Third post, second half of rigging

At the time of this blog post, I've gotten somewhat more than 50% of the rigging job done. By this, I mean that all of the bones are in place, along with their controllers, and the weights are well on their way to being complete.  By Thursday, I'll have done the Facial blend shapes and controllers, along with eyelid clusters.

As far as the facial blends go, I have a hold of a tutorial from an earlier class. Therefore, I don't think that setting the shapes themselves up will take much time at all. The part that concerns me is obtaining A rig of controllers to match. I've gotten some links online for both a preset rig and a script to set up a custom one, but have run into errors with both. I may be able to rig one up myself, but I think that'll take quite some more time.

On the whole, however, that I'll have a complete rig that's ready to animate by Thursday one way or the other. I've picked up enough steam that there are only a few tweaks left other than the concerns I've addressed here.

Final Project: Credits/Production slate

As the semester draws to a close, so does my work on my final project, my credits and slate for my sophomore film. I've uploaded a copy here:

It really was a lot of fun, and I think that it fits the style of the film nicely (although the film has not been made yet). I've added in some sounds and music to the slate and credits respectively.

Title and credits for sophomore film

I've now gotten started on my work for he sophomore film. As I'm going the 3d route, I'll be animating the titles and credits for my film.

I'm starting by doing the credits first as I figure they'll have the simplest design and execution. They'll be made to fit with the style and feel of the film, borrowing from its progression and art style. The camera shifts down from the sky as the credits fly upwards on an agel wing and demon wing each. This is all in a monochromatic, hand-drawn style. As we reach the ground, the scene gains color and texture.

Animated slate/credits

The next project is to animate either a scene from our sophomore film or the ident slate and credits to be shown with it. Sice it's likey that I'll be using 3d for my film, I think it would be best to put some effort into making the credits fit the flavor and theme of the film, as well as to put a lot of thought into the slate, as it could be something I could keep using in the future. I may do the slate in traditional 2d as I think it may convey my style well.

Animated Emotion Project

With a more substantial after effects project under our belts, it's time to move on to the next. Our goal here is to create a short animation in after effects that conveys a particular emotion to the viewer. I' choosing fear as my emotion. To cenvey a sense or terror to the viewer, I'm going to incorporate a lot of darkness into the animation, using mostly grayscale and red hues. I'm going to make it a first-person view to make it more immersive, with spooky music and sound effects.

After Effects Project #1

After having dabbled in the basic use of after effects for a simple text and character animation, now comes the time for a slightly linger, more structured use of the program. I'm now going to make a short story in after effects based on a storyboard I have written for the purpose. It has to do with a zombie finding a sword and battling a skull. It will require the use of parenting and puppet pin for the walk cycle as well as the regular transforms. I plan on using a lightning effect as well.

After Effects

During last week we began our latest work in adobe after effects. This serves as as introduction (or reintroduction) to the kinds of motion and special effects that we can get via using the software. Many of us have used the program in pre-production class in previous semesters, but even those of us who have may need some reminders as to how it works.

Our project is to make an animated scene of a cat. It jumps across the screen with a flip and get struck by lightning. Then an animated title comes into being on the screen. We are achieving these effects via the transform, opacity and masking controls, as well as some built-in effects.