sh1350_Peeps_blasted - Animation

[Michael Cawood - Director]

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

 

This is one continuous shot that has one short reaction shot inter-cut into the middle of it, you don't have to treat it like two shots.

sh1350 (10 + 40 frames including handles)

Devils beams sweep across the Sphere separating the last of the unhappy Peep couples, leaving nothing but miserable single Peeps. As the beam sweeps through couples jump apart, get out of the way of the beam and eventually settle. In the background the last of the Demon hands dives down through the clouds chasing Cupid to Hell.

There's a few frames between these shots that aren't used in the edit.

sh1370 (143 + 10 frames including handles)

The Peeps float around slowly with their heads hung low. In the background Cupid's chair returns from Hell empty. The chair needs it's parts to be animated with delays and follow through as it settles into it's position.

The layout file is here:
C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\028_Animation_DMN\sh1350_Peeps_blasted

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

Fill the Sphere with a good number of Peeps (15 or so). I've referenced one in as an example but please continue to reference more in as you go along. Hopefully you can re-use your own animation to save you time, so I would start with a few at first and build from there. I recommend you group the top control like I've done so that you can constrain it to the Sphere as it moves, freeing you to animate the top control. Here is the asset you need to reference:

C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\assets\Peeps\Peep.ma

Although I would recommend creating a new custom animation for the Peeps. There are a number of pre-animated library animations you may find useful. If you want to use them import the animated scene and in the import options make sure to preserve references. They are all in here:

C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\015_Animation_Library\Peeps

I've included three Demon Hands in the Layout file but more may be required. Simply reference them from here:

C:\Devils_Angels_Dating\My Dropbox\assets\Demon_Hand\Demon_Hand_Dark.ma

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.

[Nate Mrvichin]

Sure thing! I enabled tail dynamics for the demon hands. The last two demon hands are designed to draw the eye to the area where the chair surfaces.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

That only partially works. I'd manually add your own animation to that as well as the drag and follow through isn't very convincing. Look at the arc the hand takes and make sure the tail follows that arc. At the moment it cuts the corner and stays straight (except for an odd looking kink in the wrist).

Can you also adjust the timing of the fourth and fifth Demon Hand so that they don't twin?

It's nice that the last one moves slower, and cunningly it syncs really well to the score, but can you change it's path so that it's not moving almost horizontally. It should be aiming to go down after the others. I'd have it enter over in the top left corner of the screen for variety and balance form the others.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Can you remove the push in on the camera in the last shot? It's probably on the FOV on the camera body itself. I think this shot will work better if it's wider, and the camera isn't too active. It's tricky to get it exactly right without going back and forth with the edit so I'm happy to do it myself later if necessary. But you might as well remove the push in so that your animation works to the camera angle and nothing looks odd that would previously have been out of frame.

[Nate Mrvichin]

I took out the camera push and tried to keep all the objects in center frame as best I could. I animated over the tail dynamics to add some flow. The tail dynamics tool did give a nice starting point. Here's the shot at its present state.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Thanks Nate.

1) That last Demon Hand is an interesting touch and fits quite well with the slowing pace of the score. Well done. But I would animate the hand to match, rather than keep it a fixed claw. Use the slow to go claw, relaxed claw and back to claw as it dives down.

2) Can you delay all the Demon hands you currently have in the first shot to after frame 29?

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Check out this tip about getting videos to post with their thumbnail images:
http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/forum/topics/use-old-youtube-...

[Nate Mrvichin]

I also added some tail wave for the last demon hand.

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Nearly there.

1) Can you make all the demon hands that are on screen from 13 to 47, fit into the frame range 29 to 55?

2) The fingers on the last Demon hands seem to relax then re-claw a little too early. I'd delayed it about 5 frames.

[Nate Mrvichin]

Is this closer to the timing for the first few demon hands and the claw/relax/reclaw?

[Michael Cawood - Director]

Nice work, that looks good. I don't see any obvious issues, so I'll mark this one as done. I'll leave it with you in-case you spot anything you want to polish, but otherwise if you're confident it's done it can go to lighting soon.

Well done.

[Nate Mrvichin]

Let me polish just a little more. I can upload new video within the next few days.

[Nate Mrvichin]

Here's the video for lighting. I read animation scenes are becoming sparse. Of course, if any more pop up, or if you have another project down the line, I'd be more than happy to jump at the opportunity. Thanks for letting me work for the project!