Lewis things

Oh Hai everybody.

It has been a while since my last confessio.........er, i mean blog, sorry for the delay but life

has been throwing some mean curve balls my way lately.

I have done a little animating, not as much as i would have liked to, or need to but ill take some as opposed to none. I have a walk cycle for Lewis (minus arms and head currently), also i have animated the keys for when Lewis bends down to pick up a light bulb, just need to add a couple inbetweens. I have also animated Lewis's head from posterior view as he is looking out to the ocean, not much happening there, still trying to figure out what else i can make him do in this shot, considering its just his head moving, perhaps that is enough? I have done a meagre attempt at Lewis sighing, which looks bloody ridiculous but the fundamentals are there to work with. I had a chat with Ed about this and he helped me understand what the arms and hands could be doing to make this sigh not look so bomby.

Last but not least i have done some more animation tests for the paint on glass, Jack and I went through a few experiments and came up with some nice results. Im still thinking of diluting the paint a hell of a lot more (Jack i know you love thick paint), i just think super watery water colours look like water.................say that ten times fast.

The next two weeks are also going to be crazy, im hoping (fingers crossed and praying to all gods out there) that i can get the animation done by the end of the holidays, if not then i fear i may go insane(yes yes even more so).

Oh one last thing, i have drawn up the light house and it comes apart like a cracked egg, to reveal the broken foundations left behind when it takes off. I like it, i still want to roughen up the edges of the bricks a little but im happy with how it is looking. Still have to do the weather vein and tweak a few things etc etc.

Its late and i will have to post visuals for you all on monday, as i am working the weekend and then i have to rush to my sisters hens day/night (good grief, what timing).

Anyways, just touching base, hope you all have a lovely holiday and message me if you need me etc. Lewis umbrella thrown in there also.

:)

IK_ A' No No

AAAAAAAAAlllllrighty then. I have placed the backgrounds into the running comp, i have also blocked out the characters in the running comp. Doing this has brought to my attention that the colours of the characters and the backgrounds are not working. Lewis and especially the mechanical bird (fizgig 510 is his name but nobody knows what im talking about when i use this) get really lost in the colours, they are so washed out against the sand etc, makes it veryhard to see them. Anyway im sure there are ways of correcting this in after fx by playing around with compostion, hue, saturation etc etc. I was always going to darken everything up with the backgrounds anyways, so hopefully once this is done it will be better.
Have moved onto animating, i had major dramas over the weekend with the IK handles. The dramas were, it confused the shit out of me. Im going to chuck the IK handles (sorry Darren), its too fiddly and if you move a handle just a fraction out of shape then things get all stretched and crazy and it just snowballs.
Sitting with Jack today and going through animating just by using the scale, rotation and position is a much more calming way in my eyes. It makes sense to me and i can concentrate on the animation as opposed to concentrating on IK handles and trying to figure them out. The puppet tool will also help me out, so im basically back to square one in regards to my animation technique. I have come full circle to see that i should have stuck with my initial way.
So things are a little more clear and i can animate without having to call Seamus or Taylor in a mad panick.
Good Times :)

DVD Cover

Jack i just read what you wrote about the shadows being too dark, yes i agree with

you there. The solar flare was just a quick after thought to try and get

the cover done along with the other things we needed to hand in.

So still a few more mistakes, but its a cover that i can go back to and

fix up when i need it.

I wish i had of toned the white down on the titles and made them a slightly

grubby off white as they seem very clean and white against my style.

DVD cover

This is the makings of my DVD cover, the bird still needs a tail, the back needs a synopsis and of course the title needs to be on the front.

Backgrounds Ahoy!

(All backgrounds still need to be photoshoped, and dont forget people the water will be animated, not a painted still picture as you see here. )

So its that time again, yes thats right folks, Ems blogg is here again.

I have basically been doing the same thing as i was last time i blogged, painting backgrounds

with watercolour.

I have discovered that working with water colours isnt as easy as i had first initially thought, although i have used them in the past i have never actually painted anything of value with them. They are a difficult medium to use in the sense that if you make a mistake its really hard to recover from. If you paint something too dark you basically have to wait for things to dry to be able to lighten them up, and by that point the paper is worn and bally. Also, when applied, they look slick and nice with the water but then when they dry, its an absolute mess!

These are just some thoughts on my painting experience.

Darren rigged up Lewis with IK handles too and we had a play around with moving him. Im really happy with the way he is moving and i love the puppet look, still a few crinkles to iron out but as i said im super happy at the moment.

Backgrounds

I have been painting backgrounds lately, trying to get perspective right and also adding

some interesting textures.

Initially i did a wash of really diluted watercolour to mark out the backgrounds, now im going over them to add some depth and detail.

Still havnt finished the sky and the sand on most of them but you can see where im heading with them.

The background in the top right corner is Jacks deomonstration, i really like the detail in the sand and also the seaweed.

Puppets and Painting

Well im still working on making my puppets, i have majority of Lewis ready,

and have started to work on the mechanical bird.

I have been exploring different textures and techniques in photoshop

and drawing the bird has turned out to be alot of fun.

I have also began painting my backgrounds. Im initially just doing

them in a very light wash of water colour then i will go back over them with more depth. I think i will tweak them digitally and perhaps use pastels along with the watercolour to help create this.

Today i managed to do a test with one of the puppets in AFX with Huni, although

it was just a series of simple movements it was great to see the puppet working

smoothly. Im really happy with the way the puppet looked and moved, and cant wait to

get into animating him.

Last week i had a chat with Darren about different possible ways to make the light house take off look effective, and also how to create the dust that will be falling amongst the debris and rubble during take off. He suggested filming certain substances such as talcum powder, or flour falling in front of a green screen, however upon further discussion with Huni, it was thought that perhaps the glow of the green will show up to much on the powders??? Then we found something similar that can be done in AFX with particles, so i shall chat to Darren about these queries.

This is basically bringing you up to date with my production, discussions with Jack were also had last week regarding milestones that I wish to achieve by the end of the month. I found this quite helpful as it gave me some clarity and helped steer me in the right direction.

Below are the puppets i have created, as you can see some are still works in progress, but nearly there.