Faye's Project Diary

2010-05-23T00:49:00.001-07:00

DVD cover

2010-05-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Business card

2010-05-20T18:53:00.001-07:00

poster

2010-05-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

2010-05-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

2010-05-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

As my main portfolio site has just been switched hosting, it will be redirected to my blog for a short space of time.

to find my showreel in the meantime visit here

Faye

A snippit of the final render

2010-05-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Audio Test

2010-05-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

The updated book cover

2010-05-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

finally got round to texturing the book. what do you think?

update

2010-05-06T07:11:00.001-07:00

test renders

2010-04-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

i think the lighting might be too bright still, but i like the hazy feel

Animation progress 8th April

2010-04-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Progress update

2010-03-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

My continuing rough animation, this goes up to the point where it switches to the fox character.

Progress update

2010-03-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

After a short break due to unforeseen circumstances I am back and have some rough animation

quick rig test

2010-03-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Kingfisher blendshapes

2010-03-08T14:50:00.000-08:00

Here are the blendshapes for the kingfisher, which I had to redo over the weekend, when I realised that when the geometry had been mirrored the beak had been welded together. Which was weird because I had checked that while I was modelling to make sure that didnt happen, but somehow it did, so I had to correct my mistake...which although took some time it had to be done.

so now they work nicely \o/

blendshapes

2010-03-08T14:32:00.001-08:00

These are the blendshapes for the fox

and an example of the basic expressions

SMILE

SAD

ANGRY

Rigs

2010-03-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I spent the time to build the blendshapes and rigs to the two characters. Both have controls to move the feet, head, jaw, pelvis, waist, chest.

the kingfisher obviously will have wing controls rather than another set of leg controls :) At this point in time i still need to make the controls for some of the bits and clean it up. (due to some set backs)
But for the fox its all ready and I did my first test of the rig last night. This is what the rig was like a week ago.

This is the rig now. it is nice and clean with simple controls.

a small change

2010-02-22T03:23:00.000-08:00

A small change this morning. I wanted to put in some decals like daisies as seen here, so I did a test this morning and I really liked the outcome so I will try some different things.

trees?

2010-02-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ok I have a slight problem when it comes to modelling trees. A small fear of where it should be fat or thin, bush or not bushy, stylized or realistic...suffice to say it keeps me up at night.

So im having a go a different trees as the ones I did originally were fillers for what was going to be there, when I stopped freaking about them...*shiver*...stupid trees.

so here is some variatious, just quick ideas

the characters in scene

2010-02-16T06:58:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to see if all the colours worked together.

I didnt think it was too bad so far, I am sure I can make it better in time

Fox texture

2010-02-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I mapped out the UVs for the fox and have begun texturing him. I want him to be furry so I looked online for handy hints a tips for creating a fur look, and found plenty to help me out.

I have tried a rough attempt myself and will work on it further before probably tweaking the model a little further (because there is some bits annoying me) and then I can start the rigging process

here is a quick pic of what I have so far

My new idea

2010-02-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

The day before pitch i had a new idea, but for the pitch I thought it would be best to show what I had in mind instead of explaining it ~(unfortunately I am not the best powerpoint user when it comes to videos and forgot that it does not integrate them like it does with pictures... soIi didnt get to show it after all.)

Basically I wanted to develop on the idea of creating a fable.

Also I wanted the overall feel to be more quirky and stylised rather than realistic like my original plan for the opening of the animation

So here is a quick mock up of what I now have in mind

Inspiration

2010-02-14T04:05:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUJ7WaHs3BM

Environment construction so far

2010-02-14T04:02:00.000-08:00

Simple forest scene for the animation

Story book type look and feel

Fox model so far

2010-02-14T03:59:00.000-08:00

Next step will be to texture before starting the rigging of this character and creating it's blendshapes

Kingfisher model so far

2010-02-14T03:49:00.001-08:00

Still a work in progress, but I am much more happy with the look and colours and overall... fluffiness... of the texture. All it needs is an iridescent and waxy quality to the feathers as suggested by paul harris at pitch week and will be looking into his suggestions next week.

