Animating Food

Spent another while hunting round youtube looking for food fights/banquet scenes and ideas for the different types of food that would be on the table and came up with this scene in the movie 'Hook' which features multicoloured foods flying around;


With that in mind, my first random attempt at animating a bowl falling over behind Matt's animation..

sucky!!!!

I have also decided that I can't really draw any bowls and things falling over from this angle because you can't see Don bump into them at this angle... So instead will just try drawing them rushing past him like so;


That was my first sketch attempt.. but I did not use 'tweening', I was adjusting every frame to look right which was taking far too long.

So I used this video and notes I took from Matt about tweening to try it out in ToonBoom.


Working in ToonBoom using tweening;


And here is the result of a few hours work trying to get my head round this program;


and with Matt's animation on top;


Although it obviously needs a bit of editing so that my food doesn't go through Don's hand.. but want to hear from Matt before I do anything else.

Must remember not to use multiple layer to colour, have to use the 'fill' tool to colour things on the same layer as the lines.

And got some feedback from Matt about the sword fighting thing.. Here are some reference pictures for drawing the ceiling;

which I will work on next.

And also he requested the chicken background without the chicken so voila;


More work to do...

26/05/11 and beyond

Had the usual weekly meeting with Team Smitten and things are nearing an end. I still have 3/4 more new backgrounds to draw and a couple of edits to the old one as well as some more animation and after effects tests for secondary animation but then it's all good and ready.

So -
Extended the third staircase background to the right and up as Matt requested since we will need the camera to pan slightly when Don jumps off the end of the banister;

And a new background for when Don first sees the chicken;



Another new background I'm going to be working on is one that will be quickly shown during the entrance hall sword fight. It's going to be blurry and basically similar to one of my first backgrounds but here is the initial rough attempt;


Preparation for some secondary animation;

Short animating tests

Today I decided to do some very quick animation tests for things that might be on the banquet table that get pushed aside by Don.. since I will be doing some secondary animation thought I might as well get the swing of ToonBoom first.
I have not animated for awhile, save the leaf test, so I'm kinda rusty.. today is like a warm-up and tomorrow or the day after I'll tackle better things!!! Each of these animations took between 5-15 minutes..

So!
Reference for things on the dinner table;


and a reference for pots, pans and things falling..

(last 20 seconds!)

And also decided to also make my own reference;


Animated it quickly for 5 mins or so in toonboom for practice;


(and with background)


cleaned up..


Testing it out if it were a jug..


Another reference for a knife and fork;


And my attempt in ToonBoom;


weird don animation from the top of my head.. just him drawing his sword.


That's all for now.. ToonBoom is very useful and is quite similar to flash but I had a lot of trouble copying and pasting things so I decided to draw every frame instead. I had this problem when I animated the leaves as well.. I don't mind too much since I prefer this method as it gives it a more lively feel..
EDIT
since spoken to emma and have worked out how to copy and paste frames! I think Matt and Yuki already gave me this advice but I forgot >< you need to copy the image rather than the keyframe and paste it the same way otherwise they will affect each other and we want to keep them separate..

Background Improvements

Not much new right now, here are the changes to the backgrounds that Matt suggested yesterday;


(changed the perspective of the bricks on the wall slightly as well as the shape of the chairs and the pillars are less 'bubbly' and more 'square')


(one on the left - slightly adjusted the headboard and added a little shading to it)(the one on the right - added the shape of a mattress to see how that looked)


(changed the interior so it shows the end of the princess' room and blurred it)


(made the blue part darker and adjusted the banister)

Also changed the long shot of the tower so that there is more wall showing on the inside which isn't worth showing here.

All verrrryyy minor changes though so no surprise if they look almost the same XD

The final stretch

There is only one month left till hand-in so I'm going to use this post as my To Do List and update what's happening with the my part of the project. We had a lesson with Dan today on what we need for hand-in. Obviously we are splitting things into three folders - artist, technical and animation.

Artist will be my main folder and I can fill that with backgrounds and initial concept art.

For technical, since we're a 2D group it is slightly different, but I will be filling that folder by showing how I learnt new programs - after effects and toonboom!

And for animation I will do some more animation tests.. I would like to do at least one shot of Don, even if its not good enough for the final film Matt may be able to use it to help with future parts of the animation. And of course I can animate things falling off the table.. or maybe leaves blowing on the trees at the beginning or something.


