Week 10 - Parkour Blocking

Upon starting the scenes I imported the video into the maya file just to ensure the fluidity of the animation, and for the most part progression seems to be going well, the only afterthoughts I get are how I can augment the environment in the second parkour scene, to hopefully give it an interesting story as opposed to just a basic run.

Parkour 1

https://vimeo.com/96794483

Parkour 2

https://vimeo.com/96794484

Week 9 - Parkour

To add to the ensemble of different animations that I want to put into my showreel, I aim to make some parkour animations. A strong and high paced display of animation practice it is a great feature that I would like to complete and put into my animation.

Parkour Sequence 1
https://vimeo.com/96691847


Parkour Sequence 2
https://vimeo.com/96691850


I went with two parkour scenes that were rather short just to keep full quality completion manageable. Taking simple video reference from youtube it was merely a case of getting the framing right and then creating the environments in maya to then start animating.

Week 8 - Video Referencing

After cementing these two choices with my tutors, I began video referencing the scenes just to see which one I should progress with into blocking stage in maya. For the most part referencing both scenes seemed to go well.


Spiderman - Main Character reference
https://vimeo.com/96685738

Spiderman - Sub Character reference
https://vimeo.com/96685739


The Big Bang Theory - Main Character reference
https://vimeo.com/96687663


With the video reference relatively sorted out I began taking steps to create the scenes in maya.

Week 7 - Audio Clips Chosen

After scrubbing through the audio clips several times, I eventually narrowed down to just two pieces of dialogue.

The first was an excerpt from the second spiderman, in which Peter Parker reflects on the negative ramifications of his heroic actions.
The line of dialogue shows us the maturity of Peter Parker as he develops as the superhero Spiderman.


I however when mind-mapping, decided to take the dialogue in a more comedic route, though keeping the initial dramatic overtone. The scene I envisioned for the line was to have one character in prime focus, speaking the line and being overzealous in his delivery, only for him to then seem to snap out of his melodrama take his drink and look to his friend to pay for him, to which the friend begrudgingly obliges.

The second clip I chose to storyboard was a line from a The Big Bang Theory episode, in which one character Leonard Hofstadter, errs caution to his friend Penny in regards to a feud she is in with Leonard's roommate Sheldon. The line itself is a somewhat comedic piece of advice regarding his roommates behaviour, which is said in a sincere manner despite the craziness of the statement. 

When storyboarding the line itself, I chose to relatively keep the context the same, but slightly change the composition of the scene. The original in show scene sees Leonard walk over to Penny to offer advice, and his body language is more defensive and reserved. With my scene I elected to just have one character in a scene rather than try to completely mirror the show's scene. The character begins by 

rummaging through a fridge then upon "hearing the prior line" returns with the dialogue clip, and within his lines his body language hits certain words in his sentence for emphasis.

Week 6 - Choosing Audio for Lip Sync

This week while continuing to smooth out my body mechanic animations, I started looking towards the other element of my final showreel: Lipsync animation. Deciding what audio clips to use became the more difficult part of the process, simply because with such a large variety to choose from, taking a clip then altering in any particular way comedic or otherwise left me spoilt for choice.

After mass amounts of deliberation I went with choosing two audio clips, one I would only animate the face of a rig, the other a full body animation complete with body language.

For the facial rig animation, I have decided to use an excerpt from the 2008 Sherlock Movie, where Sherlock Holmes attempts to calm a startled house maid:
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/trustProfessional.wav
From the outset I aim to match the smoothness of his voice with an equally calm faced character, hoping to see how much charisma I can display with only a head.

Choosing an audio clip for the full body lipsync was difficult simply because of the possibilities I could work with, not too mention that some clips were deceptively long, which would see my priorities shift from a decent work plan. So I altered my choice selection in favour for some clips are maximum 13 seconds, so as to finish with two strong animations with condensed quality, rather than animations that aren't completely finished to respectable quality due to lack of time.

Here are a selection of choices that I'm looking at, by weeks end I will have my choices along with storyboards for the lipsync animations ready for me to start video referencing and blocking out.

The Big Bang Theory - Leonard Hofstadter
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/supervillain.wav

The Incredibles - Syndrome
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/everyonewillbe.wav

The Dark Knight - The Joker
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/heresmycard.wav

The Dark Knight - The Joker
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/myjokes.wav

Monsters University - Sully
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/grabpig.wav

Spiderman - Peter Parker
http://www.dailywav.com/sites/default/files/wavs/oneswhopay_0.wav

For the time being, I will make mind maps and quick storyboards so as to cement ideas for each scene which will help me decide which dialogue piece I use.