My Evaluation

This concludes the end of my project. I had a lot of fun with this one, and I'm fairly pleased with the result. But before I sign off, let me right about the pros and cons of this term's project:

What did I enjoy doing?
Well, I loved working in Toonboom. I have really enjoyed using it, and I feel that I am becoming a lot more knowledgeable about it. I haven't done 2D animation for a while now, and it was very refreshing getting back into it

What did I dislike doing?
To an extent, I found doing a 4-legged run cycle a lot of fun, but it was a bit tiring once I had done 3 of them. I didn't enjoy doing run cycles from different angles, but I feel that if I did more of them, I would get a lot better at it, and it wouldn't feel as annoying to do.
I didn't enjoy tracking the animations in After Effects either, though it was great seeing the animation in the film once I had done it. I guess I find compositing a little tedious and frustrating.

What did I struggle with?
I guess the tracking in After Effects. I also found it hard trying to animate something without being able to import a video reference as help. Unfortunately, Toonboom cannot import film documents, so I had to do a lot of my animation without a great deal of reference. Next time, I may concentrate on carrying out this sort of task on Flash rather then in Toonboom, since it doesn't support video files to be used as reference.

Have I worked well on my own?
I think I am really strong at doing 2D animations and drawings, and I feel that this was an area of that I did well in.

What have I learned during this project?
I have learned to manage my time better when dealing with animations, and juggling more then one project at once. There were times when I had to put this project on the back burner, so that I could progress with my group work. I think that I did well, but there is still room for me to improve.
I can now say that I can animate 4 legged walk and run cycles from different angles, which is something not many people at the same stage as me can say. I have also developed my Toonboom skills a lot more.
I now know how to track and green screen animations in After Effects as well.

What could I have done differently to improve my work?
Like I have said, I could use Flash for a tracking task next time, rather then Toonboom. I would also endeavour to start animating sooner, so that I don't run out of time do refine it and try and match the colouring and lighting to the film being used.

After Effects and Final Cut Pro

Hey!

I've just finished editing together my animation and Little Miss Sunshine clip together. I used After Effects first to green screen everything animated, and then I exported everything from there to Final Cut as a Quicktime movie, so I could add SFX (dog barks and whines).

Here are some screenshots of the programs and WIPs

After Effects

Final Cut Pro

I had some problems getting my head around the green screening. I thought that the best way of doing it would be to put the clip and animation together first on After Effects, and then green screen in Final Cut, but this caused everything green to go black instead.

However, Mel showed me that I could green screen in After Effects aswell. I then re-did the green screening in After Effects instead before exporting as a movie. It worked that time.

Another thing I discovered was that there was a pole that comes into shot while the beagle is running. I had to use the masking tool in Final Cut to sort that out. It was a pretty simple shape to block out, so I didn't have any trouble masking the dog around the wooden poll.

I found the tracking a bit difficult because the camera moves around so much. I also wanted to make sure that the beagle looks as if he's running, so the resulting tracking effect makes the beagle look as if he's bobbing up and down a lot. Oh well! I'm running short on time, so I'm going to concentrate on getting this done to the best of my ability.

Just A Little Note To Say...

That I think I have definitely done a significant amount of 4-legged run cycles! Haha! I think I've done a total of 4 or 5 different cycles at different speeds and angles. I'm rather pleased that I challenged myself at doing it, though I feel that I didn't get an opportunity to show off my skills of showing emotion in a character.

However, I always felt that doing action shots was a bit of a weakness of mine, and I feel that I have stretched myself in this area of animating.

Just something that was on my mind that I needed to say :D

I think because I have had to concern myself with so many cycles and colouring, I won'thave time to try and edit the shadows and light into my animations. This sucks. Oh well, the important thing is to have the animations on the film in the first place, so I'll make this my aim for now.

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

A perfect example of a film that successfully animated 2D drawings over a film is the wonderfully captivating and action-packed "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". This film binds together two storytelling techniques into one fun and humorous tale of a rabbit trying to prove his innocence in a murder investigation. The animation is fantastic and fluid, and really pushes the boundaries of how far you can go with film making.

There is one scene I would like to go in to detail with, as I feel that it is possibly one of the most challenging animation sequences ever accomplished. It's a scene where Eddy and Roger go into the bar back room with Dolores. Eddy and Roger are handcuffed together, so Eddy attempts to saw himself out of the cuff. Roger comically weeves his arm out of the handcuff, causing Eddy to get cross.



See 5:39 on the video above for the scene I am talking about

For any animation that is implemented into a real life film, you have to ensure that it moulds into the surroundings well. You have to take into account the colours and lighting. If a character is bright and cheery-looking, and the surroundings are really dull and gloomy, the character will look out of place.

The animators came across a challenge on top of this issue. The light hanging from the ceiling is swinging around. This affects how the light hits the characters in each frame. It was vital that the animators nailed the colour and lighting in this scene. If they didn't, Roger Rabbit wouldn't blend into the scene very well.

But it was quite the contrary. The shadows and light are perfectly added to Roger in each frame in co-ordination with the moving light source, and really help to give that chaotic atmosphere to that scene.

I must bare all this in mind when animating my Little Miss Sunshine sequence. The way the light hits a character really helps the audience know what to focus or not focus on, and also suggests the mood of the scene and character. I must ensure that I try and think about how the lighting in my scene will effect how the dog will look.

More Green Screening... Now featuring a Dog's Bottom

I'm not as happy with this one as I am with the other one, but it was an extremely challenging angle to animate a 4-legged character. I'm aware that the beginning seems a bit fast. I want to change this, but first I want to concentrate on other parts that need attention

Edit:
And here's another cycle I've completed this evening. Enjoy!

A Hop and a Skip

Here we have an extended edited version of my side run cycle I did a while ago. Since the Girl has to step on the dog's back, I needed to animate the dog hopping up as she gets a footing and stumble. I animated the head differently at the beginning aswell.

Toon boom started getting annoying after a while, probably because I was copy and pasting the cycle over and over. I wanted to animate the head a bit more, but Toon boom wouldn't allow me to select certain parts of the timeline for some reason.



Here's the green screen version ^

More Toonbooming

Yep I've been doing more run cycles. This time from more challenging angles.
The one below was really hard. It took a while getting my head around the poses and perspective. I used a Eadweard Muybridge book to give me some help







Here are some examples of Muybridge's photography work. These are photos taken of the pages from his book "Animals in Motion"



They clearly show the motion and rhythm of the dogs when running and pacing. The grids behind the dogs also give me a rough idea of where to place the different elements of the dog's body in each shot.