Animatic... finally!

So here it is at long last, Fluttered in previs format.

Opening Shot Animation

Here is an animated element from my opening shot in which the film's titles reveal themselves to be written on a piece of parchment as it gets caught by the wind and blown aloft, revealing the castle below. Shown here is just the animated parchment element as it flutters in the wind, eventually the establishing shot of the castle exterior will be placed below.



(The title text will be redone more neatly for the final film, at the moment I'm using a rough render as its placeholder.)

Yawn...

A practise stretch and yawn from my armature, not very convincing but it was a fun little distraction from hoovering my bedroom.

More Tests

This test encompasses several practises that I need to work on for my final film, including:

Armature acting and general movement
Integration of sound effects
Motion blur (to use or not?)



In particular, this test was meant to highlight the importance of a realistic soundscape for my film.

Adding sound effects really grounds the motion nicely in reality, gives it a sense of weight and firm presence. Without it the motion is acceptable, but you are aware that the motion is being carried out by a 6 inch masking tape man with a small piece of metal. With sound added however it brings a presence and physicality to the character which really brings him to life that bit more, adds that extra dimension needed to really sell the shot.

It's true when they say that well produced sound design makes good animation great.


I hope to spend a fair proportion of time on creating a soundscape for my film, one that will bring it up a notch and make it that bit more professional.

Owlet CGI Wings Tests

Here are two tests I have conducted into integrating CGI wing elements into a stop-motion animated scene. Which do you prefer..?





I like the first for its speed, and the second for its wing shape. The perfect result therefore will be a combo of the two.

Background Experiment

Just a brief test to gauge the feasability of using a LCD monitor as a background in my film.



It looks fair for a first attempt, but as has been pointed out to me, syncing the camera's shutter speed with the monitor's flicker rate and maintaing that for the duration of a shot would be very difficult. Evidence of this is in the above test, wherein the brightness of the background hills fluctuate.

Straight in with the Animation

Yeah, I know we are only in the preproduction phase of our final year films, but when you have a shiny new ProPlus armature arrive on your doorstep it's hard not to play with it.

As it is this test was done in haste with my new armature soon after I completed its lengthy construction (my hand is still sore from all that sawing).



This thing is miniature craftsmanship and moves so smoothly. I just hope I can do its superb articulation justice when it comes to animating with it for real, and not obscure its range of movement too drastically with the addition of the outer foam covering that will create the character's form. Already his torso is kinda hard to bend, and that is without clothing.

ProPlus armature courtesy of the excellent people over at animationsupplies.net