Major Project: Olivier, the Patissier, Size Sheet

here is the Size Sheet of the character, although i don't have any other characters I compared with the most important prop in the animation. This wedding cake is only shown as a cake because no design has been done on it so far.

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Major Project- Research: Animation Style I

The music in this animation plays an important role to understand how I am supposed to animate the character. As I kept listening the audio sample, I kept thinking of bouncing, bouncing and bouncing. therefore what better animation style to use than the unique and pioneering rubber hose animation style.

The audio evokes a lot of bouncing, of movement of actions being done constantly, likely this type of animation. So, I decided to look into Rubber Hose Animation Style and understand how it may work. 

Rubber Hose Animation Style was one of the pioneering animation style to be standardised in American animation Industry around the 1920's. The Style is best know for having characters, who don't possess hinged limbs, instead the arms and legs consist in simple flowing curves. Therefore the definition of rubber hose limbs animation. Alongside featuring rubber hose limbs, this style of animation, also used a lot of bouncing, repetition of animation and boils. Although the 12 principals of animation were not introduced at this time, it is visible a use of exaggeration, squash and stretch and dragging and overlapping. 

These are the principals I want to apply to my animation just so it relates with the beat of the music. 

To better understand this style of animation I looked at a few examples, and added a few comments I found according to the animation: 

Felix the Cat by Pat Sullivan

Flip the Frog by Ub Iwerks

Mickey Mouse by Ub Iwerks

Looney Toons/ Merrie Melodies by Warner Bros. 

My Observations:

- Use of Rubber Hose Animation.

- Music Directs the Animation.

- Every Element is animated even the backgrounds.

- Very Bouncy Animation, with exaggerated actions ( Squash and Stretch). 

- Animation Synchronises or Overlaps.

- Animation Repetition.

- Character morphing into various shapes.

Silly Symphonies by Walt Disney

While the other short animations had previous mentioned aspects in common. this latest one, actually shows what i want to achieve with my animation, a mixture between rubber hose limbs and articulated limbs animation. This will allow me to have total control of the character but also, have him adapt to various situations.

Alongside, rubber hose animation style I want also to look into animation transitions, and maybe morphing. Therefore I will be adding more research onto this topic.

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Major Project- So Research begins

Having pretty much the main idea decided I began to research many aspects of the animation, just so the world I am creating becomes believable as well as understanding what gags can be applied to the world of the animation.
Firstly I decided to sketch up a quick diagram containing a lot of the research I have been looking into, this will allow me to quickly look at my body of research for further reference. This is a organised way of displaying the influences for my animation.

Being a diagram it will allow me also to add any more titles in each respective aspect. From this onward, research i-depth can be done and the creation of influence maps to visualise these works is imperative.

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Major Project: Tutorial #1 w/ Phil- Deciding on the Final Idea

This week was the first individual tutorial for the major project, Individual tutorials are great, to receive feedback and talk about our project with someone who is looking at it in an objective manner.

Thus, this first week I took with me the initial ideas for the transcription of the audio just so me and Phil could discuss these ideas. Phil's first comment was regarding the need of having 2 or 3 characters, after some discussion ideas began to float in the room and by the end of the session I was very happy with how the story was beginning to form. By using the idea with the French patissier, me and Phil began to narrow the story down.

The outcome of the meeting was something like as follows:

Final Idea: Adaptation of Paul Mottram- Capriccio 5 Animation


                                             Paul Mottram- Capriccio5

Main Characters:

A French Patissier

Location:

Patisserie Shop in the Heart of Paris, The Cake World.

Period:

1900s

Length of the Animation

1 min to 1.10min.

Actions on the music:

The Pastry Chef decorates the wedding cake, adds the cream, chocolate, cherries, wedding toppers, etc.... (specific ideas to have).

