Drip, Drip, Drop

So, while it mat not show it, a LOT of work was done this week.

Mainly it was getting done painting all of the frames needed for the squirrel character.

Unfortunately, the shot didn’t make it into the animatic yet. Not that it means I'm behind. I had planned to just be painting until Saturday/Sunday so anything in this is what I had last week.

They still need to be cut out so even the things that are in the new borad-o-matic have to be revised. Regardless, the passing is working out well I think.

You will get to se it next week, well, in 2 weeks since we meet during Thanksgiving.

Tops are Made Out of Rubber, Bottoms are Made Out of Springs

Today I'll let you peek at what has been going on in Fantasy World. 

Right now I'm in the middle of painting the different key frames for Pepper and the animal that she finds while there. My inspiration of this guy is a squirrel and pipe worm cartoon. He moves like a ball, kind of, so the first thing was to figure out its walk cycle. 

I drew it out, over lapping and everything, one day in a class. Since then I have digitally changed it so only one frame is shown at a time to make sure that I drew it out right. 

Now I've been working on a shot that is actually seen. This is where the animal (who needs a name) jumps from off a branch out of frame. 

Now painting the key frames....

So that is starting to come together. 

I also did a few frames for the opening shot of the world. It might need a few more looks. 

There you have it. A real reason why doing all those bounce cycles freshman year was helpful, and a taste of the hardships to come. 

Everything is Satisfactual

A lot of what has happened this week can’t be seen yet.

What you can see though is the progress of the “Reach” animation - the first shot people will see in the entire thing.

So what is different?

The hand on the ground finally moves more like I wanted. Turns out that I had pivot points on the wrong ends, they shouldn’t have had a parent, and they had to rotate in z-space.

All the fingers on the other hand is there. They have some motion, but most of their action will be in the next shot - a close up of them touching the puzzle piece.

The face is a slightly different shape. Every time I step back to it I find it annoying me, but I’m hopeful that this one is the final face shape (for Main World).

About 85% of the shadows have been added in. It allows for depth, more of a 3D illusion, and more detail in shape without adding too much.

A floor plane was created and angled properly. It sits in z-space to help give the accurate look.

Finally, Pepper’s hair and skin tone where warmed up. This past week in a different class (Graduate Seminar) we started talking about the importance of color in a shot and how color help to dictate the character. Basically cool colors= bad guy. Warm colors= good guy. Pepper’s shirt and pants are still a bit cool, but I still like it the best over the other choices. 

So what else is going on?

Mainly asset building, thus nothing to show you. I think that my plan for the animation in Fantasy World will be to paint a TON of different angles and moments. Then fade between each one to give a painted/flip book feel. The plan is to have most of the assets build by next week so I can start composing the shots.

We shall see, for now I'm on schedule and that is satisfactual.