Rotoscoping Exercise

Cat Walk Cycle

Here is my second attempt at a walk cycle. I decided to try and draw it from a front view I used a reference from a fashion show hence the name 'Cat Walk'.

Special Effects Compositions

To begin with we had a go at recreating mars using an image from the film 'The Martian'. This image had a professional green screen setup in what looked like a huge warehouse.

Here is the dope sheet, For the background I used a 'Transform' node for the tilt feature as the ground had a harsh slope to it. I also used a 'Reformat' node to make sure the background image is the same size as the image of Matt Damon.

On the foreground image I had to key out the green screen so I used a keying tool called 'KeyLight' which is used in the industry as keying software. This didn't remove all of the green in the background so i then used a node called 'Roto' which you can use to create an alpha channel, this was very easy for a still image but might prove more difficult when using moving images as you would have to do it frame by frame.

I then used a 'Merge' node to create the final image, making sure that i connected 'A' to the foreground and 'B' to the background.

On this image I tried to make the foreground and the background appear like they where shot under the same lighting. To do this I used a 'Grade' node and a 'ColorCorrection' node. These nodes allowed me to alter the saturation, contrast and exposure of the image which i the messed around with until the two images looked similar in lighting.

I also added a 'Blur' node to the background image. this gave the final result some depth.

On this image I found it the hair extremely difficult to key. In the end I used the 'Roto' node to cut off the stray bits of hair in an attempt to make the image appear a bit more professional.

3D Minotaur Concepts



I wanted to challenge the idea that everyone had about the image of minotaur's. I brain stormed a few ideas and eventually ended up with going with a modernised minotaur. I wanted to also add a comical effect onto my ideas as well.

I looked at a few of the latest trends that have been going around and found the most stupid one which was footwear called 'Nike Sliders' which are basically slippers which you wear with socks and is socially acceptable to wear outside. I then wanted to come up with the weirdest idea for what he was going to be wearing and in the end I went with chefs equipment.

I made sure that I kept some of the defining ideas that come with the name minotaur i.e. Bull head that is attached to a Human torso, larger that human neck and big build. It is said minotaur's are extremely built (big muscles) and are very tall. My minotaur on the other hand has let himself go as he slipped in to modern society. 

Here is my first sketches on Photoshop. I feel that I can define the lines a lot more using a digital program rather that using the sketchbook. I did the initial drawing in my sketchbook then scanned it in to Photoshop and drew over the line work.

I had a go at doing some colouring and shading to prep for the texturing section of the 3D modelling. It also gives a better idea of the depth and shape of the character.

Timing Charts

Bouncing Ball

I decided to have a go at giving the bouncing ball some motion.

Inception - Cinematography

To look at cinematography i chose to look at the film Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. The cinematographer for the film Inception is a man called Wally Pfister who won an award for his part in the production of Inception.

Wally Pfister is known for  'frequently breaking the 180 degree rule'. His shooting style is very 'Gothic', this is very clear when you watch the films 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' which are both films that he took the role of cinematographer.

In Inception there are some very good examples of cinematography and loads of techniques used e.g. Rule Of Thirds, Eye Line Match, Back lighting, Leading Lines and a lot more. A variety of shots are used throughout the film as well.

This image works very well. The scene is shot from far away also known as a Long Shot. The characters are positioned in the left third which creates a clear focus point. The use of back lighting brings the characters out from the cluttered background. The low angle of the shot makes the characters seem very powerful as it makes them look almost as tall as the skyscrapers in the background.

In this images Leonardo DiCaprio is positions in the left third of the scene which draws the eyes of the viewer towards him rather than the people in the background. This shot also uses leading lines very well, it seems as though the banister for the balcony is creating an arrow towards Leonardo DiCaprio's head. This shot is a medium close up shot.

This shot is an establishing shot. In this shot it appears to be using the Fibonacci Spiral. This is a great way to create a clear focus point it is the very similar to using the rule of thirds.

2016 (1990) ‘IMDb Wally Pfister’, in Wally Pfister. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002892/bio (Accessed: 19 November 2016).

Animation Principles

This exercise was used to teach us the 12 animation principles. These are;


- Anticipation
- Squash and Stretch
- Arc
- Exaggeration
- Ease in Ease out
- Timing
- Secondary Action


This is my second attempt at trying to use 'Squash and Stretch'. I feel that this didn't go very well, although you can see the stretch of the jaw the drawing is not very solid. The hair looks like it grows longer by the end of the gif which completely ruins the animation.

Here is my first attempt at portraying weight in animation. You can do this by using reference, for example the a feather would not fall as fast as the rock and the pencil.

On the ball bounce exercise we looked at 'Ease in and Ease Out', 'Squash and Stretch', 'Timing', 'Exaggeration', 'Solid Drawing' and 'Pose to Pose'. 



In the head turn animation we looked at 'Arcs'. For the timing on this exercise I drew the arcs on top of my initial plan and then drew the timing charts on the arcs which really helped when it came to animation the head turn.

After receiving feedback about this animation I was told that there aren't arcs in the head turn. I plan to redo this and add in a stronger arc as well as trying to keep the drawing as solid as possible.



After receiving feedback I found was told that the bouncing ball in this animation appeared too 'alive' because of this I have decide to redo this bouncing ball.



Bouncing Ball

A animation of a ball bouncing himself.

Juno Film Analysis

Colour

The film starts off using very warm colours, it is also very saturated and has a high contrast. During this scene Juno is about to have sex with Paulie Bleeker.

Juno's Red T-shirt and lips could represent love/lust, this is very common in most films. The yellow and orange colours makes the scene feel very warm, also the are colours that tend to appear in autumn. Also these colours mean happiness and joy, which represents Juno's character.

After this scene Juno finds out that she is pregnant, she does the pregnancy test in a store. The colours are still vibrant while she is doing her test. As soon as she finds out that she is pregnant she leaves the store, this is when the colour changes which Shows the change of Juno's emotions.

The film now has a blue tint, blue normally represents depression and sadness which can sometimes be the emotions that girls go threw when finding out about an unexpected pregnancy. The blue also gives off a cold atmosphere.

The film then moves forward to when Juno has decided to give the baby up for adoption. This is when we are introduced to Mark and Vanessa who are the adoptive parents. The colours used in this scene really represent the characters personalities.

The scene takes place in Mark and Vanessa's house, the house colour scheme mainly consists of whites and browns. The white can represent cleanliness and wanting to be pure but it can also mean being empty which may be because the characters cannot produce a baby as the are sterile. The browns are quite a warm homely colours.

Vanessa is wearing black which gives off a sense of power, as you learn more about the characters you learn that Vanessa is the the one who wears the trousers in the relationship.

Mark is wearing blue which is a more mellow colour. Blue can represent calmness and loyalty which describes marks character very well.

At the end of the film, the colour scheme changes again. This time it is very warm and bright. This gives off the feeling of happiness, i think this is done because everything has worked out. It also reinforces the season which is summer.

Anim 1003 - Presentation

Apple Model

Minotaur Model 1st Attempt

Minotaur Model 2nd Attempt

Minotaur Model Refined

Modelling Tests

Bottle Model

Lighting Test

Texturing Test