@davepryor72 - the latest on Instagram

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Animation Progress



I was hoping to do some step by step stuff during this last section - but I got a little ahead of myself over the last week - so here's the update.
I started off by using the animatic for the rough layout. Once I placed it over the new background, I tried to find a good placement for the characters. The layout of the project is wider than the animatic, so the staging has to change a bit. I did the stocking first. You can see it sitting all by it's lonesome in the top image. It was a fight to get the right colors. First I thought to make it greenish - but I didn't want to compete with the Alien. Then not too reddish pink - don't want to compete with Santa's reds. The salmon/pink seemed best for now. I build the stocking right over the animatic, and adjust the strap so it hangs properly. The placement over the background may still move around, so The second "Background" stocking is left as an overlay that can be placed anywhere. There are 3 moves in this shot, and I like to play around with them so I leave everything editable.
I animate the stocking first - the way it will be effected by the Alien in the shot. Whenever something is effected by something else, I like to plan the elements out based on that. The stocking has limitations in it's movement - being attached to the mantle, so I determine the limits of it's movement.
I animate the Alien second - with Santa's hand attached to him. Santa places him in the stocking in the beginning of the shot, and how he gets placed in the stocking was the trickier action to figure out. I animate all the Alien action and just place Santa Keys in for now. Santa mainly reacts to the Alien in this shot.
In the second picture you can see a pose as it relates to the animatic. Characters more on model - with some layout changes.
The Alien's animation is complete and I have all of Santa's animations left - hopefully another week of work at the most.

8 comments:

Jafar said...

Looks like lots of work going on there...Can't wait to see your film, Dave! Will it be available on dvd?

Enzo Avolio said...

Very nice style.
and nice colours too!

David said...

I just discoverd your blog, your film looks super awesome! I will be sure to visit here in the future more often, and I wish good luck to you on your film!

Rob Bodnar said...

Looks great! It's inspiring to read your thoughts on a scene and the methods, thanks!

virginiavalle.blogspot.com said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
justinpatrickparpan said...

Its really coming together man. Great work!

Unknown said...

Very cool!!

Dan Segarra said...

Can't wait to see this piece of work finished. All of it up 'till now is so inspiring.

( I've got the song in my head now... thanks a lot! )