Kingfisher model so far

2010-02-14T03:44:00.000-08:00

First attempt at texturing the kingfisher, but i was not happy with it at all.

I wanted it to be more... fluffy looking...

the kingfisher model so far

2010-02-14T03:35:00.001-08:00

Character sheets

2010-01-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

Final concept of kingfisher

2010-01-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is the final concept of the kingfisher, yet I was unhappy with the beak and decided not to put it in my sketchbook as my final concept because it just was not right.

So I went back and changed it a couple of times, and the final on is the final beak I was happy with, it looked my rounded, soft and friendly to me which is what I was aiming for.

An update!

2009-12-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Its been a while hasn't it, but I have been a busy bee, I just got behind on the updating of this blog...but here I am so this is what I have to say for myself. I have been busy storyboarding, writing documents, researching and tring to decide on the final features of my characters so I can do their final character sheets, but at the moment I am, unfortuately, being a little indecisive. Although in saying that I found some inspiration when watching Ice age 3. I paused the movie and went forward and back over a few seconds of a character that caught my eye, and went straight into work mode taking screenshots and sketching again.

I really like the deisgn of this character and is on similar lines with what I had envisioned for my final kingfisher type bird, minus the long legs. So I will be back at doing the final charaters with this new image in mind. So while I was having this concept art block I did my storyboards, it took a while, and some are still not in colour but the basic drawing of it is done, I still need to write the notes at the side, but the bulk is there.

basic concept sketches

2009-11-30T09:59:00.000-08:00

These two are the primary characters.

kingfisher above was me trying with a small head and larger body, but i think i prefer the big head which accentuates the loud mouth nature of the bird and makes it more cartoon like and cute.

A snippet of script

2009-11-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

FADE IN

A soft white fills the screen

EXT. CLOUDS -- AFTERNOON

Clouds slowly form from the white void. The camera tumbles through white fluffy clouds, leisurely at first, then rushing down swooping and diving from side to side.

As the clouds thin a bright blue kingfisher flutters into view, above a sea of golden treetops. The camera follows the path of the kingfisher's flight over the canopy.

The kingfisher swoops down breaking through the leaves, diving and tumbling this way and that. He lands clumsily to the ground does a few forward tumbles, pauses for a second then gets to his feet. He hops about and ruffles his feathers untroubled by his mishap.

This is the beginning, it continues on but that is a idea of what I have so far

Scriptwriting

2009-11-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

I have been working on the basic script over the weekend, hopefully will be able to story board this week.

Mini Ninjas

2009-11-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

Another Inspiration

2009-11-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

Viva pinata

2009-11-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

I love the designs of the characters in the Viva Pinata games.

The animals are very stylized, obviously to look like party pinatas, but I also love they way they are animated in their introduction movies.

Update

2009-11-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks I have been doing further research into different forms of anthropomorphism. I read through 3 years worth of Computer Graphics World Magazine. In it were many interesting articles which gave the views and issues that directors, designers and animators faced when it came to anthropomorphism.

One interesting article was walking on the subject of Happy Feet, the animation about dancing penguins. What was interesting about this particular article was that obviously the penguin anatomy was never built to allow penguins to dance, so to create a happy balance between 'penguin-ness' and the ability to dance, the designers reseached which penguins were most capable to dance and then modified the anatomy to include shoulders and more movement from their short squat legs.

What I learned from this is in order to stay true to the animal in which you are anthopomorphising, yet also be able to reach the goal of your animation, you have to stike a delicate balance between reality and make believe. In the case above, the designers went to find the most suitable penguin type out there, then made their adjustments, without completely changing the essence of the penguin. I beleieve this is important when it come with dealing with animals, and was refelcted throughout the articles I read.