A Patisserie Shop in the heart of Paris is home of one of the most talented patissiers in whole France. The Patissier is recognized by his exceptional sets of skills in making and decorating wedding cakes. Having a new cake on order, this animation will follow the patisserie decorating one of the most beautiful wedding cakes he ever created. The patissier is so concentrated and joyful making the cake that his real world merges with the “cake” world, as he decorates layer by layer the wedding cake. From adding the cream to placing the ribbons, the incredibly happy patissier interacts with his “cake” world in which the actions of the real world will be transported to the fictional delicious world according to the music. At the end, when the patisserie arrives to the top of the cake he vows to the wedding toppers in a sign of consideration, icing sugar is then splashed onto the scene and we return to the real world, where the Patissier is posing next to this most stunning cake.

As you may see the main difference from the previous ideas, is that the story was narrowed to have one character only. It is also changed in the animation formula. In this final idea, we follow the journey of this magnificent pastry chef as he creates the most beautiful cake. To have a less linear story and create dynamism, the audience will be transported between 2 world, the real world and the "cake" world ( the patissier imagination), this will allow me to play with transitions and have fun animate the character and his environments. Finally, unlike the other animation where it was competition which would end in a gag, this version of the idea is mainly a feel good animation, in which the character is entertaining the audience from the beginning until the end .

Surely, This it the initial version of the final idea, therefore more development will be done in the following week, however for now I can begin the research and the designing stages.

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@Phil. Major Project: Proposal

Although I have written something similar to a proposal on the previous posts, here is an official document, in which you can perceive what I want to achieve and learn with this last project.

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Major Project- Initial Adaptation

Earlier this week, I have posted a few audio samples that I could use to do an adaptation. So I have listen to them carefully and decided to focus on one in particular.

                                 Paul Mottram- Capriccio5

With the choice done, I began to gather a few ideas giving my own interpretation of the sound. The audio sample to me evokes a lot of actions, but also a sense of competition between 2 characters. which ends in a tragically funny way. One of the animations who comes to my mind is the One Man Band - produced by Pixar.

This song is licensed by audionetwork however, by paying a minimal sum of money, I am able to get a license to use in educational purposes and festivals.

I was able to gather 2 ideas that give my initial interpretation of the music sample.

Based on the:

Paul Mottram- Capriccio 5

1^st idea

Main Characters:

2 Patisseries ( 1 French and 1 Italian).

Secondary Character:

The Shortest Prince

Location: 

The Royal Kitchen- French Royalty

Period: 

1800s to 1850s (Monarchy)

Length of the Animation

 1 min to 1.10min.

Actions on the riffs: 

making the batter, cooking the cake, decorating the cake, etc.... (specific ideas to have).

It is a royal moment, it is a royal wedding!! the prince is getting married and he is deciding on his wedding cake, therefore he decides to hire two patisseries to make the tallest wedding cake. The two patisseries, 1 French and 1 Italian, are well known for their set of skills and their quality of work. However they also know each other and have been in many rivalries in the past to gain recognition.

In order to impress the prince the 2 patisseries commence to make the cakes to impress the prince, although their dispute begins amiable, as the song gets tenser their competition gets stronger.. As the cake gets taller their dispute gets very intense in the end as the song finishes the cake falls on the top of the prince.(off camera) After credits shot is the prince covered in cream and chocolate and on the side is a tall destroyed cake in the shape of his princess.

Animation Formula:

1. Present the Problem (Competition)
2. The dispute starts
3. Tension grows between the 2 characters as they attempt to get attention from the prince.
4. The tension of the competition is high.
5. Boiling Point
6. Funny Gag
7. End
8. After Credits Gag.

2^nd Idea

Main characters:

2 Mime Artists

Location: 

Street Theatre in France

Period: 

Beginning of the 20^th century

Length of the Animation

1 min to 1.10min.

Actions on the riffs:

 2 Characters begin to lose character they use instruments to attack each other.

A Street Theatre open in the heart of Paris, a new mime artist is the main attraction, however the other mime left out the spectacle attempts to regain is position by sabotaging the new mime's performance. The 2 mimes enter in a dispute to gain the attention of the crowd. They compete on stage via pantomime in their character. Music evokes dispute and tension builds, 2 mime artist begin to lose character and use instruments instead of pretending using them. With the boiling point approaching the 2 characters destroy the theatre set. In the end the curtain falls on them.

