Character - Initial Clown Art and Balloon Comparison Ideas

Maya - In Class Animation - Initial Poses Playblast

 

A quick playblast of the poses I have constructed in Maya. They have been made linear and the spacing of frames is a bit vast. I will be looking to clean up in certain places and give weight to certain frames. 

Narrative - Man Vs Machine - refining some initial ideas

I've done some more thinking about the ideas my group could use for the story workshop tomorrow. Its to my understanding that we should receive our genre then, helping us refine the story a little further.

I uploaded an initial ideas post a few days ago but I feel like I should annotate a little further on some of the things I might have touched on.

Man Vs Machine

'His knees steadied, his heart beat fiercely and he began to run again'

Wall-E (2008)

Wall-e is a great example of the direction I wish for our group project to go for. Its about the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind. It also represents independence for a machine from going from being a 'worker bee' to becoming a self sufficient machine.

 

For a period of time Wall-E wasn't independent and was in a way shunned by humanity and we feel sad for the machine because the films done from his point of view. Seeing how lonely he can be in his little shack and how the journey is from him being a designation of cleaner obsolete robots, to becoming a respected individual when he saves humanity. A large jump from cleaning streets, something he was designed for.

 

Artificial Intelligence



I want our group to incorporate some form of artificial intelligence, its the safest way to give the machine form and personality. Plus it might help the audience understand that the machine is developing.

 

-Perhaps the machine was made to assist humanity in some everyday activity, along the way the machine is abused and misused? And toward the end of the animation we have the machine realize it can do something for itself and begin independence.

 

Ideas for story workshop

• A Tool like Microsoft Word 'Clippy', designed to assist computer users. It begins off being a tool that helps the user but after pestering to help the user consistently the user throws the tool to the side of the screen, into the recycle bin, basically shunning it. It ends with the user no longer using the computer and the tool begins to make work instead of assisting.
• A 'Car Arm' machine that is capable of helping design vehicles, the company buys it or commissions the building of the machine and the designers who work with it start discriminate it. Start pushing it away from its work. So it finally is pushed outside of the company and thrown into the trash heap, where it designs a brand new machine and engine that amazes everyone.
• A machine built for war is reactivated in a dense forest and starts to retrace how he ended up where it started, it quickly realizes that when it encounters something new it releases a new armament. It scares itself by harming the wildlife and begins to despise itself. Something convinces it to 'Live on' and the machine begins a new path.

These are just a few ideas I had that could be spoken about more in-depth, but I will probably come up with more after the workshop and it needs to adhere to the 90 second animation restriction.

Character - Designing from Clip 4 - initial thoughts

Clip 4 - 'This is happening, he said he was going to do it and he's doing it now, the most stupendious, the most incredible crime of the century.'

Worlds To Choose from

Petshop
Childrens Entertainment / Clowning
Wildcard?

As far as I can tell it's from, 'The adventures of Sherlock Holmes'(1939) in which "The master sleuth hunts his archenemy Professor Moriarty, who is planning the crime of the century." The man playing Professor Moriarty in this particular reactment is George Zucco.

George Zucco Caricature Possibility

It was made quite clear in the briefing yesterday that we must remove the quote away from where it can be sourced. I believe that I can use the reference from that quote to instead refer to who it was regarding. George Zucco. I reckon I could use him as caricature and although I briefly researched him online I think he has some key features that could distinguish him apart from his co-actors and could breathe life into the basis for animation.

From the two worlds given to me I can connect a crime to both initially in the following ways;

Petshop

• Stealing a pet/food
• Escaping the cage
• Holding up the Clerk
• Murdering the shopkeep?

Children's Entertainment/Clowning

• Stealing a present/celebration food
• Slap-stick (Punch and Judy style)
• Murdering or devouring another character ( Itchy and Scratchy type)
• Age restricted violence?

I will be brainstorming further when I think of more, but I think Caricature is a possibility and if that fails possibly using the key words from the sound clip to exaggerate the character.

Narrative - Man Vs Machine - My initial thoughts

So yesterday we received the brief for the Narrative project, we already have been designated groups and are in the very early stages of drafting ideas and are looking to form a basis for research soon. If you haven't seen my groups blog please defer to here.

The restrictions given for the short animation we were asked to create are as follows;

• A Film Genre
• A Conflict
• An End Sentence
• A Non-Realistic Design Style
• A Stylised Construction Method
• 90 Second Duration

We've also been tasked with adopting roles to mitigate time management and reserve responsibilities for certain areas;

• Animator
• Art Director
• CG Modeller
• Compositor
• Director
• Editor
• Graphic Designer
• Layout Artist ( Cinematographer)
• Lighting Technical Director
• Marketing Manager
• Media Planner
• Producer
• Production Designer (Concept Artist)
• Render Wrangler
• Researcher
• Rigger
• Screenwriter
• Sound Designer
• Storyboard Artist
• Texture Artist

I am fairly certain we can split the 20 roles amongst the four people in the group, I can acknowledge there will be hurdles along the way that may divide the work flow and pause until something is unto scratch. This should be the time we all intervene and come together to make sure we achieve the most desired effect in the time allotted. 

Man Vs Machine

So the conflict we were given yesterday as to what to base the project on was 'Man Vs Machine'. A conflict that is both rich in potential but also includes a lot of areas in my own personal opinion have been explored excessively. I wish to push our group toward originality instead of being based on work that has already been made. If I was to refer to Film and Tv, In my eyes this conflict is often resolved with man realising his mistakes too late and overcoming the odds and defeating machine. Its something thats been battered to death and seems rather cliche and a common trope. 

Instead we should push forward the idea that it is machine which overcomes man. 

