Final sequence

Been blocking in the movements for the final sequence. This last sequence is very slow paced and was quite easy to do in comparison to the other scenes i've attempted so far. This is due to it being early morning and both characters are still sleepy. And they're quite short, too.

Shot Progression

From Storyboard to Maya!

The Stare

Drawing inspiration from the case study conducted into 'How To Train Your Dragon' by Dreamworks Pictures, I have created a piece of animation that shows the relationship between William and Jake beginning to show through the form of a stare. I felt this was effective in Hiccup and toothless' relationship, especially since it is a similar combination of man and animal. This was useful in considering how to show their relationship gradually building and not just happening.

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.

A New Post!

After a break from blogging, it's time to start posting again.
It's certainly been a busy month of working hard.

William's model has been rigged and skinned, i did all of this myself.
I have been blocking in animation using a quickly constructed environment of william's bedroom and this rigged model. I have been leaving out the puppy's animation because it was not available to me.
The rigging for the puppy character was outsourced to a masters student named James Kyle, who very kindly agreed to help me in exchange for letting him use the polygon model. This has taken a while to get back to me in perfect working condition so i am preparing to animate him from now on.

I have split my animation up into small manageable sections, beginning with what i feel are the two most important, that show william's character transition and the status relationships between the two characters.

Below is the 2nd pass of the blocking for this scene that i have named 'The Book Scene' unofficially.

Missing is the interaction between William and Jake and so this affects the points in which they touch, etc.

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.