Animating

For all these shots I wanted to make sure that they resembled the composition of the original storyboards. When Animating I wanted to keep things simple and subtle. I tried to evenly share the shots to be animated with my brother. I figured that if we are animating on different shots at the same time, we would speed up production and save time. There were occasions however where we both liaised with each-other to give advice and suggestions. I would say that I am particularly good at animating, nor do I wish to become an animator, but animating and bringing something to life can be fun, and when you finally manage to create a nice fluid animation there is a great feeling of accomplishment.

Shot08

Original Storyboard

Camera View

Animating this particular shot was a pain and took a full day to animate. Even when I had finished I still was not fully satisfied with the animation. But due to time constraints I told myself that for what it is it gets the point across. This was perhaps the trickiest animation I had to do out of all my shots. What I found most difficult was the fluidity and speed of the motion of the right hand that would toss the card.

Storyboard - Additional Shot

Camera View

This was the most fun to animate. It was a challenge and tricky to get right. The animations is still not exactly perfect. I would of liked more overlap and exaggeration. However this is by far the best character animation that I managed to do. I am very proud of how it has turned out. I think the slow in and slow out are especially effective and the way that his head arcs and makes a transition from a relaxed pose to a straighter position was perhaps the best bit of the animation. I am also proud of the nuances I managed to successfully introduce to his face in the eye brows mouth and eyes using the blend shapes. I like the way I had Frank chew on his cigar.

Storyboard - Additional Shot

Camera View

This was another animation I was proud of as there was some nice exaggeration I introduced to the hand spread attributes. As Frank's hands landed as he tapped the table there was some slight spread of the fingers. It is a nice animation but it may not feature in the final edit because I conducted a test render and the UV texturing on the fingers look terrible and completely ruin the shot. There were nasty seams visible too which ran the entire length of each finger. I tried shooting from another angle but this did not improve the look of the hands. The whole point of this shot was to show the animation close up. If I shoot from a distance, the viewer cannot fully appreciate the animation and it would be a waste. The hand is also top lit which limits what I can do to try and disguise the textures.

Shot07

Original Storyboard

Camera View

Because of the limitations of the rig I am unable to animate Frank's hands above his chest. If they are pushed beyond a certain point above his chest or if his hands are posed near his face his arms and shoulders begin to fold and distort. This means therefore that I cannot animate Frank throwing the card into the hat. This is a shame. I also thought that it would be nice to animate Frank either stoking his hair or rubbing his nose, but sadly I am unable to do so. What I have done instead is have him smoking in a relaxed position. I have also animated a breathing motion so that he is not completely static.

The following shots I gave to Alex to animate and I helped to light the scenes.

Shot01

Original Storyboard

I thought that this was a nice shot where frank is obscured in shadow gives a sense of mystery. It is supposed to be symbolic and emulate Frank's clouded state of mind. I also thought that the venetian blinds would be a way of indicating that Frank feels trapped as if he's in a prison. If rendered nicely with some nice lighting this could look stunning. I want the light to highlight his form, blue light fro the outside suggesting the coldness of his profession and the warm light which represents the love in his heart.

Camera View

For this shot Alex has done some very nice breathing motion. I suggested that we shoot the same shot but have a close up of his eyes.

Shot04

Original Storyboard

Again I thought this was a nice shot, to indicate that there there he is being watched. Primarily however I thought a shot looking down on Frank would indicate that there are forces greater than that of Frank. I particularly like the perspective here and the composition and layout of the shot.

Camera View

Shot17

Original Storyboard

Camera View

This was quite a tricky shot to render as there were no real effective upper body manipulators. I wanted Frank to move from a relaxed position to a straight position and to have him lean towards the camera. Getting the head to arc in a realistic fashion was a challenge. The animation is far from perfect but it could be worse.

Shot27

Original Storyboard

Camera View

For this shot I thought we could focus more in his facial expressions and focussing on his eyes. This was a relatively simple shot to animate as there is not much within the frame. I told Alex to focus on the eyebrows, the eyelids and blinks. I also wanted some movement in his eyes and introduce some eye dart. We also introduced a slight zoom in with the camera.