Rendering

It's rendering time folks!
How exciting.
Compositions to follow, how even more exciting :)
Hoping i can find a great soundtrack online.

Character Arc

The two things i am implementing into my animation are reflective of my studies into how personality is shown through movment and how relationships can affect this personality, by introducing a character arc to illustrate the evolution.
William goes from a reserved, isolated, but content, bachelor to realising that a little company can be good for him, and he lightens up considerably, becoming a lot more relaxed and outgoing in his movements. For a man of such serious nature, Jake the puppy sure brings out a smile in his face.

Sad Will

Been redrafting the final two scenes as they were the shortest and easiest, only requiring a few touch ups, and no major poses were needed to be added. William has changed and become much more sad about what he is hearing at the door, making it clearer that it is someone asking for the puppy. Here we see his vulnerable side, and that he has changed how he is because of his newfound friend. The final shot is him realising that he has made this character arc, and he is disappointed in himself for not finding friendship sooner. Or so that's the idea ^^

More Puppy holding

Character interplay is difficult! Didn't really see this taking as long as it has, but the scene's shaping up :) Blocked animation to follow.

Shockface

Well, how would you react to a house intruder? :P

Business Cards

Ordered my business cards from Moo.com for my exhibition :)

Back

Front

Coloured Environment

Environment has been given simple coloured lamberts to make it look a little less monochrome. Intentions were to create a short piece of work in progress for the showcase advert.

Animatic

The animatic for my animated sequence has come a long way from where it first started. Due to timing issues, a few frames have been left in the sketch stage so I can continue to move forward with the animation. Sound effects have been added to further clarify the actions, as well as background music by City and Colour. It is unclear at this stage what i will actually use for the final audio. It's low on the priority list, anyway.

Textured Will

Began working on blendshapes before moving onto skinning mesh to skeleton.

William Model

3D model of William has been modelled, uv mapped and an accompanying rig has been fully created. There is a temporary texture. Blendshapes will be made before the rig is bound to the mesh.
A lot of work had to be done to ensure that the topology is suitable for animation, as well as the skeletal rig. Although they are far from perfect, i am hoping that they are to the best of my limited knowledge and will allow me to display a satisfactory animation with them.
I'm going to try and stress that the focus of my project is animation and not this part of the pre production, while still displaying my ability to perform tasks such as modelling and rigging.

Extra sequence



William smiles briefly.

He sits down in his chair, with his newspaper.



He reads it.



He peers over the top of the paper.



Puppy is happy to see him,
begins wagging his tail.



William quickly replaces the newspaper over his face.



He gives in.



Motions to the puppy.



                       



Puppy jumps up too quickly, startles him.



                       

He gently puts the puppy on the floor.

He goes back to reading the paper.

                       

Sure enough, in the morning, the puppy is sleeping peacefully on his knee.

Storyboarding

Revising storyboards, thinking about how to gradually allow William's character to change and showing the arc, while thinking about how to minimise workload when it comes to animating the now-quite-long animation.
Created a short sequence to slot into the story that shows a little more of william's character and shows his gradual acceptance of another's company.

William sits down on his couch and reads his newspaper.
He peers over it, curiously.
The puppy is there, and gets excited to see him.
He quickly recovers his face with the paper, indignant.
Expression eventually changes, he sighs and folds the paper.
He motions to the puppy, who gets too excited and leaps upon him.
He is shocked and slightly hurt and so quickly pushes the puppy off him, reopening the paper.
Fade out, fade in to the puppy asleep on his lap.

Thinking about the opening sequence, a sequence in the film "Requiem for a Dream" springs to mind as being helpful to think about.

The montage that hints about their drug use without actually showing it directly is helpful to think about how to minimise animation workload while still communicating the story effectively.

Storyboards



Man comes home, through front door.





He fills the kettle with water.

 

It is William. He looks at his watch.

He is tired so exits the room.

He goes to his bedroom.

The kettle boils.

He comes back, in his pijamas.

He sits down, with a mug of hot chocolate.

He reads the newspaper, at the counter.

There is a scratching at the door.

The scratching persists.

William goes to investigate, but no one is there.

He comes back inside, confused.

When he looks up, there is a puppy on his stool.

He is taken aback, shocked.

He picks up the dog, confused and wary.

And places it outside the door.

Closing it behind it, gently.

He checks his watch again, it is getting late.

He experiences yet another shock as he realises

The puppy has somehow gotten back inside
and stolen his slipper.

He approaches slowly but the puppy runs.

He finds the puppy in his bedroom.

He takes the slipper and pats the puppy cautiously.

The puppy is happy and runs around excitedly.

Moved by this, william begins to accept
that a friend could be fun.

It is morning, and they are asleep on the couch.

There is a rushed knocking at the door.

William wakes up, the puppy runs off again.

He answers the door.

There is someone outside it, asking him a question.

He turns to his flat, looking for the puppy.

He turns back to the visitor, reluctant and sad.