Category: project 1

Here is the final outcome of my 3D previs after 10 weeks development, through creating gags in this animation to explore the meanings behind our daily item ‘underwear’— it has hopefully created a romantic story between a male and a female character.

In this week I have focused on a few little details of my 3D previs left to be adjusted. Here are what I have changed by following the feedback:

I exaggerated the movement of my male character when he lied on the ground and wanting his underwear back from the female character under a high angle shot.

I adjusted the time of the cut in the mind world, to ensure they are not looking so interruptive.

I make sure the male character turns onto its left during the moment he feels embarrassed, and so his face could easily face the camera. And linking to his shit in the next shot.

in this week I have kept developing my 3D previs by following my lecturer’s feedback, and here are what I have improved:

When the underwear is landing on the male character’s face, there would be a few seconds in still before the female character leans forward and pick it up.

I changed the camera position of shooting the moment when the female character picks the underwear up.

I get rid of the medium long shot in the mind world of the female character, as there are too many cuts, which messes up the scene a little bit.

I adjusted the movement flow of how does the underwear fly through the moment approaching to the female character.

I extend the time of the shot where my female character shows her prop from her pocket.

I adjusted her movement through the time she lifts up her arm.

I extend the time of the shot where both of my characters show their underwear.

I extend the time of the moment where my two characters look at each other, before they kill in the last shot of the animation.

In this week I carry on in adjusting the camera composition and angles with characters poses in my 3D Previs, here are some of my progression:

The beginning medium long shot starts quicker where two characters meet which audiences could see them more clearly:

I slightly moved camera in this two shot to avoid the overlap in two characters:

When the female character is observing the flying down underwear landing on the male character’s face, I changed to use the medium shot instead of the close-up:

I adjust the pose which needs more space:

Changed a few poses:

Adjusting the ending camera, and also adjusting the ending pose into a much intimate one:

In next week I will be focusing on the timing of shots and see if any of them need to be checked again.

In this week I have concentrated on adjusting the composition of a few shots, and leaving more space for characters, in my 3D previs after receiving feedback:

I have also changed some poses to focus more on the character movement:

When the male character falls down on the floor I have tried to add a camera shake through changing the attributes and following the online tutorial below:

Plus I have also relocated the camera to face the front view of the male:

Beside, through the feedback session I have been told to be careful with the over-lapping areas and try to avoid them through moving the camera or posing the character again in the set:

In this week, I have changed a bit structure of the story narrative after received the feedback from the lecturer. Therefore, I have added a reason for the woman character knows what is hidden in the male character more fluently:

As I decided to let the male character fall over in the beginning of the story to create the chance, here is the main reference video I checked online:

And I found instead of using Banana to slide down the male character, I could use the more common prop– Icecream, left on the ground of the park where they date:

Also, I have added more reaction shot or shot reverse shot into my 3S previs after receiving feedback, which helps audiences to concentrate more on the performance and props of characters.

I have also been told by holding ‘\’ with left mouse bottom, I will be able to zoom out the scene and see things beyond the camera:

I have also been told I can move master control to adjust the position of characters in the animation blocking easily:

In this week I have condensed my 3D Previs from last week, improved the timing and spacing, completing the character bio and fixing some shot compositions through the feedback given by the lecturer.

Here is my more comprehensive character bio:

Here is the shot list I have made before and after the feedback session based on my editing of shots:

The biggest difference between them is the current one gets rid of some confusing shots in the mental imagery:

The changed scale of park benches through scaling down their component at the same time:

As I also develop the composition of the shot, I import the PNG picture of rules of third into my camera:

And indication of how to let the underwear to follow it in the feedback, with my developed shots:

The tip of keep two characters have similar distances to the side of the frame, to create the balance of the shot:

In this week I have double checked the development of my chosen story ‘Pocket Fantasy’, and here is my upgraded version for finishing the whole 3D previs in Maya. I have been given feedback of focusing on the interaction between the two main character, and how they have been balanced through the performance:

Meanwhile, due to the opening scene is a park, I have been given advice of looking at the videos below to find inspiration and reference:

In the second video of understanding basic types of shots, the male is also waiting for someone in the park. Hence, I have added similar types of shots into my creation as shown in the below:

The extreme long shot allows me to expose the whole set to my audiences, and the medium close up is good of showing my character’s action in the screen, the long shot dennotate the costume of what my character is wearing.

