A couple of new characters for 2015...

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Kadoogan
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A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Hi all!

Just thought I would post these characters for a project that is coming up in 2015.

Hope you like them...

Image

They may be changed over time, but the client likes them so far.

Any thoughts or comments are welcome!

EDIT: I have included the final edit of the video below, which had some repairs done to the title sequence to make it smoother, along with other fixes and some audio enhancements. I am putting it in the first post here so that it can be seen easily...

FINAL VIDEO:




I am also putting up a copy of the script, created with Rawscripts.com, and the original storyboards (which also includes original background images and title notes created by Jamie Halloway). I am posting these in case anyone wants to learn from them in any way, but also to show the progressive differences through the storyboard, the script, and the final product.

STORYBOARD:
http://goo.gl/zLvOBO

SCRIPT:
http://goo.gl/lq13SJ

Enjoy!
Last edited by Kadoogan on Sun May 10, 2015 9:52 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Danimal
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Danimal »

These look really good - looking forward to seeing the final product!
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Poptoogi
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Poptoogi »

Hi Kadoogan,

Like Danimal said, very nice models! I look forward to seeing them come to life!
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lwaxana
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by lwaxana »

These designs are really appealing and each character looks great independently. The only thing I would be concerned about is how they work together scale-wise if they appear in the same shot. For instance, the line work on the elephant is thicker than the man's leg. And the man has details that are much smaller than any of the elephant's details. So at the size they are here, the elephant reads really well. I feel myself bringing my head closer to the screen to try to see the details on the man. It's like you can't really read them both at the same time.
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Kadoogan
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Very Valid Point Iwaxana.

I would be equalizing the line weights in final production. I made the mistake initially of creating each drawing independently.

To show comparative scale to the client I was asked to pair them up on one page. I just scaled the JPEG proofs I originally created to get this result, hence the disparity in the line widths shown here.

Thank you for your advice! I always appreciate any input I can get.
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Kadoogan
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Finally getting animation done for this project. Here is a preview - No audio added just yet - the sample below is the beginning of the end credits. The Ringmaster is saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, how about a big round of applause for our even BIGGER performers!"

Credits appear over the purple background that the clown drags down...

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slowtiger
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by slowtiger »

I think the elephants are a tad bit too fast?
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3deeguy
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by 3deeguy »

Kadoogan, the Recycle symbol is prominent with both the ringmaster and the elephants. Is your animation about recycling?
Cheers, Larry
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Kadoogan
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Thank you for the comment Slowtiger - the director of the project seems to prefer livelier elephants. I had them moving more slowly with a sense of more heft, but that wasn't preferred. I agree with you, but there is something to be said for the snappier movement in some ways.

Yes, 3deeguy, this is sort of about recycling. The organization that is commissioning this animation has a conference every year. I did another animation for them a few years back which had a cowboy theme, which I profiled in detail back then on this forum...



and some other videos that were edits of older live action movies and television...


.

Each year they have a different theme. This year the theme was "The elephant in the room" which relates to recycling in a long drawn out way I choose not to reiterate here for the sake of brevity.

The participants in the conference usually have to dress up to match the theme each year, so this circus theme is a pretty good one for them in that regard.

There is, of course, more to this video that I will present here when it is complete.
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by humanistheart »

Looks fun, I'd watch the finished product :D
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Kadoogan
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Finally, it is done:



Piled it high and deep with SFX!
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3deeguy
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by 3deeguy »

Kadoogan, Nice work.
What is the process for writing a script? Maybe a better question is what is the client's input? I recently completed a tutorial animation where writing the script was tougher than the artwork.
The most frustrating thing for me was working from a script then deciding to discard an entire scene after actually seeing the result!
Cheers, Larry
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Kadoogan
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by Kadoogan »

Hey 3deeguy, the answer to your question lies in the subsequent process description...Keeping in mind that the following represents a process that is probably highly unusual, and we are granted a lot of leeway during said process - the client trusts us to produce the final result, but does add input along the way...