The most important words I read were John Lasseter's 'truth to materials' mantra.

british wildlife

2009-10-30T12:24:00.001-07:00

I have decided that the animals I choose for my final animation will be inspired but my love of the british countryside. I have a fondness for the woodland and the lakes and rivers of the great british outdoors and want to show that in the animation I produce. To that end, today I have been researching british birds. One in particular caught my interest today and that was the beautiful Kingfisher. There were two things I found interesting about this bird, one was obviously it's plumage, the other was it's diet. It eats small fish, which gave me an idea of how I might like to use this in my animation. Imagine a predator, hungry and cold, tries in vain to eat this kingfisher. The kingfisher eventually shares it's meal with the predator, creating an unlikly friendship. Its just a beginning and something to play with but I like the idea of the contrasting animals and personalities, yet having something to link them together in friendship.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/k/kingfisher/videos.aspx

http://www.babelgum.com/131317/predators-kingfisher-attack.html

Kingfishers inhabit slow-moving, shallow rivers or streams which are clean enough to support abundant small fish. Fast-moving streams and polluted waters do not contain enough available fish, and hence do not contain kingfishers. Branches overhanging shallows make essential fishing perches.

erritory is extremely important for kingfishers all year round. Any bird that is unable to secure a territory with an adequate food supply is likely to perish. This is particularly important before the onset of winter. The birds start to contest territories by mid-September. A breeding pair will often divide their summer territory between them. Freezing weather can sometimes force the birds out of their territories, which often takes them to less suitable habitats or into conflict with other resident kingfishers.

Most kingfishers die of cold or lack of food a severe winter can kill a very high percentage of the birds. Traffic and window collisions are other known causes of death. The main predator is the domestic cat, but rats can also be a serious problem in places. Nestlings may be preyed on by snakes and other ground-dwelling predators, but kingfishers are aggressive birds and do defend their young against predators.

Known predators

owls
foxes
minks
dingoes
skunks
raccoons
chimpanzees
snakes
monitor lizards
driver ants
mongooses and relatives

There are relatively few records of adult kingfisher predation. Kingfishers are quick fliers, and probably able to escape most predators. Most known predators of adult kingfisher are raptors. Nest predators include foxes, minks, dingoes, skunks , raccoons, chimpanzees, snakes, monitor lizards, driver ants, and mongooses.

When threatened, kingfishers seem to employ one of two strategies; they either try to evade the predator by dodging behind trees or diving into the water, or they attack the predator directly, mobbing it until it leaves the area. A few species have alternative strategies; yellow-billed kookaburras raise their head feathers when threatened, revealing two black spots that resemble large eyes. When alarmed, young red-backed kookaburras assume a posture with their eyes closed and their beak pointed upward that make them look like the limb of a tree from above. Kingfishers aggressively defend the nest area against nest predators, often attacking intruders including humans.

One of these predators would be suitable as the second character if I was to use the Kingfisher as the first character

The Tale of Despereaux

2009-10-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Tale of Despereaux

If you know anything about fairy tales, then you know that a hero doesn't appear until the world really needs one.

This movie tells the story of a misfit mouse who prefers reading books to eating them, an unhappy rat who schemes to leave the darkness of the dungeon, and a bumbling servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess.

What I love about this movie is the different degrees of anthropomorphism. There is the mice of mouseworld, who grow up to be scared and timid. They learn to scurry and be afraid of everything. They act and think like mice (of what we imagine mice to think like I guess). Then there is the rats of ratworld. They are dirty and stay away from the light. They eat the scraps of revolting food and hate everybody and everything. These two groups have more animal qualities and act and make decisions based apon those qualities.

Then we have the heroes - Desperaux and Roscuro. Desperaux is a mouse, and unlike the rest of the mice in mouse world, he is brave and is curious about the world. Roscuro is not mean and dirty and most of all loves the light while the rest of the rats hate it. These two characters are much more human that animal, as they act, think and make decision based on their human qualities.