To strengthen this idea I would then speak about Stephen Hawking's warnings against artificial intelligence.  “The real risk with AI isn't malice but competence,” Professor Hawking said. “A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble." you can read the article here for more information.

Examples Taken From Film and TV

So I quickly highlighted some existing examples trying to show what I mean about machine overcoming man. I have included four images, two to explain one route and two to explain another.

In short, 'Ex_Machina' and 'A.I.' are two films that explore the idea of machine out-living man and becoming independent, self preserving things that at some point think themselves as beings of their own. 

'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'Robocop' are two separate examples that play on the idea that by integrating a damaged host with advanced cybernetics, allows them to achieve things either on par to norm or exceed them exponentially. 

Both examples of the possible routes are interesting and can be explored in-depth in a stylised form. Just finding the appropriate story for the style would no doubt compliment it.

'His Knees Steadied, His Heart Beat Fiercely And He Began To Run Again'

So the above phrase is what we were given to be the ending sentence to our piece. I believe it ties in quite well to our conflict. From this phrase we can base the animation on either the Man or Machine overcoming the other, and becoming independent. Again we could avoid the trope of falling into the obvious and instead explore newer ideas if we but took the risk.

I would like to see;

• A prosthesis attached to a living host that enables them to move or perform to norm or beyond what was anticipated.
• A machine that is somehow oppressed by man and is put beneath them, but once man disappears they can become independent and perform something.
• A machine that ironically creates a man? perhaps their idea of perfect is being inside a body instead of being a data stream.

I think we have a lot of ideas to play around with and I would remind you guys to follow our group blog if you haven't already its here again. All of these ideas can be condensed into a 90 second animation and if you have any insightful ideas or knowledge please comment :)

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Initial Drawings

 

 

 

Adaptation & Professional Practice Part B - Initial Designs

Aziraphale Designs

Crowley Designs

Still experimenting with the costume layouts for Aziraphale and Crowley here and I think the best idea was to use the trench coat ideas from number 3 of each initial ideas. Then experiment with some designs that could be inbedded into the costume? adding symbolism into their designs.

Adaptation and Professional Practice Part A - Initial visual research

Dumb Ways to Die, is a dark comical animation regarding the ridiculous deaths of these strange cartoon characters. its a campaign to get peoples attention toward health and safety around trains. The elaborate deaths with the collaboration of the woman softly singing about these impending deaths almost makes the acts acceptable and fun. The audience would probably be from quite young as well because of the colorful gruesomeness of the piece, we've all been taught what would roughly happen if you were to be in one of the situations of dumb ways to die. So we are being told what we already know in a fun and exuberant way.



Kung Fu Panda, for the un-informed people out there, is a animation created by Dreamworks following the story of a unlikely warrior as he faces various tests of valor, bravery and skill. The Panda Po, must be taught in the mysterious teachings of ancient kung fu and in the above clip you can see a short clip of him being taught in a harsh manner the skills he would require to fulfill his position as a master at kung fu. Even though it links to kung fu and not to being a ninja/shinobi, I feel this is relevant to the theme. It uses humor to draw in the audience to his trials so perhaps I could also deploy humor in mine to create the response I need in the audience to pay attention to the screen.




My Typical Morning, Is a funny animation about someone having conflicting alarms that go off every few moments to alert the character and wake him from his sleep state. All the alarms are set to 07.00 with the snooze happening also, there are a few alarms that go off after 07.00 that keep the mechanic active throughout the animation. The character also does some activities that would be vital to the morning schedule, there could also be additional steps he could have taken but I was drawn to this animation for its humor around a simple task.

Researching into Initial Ideas - Rhys and Kyle

So Kyle and myself began scripting together our ideas and beginning to research into possible paths of creation. We had similarities in our initial ideas and we look to further express them by looking at possible styles and audiences. From my last post we both agreed that the following were intriguing for further investigations:
- Fishermen's Jealousy
- Crustaceans changing shells
- Submarine mechanic causes havoc



This animation short was just a bit of test footage for someone's animations, its quite simple and the use of the fixed camera with pan shows the environment smoothly to the audience. Perhaps we can use a fixed camera with a dynamic effect to show time passing and to speed the animation.



After watching this animation we came away with the thoughts that perhaps our idea could have the problem/ broken item being the item that causes success. For this animation it was all about the Polar Bear trying to get a catch and the problem being that the penguin was stealing all the fish.

Preliminary Narrative Ideas

Preliminary Narrative Ideas

So my group which consists of Ashley, Kyle, Lisa and myself were tasked to create a narrative that conveys a simple message in a given location. Our location was 'Under The Sea' and our message was 'If it aint broke don't fix it'.

Its the first time I have worked in a group on this course and am looking forward to co-working with my fellow students, we are in the initial development stage of creating our blog and our creative identity. We have chosen to begin our ideas individually, brainstorming and being as vague as possible. We hope to present a phrase or scenario that entices our imaginations further into investigating a path to conveyance.

'Under The Sea' doesn't have to be in the literal sense. In fact it may just have to hint to it being the origin or finish to the animation. Basically it being connected in a unique and dynamic way. 'If it ain't broke don't fix it', could be a task that is undergone or process that results in failure of some sort. The most interesting way to communicate to the audience maybe a dramatic or humorous approach but we must be careful not to loose our flair in any unneeded animation or information. I have thus came up with a few phrases/scenarios I aim to discuss with my group for further analysis.

• Submarine mechanic creates havoc
• Crustaceans moving shells
• Fish lays imperfect egg
• Fishermen's jealousy
• The architects plughole
• The Manfish - Swimming athlete elite
• The Venice plunge