Research Visual Presentation
Weekly assignments links:
Week01_timeline & Understanding of the history of Film, Animation and VFX
Week02_Answer to Question 1(About Disney Hyperreal animation aesthetic)
Week04_Analysis of Mise-en-Scène
Week05_Film story & Characters Breakdown & Timeline
Week06_Character & Story development breakdown
Week07_Research Areas: Light and Shadow in Contemporary Animation
3D Animation Fundamentals Showreel
Animation Challenges Hyperlinks
Challenge 01: 12 Principles of Animation research/analysis
Challenge 01: Good & Bad Animation research/analysis
Challenge 02: Bouncing Ball with Travel
Challenge 03: Bouncing Ball Obstacle Course
Challenge 05: Ball & Tail Animation
Challenge 06: Walk Cycle Animation
Challenge 07: Finding/Recording Reference Footage
Challenge 08: Body Mechanics Animation
Challenge 10 (Part 1): Phonemes & Performance (Lip Syncing & Facial Animation)
Part 01: Find audio clip
I have chosen a line from the animated film The Lion King as a reference. Here is the audio
Next, I performed and recorded the performance according to the audio. This part was a bit difficult for me because I don’t know how to act, and when I looked at the video I could see that I was acting very unnaturally and the rhythm of my speech didn’t match the audio.
Here is the Jaw animation
Only after I spent a lot of time adding details about the heads to match the audio. I also added a bit of breathing, although it doesn’t look that obvious
Finally, I added some body movements to make the animation look more interesting.
But I think there were still some problems with the rhythm of the speaking, which didn’t seem as natural. I’ll spend some more time practising animating the mouth next, fighting!
Research Areas:
The Application of Continuously Changing Lighting in 3D Animation
Keywords:
Light and Shadow, 3D Animation, Successive Contrast, Changing lights
Outline Structure:
Introduction
Introduction to the background of the topic
The importance of light for 3D animation
the idea of writing the article and the target audience
Critical Review
Critically comment on existing research. Present my own views and summarise the findings
Main Body
Application of lighting changes to story narration
(1) Use the uniformity or difference of the front or back of the light to set the visual style.
(2) Rendering a unique ambience
(3) Setting the scene for the story
The role of light and shadow changes in shaping the texture of props and the image of characters
(1) Strengthen the character’s emotional expression
(2) Revealing the character’s attributes of good and evil
(3) Guiding the eye to highpoint the main characters
Conclusion
Summary of findings and conclusions and recommendations to the reader
Reference
Does the topic motivate you to research and discover?
I chose this topic because I had already studied the use of lighting in animation before. However, I think I have not researched it enough and many ideas have not been explained in enough detail, so I would like to continue to improve this topic.
How might the research impact present or future theoretical and practical study? Are there potentials to apply new learning?
It is clear that light and shadow is highly expressive artistic language. A director can express a lot of meaning through light alone. With the continuous development of rendering techniques, contemporary animation creators are also paying more and more attention to the use of light. Therefore I believe that an in-depth study of light is necessary and that there is great potential for its use in the future.
Audience: who and what is the report for?
My target audience is students and animation creators, and through my research, I hope to enable animators to become more aware of the use of changing light to enrich images in the process of creating animation.
Purpose: what do you want them to know?
By summarizing the application of lighting in outstanding animated films, the creators will know that lighting is not arbitrary in the film, but purposeful, and hopefully they will also set lighting purposefully in their future creations.
Challenge 9 : Advanced Body Mechanics
The shot I chose was boxing footage, which I thought was cool. Before this, I had tried performing boxing myself and recording it, but this didn’t work well because I’m not a professional boxer and I didn’t feel I had a good sense of striking or rhythm, so I eventually chose to go online and find a video of a professional boxer and import it into PR for analysis and processing.
As when making the jump animation, I analysed the video in PR before making it. After determining the timing of each key pose, I then started keyframing in Maya.
During the blocking phase, I focused mainly on the position of the character’s feet and waist to ensure that the character’s centre of gravity was correct
I then smoothed out the curves in the graphics editor and adjusted the rhythm of the animation to make the character’s punches look more powerful.
Finally, I added some lights in Maya and exported the animation, then imported it into AE to add motion blur
Here’s the final result, which looks not bad
introduction:
3D animation is to express the three-dimensional space in the two-dimensional picture. I think that light and shadow is the soul of 3D animation. It can create a specific environmental atmosphere and make this kind of atmosphere appeal to the screen to produce different scene feelings. Firstly, light and shadow generally control the effect of scene changing, highlighting the theme and foil atmosphere. Secondly, light, objects and animation can produce a good 3D effect; light and shadow performance can help to express specific emotions, guide the audience’s eyes and emphasize the content that the director wants to present to the audience. For the more, light and shadow create a certain atmosphere and metaphor for the plotted trend.
