Tuesday 24 April 2012

The Major Project - Pre-vis

Last time, I posted the animatic. This time, I'm posting the pre-vis.
The whole animation has been blocked out (very roughly), which means now I'm officially going to start animating the final film using the pre-vis as a starting point; refining the animation until I can refine it no longer, over the next three weeks.





Doing the pre-vis has had it's benefits. So for example, I can see what scenes are going to need the most attention, having already experienced certain difficulties in pre-vis, while some of the smaller shots are looking 80% finished already, so I know better where to spend my time over the coming weeks.

There is just one scene which I will probably re-animate from scratch though. I call it the 'recovery' scene, and it is the scene straight after the monk falls into the sock pile (represented by a cone.)

The reason for this is because the monk is sitting on the floor, and he just happens to find next to him a collar with a label (of which you don't really notice or see properly until the close up shot showing it in his hand).

Go back a few months and a certain character named Arthur Winters fell on the floor and in the exact same place he finds his pencil next to him.

Go back another year, and a certain bear character with no name, is sitting on a mattress, and just happens to find a chocolate flake next to him… in the same place!

So basically, I want to slightly alter the way the monk finds the collar with the label!

So the next set of tasks are animating (and any dynamics that go with it), a bit of textureing, and refining the intro sequence.

A Flock of Pixels

5 comments:

  1. Looking good Ethan! :) Ah yes, I had forgotten all your other characters finding things in a similar way - there must be something subconscious going on there!
    The only bit I'm not sure about, is when he is mopping and then lifts the box...is there a reason he suspects the kitten is under that box, or is it just the footprints leading to it? Maybe you could have a black and white sock poking out from underneath, looking like a tail?

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  2. Ah yes... well that is a problem with previs, is that none of the surfaces have textures.

    Basically, the footprints he is mopping up lead to that box. The footprints will be added in the texture of the floor before rendering.

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  3. Ah yes, I thought that would be the case with the footprints...
    but at around 51 seconds St Ant bends forward almost off screen to pick up the box- there's something that doesn't feel quite right, but I can't quite put my finger on it...I feel that maybe I would like to see the box he is picking up?

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  4. Your probably right...
    because in the animatic you do see the box he is going to pick up.

    This was one of the trickier shots to pre vis, and if I remember correctly, was struggling to fit both him (while he's in the distance) and the box in shot, without the monk being to small to see on screen.

    I won't be animating this scene until next week, so if I can find some extra time before then, I will revisit it (in its previs form) and see what I can do to fix it.

    Other scenes are being animated at the moment, and I think it is going well so far.

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  5. It's certainly looking good! :)

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