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.

Paper Stop Motion

In class Today I'm working on a stop motion project. We'll be working with construction paper and pins to create animatable puppets. I'll be using mine to create a quirky 10-second animation of a vicious teddy bear biting someone's head off.

To achieve this effect, I'm going to need to swap out the bear's head about 10-14 times to get it to grow and shrink (construction paper is not as malleable as clay). It's much easier to maintain proportions using this medium, but a little harder to get fluid motions, as it's restricted to what the puppet can do.

box lifting in progress

Now, after all that thought about weight in animation, it comes time to put it into practise in one of the most direct ways possible. I am now to construct a figure lifting (or pushing) a heavy box. As usual, making the key poses first proves very helpful, so getting that done first is priority. I find that timing here, in particular, is vital. Where should the character speed up? Where should he get stuck? How long? how fast will he rise? After the keys are done, I'll do some experimenting. to this purpose, I've constructed a very simple character.