As most animations start we began with developing ideas for
the brief. As a group we were looking for a different approach to the mime
piece, we knew it had to be some sort of audition, so started thinking of the
different kinds of auditions there are. One section of the brief had already been
decided, the mimes had to perform in order to pass the audition, but the mimes
also had to have personalities, quirks, traits, which show as part of the
animation. I think this was the most challenging part of the brief, and I feel
as though I it helped me develop the most in coming up with ideas quickly and
effectively.
So as a group we had a think about the sort of auditions the
mimes the mimes could be performing for. We need a reason for the mimes to be
performing, something we could include personality with which would work
together. Originally I was thinking of just a mime audition for mime of the
year or mime factor, like a live reality show audition, but I’m really happy we
when in almost the opposite direction. I think it was Harshali who first
suggested the love interest, which for me give a different outlook on the
situation of the mimes. We stuck to this idea and developed it further rather
than developing more ideas as I think it was quite a solid idea and we could
build up the scene and the characters from this situation. The idea became
three guys competing for the love interest of a girl; a more traditional
approach which I think we found was different to the other group’s ideas.
We had the first pitch, which I think the response was quite
positive. I think the idea had quite a clear narrative and we were already able
to formulate ideas for the personalities of the character. The challenge was incorporating
a mime act into the narrative without being too obscure. Some of the other
groups had two to three ideas for the mime act and I think if I’d spoken out a
more we could have developed two ideas, however I also think that we would
eventually have decided on the same idea.
Next stage, I began suggesting characters we could design,
and decided on three characters with contrasting designs. We decided a really big mime, then a really small
mime and the final mime which was just right.
Originally, I had the idea of creating a really young mime (about
10/12 years old) he’d be the youngest of the three to contrast with the other two
characters, as a group, we wanted to play with this too young for the girl and really short,
contrasting with the much larger, older mime. After researching the characters personality I
came across a big problem with this character if we looked at this character
from an acting perspective, we would ask the question why would he want to
impress her? So with a few tweaks I redesigned him a little older, t suited the
narrative a lot more effectively
In my animation I was trying to accomplish a fast beat and
quick movements, like the traditional MGM cartoons of the 1960’s (in colour). I
looked at Hanna Barbara, and the animation used for its stylised 1960’s
animation (The Jetsons, The Flinstones, original retro cartoons) a process
called “Limited animation” came from the same watching the Fred Quimby series
of Tom and Jerry, we decided early on this was the style we wanted to aim for
in our animation.
I really liked this idea, I thought we could possibly try if
we had more time tried different approaches and been more creative with the brief. The idea had a strong narrative (as I’ve said
a few times) and with it, we could have perhaps added a little diversity. I
noticed everybody used a male mime for the audition, I think I could of used
perhaps, a female mime if we were trying to make our idea different. However I
do think the idea works really well with the male characters and developing the
personalities has created a nice a contrast rather than having just three
individual characters.
The Team
I really enjoyed working as a team for this project, it was
such an experience for me, I felt much more motivated in a group than working
alone as I had the chance to bounce ideas and thoughts with other team members.
Harshali has industry experience and with working with her
on a project even though it was university assignment, I felt like I actually gained
experience working in the animation field. I was able to ask her about the
program and learn so much in such a short time. We had the production assets
(the scene, render set up) thanks to her abilities and I really hope I contributed
to the team by visualising the assets and designs for the set.
I am grateful I’ve the chance to work as a group in a
project and think I’m quite lucky to be paired up two individuals who already
had experience in Maya.
Strong points:
In my opinion I think the strongest point is how we have
developed the characters. We have the trio, the three musketeers and the three comrades
together as friends. We used the same rig and communicated with the character
designs regularly which the result was three contrasting characters with a
narrative happening in the scene. The narrative being the three mimes trying to
compete to impress the girl and last mime being successful). The mimes also had
personalities to contrast one another, Andrew the older, sweet, mime, Jake who
contrasts as the younger, arrogant mime and Bob, tall, dark and handsome, the
ideal mime. The highlight of this project for me was when the tutor Siobhan had
a first look at our characters and said “oo, there like a family” (I’m sad I
know) but for me it felt like the characters really came together.
The introduction scene and the scene with mine and Harshali’s
mimes together for me work really well, I’m so glad we decided to these scenes
even if we cannot use them in the end. I’ve learnt a lot about how difficult
this can be, some of the issue that can go wrong: Key frames moving about the
timeline, the time and process to re adjust the characters to interact for the
sake of 2 seconds.
As for my animated piece, I think some of the strong
elements are the poses the character performs. I was looking to make the
character do the same poses as a catwalk or runway model, along the lines of
Baywatch (as the scene was a beach) so placing pauses in between poses to make
the character appear to be striking a pose helped me a lot with the timing of
the animation. I also tried a few of the poses in front of the mirror to see if
they would work comfortably.
Watching the animation I think some elements of the fast,
snappy timing came from the same watching the Fred Quimby series of Tom and
Jerry have worked successfully, although the animation needs much more
polishing, I think there is a fast beat to the overall tempo of the animation.
Weakness
There’s a lot of room for polishing in my animation, some of
the poses are think are a little to exsaggerurated. There are still issues with
the timing but I do think I’ve improved since the beginning of the course. Some
the arcs, particular the arm arc when the mime is holding the piece of
chocolate above his head, even though the animation is quite fast and he is
meant to almost “whip it” out of his hand, the points I’ve key framed the wrist
don’t make a natural movement
My biggest weakness
is some of technical errors and hiccups in the animation, areas such as the
walk cycle at the beginning and “pops” in areas where the IK handle has been
pulled too far. I really have become a lot tighter when in the polishing phase
of the animation I make a lot of difference to the piece. I’ve started
switching to FK in order to prevent some of the popping and it works really
well for arm and leg arcs.
I struggled at the beginning of the project with getting to
grips with Maya, but I’m really glad I’ve had the chance and the time in
university to switch to Maya and work with such talented people in the field. I feel I’ve learnt a lot about the in a short
period of time.
Conclusion
I want to credit Harshali and congratulate her on her models
featured in Dorothy of oz. I’ve feel like gained a lot of experience from her. I’ve
feel as though improved so much even though I have a long way to go with my
animation skills and is an experience I can take away with me and use in the
industry.