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 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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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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Dream Sequence Light Tests

With animation already starting and some minor tweaks to do in either the rig or the environment, I had some time to explore lighting,therefore I have began doing some light tests on the dream environment. this environment is still in choosing stages.
Firstly, we were thinking of having a total blank space, then adding the environment with a spotlight focusing on the character, and also we thought of having the environment, but with no textures in it.

Here are some light tests I have done with the main different ideas:

BLANK Space

 Render With Default Light Set up

Render With Default Light Set up + Ambient Light 0.4

Render With Default Light Set up + Ambient Light (Range)

 Render With Default Light Set up + Ambient Light 0.5

Night Time With Spotlight

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The Final Chapter is Coming Soon...

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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Props texturing

Last week, after finishing to modelling and scale all the props, I began texturing. A task that me and Jordan were assigned to do, with many props to texture the list was split and the workload eased. To keep consistence on the texture work, we followed the art direction influence map and any previous texture work on the character.
So here is the props that`I was assigned to texture.

Typewriter 

Butler Set

Chef Set

Maid's Dagger 

Cigarette and Match

Lamp

Magnifying Glass

Pencil Sharpener

Pencils

Pot Plant

Trophies

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More Props ...

This week at Atom Pancakes I have decided to get the modelling stage out of the way, therefore I took on any leftover model and finished ready for scaling and texturing.
Note that most of these props were already started by my colleague Ethan, So i tweaked them and laid out the UVS.

Cup Trophy

Cup Trophy UVs

Pencil Sharpener

Pencil Sharpener UVs

Pot Plant (Dynamics Simulation Still to come)

Shield Trophy

Shield Trophy UVs

With this left the last prop needed is the burnt hair on our character, that will need to be modelled and then sculpted. 

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Atom Pancakes Work- Arthur Winters Character Final Files

With the development all done, I began to create the informative sheets on the character. As well as any final poses or character action shots. this process is always fun, as you begin to think just like your character.

For now I leave you with all the drawings and paintings that will be featured in the character bible of this character.

Arthur Winters Final Character Development

Arthur Winters Turnarounds

Face Expressions

Size Sheet

Props Sheet

Colour Variations

Final Colour

Final Pose

Action Shot

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Atom Pancakes Work- Character

With my 3rd year just starting I have embarked on a journey to the fictional Atom Pancake Studios. Just like a normal studio we have divided tasks, just so the work load won't be too much on one person. Based on people strengths each one of us has a few tasks in pre-production stage. For now here is the proposal of the project which will also give more information about what we want to produce and achieve.

Atom Pancakes- Project Proposal

For our project, we decided to create a 2 to 3 minutes animation, revolving the events of one specific character in his environment.

Our animation ‘Final Chapter’ follows Arthur Winters, a 1930’s accomplished crime writer, who is writing his next crime masterpiece. With the editor’s deadline approaching, he is pressured to finish the book. Although it seems like a easy task for a well-known writer, all that the pressure leads him to have ‘writer’s block’ and getting stuck on the ending of his book. With a matter of luck he finds the lost piece of the puzzle which helps him to finish the chapter. However the real struggle, begins when he tries to write it down.

With this animation, our objective as a studio is to emphasize on the importance of a story based on one character and one environment. We want to achieve a short film with great art direction, amazing computer generated work and ultimately beautiful animation. Throughout the animation we will also want to explore different 3D and 2D techniques, to help us tell the story more intuitively.

Finally, the final goal is to hopefully be able to feature our work in an animation festival, this will only be able with good marketing campaign, either online or at university, with the aim to publish our studio and our work to the world.

Although it only started this week, our studio gathered a few weeks back and tried to get our project slightly ahead. With the different tasks divided for pre-production, my job is to work on the character designs and draw storyboards. 

What follows is the initial creative work and research that I have done for the character. on the following post I will feature the development of the character and final designs and informative sheets.

Hope you like it!! 

Character Profile Sheet & Research 

Name: Arthur Winters

Biography: Arthur Winters is a recognised novel author, however when he prepares to write his new book, ideas slip his mind and he is left with nothing. For an accomplished writer not having ideas is like a crime. After some time of reflection and gathering thoughts, he thinks he has yet another masterpiece, though the real struggle begins when he tries to write his ideas for the new book.

Age: 45

Race: Human

Height: 1.70 m.

Body Type: Skinny, Average Height, Waistline Above Normal,Long Hands and Feet.

Face Type: Skinny Body Face With Salient Cheek Bones, Small Eyes and Big Nose.

Complexion: Pale Colour With little Wrinkles, and a Mole ( Not Dark)

Eyes: Hazelnut Colour Eyes and Often Uses a Monocle

Hair: 1920's to 1940's Hairstyle, Full Hair with Bald Sides.

Facial Hair: Well Trimmed Moustache, but as the animation progresses he gets also a stubble.

Clothing Style: On His Torso, He Wears a Well- Ironed Long Sleeve White Shirt a Tie Covered with a Sleeveless (Dark Green) Polo. (Maybe w/ Braces). His Trousers Are Beige and Slightly Short with Polished Brown Shoes.

Speaking Style: Calm, Polite, Formal (Academic Level).

General Demeanour: When normal he is excited about his books, when he has an idea he overreacts and becomes silly.

Career: An Acclaimed Novel Writer

Prejudices: Loves to write books, but unfortunately he is not lucky enough to have an idea.

Best Qualities: enthusiastic, determined, polite, has common sense.

Worst Qualities: melodramatic, silly, sometimes frustrated.

Weaknesses: when overreacting he behaves silly, allowing gags to play on him.

Initial Character Sketches

For in-depth information about the project, check our studio blog at: 

 http://atompancakes.blogspot.com/

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