Due to we have been asked to do a sheet of introducing our characters in the story, here is my creation of the couple and how the love story has been triggered by their underwear:

Due to I have to finish the previs this week, I have built up a mind board for the set design:

It contains a few primary pictures I have taken in the Elephant park and the Walworth park, which give me a clear direction of what can be added to the park scene:

I used the basic tools such as simple geometries and deformers to structure the shape of green and the tree branches, giving them basic colours through assigning different Ai standard surface material:

Also, I have done a shot list to see which shot will be transferred into the female character’s brain:

In the mind scene, I have mainly inspired by the inner structure of the male’s pocket wand what could be put inside:

And eventually here is my complete previs from this week:

I used Premiere Pro to edit several play blasts together and to see the result:

In this week’s session I have been given feedback on the storyboards ideas produced in the first week, and improved them by following the advice. I have also produced the matching mood board for each story idea and used the Pure reference to arrange them.

Idea 1: City Worm Girl

I have added the argument details between the worm girl and the chicken lecturer in the former’s imagination, these anthropomorphic creatures exaggerate their characteristics and pushing the narrative.

Idea 2: Pocket Fantasy

This story is surrounding the world building of people’s pocket, and not only daily items but also the relationship between characters are being exposed through the use of costumes such as the underwear which is featured in my idea.

Eventually my lecturer thinks there should be another underwear dragged out from the woman/man sitting on the foreground to balance the entire story.

Idea 3: I developed mainly this ‘food scam’ idea from a plain meal between a couple to the food is the scam which traps the rabbit in a dungeon and rescued by her fellow cat on time.

After the development of all 3 storyboards, we have been asked to select one out of three story ideas and turn into a 3D previs. And here is mine progression of the second idea ‘Pocket Fantasy’.

At the begging I used the measure tool in MAYA to make sure the scale of things in the first park scene:

I build the prop in another file and assign them different colours of the default material, I refer to any props I need to use in the scene, which benefit me from making any adjustment of their design later in the future:

I used the referring rig also and by linking the pocket to the character controller which allows me to control the animation of the pocket in my story:

Next week I will be focusing on the world building of the ‘pocket world’ and use the simple geometries or colours to represent the narrative between the girl and them, and planning out some basic animations for me to develop in the future weeks.

This week, I explored three ideas using storyboards with different camera compositions or angles. I used the reference pictures from mainly Pinterest to structure each concept and relied on simple geometries to visualize each story.

idea 1: City Worm Girl

In this idea, the main character, ‘City Worm Girl,’ is inspired by my laziness during the Christmas holiday—how I behaved like a ‘worm’ to stay in bed sleeping or eating is similar to how the creature lives in real life. By thinking deeply, there are also three stages of a worm in its life cycle: caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly. Therefore, correspondingly I have added two other stages to my concept to reflect how the protagonist is pushed and growing up eventually to complete her journey and going to the next one.

I have looked at different worm pictures for this project and found that their colour palettes are mostly in high saturation. I also think the patterns of the worm could be an interesting direction to explore the making of 3D tiled textures:

By adding more storyboard shots to my story, I have considered the possible rules of third & golden ratio to make the view more harmonious:

Idea 2: Pocket Fantasy

In this idea, the daily item of a man becomes the main inspiration to be explored. In a date between a couple in part of London, the female feels curious about what is in the pocket of the male’s jacket, therefore she starts her journey in the pocket world. In this pocket world, she found cookies, apples and chocolates which seemed quite normal in people’s daily lives, but also, she was amazed by male underwear she rarely approached in her life and had fun chasing them. This story is entertaining, engaging and fun, and it concentrates more on small items in life that people can easily ignore.

Idea 3: Food Scam

The third idea ‘Food Scam’ is mainly inspired by the overpriced food in the central of London, it tries to visualize how would food destroy a relationship between two characters in a restaurant. In this story, I tend to make miss rabbit focus on eating and enjoying her meal, but avoid the payment eventually in the end, and make mister cat to undertake the risk of the pricy food. The concept of this story is inspired by ‘Romantic Scam’ where the female utilized the guy to achieve their goals in their life. Meanwhile, I hope this story could emphasize the deliciousness of the food through my animation and the action of the character.