SHORT ANSWER:

We had been pretty optimistic in our vision of what we might include in the animation overall. I cut out a lot of stuff along the way, and the client made a further request to shorten the video, so further cuts and an increase in footage speed for the intro and end titles was applied to get the footage closer to 2 minutes and 30 seconds from the over 3 minutes that we had.

Fortunately I had already made the decision along the way to shorten things overall, so shortening it further was easier than it might have been. This was pure luck. I pulled parts of the script to save time, leaving enough to make sure that each elephant's trick was enough to make sure that it could be considered a full performance. This was even against the wishes of the Creative Director in some instances, but we agreed prior to production that I would be able to make these decisions as the schedule might require it.

So although I did remove some of the footage I created, it was minimal. The scripting for me actually went pretty fast by way of using rawscripts.com. It allows the export of a PDF, so we sent that to client for proofing. They made minor changes. The Creative Director, Jamie Halloway, made further changes. I would edit the script, and send out revisions as required.

The animation was fraught with everything imaginable with regards to setbacks - computer fails due to Windows updates, a computer monitor died (fortunately I had a backup), the elephant model failing at a critical point (which required a rebuild - every time I tried to add a smart bone the model would basically fall apart), some weird stuttery frame rates due to using smart bones on the elephant trunks (which I still haven't figured out), accidentally deleting a chunk of music during editing, and having to do the production after hours overall caused some delays as well.

I am pleased with the final outcome, and any angst, depression, and outright anger I may have felt while producing the presentation was pretty much erased by how well the final version came out.

LONG ANSWER:

In my case, the process started with a conversation with the Creative Director about what the project might be like as an animation, and me designing the elephant and the Ringmaster characters through AS, which were presented to the client (and approved). I often will create a sketch first using Artrage, but this time I went straight to AS.

The person I was working with, Jamie Halloway (Analogue artist and Creative Director), and I talked over the details of the project and how it might progress. He then sketched out a storyboard, which was shown to the client - which they also approved.

I then went over to rawscripts.com and created a script based on the storyboard. Jamie made edits and changes as he desired.

Basically the idea was that I would use the storyboard and script to create the animation, and let the schedule and progress dictate how far we would take it. We had three activities for the elephants to perform, but each activity had extra possibilities that we could choose to use or not based on production time. I made those decisions as I animated.

Because I knew I didn't have time to hire someone to do the Ringmaster character's speech, I animated him talking in advance of having the audio prepared, then voiced the character myself after the fact. I could only get away with this because I was the one doing the character's voice. It would be pretty tough to get someone else to do it this way. I don't recommend this reversal of the sound process, but it worked for me in this case.

Jamie is an excellent artist, but does not like to use a computer for much more than email. So he created the excellent background paintings non-digitally - a rare treat for me! He created the backgrounds while I was animating.

Once I completed the animation with backgrounds added, I sent the client a proof with music and the ringmaster audio only. They decided that the just over 3 minutes the animation was running needed to be shortened.

I sped up some of the footage in Adobe Premiere, pulled some of the footage entirely, and reorganized the music. I should note that I think Premiere does not do a great job of speeding up footage...it seems to make it move in a way that is less smooth. A better route, time permitting, would be to scale all the keyframes in AS and re-export the footage. I didn't have time for that due to the deadline looming so went the premiere route.

The biggest pain at this point was reorganizing the music. It is nice when you can get the music to start and end where you want it to. Having done it once for the longer proof version, it is almost depressing to pull it all apart and re-do it all to make it fit the shorter version.

Once the music was reorganized, the sound effects were sourced and added. Once the audio was finally fully edited, a final video was created and uploaded to the clients Youtube account under Private mode, so they could look it over. They liked it and made it public.
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neeters_guy
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by neeters_guy »

Nice work. Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes.
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3deeguy
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Re: A couple of new characters for 2015...

Post by 3deeguy »

Kadoogan, as much as I struggled to complete my last project, my next one will be even tougher. Thank you for sharing those insights.
I immediately checked out 'Rawscripts.com'. It'll be a major improvement over Microsoft Word.
Cheers, Larry
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