Latest and hopefully last animatic

So just been working on the animatic lately, had a review by tutors and peers on thursday, had some good feedback and also some ideas for improving.

Taking those into account i added the reverse part of it, which would need heavily fine tuning for the final thing but for animatic purposes i think is okay.

Bonus: added sound

Idea change and blocking

So first of all, i was really struggling with the original idea of following the mysterious man. I had a talk with Sean and have developed a great idea, however it involves a lot more work as i have to model several human characters although hopefully shouldn't have to rig them.

I'm basing it around the cluedo concept, you go through the scene seeing several characters and at the end you see a body, you mind then wonders who it could be. On top of the story it should work great as a portfolio as it shows, organic modeling, lighting, rendering, composoting and texture work among other things.

I have been blocking the characters out with the basic Norman rig however i have found a chef and girl one (which are actually variants on the Norman rig anyway) to temporary show the characters in the scene. I found the chef and girl characters here:
http://www.romanim.com/norman_database.php

The waitress


Sheriff


Chef


Mysterious guy

*Generic update title*

So I've been working on getting the telephone finished in terms of modeling and UV mapping. Which I have done (except for the cable which i forgot to add).

I did a very very quick texture in photoshop to test the mapping and applied a anisotropic shader which gives a nice effect, however would need tuning to look bit old and beaten up.

Currently just refreshing my mind with basic lighting skills so just a simple 3 point lighting system

Things to do.

I seem to keep being distracted by the more fun stuff in my project such as the modeling. (That is all fine but not if i haven't finalised my animatic just yet)

So i need to focus on animatic first. Then some more concept work and turnarounds for objects, followed by modeling.

However on a random note. A lighting shot...

Some inspiration

Stumbled upon this video today, Some of the elements in the film are extremely jarring, however overall its fairly nice. It combines 2D characters with 3D backgrounds and environments. However i mainly posted it for one scene at about 1:47 which shows a dark saloon with high contrast and bright light shining through the doors.



Another reason i posted the above image, is to show the similar effects i would like in my film. For example the particles in the air that catch the light well. It really brings the environment to life and is more realistic as a dusty and old saloon

Some concept sketches

Had some spare time this afternoon before work so drew some quick concept sketches of a booth and the counter and cash register. I have barely drawn anything for this project and i know that in order to model well, i need good blue prints and reference so started on these.

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Update to the previous video, Slower movements as per some feedback from a peer, but probably not still quite there.

Animatic Shot Experiments

Based on tutor feedback from Sultan, Sean, Simon and Peter all have told me that the one 'floaty' camera movement in the animatic is boring and slow. However a few understood that with textures and lighting and better models it might still work, although they did have suggestions which I have tried to follow recently in the past day or 2.

Instead of the 1 camera, I have added in shots of different aspects focusing on details around the diner. 1 is stationary however i think it looks odd on its own so will add some more locked cameras.

Peters advice was also good about the story, for example still with the theme of the mysterious character, the camera more closely follows the characters movement, such as when he puts down a whisky bottle or moves a chair across the floor. The camera is one step behind.

The general talks with all tutors have helped. I will see if Peter is around tomorrow so i can hopefully show him my experiments above.

Modeling

Some more modeling on my phone. Have my animatic showing tomorrow, I have already had some feedback for it about it maybe being a bit too long, so i might alter the camera angles and also time of the video.