My Wonderful Acting Skills

Video reference!

Wooo!










Mel asked me a while ago to help her out with some of her animations. I acted out the scenes she needed help with, so she could use them to refer to when working on her animatics and maya work.

I've only just gotten round to uploading them. Sorry!

Sound stuff

Since one of my jobs is sound, I decided that it would be a good idea to have a look into sound sfx for our movie.

I did a little list of things that needed sfx in our clip. Here is a picture of it:


The main things we need sounds for are above. We need machinery noises to make it feel as if this brain is a hive of activity. Beeps, whirrs, dings... anything that suggests the presence of mechanics and industry. Main moom takes a few bites of an apple. We need to ensure that he makes the right noise to make people believe that he is eating. The mini mooms use taps and buckets. Appropriate sounds will be required for those. And there will be a lot of water noises too.

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In order to get these sounds, I came to the conclusion that the easiest way to get them would be to use the college's bank of existing sfx. I rented the sfx hard drive and have had a good old search through it. I found almost everything I was looking for. I even found some unusual ambient noises and amusement arcade background noise which will help liven the mood. I couldn't find a yawn though. That shouldnt be too hard for us to film ourselves i think.

I just need to show the group my discoveries, so we can pick and choose which ones will be most appropriate.

Your Face

He has a nose and ears.

That is all

Actually no it isn't.

PLAYBLAST TIME



That's right, my animation is pretty much finished, I think. I've show a few of my cohorts and team members and they seem to like it, which I'm pleased about.

This is just one of the camera angles. You can probably see a few errors here, because the camera isnt meant to see some of the stuff. But yeh, this gives you an idea of how it looks now. I've done the eyes and blinking and expressions and have adjusted some parts.

I hope you like it too!

D8

Hello children! I've got candy for you!

Oh man... creepy first expression!

Thought you'd like to see a rendered pic from the animation. The lighting definitely needs some work. The screens behind moom are to overwhelming, and the lighting behind the camera only seems to be able to shine on moom and the buttons. The control panel is barely visible for some reason. Also, I've set moom's body to low quality so I can animate easier.

Oh well, it's quite nice to see him all rendered all the same

Playblasts again

For some reason, the last few vids I've uploaded have started crashing, so I'm going to try uploading these in an attempt to break this losing battle with blogger video uploaders!








I have progressed further in my button bash sequence. I have finished working on the poses in Stepped and Linear, and have now been tweaking everything in spline. I had a lot of trouble with crazy twisting wrists and keyframing things wrong, but I seem to be getting the hang of it now. I am fairly happy with how its going, though I know that it isn't to the highest standard. However, I feel as if I have given it my best and am pleased with the outcome.

I have really tried to exaggerate moom's poses in this, to make this sequence look dynamic. A couple of my mates commented that it ran faster then they had imagined, and I answered that this was deliberately done to set the tone of the clip. Some parts have come out snappier then anticipated, and look a little jerky. I will try and work out these kinks as I go

I still have to do moom's eyes and expressions. Normally showing expression is my favourite part of animating, but I have a feeling this stage is going to be rather laborious. Oh well, we can't have him looking miserable can we? :P

Playblast Spam

Here are a series of playblasts of my blocked out animation I have been working on. This is the button bash scene I have mentioned in previous posts. I have been using the moom rig to animate with, and Carlos gave me the modeled control panel for me to use as a guide of how moom should move.

I'm thrilled with how its been going so far! The music you can hear is from the Chessington's Bubbleworks theme music (again shown in a previous post). I have tried to move moom with the tune of the music as acurately as possible.

Problems I've had? Ermm occassionally moom has to pull some rather uncomfortable twists with his body because of the positioning of the buttons on the panel. The lever next to moom's foot is a little bit short, so moom's arm had to stretch in order to move it.

Other then that, it has gone rather smoothly. It has gone better then I had anticipated. I'm not a very accomplished Maya user, but blocking out the keyframes using the "stepped" setting makes it so much simpler.

I'll let you know how it progresses later on

Sound Development

Me and my group have had a think about what kind of music would be suitable for our animation. We wanted it to be fun and jolly, and suggesting a sense of activity and creativity, since it's a brain we are making. There were a few suggestions such as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and Bubbleworks ride music from Chessington World Of Adventures.

Below is the Bubbleworks theme. I think I like this the most, because it has some nice cheery brass instruments that give it more gusto and brashness. I also think that main moom will be able to push the buttons to the the same rhythm of the music.



This is the trailer for Willy Wonka. I like the music that predominantly plays in it.



