Major Project - Shot 04 Animation Progress #1

Today i've spent some time adding in extra poses and smoothing segments of the animation that I felt needed smoothing. I wanted some of the actions to be quite snappy and others to ease in a bit. I used Jelly Jamm as a reference as it is the overall animation style I want to achieve! I tried to make sure I gave poses some time to breath in the animation and so far I think it is looking pretty cool, any feedback would be appreciated!

I always find putting breakdown poses in Maya a bit tricky so to aid with this I used a plug-in called bhGhost (image above), this gave me basically the equivalent of onion skin from Flash which is super useful for me when visualizing the pose.

Major Project - Previs/Animation Progress # 1

I added the new blanket hand into the previs and ran into some problems along the way, the rig I made didn't work completely but i figured out solutions while implementing it.

I also started to refine the blocking in the first segment of the animation, here is how it is currently looking.

Major Project - Blanket Hand #1

I've got the creepy blanket hand finished and ready to go into the animation, here is how it looks and a test of how it moves. It uses a spline IK and a curve to translate the model and then the hand has its own rig. Next I will get it into the previs and start figuring out its movement!

Major Project - Blanket Arm Test & Previs Progress #7

I did a test of how the arm could work, I used a spline IK and a lattice to create this quick test. It seems to be working alright for what I need and the set up is pretty simple. I will move onto creating the actual arm next and then add it all to the previs!

I did some designs for the arm/hand that will be attacking the boy. I wanted it to feel more like a blanket and more cloth like. I think number 3 - 5 are working for me, its thin side on and had buttons where the knuckles are to attach the fingers. being thin it should wrap around the boy nicely!

I made a few tweaks and did a test animation of the mouth in flash for the sighing scene, it proved slightly difficult to start with but I quickly got the hang of it and overall I think it added a lot of life to the sigh.

Major Project - Previs Progress #6

Made some adjustments to the framing of some of the action shots and tweaked some shots as suggested by Phil. Next up I'll be finessing the previs and adding some more life to the boy.

Major Project - Previs Progress #5

the broad strokes of the previs are now in place, so I can now focus on tweaking it. The soundscape needs adjusting to fit better with the piece which is something I will fix soon. I will also start breaking down all the subtle details that each shot needs and work on bringing the whole thing to life!

Major Project - Previs Progress #4

Almost finished the first draft of the previs! The soundscape will need adjusting to fit better with the animation but overall it is starting to come together, very exciting.

Major Project - Previs Progress #3

It's getting there! Today I got through some of the action shots, this previs will hopefully be done soon. Super excited to move onto animation and to watch the film come to life!

Major Project - Previs Progress #2

I've been working on the previs, figuring out poses for the boy and roughly placing the environments, I am about half way through now so I should have it done by the end of this week!