This week was very stressful for me as I had a lot of work that I wanted to get done and that I wanted my team to have done.
Monday Night Call
For this call I had really wanted to get a start on our previs, but the other members of the group weren’t ready yet for this unfortunately. Instead some needed some clarification of the storyboard, so I took this time to also organise breaking up the cells for each of us to have a part in the storyboard. Kori went ahead and noted these down from what Eoin and I had described to happen in the plot at certain moments. Once this was finished I sent ahead the template I used for storyboarding so that it would be consistent throughout. Then we chose our sections and I set a timeline for when I wanted these done, (again I was getting a bit nervous at the fast approaching presentation, I’m not sure my teammates enjoy the deadlines I set but I want to make sure that we can stay on schedule for having all of our prepro elements finalised for Week 6.
I actually managed to get my cells done quite quickly, I decided to add one more frame in here for clarity but we can always remove this if needed later on.
I went ahead and informed the rest of the group members of our plans to make a start on the previs on Wednesday, my hopes is that we can get at least get half of it done and that we each take it in turns to animate and control the file with guidance from the rest of the team. I think this way will really get us to think like a team and get let us feel its ok to ask for help from each other when needed. I also gave people a checklist of what was the priority for those who were struggling to find these elements themselves for organisation. The last thing I asked before we ended the call was that people to send in their blocked models ready for previs into our file sharing chat.
Adjustments to Previs Sets
I wanted to make some adjustments to the set since I had time before the group would work on it. I added some basic materials to the dungeon and then brought these elements over to the other set to tie them closer together, once everyones blocked models are in I want to swap out the cardboard pieces with them to also visually connect them better as well.
Then I went ahead and added some basic lighting to the dungeon set, using point lights for the torches and and addign a sun to give a better illumination to the scene. I coloured this to be a bit warm to reflect the idea if the torches and I think it casts a sickly spooky hue onto the setting as well which is interesting.
Movement Tests
I wanted to go ahead and look at the different ways that would work to fit our models, mainly with how they could move with the rigid base and how this affected the personality/idea of weight for the character.
This first test didn’t come out exactly right but I like the range of overlapping and secondary action that I achieved with the ears, arms and hair and I know for the second test on this that I would like to focus on the timing to achieve the feeling of weight as this one came out quite floaty, almost like it was in slow-motion.
So, I wanted to have another go at having this walking movement, and I did this on a new file. I keyed out the z moments first and then worked on the x movement.
Then I went and played with the graph editors to refine this blocky movement, for one pass I wanted to see how it would look if i made them move as if they were being picked up and moved about. I didn’t really like this effect in the end so I reset my handle types.
I went ahead and adjusted the graphs to have a bit better movement, then worked on adding some secondary action with the arms swinging and head looking with some simple rotation keys. The stand does slide a bit as it moves but I actually don’t mind this effect.
I then took a look at this and thought that the render looked too quick, so I scaled up the keys until I was happy with the timing.
Then I duplicated out the z axis keys as I thought the jumps looked too floaty. I also tried to have some action with the ear movements, these ended up being too extreme so I deleted these keys.
This is the final render of this practice, I added some more keys and tweaks, and while it isn’t perfect I think that this really helped me think about how my character could move in our final film.
Finalising Other Elements of Design
Character
While waiting for my other members to get ready for previs, I took time to start thinking about the other elements of our film (like props, environment designs, etc). The first thing I wanted to get sorted was the finalised design of my character, the faster I get this done the earlier I can start modelling her and make sure to give myself enough time for retopo and rigging. I started by taking my design from earlier and creating other views of them, since I didn’t really know what to put on the back I went and asked my more knowledgeable group members for some suggestions. Katrina replied and I ended up exploring some ideas before landing on a simple dagger I could place on the hip of my character.
Before I went and drew out my complete final design I went and asked for some clarification, since looking at the previs there had been a couple variations on the base plate. My team was very quick to get back so it was very easily decided on the style we wanted for this.
Environment/Prop
Wednesday Morning Call
We had organised to have a call and start our Previs at 10am, but I was the only person who showed up to this so I decided to just start on it by myself and update the team members on the progress I had made.
Then I went ahead and set up the first shot, I thought this was ok blocking for now that mimicked the storyboard we had done. I had to go in and fix up some parenting with the other members models, just to make sure that I could move the location from the base plate.
Then I went ahead and started to block out the movements and the camera, this took a lot longer than expected, since moving multiple characters and trying to balance out the timing of this was a lot I hadn’t expected to consider. I did find myself struggling with this task a lot, especially since I was doing it only with my perspective of the shots so far. I decided that once I had the idea blocked out that I would take a break to come back at it with fresh eyes, then I could fix any timing and add in other storytelling actions (like the characters looking around in the dungeon).
Since my group members weren’t present at this time I went ahead and asked a peer from another group for some advice and as a different pair of eyes. I found that this helped and I’m thankful that Joyce took time to have a look at this for me.
I had wanted to come back to work on the previs after I had come back from my dentist appointment that day, but unfortunately I was in too much pain so I had to leave it for later, I made sure to share the file I was working on for my other group members so that they could start working on another part of the previs.
Throughout this week I have learnt that I need to be more assertive, as I find myself in this leadership role and set goals and timelines for the work. I think I have become a bit of a pushover when it comes to work, as I have found myself working and producing a lot in contrast to the rest of the work my team members generated, so I need to be able to find a work/life balance and delegate tasks to my other group members.