Organisation

While I was learning Blender, Chloe had set up our Blender files using linked files to add the character models, rigs and the environment blockout into the scenes. This was originally confusing to me as I had never used this method of workflow before, although it proved to be very efficient after Chloe had explained it to me and I had used it a few times. It allowed us to update scenes like the environment or character models and then download the new versions and link them to all of our files.

Chloe and I sat down with the finished Previs and looked at the scenes to figure out how many scenes we had to do and how long each one was so we could try and split them evenly between us. Mike later pointed out that this wasn’t an entirely accurate way of splitting the workload as some scenes will require much more animation than other scenes would.

 

Chloe then set up a spreadsheet allowing us to properly organise our work and keep each other up to date on our animation progress. It also had a space included for adjustments to be made to the scenes and feedback we received on them so we could be reminded easily of what the lecturers had said about the scenes. (although the screenshot I took now is from much later on in the process and is not the whole spreadsheet)

 

Chloe also sourced an HDRI image for us to use in our rough scenes for consistency and basic lighting, allowing us to render our rough passes. I was in charge of editing all of the scenes together in the premier file I had as we decided to just replace the scenes from the previs gradually as we animated more rough passes, allowing Mike to see the animation as a whole and give feedback with the correct context.

 

Animating

Now that I had a better understanding of Blender, I began to create the rough passes of my scenes, using the action editor and NLA editor. Chloe had animated basic walk cycles and run cycles for the two characters earlier on and they could be found in the action editor and copied and pasted into different actions. These were extremely useful for the rough passes as it meant I could easily show movement, although I would have to edit the movements later on, to better suit the tone of the shot and the space that she moved. Additionally, they were originally animated to be used in 12 fps, as that was the fps we were using to achieve the stop motion animation look but we were then told by Mike to animate at 24fps and change it later using time stretching which we found a tutorial on YouTube for.

 

 

As time went on, we continued to animate and improve upon the animations we had done before and change things to the feedback we received. There were some scenes that needed slight changes to the way they were done, or extra scenes to add in like close ups to character’s faces, and reaction scenes to help enhance the narrative.

This was the first project where I had taken such a large role in the animation of the project, as I usually worked on environments and modelling but Megan didn’t want to animate in the project so we agreed she’d do the environment instead. I agreed to this as I had quite enjoyed the little bits of animation I had done at the end of semester 2 in my second year and felt I could give animating more of a shot. I actually enjoyed the process once I got into it, finding it fun to add smaller subtle details to the animations.

 

Rough Pass #1

 

Rough Pass #2

 

Animation Pass #3

 

Animation Pass #4

 

Animation Pass #5

 

Animation Pass #6

 

This was the final animation pass put together like this as it was for the final day of class, once we got to this point it was mostly smaller more subtle changes that needed to be made, like animating the hands more, as they were too stiff throughout the scenes and adding some facial animation. The lecturers seemed to be happy with our progress and I think they liked the animation so far, which made me relieved as I was expecting harsh criticism for some reason. It was good to know that we were on track and doing okay towards the end stages of the process, even if we had fallen behind in earlier stages.

There were a couple of ideas some of the lecturers who hadn’t been overseeing out group the whole time had that would have been fun to include but it was a little bit too late into the production to try adding or changing scenes significantly at this point.

If I was to repeat this animation process again I would put a bit more of my focus into emphasising the character personalities in their movements and spend more time on character animation, instead of just animating the overall scenes.