Same as last week, mostly small fixes. I did swap out the tall guy with the main character in Shot 0110/0120/0125, and adjusted the animation accordingly. While there’s a lot of things I want to fix/improve on/add to my previs, I did really enjoy this project and it feels good to already have a good visual plan for my FMP. I do wish I had delved more into previsualising transitions between shots and such, but I’m planning to do this once I am able to come back to the development of the previs along with adding additional shots I didn’t have time for.
Previs Feedback:
In opening shots, the main character’s pose is too visually boring. Have hips and shoulders angled, head tilted, elbow more out, etc
Consider cutting Shot 0060, and have previous and next shot meld together instead (camera just getting closer). Something to play around with
Lots of character in Shot 0120. If buff guy was more stoic it would feel like a power struggle between him and the main character, with hyper kid just on the side doing his own thing. Instead there’s a nice contrast between stoic main character and hyper kid, with the buff guy acting as the big friendly giant trope bringing everyone together. These character’s feel like a team
This week was mainly small adjustments and fixes, with the bulk of the work going into adding another character to Shot 0120 and replacing the wolf with the wolfdog in Shot 0130. I do like how the previs is coming together, but I would have liked a few more shots in there. I don’t think I’ll have time to add the additional shots for this submission next week, but hopefully I will be able to do so next term. If not, I can always add them at the beginning of summer before I start doing full animation work.
Previs Feedback:
With Shot 0020/0040/0060, instead of changing the camera angle try instead having the camera zoom in more and more on the wolf with each shot, mirroring the zoom in on the main character. Could even add a reflection of the main character in the eye of the wolf, and have Shot 0060 be a super close up on the eye
The main character’s body and head should be turned a lot more towards the camera in Shot 0070
In Shot 0120, the main character (smaller female rig) should be in the middle. This might make the tall guy coming out from behind her a little difficult due to his height, but try it anyway and see if there’s a way around that issue
In the following shot (0125) have the characters spaced out in a more visually appealing way
For Shot 0130, don’t have the camera go quite completely side on, have a big of an angle on the wolf instead
Have the wolf pounce at the camera just before the cut in Shot 0170
Add more personality to the slouched guy front left and the muscly guy back right in Shot 0090 (table scene, now towards end). Can have the slouched guy’s head leaning back more as if he’s bored/tired. Muscly guy can be curled over eating, less focused on surroundings (if for example I want him to be the foodie guy, can be something else, just add more to his vibe)
Instead of barking, could try having the wolf tilt head back and howl in Shot 0200
While working on my previs this week, I was considering what sort of things I could fill the empty space with in the opening shots of the main character (Shot 0010/0030/0050/0070), and I remembered the striking visuals in the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners opening. I wanted to attempt recreating this in 3D to see if I could potentially develop my own version of it later for my FMP.
I started by roughly copying the pose of the main character, David, from the Edgerunners opening using the Minerva rig by Ramon Arango. I then used toon shaders and toon outlines to essentially create masks I could later use for the photography montages. If I do develop this technique for my FMP, it would be much simpler to use Nuke, but for this experiment I wanted to use the tools I already had access to for a quick test.
Next, I took a playblast PNG and brought that into DaVinci Resolve, where I used the separate colours as masks combined with various photo montages (with each image at 2 frames, again to match the Edgerunners opening as closely as possible for now).
For the photos themselves, I used stock images that I then took into Photoshop and edited to have the same posterised, comic look to them, along with the same colour scheme. I chose nature photos to go within the character, signifying her home and her culture, and then city photos for the background to represent the city she is in during the show and how much this contrasts against her core values.
I wanted to add in some of the bold yellow seen in the original opening, so I used a Paper Effect keyed to expand outwards as a replacement for this.
I really like the results, and I’m looking forward to developing the technique to be more personalised for my FMP. I also made sure throughout the process that everything I was doing would be the same if the character was animated, so if I have time in the coming weeks I would like to try the same technique on an animated character. While the character isn’t animated, I still used an image sequence playblast to ensure I was testing that it would work the same.
As for the main previs itself, the updates were mostly to Shot 0020, 0060, and 0180. I added backgrounds to Shot 0020 and 0060, and also adjusted the pose for Shot 0060. I really like the idea of the wolf slowly pacing through a city, with the city being miniature compared to the wolf. I would want to make sure there are enough visual elements to avoid the city looking like a miniature set with a normal sized wolf verses a to scale city with a giant wolf. I also adjusted the poses on shot 0180 and added in the viewport FX slash to the weapon. I think the arm should be lagging behind even more than it already is, so I want to push that more next time.
The focus this week was on developing an argument.
