Here is the latest update for my project. I have made some more pre-vis videos and some scene test renders.
The first pre-vis is an update animation on the worm singing inside the bird. This time his tail moves, it is meant to represent a finger/foot tapping to the beat of the music. I actually had trouble doing this, as mentioned on the group blog the entire worm is mainly controlled by the tip of the worms tail. However I was able to resolved this (with some help) by using the bend deformer for the tail. I won't lie this was actually tricky but I was able to get it done. I am pround of the out come but when I have time I will come back and fix this.
The second pre-vis is the second part of scene seven for my animation where we the worm actually singing to the bird. Here I am trying to get the head movements matching the rhythm to the music as well as have both characters interacting with each other. This is what I have got so far, I am almost done just need to get the bounciness of the bird's head right because to me it still feels off.
Also here are some test renders for my animation, I was using highlights to my animation look more interesting when rendered. The first image was just applying the highlights to the body and the wing for the bird while the second image has all the objects in my scene except the ground and sky having the highlight applied to them.
Image 01
Image 02
This is all I have to show so far, so until next time have a nice day.
Here are some pre-vis scenes from my animation. The first scene has the camera panning to the right and we see the bird trying to pluck the worm from the ground. The second scene is a whole body shot were the bird finally pulled the worm from the ground. The third scene carry's on from the second scene where we see the bird eating the worm, however he suddenly hears a noise and started to look for the source. The forth scene has the bird finding the source. The fifth scene has an inside shot where we see the worm singing inside the bird. The sixth scene has the bird rising up with a surprise look, and finally the seventh has bird still surprised and started to look around in confusing.
Getting the movements feeling natural was very challenging mostly trying to make my bird life like. However I still feel like there are some room for improvements. I believe this is when I really need some helpful criticisms so if any fells have some good advice to make my animation better then please let me know. Also I know my worm needs some life to his tail but his rig is kind of messy so I need some help on that.
As mentioned in my previous post I have finished my worm character and I thought I would post the blendshapes that I will be using for my worm. They range from mouth motions to the two shapes his body will take when squishing and stretching.
Worm Blendshapes
Worm's Mouth Motion: Aaa, I
Worm's Mouth Motion: Eee
Worm's Mouth Motion: Uuu, W
Worm's Mouth Motion: O
Worm's Mouth Motion: Fff, Vvv
Worm's Mouth Motion: B, Mmm
Soon I am going to make a video reference where I will lip sync the words to Kenny Neal's song 'Baby Bee', this is so when I watch the video I can then use the appropriate mouth belndshapes on my worm to make it more accurate to the lyrics to the song. However if I notice a mouth shape I do not have on my worm then I will quickly make it. When making the lip sync video I will try to make the mouth motions very exaggerated for a nice comedic effect which will be good for when my worm singing.
Last night I have finally finished my worm character, I layed out it's UVs and fully rigged it.
Worm UV Map Layout
I have also created a special control for the worm so he can squash and stretch, here is a video that demonstrate it.
Creating the squash and stretch was not very hard to make in my opinion, because the way the control was done is the same way as creating the mouth blend shapes controls.
I have made three wings designs for my bird to see which one will be the right one for me to animate.
First Design
Second Design
Third Design
I did have a chat with Alan about the wing designs, and we descided to go with the third design because it looks like it would animate the way I want it to when compared to the other wings. The first design was too chunky and the second one has a big dip inside which would look odd when the bird is flying. So I am sticking with the third design, which seems to be a mix of the two.
Once that was settled I can now finally start focusing on finishing my bird :).
Also the other thing that is left to do is to name my worm, which I would like you to think up. I have thought of naming it Alan but lets see what names you guys can think up. You can even send in your name as well if you want, just don't write anything inappropriate. The winning name will be credited at the end of my animation.
Here is the latest update on my work progress. During last week I have started modelling my bird and I just recently finished him. Modelling the bird was actually very hard, because he has more parts than the worm and they were very tricky to make. Although I am very glad on how he looks, but I think I need Alans opinion on the way my bird is modelled. Mainly on his wings because Alan and I had a discussing on how to animate my bird's wings, from folded around the birds body to spread out. He advise me to model the wings folded around the body first, then when I see him he will help me to make my wings operational.
The next image shows what the body looked like without the details on the body. I thought this would be interesting to show because it really is surprising how much better it looks with the extra details applied the birds body.
Bird Body Mesh Not Detailed
Bird Complete Mesh
Bird Complete Mesh Wire
Bird Body Mesh Detailed
Bird Body Mesh Wire
Bird Top Beak Mesh
Bird Top Beak Mesh Wire
Bird Bottom Beak and Tongue Mesh
Bird Bottom Beak and Tongue Mesh Wire
Bird Foot Mesh
Bird Foot Mesh Wire
Here is my bird's wing that I need Alan assistance on. In my opinion it looks fine but I do not know if the wing will work well when my bird spreads it. I have an idea on how I will make the wing looks like it is spreading but I think I need to ask Alan's help on this one.
