Introduction

This is my blog post detailing the research and creative activities carried out for Assignment 2, in which I have to produce an 8 to 12 seconds animation using prerecorded audio retrieved from YouTube or any audio banks ie: the audio used raw or featuring my own creative touches.  From the moment this assignment was handed to me I could start it at anytime so long as it was completed by the 9th of May.  The animation itself will score 70 % of the marks with the remaining 30% allocated for the research.  The research should only be around 500 words at most.  This assignment as a whole will make up 20% of my module .

 

 

Idea, Theory and Research behind the Animation

A Blast From the Past

For Assignment 2 Animation I have decided to go with some old childhood creations since they have been a recurring source of creativity for me.  Whilst my main creations in this genre are Walrus Man and Seal Boy, I will be using the villains created for this storyline, Killer Whale and Evil Bin for the animation project.  Both villains are based using the primal energies of children’s cartoons and the bright and colorful personality design synonymous with the comic characters from both Marvel and DC most notably the villains.  Not only do I have a strong affection for my characters but as they are my creations I continually want to work on them so I can use the models in future projects.  Additionally the fun of animating two characters of two different scale proportions with accompanying unique personalities will challenge me in trying to explore the synergies between them. To help me capture both the feelings of the cartoons and comics genre I want, I have studied the animation and tone of ‘Batman the Brave and the Bold’ an animated series made by Warner Bros.  This is because it captures the distinct tone and charm of the silver age of comics including how goofy and lovable costumed vigilantes and their foes can be portrayed.

 

(The Characters of the Marvel Comics)   

 

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 (DC Comics’ Super-villains’ formed up as the Legion of Doom).

 

(A clip complications of heroes’ clips for Warner Bro’s 2008 “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”, )

 

(A clip complications of Villains’ clips for Warner Bro’s 2008 “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”, )

 

Evil Bin: Short, Deformed, Quick Temper and Clever

 

The one haft of the arch enemies of Walrus Man and Seal Boy, and usually partnered with Killer Whale to make the evil duo is the character, Evil Bin.  What Evil Bin lacks in physical capabilities and body size he more than makes up for it with his ridiculously heightened intellect and the talent to create many different gadgets designed to take control of the world.  The only thing in his way is his Achilles Heel, i.e:  his own foul temper and ego.   In many ways the character is based on classic animations such as the Looney Tunes emphasising his odd body proportions and his over aggressive personality e.g: Yosemite Sam.  Even small features such as his eyebrows relate to this characteristic as in 2D drawings they are disconnected from his body only brought into reality when in 3D by small pipes connecting them to his lid.  However whilst his animation will be over exaggerated to fit with his personality and movements, he has limitations that also get in the way i.e:  his lack of proper legs very similar to the Daleks from Doctor Who.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ-BOqQw_TQ

(Looney Tunes’ Yosemite Sam does have proper use of his body {i.e:. he has legs} however his quickness to anger and loud, boorish personality fit the Evil Bin well.)

 

(Whilst the Martian is a lot more polite and well mannered than Yosemite Sam, he still follows the same rule as the Looney Tune characters when it comes to animation.  However for this project the fact that he has to primarily express emotions through his eyes I find an excellent feature and will be using it as a design/character trait for Evil Bin)

 

(The trailers for the Looney Tunes Reboot Season 2 on HBO Max showing off cartoon exaggerations on how personality affects movement.)

 

(Whilst the Daleks are a lot more serious and stiffer characters than the Evil Bin, their design helps me understand his tank like movements should work, especially with wheels.  Also how the design’s limitations can lead to some funny and unfortunate moments for Evil Bin as they did for earlier models on the Daleks)

 

Killer Whale:  The Tall Brute and Macho Luchador

 

When it comes to my character Killer Whale, whilst his design is not as exaggerated as Evil Bin he has a lot of testosteronal energy to him, especially when he is showing off.   Unlike some of the brutes in common media portrayals however Killer Whale is not an idiot.  He is relatively smart even if he’s nowhere near as intelligent as his buddy Evil Bin.   As such with his incredible size and strength to match, he would be fighting with actual skill, having good control over his body.  This means he would fight like a good heavyweight boxer or wrestler instead of merely flailing his limbs around just tried to hit his opponent.   This is why he takes inspiration from both video fighting games and the sports of professional boxing and wrestling. The Batman villain, Bane (especially depicted in the Injustice franchise fighting games ) is a great example of what I hope to achieve.   Throwing out attacks with huge strength and force utilizing moves like headlocks, grappling, body slams and controlled jabs.   Fighting game characters also tend to show off and perform taunts to antagonise their opponents, which perfectly fits Killer Whale’s ego as he loves to showboat.   Utilizing these traits in my animation means that the duo fully embraces the Looney Tune nature  I wish to achieve

I also took a look at another similar character i.e: King Shark from the CW’s The Flash television series as this incarnation of character is similar to Killer Whale’s physique resembling a shark in humanoid form, but taller rather than broader compared to most brutish archetypes.

 

(Bane from Injustice One the NetherRealm DC Comics fighting game is a great example of a hulking man who fights with skill like a luchador rather than another brute)

 

(Bane from Injustice 2 Is an even better representation of this with his less broad and slightly taller body.)

 

(CW’s The Flash did feature King Shark in a few of its episodes. While the character has plenty of different designs over the years, this incarnation appears closest to my character Killer Whale being both taller and well built.  The main element I am taking here is how his mouth works as the shark like mouth will be the most complex element of killer whales animations.)