I like seeing these different levels of anthropomorphism in the same movie for it allows me to see to what degree I feel the character is believeable, to be thinking and have a strong character but to still allow its true animal nature and instints to shine through. For me I believe I enjoyed the mice from mouseworld the most in this movie. While they talked and wore tiny little mouse clothing, they still retained their basic mouse like characteristics and all their decisons were based around these qualities. I really enjoyed seeing this.

Reading list and people of note

2009-10-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Creating unforgettable characters - Linda Seger

Illusion of Life

Nine old men - p114 (telling you about how a character should be, Ward Kimbal on Mickey mouse)

Ward Kimbal - Disney

Spoke about his thoughts on Mickey Mouse

Stuart Samida - sony image works

different approaches to aimation
worked on alsan for the lion the witch and the wardrobe

Albert Hunter - Disney

Concept Artist
designed characters and settings for silly symphonies, snow white, pinocchio, fantasia, dumbo and the reluctant dragon
worked on peter pan and lady and the tramp before he died

The fox

2009-10-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

For me I am interested in the Fox as the animal for my animation. I think they are wonderful creatures, and so I have been looking into some videos of them in different situations and studying their movements and reations.

this last one shows a fox catching little baby geese

Fox noise - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZzpjbL4yKc
Fox hunt and eat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFwMUGkojQk
Fox falling asleep- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0SiRsm7nrM

This is an interesting documentary on animals and how they communicate and show their feelings to one another, and humans trying to replicate that.

A couple of things I found interesting today

2009-10-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/02/animal-characters-4-animal-morphism.html

a nice look into animal anthropomorphism, and it has nice pictures

http://jasen-strong-interview.blogspot.com/

some lovely animal character designs

http://inklingstudio.typepad.com/

and some morfe lovely animal character designs

Pre-production Hand-ins for CA

2009-10-20T01:38:00.000-07:00

Please take a note of this :)

This is the list I recieved from Mark of acceptable hand-ins for the pre-production module.

As each project is different in terms of the outcome he understands that everyone will have some varience on what they will submit, but this is a guideline for people to follow.

Script
Concept Art - Character and Setting
Storyboard and/or Animatic
Interactive Map (where appropriate)
User Journey (where appropriate)
Colour Book/Mood Boards
Target Audience demographics
Competitive Projects
Gantt Chart
Budget

Also not that he asks if everyone could submit this in one folder per person if possible.

I hope this helps everybody

Faye

What is my project?

2009-10-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

It too quite a while for me to finally settle on what I wanted to study.

At first I thought about looking into personality animation. There was plenty of research avaliable for me to look into but I found it didnt spark my interest like I thoought it would and so I decided to look into something different.

That is when I persued my interest in interactive narrative. For me this is a very interesting topic and there is a lot of research behind it, and I found myself almost persuaded to continue with this topic based on my interest in the subject. My only problem, and it was quite a big one, was I wasn't very interested in producing a project based on narrative. I wouldn't say I have a strong interest in script writing and for that reason I struggled to visualise an end product. I still kept it in mind and did do quite a bit of research into the idea of interactive narrative vs a linear form of narrative.

But it wasn't until one night that I had a moment of clarity, and i knew what I wanted to base a project on.

For me I wish to study "Anthropomorphism in Animation".

I have always had a love for animated animals, and in particular the non-verbal variety. Although a love the ones that talk too :) And after some research I have definitely decided this is the topic I wish to continue my honours project on. The research is interesting and has already given me much to think about and on the practical side of things it is a chance for me to try my hand at rigging and animating animals, which is something I have not touched much yet. So I look forward to the challenge :)

Honours Project Diary

2009-10-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have set up this blog today to record all thoughts, research, concept development and any progress with my final project. It will updated regularly and will show my progress through my project for my final year.

Faye Wright