sh0265_CPD_meek - Animation

[Michael Cawood - Director]

If this is your first shot please check the Animator's Handbook for tips.

 

sh0265 (10 + 42 + 10 frames including handles)

In shot 260 Death looks over at Cupid (over the top of her glasses). He sits in his chair already firing a beam, lifts to pause before firing another. He's a little frustrated, and crunches up his mouth, looking at Death out of the corner of his eyes. But he also starts out a little afraid of Death so he's trying his best to hide his true feelings from her and making sure to appear meek and under her control. He may even flash a fake smile, and over the course of the shot he starts to become flippant and bored.

The layout file is here:
C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\027_Animation_CPD_plus\sh0265_CPD_meek

Then when you start to animate save the file in the same folder with your own initials and a higher version number.

Please ask any questions you have in this thread, and post updates here. Make sure videos and images go in the appropriate sections first then post links or code for them in this thread so that we can discuss it. Note that it can be useful to post videos on YouTube, then just copy the code to this forum, as it allows us to use the video in other YouTube playlists. If you do this wait a little while between uploading to YouTube and pasting the code here, if you do it too quickly YouTube won't have made a thumbnail image yet and we get nothing on this site, making it hard to find in our gallery. Try to label entries by the full shot name as well, with decent tags and key words.

We also need one maintained playblast in the Dropbox folder that's always the latest and it's named after the shot (nothing more, and only one video). Again, study the Animator's Handbook for guidelines to avoid repeated nagging in your feedback and keep all the notes focused on the animation.

Good luck.

Click here to jump to the shot in the edit.

[Kevin Brennan]

i think ive posted it in the wrong place.. where do i upload it?

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Check out the brief at the top of this thread and the Animators Handbook.

Your playblast and Maya file is posted in the right place but can you also post your video to the gallery here?
http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/video/addEmbed

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Can you include the Maya frame counter in your playblasts? I've posted your video to the gallery to ensure the team can see the shot's progress. Can you do the same each time? Thanks.
http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/video/sh0265-cpd-meek-v02

1) He's not moving the wand enough now. There does need to be a distinct break in him firing the wand. He's firing the wand as the shot starts, he stops, re-targets and fires again. He can raise it a few inches, just not over his shoulder.

2) Can you try to match the movement of Death across the cut? It's not much, but her torso does roll a bit, settle, then anticipate putting down her hand and turning back towards the Sphere.

3) Pose her left hand naturally to rest, it's just a little odd to hold there. I guess you've not worked on her much yet.

4) Both chairs need to rise and fall over a 60 frame cycle. They need to travel further than they currently do. Check out other completed shots for an idea of how far. It could be about six inches or more.

5) When he turns towards her make the side smile obvious to the audience, then when he looks away make him look down as if in shame from Death (trying to hide his feelings).

I know you're getting used to the characters so you're off to a good start.

[Kevin Brennan]

hay mike

trying to get the frame counter sorted.. but in the mean time ill work on all those bits and pieces you said... i was thinking i pulled back a bit too far with it.. anyway no bother happy to make any number of changes you want.
ill work on all that today and post again tommorrow morning.
just to know though.. you mentioned that you probably use the handles in the cut.. i thought they were there just to make the cut feel a bit more natural.. i mean is he firing from frame 1 or frame 11? do i have those extra frames to work with a bit more because that would be very helpful.


kev

[Michael Cawood - Director]

It's always recommended you animate in the handle frames, otherwise they are useless anyway. Shots get used for more than just the film so those frames do get used. I'll also rework the edit to get the best cut once the performance starts to take shape.

The beam is firing from before frame 1, stops, and starts again during the shot.

[Kevin Brennan]

righto

that'll make it easier for anyway

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Hi Kevin, I noticed you posting some files on Dropbox. Can I get you to save outside of Dropbox while you work and put the files in Dropbox when you're done for the day? That way you're not uploading lots of versions that everyone on the team downloads, using up bandwidth. I also renamed your new file to v05 as you'd saved over the top of v04 and we need to have a few older versions available to roll back to in case anything goes wrong. It's also to help the backup system. If you've overwriting old files I don't know what to do with them when I come to back them up and they're the same name as the backups. Thanks.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

I'm taking a sneak peak at your playblast and there's a couple of problems.

1) You've gone back to raising the wand over his shoulder. That's what it was like in the first version and it was too much.

2) Cupid should be already firing the wand when it starts. So it should be pointed at the sphere when it starts. You've started it over his shoulder.

There's some other stuff I assume you're still working on but I wanted to mention those.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

For simplicity I'd just remove the action at the start of the scene and keep him pointed at teh sphere. Keep the next lift and fire, its still big but at least it reads.

[Kevin Brennan]

hay mike, was saving it onto the dropbox because i lost some files on my computer last week, but ill just save it onto my external hard drive until im updating... no problem.

right ill start it with him pointing his wand, sorry i thought you wanted to show more of him firing through. would it be firing in just one direction or moving it around the sphere a bit like in some shots? ill update it for your next update.

kev

[Michael Cawood - Director]

You can make him move the wand a bit, the idea is he is targeting different couples with each beam. But in this case I wouldn't go too far as it's secondary to what he's doing with his expressions. That should be the focus on the shot.

[Kevin Brennan]

im an idiot.. i thought i read your reply before to have his wand raise up to his ear... but it was his shoulder.. just read that message again. i reduced the second one a bit more also.
im starting to get the hang of the characters.. the stretchy controls on the spine through me for a while.. im just used to having rotations up the spine. if cupid spots any xgirlfriends of mine can i have him throw some water balloons :) ok ill stick to the story.
right o