing to the attic to open it.. As she is about to open the chest she starts to have second thoughts because she’s been forbidden to touch it and doesn’t want to get in trouble with her father. Sensing her doubt, the box shakes and curiosity gets the better of her so she unlocks it.

Not sure what to expect after the box moved Pandora is quite scared of what may come out, but is pleasantly surprised when a cute little dark creature swoops out past her. Laughing she attempts to catch it, turning her back on the box.

A large, dark form begins to grow from the box and the room gets darker. Alarmed by the change in light, Pandora turns around, but she is too late. The darkness is already upon her. Swooping down the dark form seizes Pandora and pulls her into the box, slamming it shut behind her.

The room returns to its original light and state, looking as though nothing had ever disturbed it. Frantic tapping sounds come from within the box with an occasional shake and a dark little creature is seen slinking away into the shadows.

After working on my storyboard I have since added an extra twist to the ending with the evil creature becoming Pandora. I really like this addition and I feel it resolves the story much better. There's also room for me to maybe make a 'Part 2' in the future answering the question of 'What happened to Pandora?

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Here are some of the initial sketches of Pandora with the key and creature!

I've also produced modelling templates from my designs for Pandora, the box, the creature and the key. So far I've completed the box and key, may need a bit of tweaking later but not much.

Only thing left is texturing but I intend to tackle that when all the models are complete. I'll post some more design work soon along with my completed storyboard!

Project Pre-Production

Since my last post we have now began work on our Final Projects. This module is Pre-Production and basically includes doing all the work except for the animating for our final piece i.e. story development, concept art, modelling, rigging, research, reference shooting, storyboarding and animatics etc.

After brainstorming some ideas for a possible project idea I've decided to create a piece based on my own original retelling of 'Pandora's Box'. I aim to create a stylised, dark, cute piece around a minute and a half in length featuring one main character, one scene and some simpler creature designs.

I'm going to attempt to build my own rig for this module as there are no female rigs for max, especially not children which is what I'm after. This should be pretty challenging. I've modelled, skinned and rigged before using biped, but it's not really something I've done much of so it should some additional learning, especially building a facial rig. I have some videos on the process so I'll get round to watching them when I've finished the model.

So far I have planned out all aspects of the story and development, wrote a character profile for my protagonist Pandora,created all the concept art for my characters, props and the scene as well as additional sketches of various story aspects to get a feel for the piece. 

I'm now in the process of modelling from the templates I've drawn up of my final designs, writing up an an animation script and drawing the storyboard to see how it reads.

I'll start posting some of my work in following posts.

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This is a ringling thesis short I watched recently. Nice story concept, great character models and animation! If I can get my character models looking as good as this I'll be very pleased, haha!

Task 2: Mime Final

I also finished up the Mime on Friday so I could spend the weekend with my family. This is probably my favourite piece from the module. 

From my last pose, I tweaked the timing further to make some areas a bit more snappier. Then I worked on the curves and made some offsets and added in the pupil movement.

I think some areas could probably be made faster still, but when it reached the stage it was at this point, theres so many keys for the body that it gets difficult to shift them. Also as the face also has a whole load of keys which have been done to suit the body these also have to be moved to match and it's near impossible to do. But all in all the timing is ok. I think the piece could probably do with a bit more polishing, mainly on the last 400 frames but I'm pleased with the start of it. 

I'm looking forward to making a start on something new now, particularly as it will be my own personal project :D wooo! Going to attempt some new things, do some research into lighting and rendering, attempt building some rigs and as this next module is pre-production... this means ideas and concepts sooo I GET TO DRAW!! Hopefully my idea will be approved and I can get started soon!

And just to finish, a cool short I seen last week which I thought was really cool! Must have been fun animating all the different types of animals.

Lab by Esma-Movie

Oh,I went to see Rio this weekend which I really enjoyed. It's a fun movie, with cool music which made me want to get up and dance and it also made me want to go on holiday, haha! It defintely looks like it would have been a fun movie to have been a part of, theres some pretty interesting characters which have been animated well. I also like the character designs, which is something I always look at! I really like the designs for the monkeys and also for all the different birds. Some of the designs for the small birds are so cute!

The animation for some ofthe birds when they're rapping is sharp and snappy as well as being smooth and fluid for the dancing. I'd like to learn more about animating animals and creatures... it would be good to explore more possibilities and open up more types of characters to animate. Maybe after the course is done this could be something for me to look into.

Task 3: Development to Final

Due to working to get everything finished to a satisfactory level before this weekend I've been animating and not posting any works in progress. Luckily I did manage to get this piece done in time to submit it into the competition yesterday. Also as my family are visiting this weekend I also had to get the Mime finished up as best I could as well.

Anyway, from my previous post where I established my idea, these are my development videos. 

Initial Block 

Camera Tests

I set up two other cameras to look at possible angles to capture the two characters to see which would be best to capture both their attitudes to each other.

I did make a previous block before this one, where the sitting guy reacted slightly differently when he spoke, using a hand gesture when he says 'How's that again?'. I showed this to the class though, and from feedback it was suggested that a more toned down reaction with the character being more dis-interested would suit the piece better.

So i went home filmed some more reference and altered my block.

Developed Block with Camera Cuts

In this block I decided to experiment with the new camera angles and possible cuts in the piece more than anything. I also worked more on the lip sync and facials and developed some of the poses and actions.

Work in Progress 1

Developed the camera a bit in this to reduce the number of angles while still keeping the same amount of cuts. Worked some more on the lip sync and facials and added in some hand animation, focusing my attentions mainly on the sitting guy.

Work in Progress 2

Tightened up the animation some more, added in some breakdowns poses to make the animation smoother.

Work in Progress 3

Developed the facials more. Set up a better lighting system and fixed up some bits of the scene. Added in the rest of the inbetweens and tidied up the hand animation for both characters.

Work in Progress 4

Started working on the animation splines, reduced the camera cuts down after feedback and re-did some areas of lip sync for the guy in red which I wasn't satisfied with.

Final

From feedback I tweaked the cut lengths slightly, toned down the yellow guys head movement and fixed up his eye movement and also adjusted his reaction to the point to start later as he was initially moving a bit too early. I also made some offsets here and there and tweaked his end pose slightly.

Overall Thoughts

All in all I'm pretty pleased with this piece. I particularly like the guy in yellow who I really enjoyed animating. I found his reaction an amusing one to try and capture. I enjoyed animating the two characters actually and I think the overall results captures the right attitudes I wanted for both of them. It could probably do with a few more passes to tighten it up more and get more of a polish on it but I wanted it done in time for the competition deadline and I'd also like to move on to the next module now and focus my attentions on my final piece.

I enjoyed using the Dee rig too. I had much less trouble with it than the Max rig, not one gimbal error occurred in the whole animation! Woo! 

I think an area my work could really improve from, is better rendering! It's not as important as the animation but presentation is definately an important factor in pieces for a showreel. I'm going to look into this during the new module, pre-production so I'll be able to get a much better result when it comes to rendering my animated short. I could always re-render these pieces then at a later stage.