During my tutorial the idea was raised that perhaps my characters are in a 2d World. They cannot escape the 2Dness they live and are confined to other signs and paintings e.g. like the paintings in Harry Potter. I also decided after talking with my tutor that the signs might not be toilet signs as I thought they had to be. Instead they might be from signs I have made. The idea is that they interact on signs and walls. The camera stays steady as they interact with them. Then the animation is projected onto the signs I have made in photoshop, then placed onto footage of realworld I have taken.

The Story of Bob

Written Script of Story Idea:

A brand new male sign is stuck onto the door of the male toilet. After the worker who put the sign up leaves we see Bob looking around, he then appears sad. However then something catches his eye and the audience see’s that Bob has seen the woman toilet sign and is very impressed with the woman Sally. There is then a montage scene of Bobs daydream of him and Sally out as a romantic couple about the city, them on the waterfront, them having a candle lit dinner, them at the botanical gardens, Bob proposing on bended knee. Bobs love for Sally becomes apparent in this scene. He then realises that he is very far away from her and that he needs to get to her in order to make his dreams come true. He slides down the door but is then knocked inside by a human foot which kicks him into the toilets by accident. He then slides under the door. He runs across the floor and hides from some humans against the wall, he then shimmies up the door frame, runs across the top of the door frame, waits for the door of the womens toilets to close again and then he slides down the door and lands in front of sally with his arms in the air in an “i’m here!” type gesture. Sally is surprised to find Bob in her sign, and then Bob proposes in a TA-DA kind of way. Sally shakes her head no, but Bob being super confident in him romancing abilities proposes again. Sally shakes her head no again but this time points to a sign she can see from her door with which she is in love with, little love hearts spring out of her head to show this. Back to Bob sitting in his sign, looking glum. 

Meet Bob and Sally

The Man - Bob*

Origins: He is a brand new sign which has just replaced a lost one as the male sign on a toilet door in a public place. Up until this point he has only ever seen men and his life has been solitary and lonely. But as he’s new he is brimming with confidence and is very excited about being able to do his job of standing as the sign. 

Flaws: He is over confident and slightly arrogant, in his eyes he is invincible. However he is also very small in the world of humans. He also believes Sally will defiantly say yes to him, theres no room for error when it comes to Sally. 

Personality Traits: He is confident - especially in his abilities of romance, despite never having encountered a woman before. He is also athletic being strong, fast and flexible. He is a bit of a dreamer, having day dreams of the woman he loves. 

Physical Design: He is all black as he is a sign, and from the front looks to be similar to how the sign would look. However from the side he is a bit muscular and more defined than a basic cylindrical shape that the sign would be. 

Hows He Fits into the Environment: He is the toilet door sign for men. He is in the environment because he is completing this task. When he is in other environments it is because he is fantasizing about being on a date with his dream woman and these environments would typically be romantic type places where couples would go on dates. 

The Woman - Sally*

Origins: She is seen as the woman sign opposite the man sign, we don’t find out how long she’s been there for or where she was before this. 

Flaws: She is physically placed very far away from the male sign which is an obstacle in their romance. 

Personality Traits: She seems to be flirtatious from far away, flaunting her womanly body. She is also not in love with the male sign.

Physical Design: She has the typical dress of the woman sign on which will be brought in a little at the waist because she is slim and has a womanly shape. From the side she will also have ample boobs. 

How She Fits into the Environment: She is seen as the counterpart in the environment to the male. She is doing her job as the woman sign and is going on dates with the man.

*Names may change

Umberto Boccioni #241

I had to choose a precedent for project 2 and after looking at all the precedents available I decided that Umberto Boccioni is the most inspiring. Boccioni was an italian painter from 1882-1916 whose work strongly showcases his interests in futurism, dynamism (the portrayal of movement), speed and technology. I have a few initial ideas about what I would like to do for project two and I think that applying the styles of futurism and dynamism seen in Boccioni's paintings will make my animation very exciting. 

 Dynamism of a Cyclist This shows vivid colours which I would like to use in my animation. I also like the use of lines which are mostly in the center of the image but are bold without being overpowering. Boccioni's work is very linear and this will come across in my designs.

 Dynamism of a Human Body Like the panting above Boccioni is using lines to draw the viewers eye towards the center of the image. Dynamism is about capturing the movement and speed of a particular object. I would like to apply this in my work - i'm thinking about having a city-scape or some other fast paced environment for my character to live in. This works well with the precedents as Boccioni was a large fan of futurism and I think the way the city moves would both be bright and linear but also fast. 

 Forces of the Street This painting uses lighting to great effect. I prefer to use these types of colours in my work and this painting is a strong emphasis on the lines created by light. It will be good to use the way this painting uses light in my animation and that is from above straight down. I think this painting is also evident of the way a city moves its bustling and crowed. 

 City Rises

 The Laugh This painting emphasizes positivity. I would like my animation to reflect this positive environment and happiness as my last animation was mildly dark and moody I would like this one to be upbeat and happy. 

Visioni Simultanee This painting clearly showcases a city. I like the way everything has been portrayed and although we know that whats in the image is very linear the lines have not been used to normal effect. 

Project 1: Final Film #241

Final film of animation can be found here. 

Sound #241

I want to use both a musical score and sound effects to enhance my animation. I originally was only using sounds from Freesound but it did not provide the type of musical score I was looking for. I also knew what kind of sounds I wanted to have but I felt like the ones I was trying to put with the animation weren't right for it and detracted from the animation. 

When I looked for scores on Incomptech I found several which were great but when I found one titled Mermaid I knew that it was the one, it was perfect in every way. It also gave me a better focus to find the types of sounds to get from Freesound to use. 

Final 3 Renders #241 #Poster #Project 1 Final

Progression through Playblast #241

I made loads of playblasts at every stage of my animation. This allowed me to both see how my animation would look in real time and track my progress. I have uploaded the videos to youtube with descriptions for each one. They can all be found here. 

Cameras in the deep blue #241

 Now that I had lights I began playing with camera angles. I put my camera in, Im only going to use one then edit it in premier pro. I relied heavily on the perspective view and the camera being viewed from another panel.

 I used playblast more than I took screen shots and will upload them later. But in this shot it is showing how I started adding an enviroment. Since my forms were water based I thought it was appropriate to kind of use the bottom of the ocean as inspiration for my scene. I found an image (below) and tinted it blueish/green.

To create an effect like light rippling from the surface I used the rotate UV function to move my background around so that it looked like the water was moving on the surface.

Developing the Animation #241

I added texture to both the blue and the green models. The next stage was to add bump maps to both of them for added reality. 

 I started looking at lights and what rendering would be best to show up my newly textured models. This is an example of a mental ray render with both a raytrace and depth map shadow. I didn't like the look of this so I started rendering in maya settings.

I noticed through extensive playblasts that when my model animated it would leave the ground. To fix this I used the position tool.