In all, I feel that I have managed to produce a bear that shows clear cut emotion by the way of hand gestures and facial movements. Any sound used is solely to supplement the scene and not meant to be the primary force in which to interpret what is going on.
I am happy at how well I managed to stick to my original storyboards, but yet still see when a problem was going to arise before it actually happened - and work around it.
As mentioned previously, the name Yogi Bear seems to haunt Ursus wherever he goes, but as previously stated I thinking that Ursus is his own bear, and any similarity to Yogi ends at a species based level.
This module has taught me a lot about animation and I now feel more compelled to attempt bigger and better animations in the future. I feel the animations I have shown in my piece are clear and will be easily understandable by people in our target audience.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Future Improvements
Although I am happy with the outcome of my work, there are still some things that I would like to improve on in the future.
I feel that my emotions are clear cut, I feel that any sort of ambient movement in my animation is present, and Ursus feels a little too static at time where he could be moving about a bit more instead of standing planted to the ground.
I struggled slightly with some of the weighting of the bear, especially his hands and wrists, which results in a few creases and bulges where they should not be, although they are only minor for the most part. This is one of the things I would most like to improve on in the future, the ability to create very tight and realistic skins for meshes so that they work just as they would in the real world.
As mentioned previously, I would very much like to improve the quality of the flip in the second to last scene, however I still feel that it was mainly a problem with the curve editor that causes it to seem so erratic. That being said it's erratic-ness does somewhat fit the cartoony feel we were attempting to produce, so perhaps it is a mixed bag of points.
A lot of my camera work is static, and even though I feel I have placed them well in the scenes, some movement to them would also enhance the experience. Much in the say way the the ambient animation of Ursus would help.
Finally I would have liked to have used more Morph effects on Ursus face, as I feel this could have given him a slightly more flexible feel.
I feel that my emotions are clear cut, I feel that any sort of ambient movement in my animation is present, and Ursus feels a little too static at time where he could be moving about a bit more instead of standing planted to the ground.
I struggled slightly with some of the weighting of the bear, especially his hands and wrists, which results in a few creases and bulges where they should not be, although they are only minor for the most part. This is one of the things I would most like to improve on in the future, the ability to create very tight and realistic skins for meshes so that they work just as they would in the real world.
As mentioned previously, I would very much like to improve the quality of the flip in the second to last scene, however I still feel that it was mainly a problem with the curve editor that causes it to seem so erratic. That being said it's erratic-ness does somewhat fit the cartoony feel we were attempting to produce, so perhaps it is a mixed bag of points.
A lot of my camera work is static, and even though I feel I have placed them well in the scenes, some movement to them would also enhance the experience. Much in the say way the the ambient animation of Ursus would help.
Finally I would have liked to have used more Morph effects on Ursus face, as I feel this could have given him a slightly more flexible feel.
Skill Progression
In this module I feel my animating skills have impressed to no end, which I am especially happy about as I have never been a confidant animator. Learning to skin my model with the use of the envelope system opposed to the vertex system saved me a great deal of time and I am very happy with the outcome and the ease of tweaking.
The link constraint tool is also a fantastic addition to my arsenal of tools and look forward to making the most of it in the future.
This is one of the first times I have not used images for all of my materials. I played around with a lot of the settings in the material editor and created some extremely effective cartoon wood and grass materials that I used, making a very effective, stylized look without having to go image hunting.
I am also very happy at how I have shown an array of emotions with some very simple facial modifiers. Just by editing the speed at which the facial expressions change give the animation different effects.
The use of the cloth and garment modifiers in this module where the first times I had encountered them, and am very happy with how easily they produce such effective results. Definitely one of the most useful things I have learnt in this module which is transferable to many aspects of 3D Design.
I also learned how to use volumetric fog within my scene, which I think is a good addition and really adds to the Mise-en-scène. This took a little work to achieve correctly, but I am happy at how it come out in the end.
I am more confident in my animation skills now and look forward to using it in future endeavours.
The link constraint tool is also a fantastic addition to my arsenal of tools and look forward to making the most of it in the future.
This is one of the first times I have not used images for all of my materials. I played around with a lot of the settings in the material editor and created some extremely effective cartoon wood and grass materials that I used, making a very effective, stylized look without having to go image hunting.
I am also very happy at how I have shown an array of emotions with some very simple facial modifiers. Just by editing the speed at which the facial expressions change give the animation different effects.
The use of the cloth and garment modifiers in this module where the first times I had encountered them, and am very happy with how easily they produce such effective results. Definitely one of the most useful things I have learnt in this module which is transferable to many aspects of 3D Design.