THIS WEEK'S FEEDBACK FROM MATT;
- The tower itself is fine, just need to change the inside parts! Create a separate layer since they will be moving at a slightly different rate to the outside of the tower when panning.
- Push the perspective more on the bricks at the back, change the design of the backs of the chairs to match the bed in the princess tower. It looks a bit too out of perspective at the moment.
- For the part inside the tower use the other end of the princess room, and change the perspective on the floor since it looks a little wrong. Might be worth blurring the room slightly to stop the audience focusing on it.
- The colour looks good now, just change a bit of the pattern, maybe add a hint of a mattress to the bed.
-Last edit needed to the entrance hall before compositing; make the back part of the hall a little darker and change the banister a little like shown.


aaand
TO DO LIST for next thursday;
-finish all edits to backgrounds (thereby finishing all backgrounds!! except the ones that need to be rotoscoped, just waiting on Matt for that for now).
-Animate at least two more scenes, one with Don and one involving a background prop i.e. a bowl falling off the table as Don slides down it
-continue learning toonboom and after effects by working on the animations and also the particle tests (which should be less subtle in the entrance hall).

Update

More background progress..

The changes to the princess tower! Me and Matt decided on the colour scheme for this, and using different layer options and opacities in Photoshop managed to make the bricks blend into the walls a little better. We also changed the colour of the duvet, added a headboard which was more ornate and matched it with the table and the poles around the bed. Definately looks more regal now at least;


Tried adding the finished princess tower into this scene.. Mainly a colour experiment.. it works I think;


A longer version of the outside of the tower for the end scene when Don is climbing up!


And some more banquet hall work.. This is the pan across the table!
Using this old concept of mine as reference;

But bear in mind since I drew this we changed the colour of the table to white.. and the pillars to green :)
Initial sketch;


Initial attempt at colour;

Which looks okay, but still plain!

And with the addition of bricks along the wall!;

Will get Matt's feedback but I think it's improving some..

Additions to the entrance hall.
Proper staircase at the back. Dan pointed it out that before the back of the hall seemed too cold but since we have now completed the inner staircases we can change that quite easily;

Although he also advised that this scene seemed different from the rest of our film because the colours weren't as warm, so I went back into Photoshop just now to try and warm it up by sing adjustments;

but I don't think this is the right way to go about it! Just spoke to Matt who thinks we should change it later when compositing in After Effects so will concentrate on the other backgrounds and doing some more animations for now!

Dust Particle Practice

Trying to learn how to make the dust particle effect on after effects..

Here is my first try using this tutorial video (http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/ancient_titles/)



Its a little faint and messy and I think it needs a bit more 'fine tuning' but it's not bad.. Not sure if it's the look Matt's going for but I'll mess with it a bit and upload another one later... If you can't see it, I don't blame you! The dust and streams of sunlight are coming in through the window and onto a part of the stairs.

I'm also going to try this again on the entrance hall since that's the best place for this effect to be used. Here's a screenshot of me working on it in After Effects..

I'm using the 'mesh' tool to change the direction of the particles so they look like they're falling a little more randomly and naturally..

Also another background.. Can't finish it until we've decided on the interior of the princess tower though;

This is one I started a few posts ago but have only just got finished. I added a lot of shading and some red hues for the bricks to give it the warm feel our film has throughout. Matt seems happy with it at least :)

more work!

Have been working on the princess tower recently, using these pictures as reference;

Heavily inspired by the film 'Tangled' of course.

Went through a couple of different attempts...


But first of all I made the roof look a bit too thatched and the colours didn't go so well... but here is the final one! And all of these pictures are printscreens of the princess tower... it's real size is too big to upload;

The hardest part of this was the bricks. I didn't want them to be too detailed, just like splashes of colour but still neat since the camera will be zooming in very close to them. Also the file size is so big that it lags most of the time I'm trying to edit things. The colour of the roof

Changes to the stairs (should be complete now);



The edits on these were very small since last time, it was mainly adjusting the banisters to warp the perspective and the shading to make them reflect how far down in the stairway Don has reached.

And the changes to the end of the banquet scene;

Have added bricks onto the wall there in Photoshop since they don't look so plain and it seems like its a success :D

Backgrounds..

My attempts at changing the princess tower background so far.. Not very happy with any of them..

I mentioned in a previous post the walls were a little plain and I wanted to put bricks on them, but this method doesn't seem to be working so well, was a good experiment though but I want them to blend into the wall rather than pull too much focus.

And the finished staircases;

Have basically just darkened them in parts and added the staircase pattern to the banisters.