Structure:
(1) Create a specific environment atmosphere
(2) warm-up for the narration of the story
(3) Describe the time, environment and space of the event
(1) stress the emotional of the role
(2) Reveal the good and evil qualities of the characters
(3) Highlight the key roles
(1) Determine the location of the main light
(2) Flexible use of auxiliary light to show the difference between the background and the main object; rich the screen and create an impression of space and administrative levels.
(3) Clever lighting design can make the finishing point in 3D animation.
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Challenge 8 (Part 2): Adding breakdowns, converting, and clean up & Rendering & Motion Blur / Playblasting & Motion Blur
I polished the curve, after making sure the breakdown poses were great. At this point I noticed that the feet were slipping badly, so I spent a lot of time on fixing the feet in place. This was followed by adjusting the curves in other positions, especially at the waist, as this relates to the whole character’s centre of gravity so that the animation would look more natural.
Before I imported it into AE, I added some lights in Maya so that it looked better.
In AE I added a pixel motion blur to the sequence, which made the jump animation more realistic
1. Green Book
In 1962 New York City, Tony, a white Italian living at the bottom of society, lost his job because of the operation of nightclubs. When he was worried about money, he received a phone call from Don Shirley, a famous black pianist in New York, needed to go to the south for a tour and hire a driver.
Nevertheless, this is not an ordinary tour. In 1962 the social was not friendly to blacks. As a black musician, Shirley needed someone who could “settle the trouble” to help him complete this journey.
Shirley’s record company gave Tony a green book, a guidebook for African American tourists to find motels, restaurants, and gas stations that can serve them in the south. In this way, they took a green book and began the journey that was destined to be full of twists and turns.
Of course, their journey was not harmonious because Tony felt uncomfortable being asked to behave more delicately, and the arrogant Shirley was dissatisfied with Tony’s habits. Both live in their own world, defending each other
With the progress of the tour, the first performance was very successful. Shirley’s exquisite piano skills not only conquered the audience but also conquered Tony, who was once despised. He did not expect that this pretentious black man had such a level.
Throughout the journey, the two people kept arguing because of all kinds of trivial things, but they were also constantly compromising. During this period, Shirley helped Tony write to his wife. Tony also encouraged Shirley to get in touch with his brother. Their relationship has also changed during this period: Even if Tony does not like blacks any more, he cannot argue about the boss-employee relationship between him and Shirley. Gradually, he began to recognize the black friend around him and began to protect Shirley. Tony was willing to accept the help of black Shirley and his ideas.
The climax of the play is Shirley’s rights protection. The police stopped Shirley and Tony on a rainy night, unreasonably asked them to get out of the car for inspection and spoke racist words. Tony, who was irritable and straightforward, knocked down the police with a punch, and the angry police detained them. Shirley rationally asked to protect his rights in the cell and asked why he was detained, but the police said: ‘it is because of your damn skin colour’.
This sentence, like a fuse, made the injustice and discrimination he had suffered all the way break out instantly. Tang strongly demanded to call his lawyer and use this opportunity to contact Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who put pressure on the governor and subsequent police officials to release them.
Soon the last performance came. As expected, the unfair treatment came again. Shirley is refused entry into the whites-only dining room of the country club where he has been hired to perform. Tony threatens the owner, and Shirley refuses to play since they refuse to serve him in the room with his audience.
Tony and Shirley left the venue and came to the orange bird bar dedicated to black people. Shirley was invited to perform an extraordinary piano performance and, as expected, won full applause. He played music that was easier to accept at the bottom. He was delighted and relaxed. Maybe it was himself at this time. As Shirley revealed his wealth when buying wine, he was stared at by two little gangsters. They hid behind the car. Tony found out, took out his pistol, and fired two shots into the sky to scare the gangsters away.
Finally, Tony and Shirley return north and try to go home before Christmas Eve. Tony invited Shirley to dinner with his family. There, Tony’s extended family greeted him with unexpected enthusiasm.
2. The Shawshank Redemption
In 1947, banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) was accused of shooting his wife and lover. Andy was sentenced to life imprisonment, which means he will spend the rest of his life in Shawshank prison.
For a long time in prison, Andy didn’t communicate with anyone. While everyone complained, he walked leisurely in the yard, just like in the park. A month later, Ellis Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) is an inmate and prison contraband smuggler serving a life sentence. Red procures a rock hammer and a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy.
One day, Andy overheard the prison officer talking about paying taxes. Andy said he had a way to legally exempt the prison officer from this large amount of tax. In exchange, he won two bottles of Tiger beer for each of a dozen prisoner friends. Red said he felt free for the first time in years.
As Andy was proficient in the knowledge of the financial system, he soon got rid of the heavy manual labour and the harassment of other abnormal prisoners in prison. Soon, Andy, well-known, began to deal with tax issues for more and more prison guards and even his children’s entrance to the school. At the same time, Andy has gradually become an important tool for the shank warden to launder money.