I also learned how to use volumetric fog within my scene, which I think is a good addition and really adds to the Mise-en-scène. This took a little work to achieve correctly, but I am happy at how it come out in the end.
I am more confident in my animation skills now and look forward to using it in future endeavours.
Editing
As usual the final piece was spliced together using Adobe Premier Pro. As I have used this application and applications similar to it for many years now, I am very happy in how to use it and am confident that I can edit together my scenes into an effective and thought provoking final piece.
Once I had shaved off any redundant footage and added some titles, I went about adding some sound effects to enhance the scenes. I sourced my sounds from youtube.com and soundbible.com. These sound were made of Teddy Bears Picnic played on a mandolin, as well as old cartoon sound effects such as twinkle toes and smacking of lips. I feel that I have used the right balance of sound effects to animation, not flooding the final piece with too much of either.
Once I had shaved off any redundant footage and added some titles, I went about adding some sound effects to enhance the scenes. I sourced my sounds from youtube.com and soundbible.com. These sound were made of Teddy Bears Picnic played on a mandolin, as well as old cartoon sound effects such as twinkle toes and smacking of lips. I feel that I have used the right balance of sound effects to animation, not flooding the final piece with too much of either.
Scene 11 - Honey on Nose
In this, the final scene, Ursus is laying flat on his back pulling a sad face because he lost his honey, but just as he is about to give up hope, the honey pot flies out of the sky and lands upside down on his snout, giving him a delicious mouthful of honey.
I tried to time Ursus' eyebrow movement going up here to show him almost rolling his eyes in indulgence. I think that it works quite well, but feel an added sound effect may help complete the message. This scene was adapted somewhat from my original idea where I wanted the honey pot to cover Ursus, whole head, but adaptations of my original design meant that I had to make some different decisions when creating my final piece.
The only real movement in this scene are of the honey pot and Ursus' eyebrow. My thinking behind this is both the emotional feelings of ecstasy and depression use very little movement, and I thought to tie the two together would be an interesting effect. I feel that it worked relatively well.
I tried to time Ursus' eyebrow movement going up here to show him almost rolling his eyes in indulgence. I think that it works quite well, but feel an added sound effect may help complete the message. This scene was adapted somewhat from my original idea where I wanted the honey pot to cover Ursus, whole head, but adaptations of my original design meant that I had to make some different decisions when creating my final piece.
The only real movement in this scene are of the honey pot and Ursus' eyebrow. My thinking behind this is both the emotional feelings of ecstasy and depression use very little movement, and I thought to tie the two together would be an interesting effect. I feel that it worked relatively well.
Scene 10 - Tripping Over
In this scene, Ursus has taken the honey and is now making a run for it. But silly Ursus doesn't look where he is going, and subsiquently trips over a log and goes flying int0o the air along with the honey. before landing flat on his back.
This is the scene I am least happy with in the enitre animation because of Ursus' odd movement whilst he is in mid spin. I auto keyed this movement on the timeline, but any attempt to rectify the problem via the curve editor resulted in little effect. In this scene I used the link constraint to attach the honey pot the ursus hand in the first section of the scene, and then in the latter part it is attached to an unrendered bip that acts as the new link constraint, as re linking the honey pot to the world causes eratic behaviour.
The camera in this scene is aimed directly at the log which Ursus trips over. Giving a direct focal point to the audience, so they know exactly what is going to happen before Ursus does. This is a classic use of camera angles in a cartoon like scene and I feel it works very well.
This is the scene I am least happy with in the enitre animation because of Ursus' odd movement whilst he is in mid spin. I auto keyed this movement on the timeline, but any attempt to rectify the problem via the curve editor resulted in little effect. In this scene I used the link constraint to attach the honey pot the ursus hand in the first section of the scene, and then in the latter part it is attached to an unrendered bip that acts as the new link constraint, as re linking the honey pot to the world causes eratic behaviour.
The camera in this scene is aimed directly at the log which Ursus trips over. Giving a direct focal point to the audience, so they know exactly what is going to happen before Ursus does. This is a classic use of camera angles in a cartoon like scene and I feel it works very well.
Scene 9 - Swipe Honey
In this scene, Ursus removes his disguise and proceeds to take the honey. This was when I learned to use the Link Constraint tool, and so I used it on the honey pot as Ursus grabs it with his large cumbersome fingers. I wanted him to pick it up with the tips of his fingers to try and show him being delicate and gentile, although I feel this could have been achieved better.
Once Ursus has the honey, he turns to the camera to show the audience how happy he is, with a wiggle of his ears. I felt that engaging the audience would again be suitable for our target audience.
Once Ursus has the honey, he turns to the camera to show the audience how happy he is, with a wiggle of his ears. I felt that engaging the audience would again be suitable for our target audience.
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