ref footage

so after we had decided upon our final boards we went away and filmed our reference footage with help from a broadcasting student, phil heron. with his help we were able to get some very decent footage recorded which i intend to use as reference for my animation.

meetings

we have had frequent discussions about ideas and what we are to do with our storyboards, i have made a concious effort to communicate with my fellow team mates to ensure that they keep on track with the project as the deadline is very early.

the chosen one

so this storyboard is what i have settled on it involves the character pushing a box on to stage he then proceeds to stretch around and then opens the box, he is also going to be muttering under his breath as he is disappointed with his job . when he opens the box logos will then appear and fly off leaving one to fly around the character.

storyboards

initial storyboards drawn up after the visit to musion. i drew these storyboards based on features presented by musion.

musion

so this video shows the potential for the musion technology, its stage presence at big venues looks very very impressive and can induce a sense of immersion

comments about the ref

clip1

so the first clip showing the norman rig shows a range of versatile uses and a great level of animation, this clip also shows the ability to customise the rig to create a different and individual appearance.

clip2

so clip2 appears to be a guys animation showreel, shows a competent level of animation and is a target for my own animation (as a minimum). there is also varied use of the norman rig and shows examples of how it can be used.

clip3

animation showreel of a very good level. very nice animation with great weighting and exageration this will be my highest target animation as its work that impressess me and ultimately a proposed employer.

very funny animated clip half way through aswell.

ref

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NKZgLhrZJE

tom has persuaded us to use the norman rig and used this video to show why.

the rig is easily customisable and is very versatile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SciFih8l-ks&feature=related

this showreel shows some simple use of the rig and displays the level of animation that i should be aiming for as a minimum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGRR_bq-jRs&NR=1

musion

ben and i were invited to have a meeting with musion in regents street, which was a great opportunity to see whether or not our proposed storyboards would work with the proposed technology. seeing what is capable with the projectors has given me a better grounding for my ideas and as such will let me hone the animation.

oliver at musion was really great and answered all questions and was extremely helpful and supportive, i will be contacting him soon with samples and rushes to make sure it all works.

http://www.musion.co.uk/

focus

so the main idea behind this project is to create a short animated piece that can be intergrated into rave live. the animated pieces must be ready to show on both musion and on screen.

the animated pieces are purely to showcase animation skills, not modelling, texturing or rigging so it was an easy choice to use a pre-made free rig and for us to customise it slightly to personalise it.

we spoke to branding and discussed the appearance of our character and it was decided he would look like a crew member only difference being the colour of the t-shirt as it is meant to be black. the problem with black is that when projected via musion it will be projected as an alpha channel and will appear transparent. this means that our t-shirt will be white, the original design for the shirts which were changed black due to dirt at the venue over the three days.

rave live

so for this term i have to pick from three different projects to complete. the options are working for rave live, either doing animation or idents, to help working on the 3rd year projects or to get an outside brief from an external client.

so to begin with i looked in to the rave live options and the 3rd year work.

so i spoke with both the branding team for rave live and assessed their project and also visited the 3rd year students and informed them of my interest.

as the first week went by it became apparent that the 3rd year projects were very tight and needed a lot done, the issue was obtaining the models to texture as it took 2 weeks to get a test model to texture.

as i was worried about time on this project i decided to dive further into the idents for rave live.

after speaking with various people from the rave live team such as will, emily and calum it was apparent that there was the availability for producing some animated shorts that would be broadcast on the mainstage at ravelive using musion( smoke and mirrors holographic projection)

so i pushed this idea and got together with ben and tom and we decided that it was a good solid idea to work on and if done well would provide exposure for our work.