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Major Project: Organisation is the Key

Indeed, in order to succeed in this project i will have to plan the following 15 weeks very carefully, I will have to juggle the project with outside work, and any other projects/ commissions which may appear. therefore I have once again planned an initial timetable and a project list to guide me and help me eat the huge elephant slice by slice.

While the project list will help me identify the jobs that need doing, in each crucial stage of the pipeline, the timetable will allow me to realistically achieve each tasks in the time set.

 As a matter of fact, this initial timetable is a very optimistic one, but at least it will help me know what I want to achieve each week. 

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Major Project- Initial Audio Ideas I

In order to begin this project, some sort of research on the audio I want to use needs to be done. Having chosen to use an audio as the foundation of the animation and then build my character and acting from it, I decided to look at different types of audio, such as film scenes, speeches or audio samples.

So here is a list of the ones I found more appropriate to work with.

Speeches

Winston Churchill- Finest Hour

Via: Free Info Society

Hank Aaron- Address to Congress

Via: Free Info Society

Robert Frost- Fire and Ice

Via: Free Info Society

Movie Scenes

Frankenstein- It's Alive Scene.

On the Waterfront- Marlon Brando-  I Coulda Been a Contender Scene

Taken - Liam Nesson-  Phone Scene

Via: Youtube




Audio Samples

Robert Bruce-Fairys Jig

Paul Mottram- Capriccio5

Christopher Ashmore- Taking the Pizzicato

Via: Audio Network

Thus far, I have 9 choices to work from, therefore the next step is to narrow my choices and focus on getting an idea for at least three audio. This will allow me to focus and better choose something. 

At such early stage of the project, I will also look at other forms of outcome for this project. 

So keep tuned!! 

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Minor Project - Atom Pancakes- The Final Chapter

With the minor project basically wrapped up, I thought I would write evaluation of the time spent with my colleagues at Atom Pancakes and share any of the latest animation work.

The 15 to 18 week period spent with my 2 colleagues Jordan Buckner and Ethan Shilling, on our latest project was an amazing experience. It definitely taught me a lot of things about collaboration, work ethic and friendship. When we set up for this project we had a main goal, that in 15 weeks from that time we would have an animation, which the three of us would be happy with. Although in times, it wasn't as easy as it seems, we all learnt a valuable lesson, that in order to succeed in this industry, you have to work as a community, accepting and giving feedback, negotiating and compromising. Our task to create this animation was immense, as we from the beginning decided to create a story from scratch, however after a few weeks of not being sure, the group worked very well together to overcome this problem, always giving and receiving input. With the foundation of the project, laid out the rest was a very enjoyable trip, where me and my colleagues shared and worked well together, to design the world of 'The Final Chapter', from character to environment design, every single member's opinion was taken into account and used in favour of the project.
While at production, stage, everything ran smoothly, as we decided to distribute the tasks according to each individuals strengths. Animation was a very insightful task, as we had time to explore it we were able to further develop our skills.
In the end everything came together nicely, and despite a few last minutes hazard, the group was ejected with enough adrenaline to overcome them rapidly and successfully.

I would like to thank Jordan Buckner and Ethan Shilling, for the great experience, but also the tutors, Phil Gomm and Alan Postings, for allowing this group to form.

Surely, I used this experience to build by confidence when attempting to get a job after my degree.

After an emotional ending for a my evaluation, here is the promised latest work I have done in The Final Chapter.