I also found the below music randomly on my searches, and rather liked it. However, I think it would be more suitable for a more watery bubbly scene. It made me sure of my choice of using the Chessington Bubbleworks theme

Other Animatics

Again, another bunch of animatics. These are being used as reference for the maya animations.









This is a Ren and Stimpy clip that helped me with the overlapping of the bucket. Lovely skip cycle! <3

Tamagotchi Interface Dump

To create the pixel effect, I painted the backgroung a dull green colour, and then drew grey lines horizontally and vertically to give it that hatched effect. Using the resulting green squares for gudance, I drew on the tamagotchi moom on to it.

Above is my animation in progress. I've really gotten used to how Toonboom works and am now much more comfortable with using it


Okay here we have 4 animations I have worked on in Toonboom. They feature the little tamagotchi-style version of Main Moom.
I had to animate him in normal happy mode, tired mode, sleeping mode, and exercising mode.













I found it quite hard showing tamagotchi moom using weights. I played around with shape to try and suggest the presence of weights. I think I succeeded

These animations will hopefully be put on to the screens on the control panel in the brain.

Tamagotchi Research

Here is a sheet of character designs for the tamagotchi creatures that exist. I wanted to try and replicate a similar pixel style that exists in tamagotchis for ur project. I found that Zukyathi, Mametchi and Young Mimitchi came pretty close to how I wanted tamagotchi moom to look

I even looked at tamagotchis to see what the layout is like, so I can use that for my animations






I think the top and bottom ones look a bit too fancy, so I think I might try and go for a simple screen like the second one.
I also noticed that the tamagotchis have icons that help you select actions for the tamagotchis to initiate. I decided to try and use this feature in my work too.

Millenium Dome - The Body Exhibit

When the Millenium Dome was first opened, they had a massive installation that lead people around the various parts of the body. I had the misfortune of not getting a chance to visit it at the time, but I have tried searching for images of this exhibit.

There are very few images on the internet that give a clear example of what it was like inside, so I might have to do some more digging, in order to make this research more helpful.

However I found this image of the inside of the skull. I think it is a rather interesting perception of how the brain works. As you can see, it has a slight theatrical atmosphere and decor, hence the red velvety curtains stretched across the windows where the eyes and nose are suggested to be. There are several brains watching (and laughing, according to one site's retelling) a brain wearing a fez. The main hat-wearing brain appears to be entertaining the others with jokes.

I'm not sure whether I find this research altogether helpful for us, since this seems to be a more silly and slightly unnerving representation of how the brain works. However, I find it rather interesting. I'm glad I did look into this more.

I find it more impressive that a large representation of the human body was made for people to look around. It must have taken a lot of concept and development to complete successfully. I just wish I had been able to visit it back in 2000 now. :(

Toonboom clips for reference pt 1

Here are some very rough animations I did, trying to play around with the lead mini moom character operating the machinery. I wanted to make it look as if he was performing as he was pressing the buttons, showing that he really enjoys his job. I thought that it would make the clip more interesting if it had more of a rhythm to it

The one below is my first proper go at it. I later decided that a front view of him pressing the buttons didnt give the viewer a very exciting idea of how he is button pressing.





I've been having a think about how I want some of these shots to be animated in 3D. I used Toonboom to create these sequences. I had also just purchased a Wacom tablet, so this exercise has enabled me to improve my cg drawing skills.



I think I definitely prefer the 2nd clip I animated. It flows a lot better, and really plays with exaggeration, for more effectiveness. The angle allows a lot more scope for poses and expression aswell.

For the second clip I looked very closely at some clips on youtube I found. There is an arcade game called "Pop'n'Music" that is hugely popular in Japan. I first saw it being played briefly on the film "Lost In Translation" and I really like the fun rhythmic movements that it displayed. Here are the clips that inspired me the most, research-wise




I really like this one, because this guy is really putting on a show for all the people watching him, and he does it in a pretty cocky and over the top fashion.



This one is nice, because he is a bit more bouncy, and his actions he does with his legs are quite interesting to watch.



The video above is just mind blowing. His fingers move so fast and with such pre meditated thought. It reminds me a bit of a shot from "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatbals" of the scientist Flint operating his machine in his lab.

Each person played the "Pop'n'Music" in a different style. I think this research has helped guide me with how important it is to decide what kind of emotion you want to get across with something as simple as someone operating an interface. Do I want him to be bored or elated that he is doing this job? That's the question I asked myself. I definitely used the reference material to my advantage.