The arrival of a young prisoner broke Andy’s quiet prison life: the prisoner had heard Andy’s case when serving his sentence in another prison before. He knew who the real murderer was. However, when Andy asked the warden to reopen the case, he was rejected and severely punished by two months of solitary confinement. In order to prevent Andy’s release, the warden designed to kill that young prisoner.
Facing the cruel reality, Andy becomes very depressed. One day, he said to Rhett, “if one day you can get parole, you must go somewhere to fulfil a wish for me. That’s where I dated my wife for the first time. Dig out a box under a big oak tree there. Then you’ll know what it is.” That night, with wind and rain and thunder, Andy, whom his soul has redeemed, escaped from prison successfully.
It turned out that Andy had been digging a hole with that little pickaxe every day for twenty years and then covered the hole with a poster. After Andy got out of prison, he took away some of the black money saved by the warden and denounced the truth of the warden’s corruption and bribery. The warden saw a Bible left by Andy in the safe where he kept his small account book. The first page said, “the way to be saved is in it”. In addition, there was a hollowed-out part in the Bible to hide the pickaxe for digging a hole.
After 40 years in prison, Red finally got parole. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come to Zihuatanejo. The two old friends finally met again on the blue Pacific coast.
similarities
Both movies flow Hearo’s Journey. The protagonists of the two stories begin with an embarrassing life and encounter some things. The protagonists overcome difficulties and finally meet a better life
Challenge 7: Record/find reference footage
This reference footage was done by me and my roommate, as he is particularly good at jumping. I set up three cameras to record the process
Challenge 8 (Part 1): Setting Up Maya, Exploring Rigs & Blocking Out Body Mechanics
For the rig, I chose the bony rig because the position of his joints was very obvious and this helped me to determine if the pose was correct. In the blocking phase, I started by analysing the movement frame by frame using PR, marking each keyframe on the timeline. This made the blocking part relatively easy for me as I only had to pose the character according to the key time points I analysed.
The film I would like to talk about is iron man
Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This film was directed by Jon Favreau and was released in the U.S. on May 2, 2008.
The story of the film has two parts. The first part is that Tony Stark was attacked and kidnapped by terrorists while testing his latest research results and then fled. The second part is that Obadiah Stan stole Stark’s research results and made war weapons. After stark fought with it, he improved the function of armour, incarnated as “Iron Man”, and protected the story of world peace as a volunteer policeman.
You
Tony Stark was born in a wealthy family in New York. He was born intelligent and graduated from MIT at the age of 17. He successfully found his social position with proud achievements – the new boss of stark arms, his family business. The unfortunate death of his parents inspired Tony’s career. At the age of 21, he began to control tens of billions of assets and gradually established Stark’s strong position as the first arms supplier of the U.S. military.
Need
In the first part of the story, he needs to save himself and escape from terrorists. In the second part, Obadiah steals his research results and creates a war machine. At this time, he needs to save the world.
Go
Tony Stark needs to constantly improve his armour to deal with more and more powerful enemies.
Search
Tony Stark was hit in the heart by shrapnel when he was kidnapped. His life is in danger every day. Terrorists forced him to make weapons while trying to save himself.
Find
Tony Stark improved his steel armour, created another piece of fusion energy, and became a real iron man. After a test flight, he improved into a genuinely integrated armour.
Take
After Obadiah failed to replicate the micro ark reactor. He took the ark reactor in Tony Stark’s body after he paralyzed Tony in Malibu’s house later.
Return
Tony fought fiercely with Obadiah. Finally, use the phone to ask the “girlfriend” for help, set the maximum power of the laboratory equipment, use the reactor explosion’s energy to attack Obadiah just above, and finally win.
Change
After a series of events, Tony Stark understood the meaning of his existence. He closed his company’s most profitable project – manufacturing and selling weapons. He announced to the world that he was an iron man.
Characters Breakdown
Tony Stark
Tony Stark is an industrialist with hundreds of millions of assets. He took over a huge family business from his father. Tony never shies away from his noble status as a wealthy child because he knows it will help him succeed among women. He had to bear the responsibility when he inherited the surname stark. However, his real interest was in the invention, and he was recognized as a talented inventor in the scientific community.
Obadiah Stane
The bad guy who coveted Stark’s rich life for a long time could not help making waves in stark arms company and secretly trading with terrorist leaders. Get the armour wreckage damaged when stark escaped from the terrorist base from him. With the help of a group of scientists, he seizes Tony’s fusion energy and uses the steel armour on himself.
Virginia “Pepper” Potts
“little pepper” Virginia Potts Tony Stark’s assistant who is a capable, sexy and charming female assistant, can always give “Iron Man” meticulous care and help and has a delicate relationship with Tony Stark.
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