Animation: 

Finished Scene

Prepare scene

( The Typing Scene)

Dynamics: 

Bubbles

Smoke

Supporting Documents: 

Making of - The Final Chapter

The Final Chapter - Character Bible

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'The Final Chapter' by Atom pancakes

Atom Pancakes proudly presents 'The Final Chapter'. Our short animation finally finished.

directed by:
       Jordan Buckner
       Ethan Shilling
       Ruben Martins

Synopsis:

"The story follows our crime writer, Arthur Winters, as he attempts to write the ending of his book. As he thinks through possible ideas, things begin to go wrong around him. While having these ideas, Winters enters his dream space and starts to act like the suspects. When he finally realises an idea that works, he burst into motion to finish his book, however the simplest of the tasks is not so simple after all."

Enjoy!!

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The Final Chapter Supporting Documents

Atom pancakes would like to share the documents supporting our animation, they feature the behind-the-scenes which helped us produce our final short.

Making of - The Final Chapter

If you like the character Arthur Winters, this document will explain how our studio decided upon the design and show some of the early stage drawings of him .

The Final Chapter - Character Bible

Enjoy!

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Animation at Atom Pancakes IV

Lately, I have been spending time and more time animating and tweaking any animation previously done. It has been a very enjoyable journey with a lot learnt. With only one more scene to tweak. What follows is an animation "dump" of all the scenes I have been working on.

Animation Finished Scene

Animation Finished Scene- Cameras

Animation Prepare Scene- Cameras

Montage Scene

One of the things I have been working was the dynamics for some of the scenes, here is a bubble test done and which will be added on the glass in one of the scenes. 

Bubble Dynamics Test Render

The final animation is almost approaching keep tuned. 

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Final Chapter- Teaser Poster

Follow our official blog for all the progress at:

http://atompancakes.blogspot.com

Or our Facebook page or twitter at: (respectively)

More updates will land on here very soon! 

Keep Tuned!

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Animation at Atom Pancakes III

Animation and rendering is going well at Atom pancakes, we almost done with all the scenes to animate however, is still a few bits to tweak.

Here are the scenes I have been working on:

Tension Playblast Edit

After Credits Scene- Blocking

                                                              After Credits Scene- Final

Dream Detective- Blocking

Prepare Scene- Blocking

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Busy Times at Atom Pancakes Studio

Lately, At Atom Pancakes I have been with my fingers in many pies, as we trying to finalise production and set everything to render. As I said I have mentioned in charge of some more scenes to animate, painting the background matte paintings and testing dynamics such as smoke and fire.

Animation

Butler Scene

Firstly, I tweaked the butler scene on the laughing jumps, I have made them just so they are more subtle and are a movement around the chest area rather than the pelvis.

On this scene, I just have to animate the props, such as the tray, the ice cube and the drink mesh. Apart from that, it is ready for rendering.

I am also animating other scenes, at the moment they are at the blocking out stages. but they will be finished as soon as possible.


Prepare Scene

Progress 1

Progress 2

Also I have blocked the investigation scene, but it is not uploaded yet. 

Test Dynamics

I have been playing around with dynamics, in order to get a smoke effect for the burning paper. after fiddling around I came to something that seems to be the right track. further tweaks will be on the particle size, colour, turbulence and conserve attributes.

Matte Paintings

As I said I have been working on the matte paintings for the interior and exterior environment. I have tried to conserve the painterly style.

Outside Matte Painting

Interior Night Matte Painting

Interior Day Matte Painting

Note that this not Moon or Sun on the Matte Paintings, it is because I have created them separately, in which I will render and animate in AE. 

It is all for now, more updates coming soon... Stay Tuned

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Animation at Atom Pancakes II

So animation continues at Atom Pancakes, I decided to carry on tweaking the Butler Scene, and I have to say it is almost ready for rendering, It still needs some secondary animation.

Butler Reveal Scene Animation Progress 8 (Close-up)

Butler Reveal Scene Animation Progress 8

I have also began blocking the Investigation Scene, and I will post a playblast soon.

On a side note, I am also in charge of getting the dream sequence environment ready for rendering, so today I took some time to to set it up with lighting and also playing around with the background.

We opted to go for a simpler set up where we will have the character fully lit, and the body, laying on the floor under the spotlight.  