Through out the week I was finishing up on my characters designs, background design, a new animatic and my first 3D model. For my character design I first picked out the colours for my two birds. I chose the colour schemes 12 and 13 because I like the variety of the colour tone for both birds, I actually did gave the individual feathers on the wing different variety of shade to make them more interesting. Another reason why I pick one blue colour and one red colour because from watching a lot of shows those two colours always seem to rival each other.
Bird Chosen Colours
Once that was settled I then made the turnaround for the bird character to look at him from different angles.
Bird Turnaround
Next I was finishing up on my worm's design, I did some research on different lip styles for my worm. I was looking at the way blues singers pose their lips and Mick Jagger lips. I also used Audrey 2 and the piranha plant from the Mario games as reference for my worm because my character looks like them a bit.
Worm Lips Influence Map
I then made a colour palette for my worm, they are a mix of natural worm colours and a mixture between the two birds colour scheme. Out of all the colours I chose the first one, because that one has a nice natural feel to the worm. However if I had to pick a runner up it have to be number 3 and number 5 because I like how they feel as well.
Worm Colour Palette
When I have finished up my worm's design I then started working on his turnaround to get an idea of what he looks like from different angles.
Worm Turnaround
When I finished all of my characters designs I then started working on the scenery for my animation. The type of scene I was going for is that the entire conflict between the worm and the bird takes place in the woods or a field full of trees. I had some references on fields of trees as well as my first storyboard images to show how my scene would be layered out
Trees Influence Map
First Storyboard Concept
I have made a rough thumbnail of the scenery to be my starting point to design.
Scenery Concept
I thought for the type of style for my scenery it could resemble that of Charley Harper's style, for the simplicity of the design of the objects in his arts and how he uses the colours to make his pictures interesting to look at.
Charley Harper Influence for Style
This is what I have developed when bringing everything together, giving the scenery a simple look but you can get the idea of what is going on in the scene.
Scenery Concept Art
Once I have done all the post production it was time to make the characters and the object for my animation, I first started with the worm character's model. I started with him first because he was the easiest to make. I done most of the modelling but I am going to see Phil about this to see if he needs some more work.
Worm 3D Model
Complete Mesh
Complete Mesh Wired
So far the only change I have done to the worm was the shape of his body, I was first was going to give him a pointy body. However when I had a meeting with Alan he said that the Worm looks better with a thicker body, I did the edit and it does look slightly better but this is one of the time when I need to see the tutor for help on this one.
Old Body Mesh
New Body Mesh
New Body Mesh Wire
Head Mesh
Head Mesh Wire
Half Head Mesh
Half Head Mesh Wire
Finally to finish up I have done another version of my animatic, hopefully this is the winner because I really need to start focusing on making this animation.
Bird Food Blues Animatic 3
For the future I think I will use Audrey 2 from the 'Little Shop of Horrors' as my main influence for my worms lipsync because like I said my character looks a bit like him. I have found a video that has a good amount of lip animation on Audrey 2 from the film.
Here are my latests designs for my Bird and Worm characters. I have tried to apply what Alan told me to make my characters look more interesting by giving them more shape to their appearance. I have also add a few poses to them to give the characters some life, I might make more poses soon. I have also made some colour schemes for my bird. I only used the primary colours, blue, red and yellow because in my opinion they are very attractive to look at. Out of all the colours schemes, the ones I like is between the very top left colour schemes for having one complete colour for their bodies, and the very bottom right colour schemes for a of bit variety on the shade of colour.
Bird Design
Bird Colour Schemes
The Worm was actually hard to design because I actually did not have much to work with since he is simple. I think the only big change to his design is that I made his body have a flow smooth motion as well made it longer.
Worm Designs
Also today I have redone the animatic of my next project. I am going for the first ending where the worm becomes the second bird's problem, I also did a few changes on the animatic to make it more interesting. I even edited the music to make it sound less jumpy.
Here are my latest character designs for the bird and worm. I first decided to make another influence map to give me some ideas for the type of build I want to give my bird. The birds I was looking at was a superb and a cape starling, a crow and a raven. I chose these sizes to mostly help flesh out my bird that I have made for my storyboard.
Influence Map: Starling, Crow and Raven
Storyboard: Bird closes in on Worm
I actually drew (what I felt at the time) was the final designs for my characters, I thought the overall design of my bird looked alright and I thought of giving my worm a type of hair style using the tip on a real worm (which is actually the mouth). However I have asked Alan for his impute on my characters latest designs. He told me that they look ok but they need some more shape to give them a smooth and simple look. Alan drew me up same examples of what he was talking about and he also gave me another person to look at, his name is Richard Scarry and I am quite familiar with his cartoons. Alan also told me that the worm looks much better without the tip representing the hair so I removed it, also looking at it now the worm does look better without it.
Bird and Worm Designs
Alan's Examples
I then tried to apply Alan's advice to my work and I can say that the characters look much more interesting. I still think the bird needs more work but he is getting there. The worm seems to be more complete than the bird, I will show my designs to Phil this Monday and see what he has to say.
I have also made an expression sheet for my bird, showing the type of expressions he will use for my animation. The worm does not get one because his face is going to stay sad throughout the animation.
