...week 4...

The reading and seminar this week I found really useful and will be key when writing stories and sequences in future. I enjoyed discussing the ideas of violence, the media and how films, animations and computer games effect the way people think towards violence and their behaviour due to it. This is an area I have studied previously when I took psychology, and so have a basic knowlege of studies and findings on this topic. However I didn't know much about sequencing or thought about how the order characters are presented, effecting how the viewer connects with or feels towards them. After reading examples of this from various films, news reports and even when watching The Incredilbes you can really see how this changes the audiences perspective.
Doing an in-depth study of the Incredibles helped to breakdown scenes and really showed the importance of the use of colours and their meaning, camera angles, sequencing..particularly with all the violent scenes. It basically showed how everything... backgrounds, lighting, movement, sizes..is done for a particular reason that should, most probably subconciously, be picked up and connect with the audience.

2D character performance....




Above is my 2D piece of work from this weeks studio day. Focusing on how the characters act together and communicate with eachother, exaggerating the emotions such as surprise, annoyed etc..but continuing the animation principles of squash and stretch, anticipation and overlap. I am quite happy with the final piece, however I did make a few alterations as I went along and there are a few areas I would still change watching it now. I think it is quite noticable about the size change of the larger cube character from the start of the animation to the end..I just need to make sure that after having squashed, stretched and moved my character around he goes back to being the correct size and that when he is moving he maintains the right volume. I think this looks ok at the beginning, however just trails off a bit towards the end.

Other areas I would change around are perhaps the beginning..slowing it down a bit..adding a few more frames when the character is waiting around just to exaggerate what is happening. After filming each frame, I played it through and added a few frames where it just didnt look right. For example when the large cube flicks the small cube away. I really needed more aniticipation before the flick which I think works much better now. Similarly I added to the surprised look when the smaller character jumps in. However I think I could develop this part further still, and give him a much more exaggerated shocked look. I'm also not sure about the small cube flying out at the end having been flicked away. Having him tumble over would probably have been a nicer idea.

Having said all that I am pleased with the way this piece worked. It's definately the longest one I've done so far, and probably the most satisfying when I saw it working and the characters interacting.

3D character jump...

the first attempt...


after a few more tries...



Although I still don't feel completely comfortable with Maya yet..and lets face it..it could be a while until I do..I was quite happy with this weeks work. I completed it whilst in the studio being taught and then created the jump again and again until I got it looking better. I saved my first attempt at it from Tuesday, and then saved another after a bit more practice..and hopefully there's a noticable difference!! I'm much happier with my later attempts!

The only thing I find with 3D is that I can never create the same thing twice..it always looks a bit different everytime..and I find it hard to just go back and tweak things here and there without messing it up and needing to starting over. This may be a good thing though as I can just start over whenever, and if the movement changes each time, well hopefully its just getting better each time and I'm making improvments rather then changing it for the worse.

I do feel I am getting to grips with Maya more now, however after the tutorial I had today I think it makes sense to practice a lot more..just playing around with ideas, movements, especially trying to remake some of the 2D movements into 3D and see what I can do. I will do this in the studio as well so I can learn from and with other people in the same situation..good thinking Georg!