Did I stick to my stroyboard?

I did follow to storyboard to some extent, although not exactly. This was again, a time issue. I didn't have time to create the facial expressions as i think this would have looked very good in the final movie.

Cameras...

The first opening scene is shot through a camera perspective. The camera moves foward and to the side using the autokey tool.

Final boy character....

This is the final boy character. I modelled the boy in 3D smax, like all the modelling. I found it difficult to make him look realistic. I used a turbo-smooth, but was still quite robotic looking. If i were to recreate him i would chamfer all the sharp edges and reapply the turbo smooth. I coloured the whole model red, to give the impression that they were evil (as they kill the frog at the end of the movie).

Final frog character...

Here is the final frog charater. The main shape went pretty well and looks somewhat like a frog. I tried to make it look slightly cartoony to fit in with the theme of the movie. I materialised the frog with frogskin which i found on the interent. I adjusted the hue in photoshop so it would stand out against the green grass and lilly pad, unlike a generic frog colour.

Waiting for it to render...

The sound effects have been added, now I am waiting for the final movie to be rendered so i can then export it. It is expected to take 48minutes.

Film complete...

Now the film is complete i can start to add sound to make the overall effect better.

Im adding a theme tune to play throughout, kids laughing whilst they ply, croaking when its the frog scene, and then funeral bells at the end when the frog gets killed.

Premiere...

Once all the animations are complete, i can start to edit the files in Adobe Premiere. I found it fairly easy to use even though I hadn't received any tutorials on it in the past. Here is a screenshot of the work in progress...

Running into more problems...

As the universrity suggests, i saved my work on the student network in my file. Half way through making the animation on premiere, the system/network went offline which meant i couldn't access my work. This delayed me further untill it went back online, Very frustrating!

Ball landing in pond...

The next scene is of the ball landing in the pond, it then bobs up and down as a ball in water would.

making the water realistic...

To make the water of the pond move realistically, i added around 20 keyframes throughout the clip. At each one I moved the water plane slightly side to side and also up and down slightly to give a realistic affect. This takes a while to render as there is alot going on in the scene and the trees are also in the background.

Started to render...

Now the first few scenes are animated (boys kicking ball around and rog on lilly pad) I can begin to render. The rendering process takes a very long time. Here is the rendering process.

The trouble I had was to do with the saving format. I saved it as an AVI file. But the programme only let me saved the file as an uncompressed file, which caused the playback to be very jerky and take up alot of space.

Boys position...

Here is a screen shot showing the boys position and how they are kicking the ball around...

Frog and movement...

Here is how the frog sits on the lilly pad, it moves around in a way that makes it look asif the water is moving it:

Forgot the blog...

With so much work going into the animation these days i keep forgetting to update the blog. I've just been working my way through the setting up of the scene. Making sure the frog and the 3 boys are in the right position. Currently the frog is sitting on a lilly pad and floating around the pond. The boys playing football will be my open scene. They are standing in a triangle shape and the ball is moving between them as if they are passing to each other. Screen shots to follow.

Here is my rendered environment. I also placed a backdrop in so it looks more realsitic.

Environment.

The first thing i decided to make was the environment in which the animation is set. I will need to make a park scene. This will feature a grass field with a pond in the background (where the frogs will be). Once this is created i can build everything else into it. I started by making a square, flat shape and, using soft selection, raised and lowered the ground to make it look a bit more like a field.

Character moodboard: Frogs

Character Moodboard: Boys

Storyboard

Here is a quick story board to show how i want the animation to work. I show the different scenes that will be included along with what happens and what needs to move/interact etc...

Looking at the movement of the frog.

In my animation, I wish to show the frogs jumping away. To do this realistically I will need to find out how the frog jumps and which stages are involved. Here is an image i find that shows this.

Reactor.

We learnt how to make the objects react around each other. To show this we played around with the bowling ball scene. Here is a screenshot to show this.

Ideas for Frog/Toad

Here are some images for inspiration for the frog i will be creating. I want the frog to be a cartoon style aswell...





I will be able to create my frog character from these images.

Ideas for characters.

Here are some images for inspiration for the 3D boys i will need to make. I am looking for a cartoon style.





These will look better than a realistic figure as they are smoother, easier to make and still represent the boys throwing stones.

Looking at movement.

The boys and the frog fable involve boys throwing stones. Here is an image that will help me see the different movement points of a throw.



And this image shows the same throwing movement from the back.



This will allow me to copy the different movement points onto my 3D character. This should result in a natural movement and make the animation look alot better!

Project Idea

I now have to decide on an Aesops Fable to realise using the 3D software. I am looking for one that has an easy to recreate story line and bold characters that can be made in 3D. This will give me a strong base for my animation. Here are some good fables that match the criteria:


The Boys and the Frogs


SOME BOYS, playing near a pond, saw a number of Frogs in the
water and began to pelt them with stones. They killed several of
them, when one of the Frogs, lifting his head out of the water,
cried out: "Pray stop, my boys: what is sport to you, is death to
us."


-"One man's pleasure may be another's pain."-

This fable will be a good one to animate as it is very visual. The boys will be moving to throw stones and the frogs will be dying from getting hit by the stones.


The Lion and the Mouse

Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up
and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge
paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him. "Pardon, O
King," cried the little Mouse: "forgive me this time, I shall
never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn
some of these days?" The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the
Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let
him go. Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the
hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a
tree while they went in search of a waggon to carry him on. Just
then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad
plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away
the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?"
said the little Mouse.


Little friends may prove great friends.


The lion and the mouse in this fable would be good to make on the 3D programme. It is also very physical as alot happens in it.

First Tutorial

Richard gave us a tutorial today and we followed on 3Ds Max. This is the first scene i made. It is a quick one, but is meant to be a city with the camera panning around. The free camera followed the line we drew using the line tool. Heres a screen shot to show what i mean:

Next up, we had a go on our own. I decided to create a quick animation of a basic car (very basic!) which followed a course drawn out by the line tool. I selected the follow box so that the car will look as if it is driving. Here is a quick screenshot to illustrate this:

I found the first tutorial fairly straight foward, but i guess it will become harder as it goes on....

Brief

Brief: "funstar" are a new children's channel offered on cable television. The wish to extend their programming into animation and would like to animate Aesop's Fables.

We have been given the task of choosing a fable, and realise the story line using 3D modelling animation programme 3DS Max.

This Brief seems tricky, but interesting. I am looking foward to try and animate the 3D models.