 

(I have included Killer Instinct [2013 reboot] here as fighting games have a habit of their characters showing off for victory Introductions taunts and attacks especially the when performing ultimate attacks.  This will help me demonstrate not just the fighting but also the showboating Killer Whale does constantly.)

 

 

Creating the Animations

 

Drawing and Concept art

The first thing I did was find a recent drawing from one of my work books.  Created over a year ago it goes into depth in relation to how the two characters designs work, and even included lots of small details about their current design process.   I even gives examples of how the eyes should move as well as their mouths and it also shows the relative sizes of the two characters compared to each other.

 

(Updated concept art 2020 for the Evil Bin and Killer Whale. showing little changed since the classic designs, just quality of life improvements and showing how their feature’s work )

 

Building the Audio

From the very beginning I decided to focus on getting audio from video games because unlike TV show or films it’s easier to find high quality examples of both voice lines  and music voice lines separated from accompanying sound effects and music . I would quickly write up a list of characters from video games for both Killer Whale and Evil Ben that would best fit their voices and personalities.  I read and found several YouTube videos with each of these examples and reviewed them to see if they fitted into my concept.   In the end I settled for The Joker from Batman’s Arkham Knight video game and some unused dialogue for Megatron from the computer game Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. I downloaded both videos off YouTube and brought them in to Adobe Premiere Pro. I then cut the video off that was attached to the audio and then got rid of the extra voice lines I didn’t want to ensure I got two that could fit together.  I would even go a step further an edited the tone of each voice to better fit the character, with Killer Whale having a deeper voice and Evil Bin having a more scratchy voice with an echo on it.  I also inputted the theme of Wolverine from Marvel vs Capcom 3 to add more power to the audio track.

 

Research for Choosing my Audio Template:

 

Main Audio Sources:

 

Creating the Edits:

 

Completed Edited Audio Track:

 

Creating and Rigging the Models.

 

After deciding on the designs and characteristics of the animations I would then go on to create an Evil Bin character model in Maya with the addition of substance painter to help build the textures.   Aside from the way his arms worked due to the complex structuring and not being the same on both sides, he was an incredibly simple character to both create and rig. As mentioned before like the old cartoons he was based off, his eyebrows are depicted as floating in 2D drawings but in 3D projects which needed a touch of realism they are held by small pipes.  I would go on to test out these models through two test animations to make sure the finished product was up to the standard required for the final assignment animation .

Due to time concerns over the deadline and being very generous, Henry and Alec would help created the Killer Whale model which I am grateful for, and a specials thanks goes to them. I would however create the textures in Substance Painter on him and aside from the rough patches that looks more like fabric, his colour turned out great and fits in line with the Evil Bin.

The final animation would have both models in the same Maya file. I would start animating Killer Whale first so that his basic movement was done, and I would then know how Evil Bin needed to be animated to climb around him.  Some of my favorite images of these characters I created is that one of Evil Bin riding on the back of Killer Whale.  It shows off the differences between their size and mobility, especially for Evil Bin who is a lot more exaggerated than his buddy.  Automating my motors for the most part worked well, the wings were very easy to use and had flexibility.  Having a good understanding of my characters helped that the effort I put into the design, and the audio editing enhanced the animation and decide it’s flow.  It also proved useful that I made some smart ideas such as animating most of the facial features before animating the body to make sure the audio and mouths would sync up.

However the most difficult thing in creating the project for me and that would be animating the Evil Bin moving over the top of Killer Whale.   This was possibly my fault for being over ambitious.  For example, some of the fixings I made to Killer Whale’s position didn’t take into account some changes in other places of the animations.  These included the position of Evil Bin’s wheels not to mention his claw hand  properly onto certain surfaces.  I therefore had to spend several hours adjusting Evil Bin‘s positioning, the length and positions of his wheels and ultimately the angle the camera bit (yes I also created an animated camera for this scene) to mitigate some of the problems of the claw.  His standard hand had given me some problems of animating fingers but nothing that is new with animating hands in general.   If I use this model going forward I’m going to adjust the claw so that they bend at the end.

Once I was satisfied with my animation, I needed make sure I had a saved back up before rendering out the video.  It took around an hour to render out the video and uploaded to my YouTube account. Having the video as a YouTube hyperlink makes it easier to share around, as a hyperlink does not have an overly large file size.  Once that was done I will upload the right video files and YouTube link to their respective locations like my Blog and Online Blackboard.

 

Creating the Bin in Maya

    

 

Creating the Bin in Maya

 

Animating my modals to the Audio

Test Animation for the Evil Bin:

 

(Test Animation one [Playblast])

(Test Animation one [Playblast with Audio]

 

 

Updating PlayBlast Animation for the Evil Bin and Killer Whale Final Animation:

(Update 1, 18/4/22, YouTube Link)

(Update 2, 19/4/22, YouTube Link)

(Update 3, 21/4/22, YouTube Link)

Conclusions

 

I took some risks with Assignment 2 in that I tried to create my own characters, spruced up the audio to give it my own twist and attempted animating two characters at once.  It did create a few awkward issues for me.  One was in getting Evil Bin using his claw to climb up created difficulties in that I couldn’t get it to hook on right, and the constant micro management of the hands and wheels.  However setting these issues aside, I think it was worth it as I am satisfied I how the characters turned out.  I believe the animations have lots of personality and it gives me a good feeling of accomplishment to have created them.  Seeing these characters animated together after years of having them drawn down in my books, feels rewarding and that helped me push forward and work harder on this project. Hopefully my grade will reflect this but even if not I’m pleased with the outcome of the assignment.

Final Product

Link to YouTube:

Links to References

 

 

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