Animatic: A Work in Progress

I know I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have continued to work on my holiday schedule to complete as much as possible.

Not sure if I'm Sleepy or the ass pulling the cart >.>

After the animation tests I have spent time revising the animatic and further reducing the role of the character in the film. This process started by printing out the storyboards and putting them on a massive pin board, a real one not a virtual one lol- old school. Once they were all in order I went through them and looked for double up or unnecessary shots. I then let it sit for a day or two before going through the same editing process with a fellow artist. I ended up knocking out at least a third of the boards I had already drawn; I suppose animators with more experience wouldn't make that mistake, but I think the film flows better without the extra content. 




Once I had the basic storyboards I worked in ToonBoom Animate Pro to create an animatic that would allow me to see the position of backgrounds in relation to potential camera movement and character positioning. The animatic is block animation and the transitions in the backgrounds have only been indicated by crude instant wipes- these are not indicative of the final piece. I included a scratch sound test as well, choosing a few key sounds that are an idea of what I want to include in the final.


Here's the animatic as it stands at the moment:

So Then This Cat Walks By.....

Three years in an animation degree and this is the very first time that I have attempted to animate a four legged walk cycle. Oh the struggles! In light of the joy that is self teaching, I've included some of the first ones I attempted, oh yes there were many.

This one was the first one and used live action film reference:

There are some good moments in this one, but my biggest problem was that the model cat was black (making it damn near impossible to see the legs) and I could not get my head around the cycle rhythm.


This next one I decided to seek help from Preston Blair, old faithful.

It was probably my interpretation of the walk, but I ended up with this odd sort of happy cartoon dog action which was a little odd, it almost seemed as though instead of four legs there were two pairs of legs walking independently.

The final one was done after much searching and researching of bigger cats, tigers and lions to get a more realistic although exaggerated feel to the walk. I also looked into walk cycles I could find in animation films such as Disney's Aristocats and The Lion King.

For a self teaching exercise I'm pleased with the result and he has the right amount of cautious movement that I wanted to indicate he is following someone from afar. The cat is a minor (tiny) part of the film, but more than anything I just wanted to learn how to do a four legged walk cycle and to prove to myself that I could do it.

Needs to loop :)

Animation Test: Old Lady Walk

Needed a little time away from the animatic, wanted to make big story changes but have decided to let it ride for the moment and will instead do some preparatory animation tests on characters and objects.

The characters are a sideline to the background, I've been working on basic walk cycles that have given me an idea of how the character is looking on screen, the impact of movement and the importance of weight shifting and balance especially in the case of the old lady walk. The test below is exactly that, a test. Some things I'm happy about include the colour combinations, the simplification of the character and the fact that it does look like an old lady walking. As I move into the actual walk cycle for the final film in semester 2, I will work on smoothing the flow of the animated movement and getting greater consistency in the appearance of accessories such as the bag, hat and scarf. All of these will aid in reducing the unnecessary rattles that are present at the moment.