Guide reader through argument in logical way. Think about what questions your reader might have. If you can answer these questions through your argument, it will seem more convincing.
Key elements of an argument:
Statement of problem
Literature review
Procice focus of your research as stated by hypothesis, question, aim, or objective
Method of methodology (can also state parameters here)
Results/evidence
Discussion and conclusion (including implications for future research)
The BBC site that has lots of documentaries, interviews, etc, that BBC have produced. Could be good for the methodology and for analysing
Including your voice: your voice will emerge through your discussion, interpretation, and evaluation of the sources. Good to open chapter with citation, but equally good to make own statement and back it up with citation.
Establishing your voice in writing:
A good exercise to put your chosen topic through the following questions:
Nigel also asked us to post our current considerations for topic titles to a Padlet for him to give feedback on. This was the feedback for my topic title, ‘How do chosen visual styles reflect and comment on the socio-political themes explored within their respective narratives?‘:
Very broad topic, needs narrowing down
Two questions: What social political themes? What respective narratives?
Alternate question: How do animators influence social political elements?
Need to be a lot more specific
Find that visual style, format, (eg children’s tv) to make topic more concise
While I struggled a bit to get all of the remaining shots blocked out in 3D, I managed to do so and I was also able to get 2 shots to blocked animation, which I’m happy with. With Shot 0120, I like how much personality the smaller male character has, but it does mean the lack of which in the middle character is more distracting. I really like how Shot 0180 came out, but I do want to improve on the posing and pacing a lot more when it comes to fully animating that shot.
Previs Feedback:
For Shot 0020, the background needs to be more populated, even if its just boxes for now
Shot 0010/0030/0050/0070 have the same problem where the background is too plain. Something needs to be going on around the character, otherwise it feels too dull (especially with the earlier shots where the camera is so far back most of the screen is empty space)
These Shots also should be of the main character stand in rig (the smaller female one)
In Shot 0120, add in the main character or someone else walking on other side of sword guy. Have their movement/personality contrast with hyperactive guy on the right
For the same shot and for the following shot [this isn’t in the storyboard, but file for this shot names it as Shot 0125] have the middle guy turn his head and react to the hyperactive guy coming into his view, as currently its weird that he doesn’t react at all
As the hammer impacts with the ground in Shot 0130, have the camera shake and pan downwards a little bit as if the viewer is feeling the impact. This will also allow for nicer framing at the wolf runs out of the smoke
For Shot 0170, have the wolf do much more of a dramatic turn as it enters, as if it can barely control itself with how fast it is moving. Follow this with more of a body swing as it impacts the wall rather than all of the body hitting at once
Work on the posing in Shot 0180. The body should be a lot more tilted back before the character swings her weapon, and the arm should lag behind more as her body twists into the swinging motion. Again, try experimenting with the Maya viewport FX pack to add some nice motion lines to the weapon swing
In Shot 0200, have the wolf’s head/body turned a little so it isn’t completely side on. It will feel more dynamic
I wasn’t in classes this week, but George still gave me some feedback through syncsketch which was super helpful. I also made extra use of something I try to do a bit usually, where I write my own feedback after not looking at the work for a day or two so I have a fresher take on it. This also proved helpful, since even though I will think these things to myself having them written down allows me to remember and consider my own reflections more.
Some of my own feedback I noted down:
I tried moving table scene (Shot 0090 and 0100) right the the end, but feels a bit too slice of life-ish compared to the gritty/janky/punk vibe I was going for. Character animation could help with this though. For now I have instead placed it just before Shot 0190, as I feel this retains the fast paced janky vibe I prefer.
Shot 0120 feels a bit dull, so I would like to add something more to that.
I also decided that I’ll remove Shot 0150 + 0160 as these shots feel out of place and for me they break the immersion due to that.
For Shot 0180, the punch action feels a bit dull also, but I would still like a hype action shot in its place. I’m considering a shot of the main character swinging their weapon (a Falx, a traditional Dacian weapon) towards the camera instead.
Finally, the dance at the end feels too slow compared to the fast paced, hype vibe to the rest of the opening, so I would like to change the dance at some point. The shot still works for timing and transition concept purposes, so changing the dance is something I’m considering lower priority for now.
Previs Feedback:
For Shot 0120, maybe instead of just walking his friends run past him and then he starts running?
Currently, the camera in Shot 0130 rotates as the wolf runs out of the smoke to be above the wolf, then it rotates again to be a side shot of the wolf. The amount of rotation in one shot feels weird, so try going straight from the first camera angle into the side shot instead
For Shot 0180, it could be good to experiment with some Maya viewport FX to make the shot more interesting
All shots should be at least blocked out in 3D by now, so have that done for next week
