Computer Animation 4 Online Review 10/14/10

We have officially dropped the dust bunny short.

Several reasons are behind the decision. Mainly, we don't have enough time to nail down a story. Second,  we found this animation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCA7C9p8PYU

Our hopes dropped further. This animation resembled our idea too much. So we just dropped it. Quit while we can.

Immediately, we approached Chelsea about using her idea of a Narcoleptic Lamp Post. She agreed, and we have been running with that ever since. The story has changed several times, and as of now we are stuck between two different stories. The stories I really wish I could share with you today, however we had a mishap with out meeting on Tuesday. Alex Alvarado and James Sharp are both boarding out their stories. The stories we felt were the strongest.

In a summary: James Sharp had an idea of a a little girl walking up to a bus stop with a bench and a lamp post. The lamp post oddly enough had a switch on it. Out of curiosity, the girl flipped the light switch and the whole environment changed. Initially the environment changed into a bright and fun place, but then everytime the switch was flipped.. the environment got scarrier and darker.

Alex Alvarado's story was about a lonely man and a bird. The lonely man lived in a little house by himself, and he kept on trying to switch the lights off, including a near by lamp post. Though, whenever he did a bird would fly out of his nest that was on top of the lamp post and played with the wiring to get the lamp on again. This would be an ongoing battle. Finally the old man realized the bird had a single egg in his nest. Suddenly, the old man puts together that the bird wants the lamp on to keep his/her egg warm. A change of heart occurs in the man, and he builds a nice little bird house for the bird. The bird house is placed right on top of the nest.. which is on top of the lamp post.


As you can see, we have derived from the idea of the Narcoleptic Lamp Post, but we're still using the Lamp Post as a key element in the story. There were several other ideas pitched, but like I said, the two mentioned are our final choices. On Friday we will be deciding the final story after seeing the boards, and continuing from there.


On top of this, we will be coming up with a group/blog/project/team name and creating a new blog based off of that on Friday. Then I will be uploading all the boards, individual story ideas, concept work, reference materials, color keys, inspiration that we have gathered together these past two weeks.


Any and all input is highly appreciated

How to achieve dust the most cost effective way possible?

Was suppose to be modeling and rigging a draft of the character.. but I keep getting caught up with how I'm going to shade the bunny. So, instead of spending time modeling and rigging something we won't use. I investigated more on the Dust Bunnies skin.

N particles are sending me in circles. I can't keep them inside the mesh. I did model a quick head and put n particles in. The particles literally shot out of the mouth where the walls of the mesh were the closest. I don't have a video of that, but I do have other videos to show my attempts.

I considered the idea of using fractal displacement maps as a simulation of the dust. This is just a test of me messing with it, but I don't really think it will give me the look I want. However, maybe I just need to play with it even more.

For this one, I continued with the idea of displacement, this time using noise. Again, this is strictly a test. The displacement maps are awesome, however they are very picky. One little pixel can throw off your map. Maybe I'll try creating my own texture and see what comes of it.

Show how my results are working with NParticles. I honestly don't know how to control them. I want them to form around every nook and cranny of my mesh.. and then not move.. but continue to.. move. Can I adjust it to where there is NO gravity and they are just floating, while obeying the movement of the mesh? Maybe a command that tells every NParticle  "Ok, this is your playground. Move around slightly, but don't pay attention to how fast the mesh is moving.. just keep up with the mesh.. while not moving.. but move slightly"

 Ok, lets try something new. Individually placed spheres, Basic Rig, Ramp Shaders, Photoshop, boom. We have a creepy open and close animation of a sphere. The camera is in front of the sphere, while the sphere is opening and closing its mouth like pacman. I definitely don't want THIS result for my dust bunny. But the process might be something to consider. It gives me a defined mesh to work with. I can then just make a blend shape of the spheres moving where I want them to move and have it loop while the animators animate.. but how do I create a facial structure out of this? .. back to the drawing board.

 .. I think I want to try using a misss shader on my individual spheres if I go that route. But I also want to read up more on nparticles.

 -darren

What would dust look like?

Been playing with the idea of dust filling a mesh. So here is some simple up and down movement tests of a mesh filled with nparticles

-darren

Story Story Story

James was roughing out some more ideas

1. Dust Bunny is holding on to the mouth of the sweeper about to be sucked in.
2. Cameras cuts to show the sweeper is sucking in the whole living room.. including the couch.
3. Dust Bunny fingers slip..
4. The Dust Bunny gets sucked up.. but the sweeper is shacking. It's too full of stuff
5. The sweeper hiccups the Dust Bunny
6. The Dust bunny looks back to see the sweeper explode from over loading

7. Camera cuts to a close up of the dust bunny smiling from.. ear to ear
8. Establishing shot of hundreds of dust bunnies revealed in the aftermath of the explosion
9. Camera pans up through the cloud of dust bunnies
10. And Pans..
11. Till we reach "the end"

-darren

Story Ideas

James and I got together to throw around story ideas.

Then James started making some rough post-it boards.. checkit

Description -

A: Dust Bunny just landed on the ground and is following a dust trail
B: As Dust Bunny collects the dust, more dust is falling out his backside.. Then the trail leads right into a sweeper hiding in the shadows.
C: The sweeper lights turn on
D: Dust Bunny is frozen in light
E: The sweep leaps for the dust bunny. Right when the sweeper hits the ground
F: The chase begins


-darren

More character designs

James took some of Megs art and began playing with it.. so many options

-darren

Meg's Character Sketches

Meg's been busting out some character sketches.

-darren

James Character Designs

James Sharp playing more with different character ideas

-darren

Hopping with particles

Deciding what the best route is for making the dust bunny.. particles maybe?

.. maybe not? I might trying modeling individual sections of the bunny..


-darren

Sketches

Here are some character sketches that we've been doing to nail down the idea of the film.

Starting sketches of the dust bunny

Building on the dust bunny character

Building on the vacuum cleaner sketches

 

 

 

 

 

-darren

The Team

Darren Simpson - Director, Modeler, Rigger, Story
James Sharp - Storyboard Artist, Story
Sam Corea - Character Concepts
Will Hanford - Character Designs
Samantha Arnett - Background Concepts
Madhavi Mhaskar - Animator, Modeler
Palmer Pattison - Animator
Alex Alvarado - Texture Artist
Margaret Hardy - Style Development, Character Designer, Environment Designer, Story

Early Early rig test

I made a simple rig for the arm using a test model inspired by Charlotte's Flats model.

The rig is still in early stages.

Playblast of movement:



-darren

Rubber Wheel

While watching a rubber hose car drive, I thought what would it take in maya to animate this. So, I took a nab at it.

I'm starting to understand how I will need to build and rig the models for the film

Test Wheel



-darren

Inspiration

To try to get into the idea of the film, I've been talking a lot with the story artist and watching some old school animations. Check them out

Rubber Hose Walk Cycle

Wot a Night - I love the way the boards move in the beginning. Maybe I can play with that idea some.

Stephen Foster has been haunting me for a while

-darren

Untitled 3D Animation

This is home to the currently untitled 3D Animation project. The film will be inspired by traditional rubber hose style of animation.

We will maintain the blog updates on our current progress. Any comments, compliments, complaints are more than welcomed.

-darren