Development of Ideas 3

Here's so,e stuff that was posted on the group blog that I wanted to post up on here

Here you can see our lovely group board with our collective effort beautifully plastered on to it. We have all done so much already. I feel very confident that we will come up with a fantastic finished product by the end of the project

Here are two postcards I collected from the museum I visited. They show some lovely patterns and colours inspired by the body. I love these two postcards, and have been highly influenced by the look of them for this project.
This pic shows my early concepts of the brain layout. I wanted it to look vast and organised. The bottom left diagram is the one I eventually preferred the most. the top right picture is how I envision the brain to look if cut in half and viewed from the side

This is my first piece of concept art I came up with for this layout for the brain. I was driven to use the two postcards above, and I really wanted to incorporate some of the colours and patterns into my work.
This was done using markers and coloured pencils. I wasn't altogether happy with this picture. I felt that the 'walls' of the brain looked to busy. I also felt that the control panel looked a bit too blocky. I wanted to give it a more organic feel.

This is a picture of the brain from the fron looking to the back. I like this picture a lot, because it is simple, and uses the colours more effectively. The purples and yellows mix together nicely, causing a nice contrast. I remembered that Osmosis Jones concentrated more on purples and yellows for the brain in the film, and I used this information for my own use.

Development of Ideas 2

Here are some photoshop pictures I've done as a contribution towards the concept work.
Joe Angelo did a fantastic orb simulation using a mixture of Maya and After Effects I think. I have incorporated his orb idea in my work, as you can see.

We all decided that there should be several mini mooms operating this body, one of which will be the master who will operate the machinery. Above is a picture depicting this idea.

Here is a shot taken from below the paths, roughly at the same level as the spongey surface. I had the idea that the whole place created a completely spherical shape, and the orb was at its centre. The vein pillar you can see here helps support the orb, and also feeds information to it from the rest of the body.I felt having everything suspended would also give the paths more of a reason for being there, and would create more of a danger for the mini mooms running backwards and forwards along them.

Here's a picture that shows a shot looking down on the environment. At the end of each path is a funnel, which is where the mini mooms transport fluid. They get the fluid from taps at the centre bowl where the orb sits. There are taps at its base where you collect the fluid.

Sketch Dump

I had the idea of having cables as a means of sending brain signals around the body.

Here's some drawings around the idea of how the interface of the control station would work.
I played around with the idea of having a tamogotchi pixel image to represent the whole human body, to be displayed on the control panel screen.



Sorry I forgot to rotate the last image. Oops! These two images play around with the design of the control panel and chair.
I also thought that it would be cool if the brain chamber was surrounded by filing cabinets. They would contain memories and data.

Development of Ideas 1

Our group had many paths to choose from, in terms what kind of envionment we wanted to do. We considered many various possibilities. We had the idea of following up a project an Environment design student from another course needed work on. We also considered the idea of designing a road that had one side of posh rich houses and shops and the other side poor and tattered.

However, Jo Angelo came up with the idea of designing the insides of the human body. In the end, we decided to follow up this idea. As you can see, I did some research into the human body and, in particular, the brain. Here are some mind maps I did focusing more on the brain and the heart.

I'm quite interested in developing some ideas on how the brain can operate. I think it has the most potential for exploration, so I will do some doodles centred around this idea.

Research: Robbie Wilkinson

http://www.robbiesbrownshoes.com/

Here's an artist my cousin's girlfriend recommended to me recently. His name is Robbie Wilkinson and he does illustrations for Nickelodeon, The Guardian, and several magazines such as Pit Pilot Magazine and Vice Magazine.




I discovered these really unusual concepts of the human body that he had on his site. I'm not sure what the purpose of these illustrations are, but they really challenge your view of how the body can be represented.

The way Wilkinson has personified the different organs breathes life into them and gives them character. Making the different shapes take on personality helps the viewer relate to their role in the body, and provides some amusement as well. For instance, the brain is dressed like a king and appears to be controlling it using a horse's reins. The Sad looking heart is being constained by a lung on each side, each resembling a frumpy old woman smoking cigarettes. You can tell immediately what kind of lifestyle the owner of these organs lives because of Wilkinson's interpretation. This person clearly doesn't take care of his or her body.

At the same time, the colours and shapes that he uses are a little grotesque to look at, and a bit unnatural. The bones are a nasty shade of greenish yellow, the heart and tongue are a sickly shade of green, and the lungs are an inflamed bright pink and purple. This further emphasizes the message that Robbie Wilkinson is trying to send to his target audience.

I think that these pictures would be good if they were used as a campaign against smoking and promoting good health.

As for it's contriution to our group project, I think it has opened my eyes in terms of design. There are many creative ways of expressing how the body looks and works, and this is another good example.