Bob Poster #241

My Final Poster for Bob. 

Final #241

My final film can be found here. I rendered the Maya files using Mental Ray with both motion blur and raytrace shadows. I then used Premier Pro to edit my film together combined with sounds from Kevin Mcleod (Tango De Manza), Red Jim and Percy Duke (Carpet Walking and Balloon Stretch). Bob and Sally Sounds were made using Garage Band after recording both myself (Sally) and Christopher Pitt (Bob).

Climbing Sequence #241

Because Bob has to climb up a wall I decided to make a climbing sequence using the same principles as the run sequence. I needed to know the order in which the limbs and hips went. The first was from a neutral position to extend the first arm, then the second arm, then a leg then a leg and then the hips would move up. 

This frame from a youtube climbing video shows the leg moving up.

The body in the crouched position, after extending both arms and legs, just before moving the hips.

This frame shows the extending of an arm.

Shadows #241

To make Bob look more realistic and involved in his environment I decided to add ray trace shadows. 

To optimize the effect of the shadow I decided that the shadow should similar to the colour of the wall. This gave a much better effect. 

Run cycle #241

Because Bob does a lot of running I decided to use a run cycle. I used the Animators Survival book to help me figure out a beat to run to and the key poses needed. I decided to use a beat of 5 (9 for a full left right left beat). I knew that I needed a contact, pass position, and second contact poses. This meant that:
1. Contact
2.  
3. Pass Position
4.
5. Contact
with beats 2 and 4 being the fillers.

I then looked at two runners on youtube, a sprinter and a casual runner, to figure out when they moved their arms, feet, hips, shoulders and heads. I knew that when running at some point both legs are off the ground and looking at these videos helped me to realize when this was in relations to the other parts of the body and also which step (contact, pass, contact two) it would go on, if any.

This was the runner I used to determine hips (up and down movement) and legs. This frame showed me the first contact position, with the second contact position obviously being the opposite of this.

 This frame showed me what the pass position was. Unlike walking, the pass for running takes place with both feet off the ground.

This frame shows the full span of the arms. In a walk the arms are at their fullest in the down position. This frame showed that it was different for a run and that when the second foot was just about to come off the ground the arms were at their widest.

This frame shows that the contact position has the hips at their lowest point, a point which is not as low as in a walk, its subtle. It also shows that the head is forward with the hips also slightly back to create a forward motion for the torso.

The hips are going into their highest point in this frame. This frame is just before the last foot comes off the ground.

Animators Survival Book #241

As part of my animation Bob has to break free of his sign.  

He does this by pushing on it really hard making it flex until he forces the side down and jumps through it before it springs back into place.

I used the animators survival book to help with the movement. This book has been helping a lot with my movement, showing me that subtle shifts of weight or hips ect help to make the animation a lot better.

It also introduced the concept of using a scale of beats to do the animation too. This has meant thatt instead of animating willy nilly the various components then having them all out of synch or break if I need to move anything, I am animating all components on set key frames to a beat e.g. 2, 10, 15 ect.

I also used the book to help animate Sally's girlfriend. This was because she needed to be busty and she bounces. I read in the book about gravity and squishy things. When the body is down in a bounce the squishy stuff, in this case breasts, go up. This helped to give it a realistic feeling. The book also shows the use of shoulder movement in relation to arm movement. This is because our shoulders are not static when our arms move. I have animated all my models to reflect this.

Bobs Vision #241

Bob has a vision of what life with Sally would be like. In this I wanted him to picture key parts of their lives together. To portray this in my animation I have a series of still shots of these momentous occasions. 

 I have Bob proposing to Sally and her being excited and breathless. There is also a shot of Bob and Sally as an old man and woman. Bob also has grey hair but this angle does not show it.

I also have a shot of Bobs family with sally. In his eyes they're going to have two kids and be a happy family.