For the space not look so empty, we will add a few effects, in this case some particle travelling between the character and the black space. they will be the pattern of the room.

Just like shown on this render.

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Animation at Atom Pancakes I

So Animation begins!! and how exciting it is! At Atom Pancakes I was assigned to animate a few scenes for the following weeks, i will be blocking, animating and tweaking them.

Reveal Butler Animation (Progress 1)

Reveal Butler Animation (Progress 2)

Reveal Butler Animation (Progress 3)

Reveal Butler Animation (Progress 4)

Reveal Butler Animation (Progress 5)

Still a bit to tweak

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The Day of the Invisible Cannibals from Beyond the Stars- Debut Trailer

The Day of the Invisible Cannibals from Beyond the Stars was the final outcome from a group project done at university. Ruben Martins, Ethan Shilling and Shahbir Hameed formed the fictional studio B3D Studios, and together produced this animation and I'm proud to present it.

Enjoy!

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Work Placement: Beyond Transcription

A few weeks back, I was happy to know that I would have work placement in a company. Picasso Pictures, is the place in which I will spend around 2 weeks absorbing what the industry is all about. Being a unit for university, apart from the work experience I will get, I was also asked to write about the company I will be working with, and if possible show any work that I am going to to there.

This unit supposed to be a 5 weeks unit, but because I am having 2 weeks of work placement, I will need to produce something more. It was said that I could either finish the my transcription animation or do the models and metaphors project ( a competition project).

After pondering about it, I decided for a third option. I spoke to Phil and he gave me green light for this choice. For the next couple of weeks I will be doing the work placement unit, as well as modelling the Characters from the Character Design Project ( if you remember the Robots shown on the blog banner).

I have also found that I have to learn a lot about animation, so I will be intensively teaching myself, the art of animate, firstly I will accurately understand the principles and then apply them to the 3D world.
This blog will be more active than ever,  From either my experiences at Picasso Pictures, any development about the characters or animation exercises. Finally, as part of my understanding for animation I will be posting excerpts of good animations and films.


Here I leave you with one of the most amazing sequences, in my opinion , done in 2D Animation. It was part of my childhood, when feeding my head in Disney Films.

Pocahontas- Colours of the Wind

Why I chose this? 
Firslty, I have to give credit to the animator, Glen Keane a master of 2d Animation, animated this sequence.  What stroke me the most is how expressive the animation is, and how every element animate the sequence works. It is visible 2 styles of animation, it is either characters moving or morphing animation.  The animation has weight and timing. All this beautiful work is aided by the expressive colours.

Hope you like it.

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Transcription: Animation Diary Entry *2

Wanting to have some of the delayed tasks up to date I havent spent much time animating, though I can say that so far the scene inside the young man apartment is almost full animated, I just need the scene in which the young man can't sleep and the one he gets inside the room. Something I will spend some time tonight to animate. Meanwhile, here is the animated scenes I have so far.

Note that they are not rendered, or even textured in this videos.

Firstly is the close-up eye scene, it appears shortly the young man falls asleep, and when the young man firstly realises the music that is being played upstairs. This shot is really quick and it will jump onto a fast cutting montage of shots.

Following is the animation on the ceiling that despite the music don't have any physical power it will be used just to emphasise its weirdness and strength. 

After I animated the sceptical face of the young man, when he realises the strangeness of the song. letting him curious about the knowing the player behind such weird music.

Following is the clock animation, I have shot the 2 clock animation together which then i will take into After Effects and slice them accordingly. on the first animation we just see the clock hitting 12 at night. and the second animation shows the camera fast cutting as the clock jumps from 12 to 1 to 2 in the morning, having the symbolism that the hours passed and passed and he listened. 

Finally I have also animated the last shot f this sequence, which will lead the to characters meet the following day. It is a camera movement from the apartment window, to the moon lit sky. Once again this scene emphasises time. 

Updates will come as soon as possible!

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